Up The Baltic Part 9

"I think not, sir. If she is a mail steamer, she stops at all the ports on the coast. I don't think she will carry them far. Very likely they will be sent back, on some other steamer, before night," added Dunlap, who had studied the coast of Norway more carefully than the lieutenant in command.

"First cutter, ahoy!" shouted De Forrest, on the island.

"On sh.o.r.e!" replied Norwood. "We can't catch the steamer--that is certain; steer for the island, c.o.xswain."

The first cutter ran up to the rocky island, and as soon as the bow touched the rocks, De Forrest leaped into the fore-sheets. He was nervous and excited, feeling, perhaps, that he had failed in his duty, and was, therefore, responsible for the accident to the second cutter.

From feeling that he had circ.u.mvented his crew in carrying out some unexplained trick, he realized that he had led them into a trap, from which they had narrowly escaped with their lives.

"What are you doing on this island, De Forrest?" asked Norwood, as the discomfited officer took his place in the stern-sheets, and the boat shoved off again.

The second lieutenant declared that he had come over to the island to prevent his crew from running away, or from carrying out some trick whose existence he suspected, but whose nature he could not comprehend.

"Sanford wanted I should go ash.o.r.e at the town, and offered to look out for the crew while I did so," he continued. "Of course I wouldn't leave my crew; but I told them that half of them might go on sh.o.r.e and take a walk. None of them wanted to go, and then I was satisfied they were up to something. I went on the island for the sole purpose of watching them. I wanted to know what their plan was."

"Well, what did you discover?"

"Nothing at all. I saw that steamer coming, and I ordered Sanford to shove off, so that her swash should not damage the boat."

"I don't believe they intended to play any trick," added Norwood. "You are too suspicious, De Forrest."

"Perhaps I am; but fellows that have been at sea for a month are rather glad of a chance to stretch their legs on sh.o.r.e. They wouldn't do so, when I told them they might; and I don't believe such a thing was ever heard of before. Besides, they all looked as though they were up to something, and just as though they had a big secret in their heads."

"Perhaps you were right, but I don't believe you were," said Norwood, too bluntly for good manners, and too bluntly for the harmony of the officers' mess.

"I suppose I am responsible for the smashing of the second cutter, but I was trying to do my duty," replied De Forrest, vexed at the implied censure of his superior.

"If you had staid at the pier this could not have happened."

"But something else might have happened; and if my crew had run away, I should have been blamed just as much," growled the second lieutenant.

"You were too sharp for your own good--that is all. But I don't mean to blame you, De Forrest," said Norwood, with a patronizing smile.

"Perhaps I should have done the same thing if I had been in your place."

"Stand by to lay on your oars!" shouted the c.o.xswain, as the boat approached the water-logged second cutter. "Oars!"

The crew stopped pulling, and levelled their oars.

"In, bows! Stand by the boat-hooks!" continued the c.o.xswain; and the two forward oarsmen grasped the boat-hooks, and took their station in the fore-sheets. "Hold water." And the ten oars dropped into the water as one, checking the onward progress of the cutter.

The bowmen fastened to the second cutter, and recovering her painter, pa.s.sed it astern to the c.o.xswain, who made it fast to a ring on the stern-board. By this time the steamer, with the luckless crew of the stove boat, had disappeared behind an island. The first cutter pulled back to the ship, and De Forrest immediately reported to the first lieutenant, and explained his conduct in presence of the princ.i.p.al and the captain. He detailed his reasons for supposing his crew intended to run away, or to play some trick upon him.

"I think you have done all that a careful and vigilant officer could, De Forrest; and so far as I can see, you are free from blame," replied Mr. Lowington.

The fourth lieutenant glanced at Norwood.

"Just what I said," added the latter, in a low tone.

"If you made any mistake, it was in leaving your boat at the island,"

continued the princ.i.p.al.

"Just exactly my sentiments," whispered Norwood. "I don't blame the fourth lieutenant, but I shouldn't have done just as he did."

"Where is that steamer bound?" asked Mr. Lowington of the pilot, who had not yet left the ship, and was really waiting to be invited to supper.

"To Christiania, sir," replied the pilot, who, like all of his cla.s.s on the coast of Norway, spoke a little English.

"Where does she stop next?"

"At Lillesand."

"How far is that?"

"About two miles."

"Two miles! Why, it is farther than that to the sea," exclaimed Mr.

Lowington.

"He means Norwegian miles," suggested one of the instructors, who was listening with interest to the conversation.

"True; I did not think of that. A Norwegian mile is about seven English miles. It is fourteen miles, then, to Lillesand."

With the a.s.sistance of Professor Badois, who acted as interpreter, the pilot explained that the steamer which had just left was several hours late, and would go that night to Frederiksvaern, where the steamers from Bergen and Christiania made connections with the boat for Gottenburg and Copenhagen. The Christiania steamer would reach Christiansand the next evening, and the boys who had been carried away could return in her.

"Why did she carry them off? It would not have taken five minutes to land them," added the princ.i.p.al.

"She was very late, and her pa.s.sengers for Gottenburg and Copenhagen would lose the steamer at Frederiksvaern if she does not arrive in season," the pilot explained through Professor Badois.

But Mr. Lowington was so grateful that the crew of the second cutter had all escaped with their lives, that he was not disposed to be very critical over the conduct of the Norwegian steamer. The boys were safe, and would return the next night at farthest. The accident was talked about, during the rest of the day, on board of all the vessels of the squadron. The officers and seamen on board of the ship had witnessed the accident, and had seen all the crew of the second cutter go over the bows of the steamer. They had not observed, in the excitement of the moment, that ten, instead of nine, had left the wrecked boat; and as Ole Amundsen was dressed precisely like the crew, his presence in the cutter was not even suspected.

The first cutter was sent to the town for Dr. Winstock and Mr. Mapps, and in an hour or two the excitement had entirely subsided. The routine of the ship went on as before, and as there was little work to be done, the absentees were hardly missed.

At half past eight the next morning, the signal, "All hands, attend lecture," was flying on board of the Young America. The boats from the Josephine and the Tritonia came alongside the ship, bringing all the officers and crews of those vessels. Paul Kendall and lady, and their friends, were brought off from the sh.o.r.e; Shuffles and his wife also appeared, and a further delegation from each of the yachts asked admission to the ship to hear the lecture, or rather to attend the exercise in geography and history, for the occasion was even less formal than on the first cruise of the ship. The steerage was crowded, after the boatswain had piped the call, and Mr. Mapps was doubtless duly flattered by the number of his audience. On the foremast hung a large map of Sweden and Norway.

"If you please, young gentlemen, we will begin with Scandinavia," said the professor, taking his place near the foremast, with the pointer in his hand. "What was Scandinavia?"

"The ancient name of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark," replied one of the students.

"The barbarous tribes from the northern part of Europe at different times invaded the southern sections, conquering various other tribes, occupying their territory, and thus mingling with all the people from whom originated the present nations of Europe. Thus, in remote ages, the Scandinavians, among others, by their conquests and their emigration, have contributed largely to the modern elements of society. With this explanation we will look at Scandinavia in detail, beginning with Norway. Between what degrees of lat.i.tude does it lie?"

"Between forty and ninety," replied an enthusiastic youth.

"True--quite right; and a safe answer. If you had said between one and ninety, the answer would have been just as good for any other country as for Norway. I would like to have the jacket fit a little closer."

"Between fifty-eight and seventy-one, north," answered one who was better posted.

"Exactly right; about the same lat.i.tude as Greenland, and our newly-acquired Alaska. Our ship is anch.o.r.ed in the same parallel as the northern part of Labrador, and one degree south of the southern point of Greenland. But it is not as 'cold as Greenland, here,' the temperature being some twelve degrees milder, because the warm waters of the Gulf Stream are discharged upon its sh.o.r.es. You know its boundaries. It is one thousand and eighty miles from the Naze to the North Cape, and varies from forty to two hundred and seventy miles in width. How many square miles has it?"

"One hundred and twenty-three thousand square miles."