Steve Young Part 43

"Can you come down, Marsham?" said the doctor. "It is many hours since we have broken our fast."

"Eh?" came back. "Yes. Ahoy, there, Johannes! that will do. Come down, Hands...o...b..?" said the captain thoughtfully. "Yes, we may as well have something to eat, for we shall have plenty of time."

He pointed to the huge rampart of ice right across the inlet, and said quietly:

"A man needs to be well educated in the ways of nature in the north to navigate his ship. Our only hope now is--"

"Let's talk of that when we have studied nature's daily wants," said the doctor, smiling. "We are safe, are we not?"

"Oh yes," said the captain bitterly, "we are quite safe now."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

THE NORTHERN PRISON.

As the doctor said, _il faut manger_, and, in spite of all they had gone through, their appet.i.tes were so sharp-set that they made a most hearty repast, and were ready to declare themselves prepared to encounter anything.

Steve thought that this was rather boastful, and due in a great measure to the fact that they all, himself included, felt that, for the present at any rate, they had no danger to encounter, but he said nothing.

In fact, when they returned on deck the noise of the ice had died away into a distant murmur, and the fiord, with its smooth, blue water, huge, nearly perpendicular walls, and shattered rocks of dark stone made brilliant with ice, looked so beautiful that their position appeared to be more a cause of congratulation than complaint. Certainly they were blocked in; but ice that shut them up so quickly might, by another movement, likely enough set them free; and, besides, most of these northern fiords were like those on the Norwegian or Highland coasts-- channels inside islands; and consequently, for aught they knew to the contrary, there was a way out to the north which might not be closed.

But the captain had no intention of making a long exploration on that day. He was content to run on a short distance, to anchor in what looked to be a snug berth behind a jutting ma.s.s of the rocky side which sheltered them from the north wind in case it should come tearing down the channel, and faced the sunny south. The fires were then raked out, and that night, after the watch was set, those who were free indulged in a long and much-needed sleep.

Steve rose the next morning bright and cheerful, to find the others the same. The intense cold which accompanied the storm had pa.s.sed, and there in the sheltered fiord the air felt, by comparison with that which they had gone through, quite salutary. The change must have taken place directly they had gone to rest, for the warm sunshine of the night had thawed the icy rigging to a great extent, so that ropes and stays had resumed their customary aspect, and the snow, which had penetrated the furled sails, was coming away in drips.

It was a wonderful and cheery change, and Steve eagerly waited for the captain's first proceedings in this unknown land--unknown as far as any one there could say.

Watty Links was sunning himself as if in imitation of Skene, who was comfortably basking at the galley door, his head resting upon his paws, and his figure suggesting that he must be on very friendly terms with the cook.

The dog seemed to be fast asleep, but one eye opened a little as Steve approached, and his tail was raised to give three solemn raps on the deck; then, at a word, Skene sprang up, yawned, stretched himself, and followed his master.

Steve gave Watty a word, too; but that gentleman only grunted, and the lad went on to where the men were busy finishing the brushing and scrubbing of the deck.

Here he encountered Mr Lowe, the mate, who had been round the vessel in the dinghy to examine the hull as regarded damages. But she had been too well prepared for her journey into ice-land with a casing of tough wood as a kind of partial outer skin, and this had only been rubbed and channelled a little by the blocks which had tried to plough her sides, so that he had nothing but good to report to the captain, who had been about for an hour looking bright and eager for the long day's work.

Breaking away from them, Steve joined the Norwegians, who greeted him in their frank, grave way.

"Well, Mr Steve," said Johannes, "I suppose we shall begin hunting directly; there is plenty of game about. You and I must go and get some eggs from the shelves."

"Eggs? there'll be no eggs," said Steve; "they would all be blown away by the storm. Don't you know that these sea-birds lay their eggs on the bare stones generally? Oh, but of course you knew that," he added hurriedly, as it struck him that the Norseman must know ten times as much as he.

"Yes," said Johannes quietly. "I know that, and I have also noticed how wonderfully they stay on those shelves in spite of the great winds that blow. No doubt many were blown off in the storm; but many would stay."

"Why, do the sea-birds stick them down tight?"

"No," said Johannes, smiling. "But you have seen the strange shape of many of the eggs of sea-birds. They are not like those of other fowls."

"No, they're thick at one end and very thin at the other, going off quite straight instead of being rounded."

"That is why they stay on the rocks," said the Norseman: "when the wind strikes them the light, thin end flies round, and they begin to spin so fast that you can hardly see them turn."

"That's curious," said Steve, who looked hard at Johannes, as if ready to think that the man was telling him a travellers' tale. But the Norseman was the last man who could be expected to indulge in fiction, and the boy hastened to ask about their prospects.

"We all feel satisfied that this place abounds with game," said Johannes. "Jakobsen here saw a couple of bears, the seals are plentiful, and we pa.s.sed yesterday enough of the walrus to feel sure that there must be plenty more."

"Here, Steve!" cried the captain just then; "breakfast! I am going up the fiord in one of the boats directly after. Do you care to go?"

"Care to go!" cried Steve. "Oh, I say, Captain Marsham, don't leave me behind in any of your trips."

The captain did not seem to hear him, but went to where some of the crew were busy now, unfurling and shaking out the jib preparatory to hoisting it to dry, while other men were busy with the stay-sail.

The lads brightened up at the order given, and the result was that an hour later the largest boat, well manned, and prepared for any emergencies in the way of meeting game, from walrus to wild duck, pushed off from the ship's side, leaving her floating as snugly and as motionless as if in a dock.

The morning was glorious, and as they rowed north the various turnings of the fiord soon shut out all view of the _Hvalross_. After a while the huge towering cliffs, which had risen up nearly sheer from the water's edge, began to retire, becoming less precipitous, and leaving a sh.o.r.e which, from being a mere ribbon, rapidly increased till there was a wide stretch of level land on either side, showing patches of green here and there where the snow had melted away; and soon after a narrow valley opened off to the right, but not going far, its upper end being choked by a glacier of great extent.

The men rowed as if glad of the chance to stretch their muscles, and soon after another valley was pa.s.sed, and again another, but both on the right, the left side of the fiord being formed by a long, rocky and icy ridge, showing no gap whatever or means of getting through it toward the sea.

The valleys they still kept on pa.s.sing, away east, gave plenty of promise of deer, so that, even if kept prisoners for some time, there did not appear to be any lack of food; but the other side was the more eagerly scanned by the Nors.e.m.e.n, who had the walrus harpoons, ropes, and lances lying ready to hand, and who longed to wield them again.

The party did not attempt to land, but travelled on for miles, and always through plenty of water, pa.s.sing at last a likely-looking chasm on their left, through which ran a narrow, zigzagging, deep-looking ca.n.a.l; and in the hope that this might prove to be a way through to the west coast, it was left for the time being, while they pushed on for a mile or two farther. Here they came upon an unmistakable pa.s.sage through a rocky defile, whose bottom was clear, dark water, going right on as far as they could see, while, leaving this too so as to finish the exploration of the main fiord first, they rowed on once more. At last, turning a headland, they came suddenly in view of a magnificent sight from the point of view of a lover of nature, but a terribly damping one to a captain whose ship was caught in a trap; for there, about a mile away, and spreading from side to side of the fiord, whose blue waters touched its foot, was another grand glacier, which looked from the distance like a frozen cataract, flowing down from high up in the mountains, to empty its solid waters into the fiord.

"No way out," said the captain, after a few minutes' examination of the great glacier with his gla.s.s; and he handed it to the doctor, who was fain to confess that the fiord was sealed up there as effectually as at the other end.

"It's very grand," he said with a sigh, "magnificent; but rather a dash to your hopes."

"Back again!" said the captain, after Steve had had his survey as well, and longed to be rowed close up to the blue ice grottoes he could see at the foot of the glacier, beyond which many peaks towered up while the land was scored with valleys.

The oars dipped again in the blue water, and they rowed back to the rugged defile they had left to explore on their return.

Here the prospects were more cheerful as far as the boat was concerned; and they rowed at once into a chasm which seemed to be one vast rift through the mountain, as if torn open by some convulsion of nature.

There was plenty of room for the boat, and the water looked, from its blackness, of great depth; but there was room for the boat only in places, their oars almost touching the perpendicular rocks on either side, these rising so high that they almost shut out the light. There was a trace of motion, too, in this water, which soon satisfied the captain that it might be possible to pa.s.s through to the sea. And so it proved, after about an hour's winding in and out, for the most part in twilight; for all at once the gloom gave place to a burst of sunshine, which struck in like sheaves of rays of light, and a little farther on the chasm opened out, and they were on the western side of the ridge which had divided them from the sea, while on either hand were rocks, and before them the piled-up ma.s.ses of ice-floe, evidently a part of the army of floating ma.s.ses which had been forced up all along the sh.o.r.e.

This stopped further progress, and they sat with oars balanced gazing before them at a chaos of ice, where the previous day all had been open water.

At first all looked beautiful, but utterly devoid of life. Only, though, for a short time. Before long something was seen to move a short distance away; and upon the boat being paddled round an intervening block of ice, there was a sight which sent a thrill of excitement through the Nors.e.m.e.n, a feeling which the others shared; for there, in ample supply, they saw that which they had come for one thing to seek--a herd of the arctic sea-horses, offering themselves as a ready aim for the Nors.e.m.e.n's harpoons and lances, as well as for the rifles of the captain and doctor.

"Will you try for one to-day, sir?" asked Johannes respectfully.

"It would be waste," replied Captain Marsham. "I do not want to destroy the creatures if we cannot utilise the oil."

"We can, sir," said Johannes quietly. "The ship must come up to the other end of the fiord, and we can hunt here and cut up the walrus, and carry the oil out to be boiled down as easily as we could take it elsewhere."

"Yes, you are right," said the captain. "But how will you reach the animals?"

"You gentlemen will reach them with your guns," said the man quietly.

"Stalk them?" said the captain.