Steve Young Part 13

"Poor fellow, then; poor old Skene!" whispered Watty. But he might as well have whispered his soothing words to the winds, for the dog only uttered a low growl and trotted back to his master, who was once more eagerly scanning the coast.

But it was always very much the same: heavy breakers tumbling over to a chain of rocks--foaming, rus.h.i.+ng, falling back, and swinging to and fro till fresh help came from the tide, and they gathered themselves for a fresh a.s.sault. Beyond the waves a more or less narrow line of sh.o.r.e, and then cliff, and above that mountainous heights glittering with ice and snow, and here and there in some opening a frozen river looking as if it were rus.h.i.+ng headlong down to the sea, but hanging there solid, save for a little rill which trickled forth from a cavern of celestial blue at its foot.

They steamed on for hours quite slowly, rounding the southern sh.o.r.e, and then further progress was stayed, for, once more, there before them was the low cliff of ice, extending apparently right up behind the island, and connecting it with the mainland. Ice everywhere now, and another mountain, emitting a faint film of smoke.

"No sign of human being on the sh.o.r.e: all that journey southward for nothing," said the doctor.

"One can hardly call it for nothing, eh, Steve?" said the captain. "We have satisfied ourselves pretty well that our friends are not here."

"But they may be inland beyond those cliffs, sir!" cried the boy.

"Maybe, Steve, my lad," said the captain sadly; "but as far as we can make out there is no chance for a human being to exist there. Any one wrecked in such an inhospitable place would certainly have taken to a sheltered spot under the cliffs, where he would be protected from the coldest winds. Aloft there!"

"Ay, ay, sir!"

"What do you make out over the cliffs there to westward and north?"

"Ice and snow, sir," came for answer from the crow's-nest.

"No good land?"

"No, sir. All ice and snow piled up higher and higher. There's that frozen river goes winding up right into the mountains."

"No place for a camp?"

"No, sir; not as far as I can see."

These were the quiet, sober words of Johannes, who was aloft once more, armed with a telescope.

"Any opening where we could land on the ice-floe?" cried Captain Marsham.

"No, sir," came back after a time; "nothing here. Any boat would be stove in directly."

"What shall you do now?" said the doctor; and Steve listened eagerly for the reply.

"'Bout s.h.i.+p and coast up again, then follow the edge of the ice away to the north and east. But we'll keep close in, as we know the water is deep. We may, perhaps, find a landing-place which we have missed coming down."

Another look round was given, and they began to steam north once more.

CHAPTER NINE.

THE WRECK ASh.o.r.e.

A coast could never have been more eagerly scanned than was that of this island, for every man of the crew was longing for a run ash.o.r.e in search of some little adventure to break the monotony of the life on board; and again and again, as a seal was seen to slip off the rocks after staring at them for a while with its peculiar, half human countenance, or a flock of sea-birds was pa.s.sed, the men looked disappointed that no efforts were made to harpoon the one or shoot the other. But as far as landing was concerned, the heavy waves which foamed among the craggy ma.s.ses thoroughly precluded that, and at last they neared the wreck once more, looking as grim and desolate as ever. Steve had just turned his gla.s.s to examine the snow near the top of the volcano where the smoke was issuing, and was wondering why it did not melt, when Jakobsen, the princ.i.p.al harpooner of the Norwegian party, gave a shout and pointed sh.o.r.eward and forward.

"Yes, what is it?" cried Captain Marsham.

"Landing-place, sir."

There it was, surely enough, hidden from them as they came south, but plain to view now at the back of a huge ma.s.s of rock which acted as a breakwater; and there, in quite a recess, was a patch of yellow sand, over which the sea glided gently, while behind the rock the water seemed to be deep and still.

Five minutes after the engine was stopped, the boat lowered, and the captain, doctor, Steve, and a strong crew jumped in, leaving Mr Lowe in charge, the dog leaping in last of all. A short row, for the most part balanced on the top of a great roller gliding sh.o.r.eward to break on the rocks, and then a smart pull to the right, and they were behind the great rock, riding gently on deep crystal-like water. Fifty yards farther the boat was beached on the thick sand, drawn up, and the party set off, climbing over the tumbled-together rocks to reach the more level ground and make straight for the wreck, which lay some quarter of a mile to the north.

The captain took a sharp look round, and then suggested loading the heavy double guns he, the doctor, and Steve carried, the right bore with the heaviest shot, the rifled barrel with bullet.

One of the men carried a spare rifle, and Johannes and Jakobsen each shouldered a heavy walrus lance, a terrible weapon in the hands of a strong man, with its stout pole about nine feet long and keen leaf-shaped blade, so that they felt themselves more than a match for any polar bear which might show itself in front.

"Gun heavy, Steve?" said the captain.

"Eh? Yes--no! I don't know," he replied; "I had not thought about the weight."

"Which means, I suppose, that you were thinking of having a shot at a bear."

"Well, yes, sir; I was thinking of something of the kind," said Steve, colouring.

"You must be careful, then. I will not say do not fire, my lad; but a gun is a dangerous weapon in unskilled hands, as dangerous sometimes for the people round as for the quarry in front."

"I'll take care, sir," said Steve, in a tone full of confidence.

The captain turned and looked at him sharply.

"I'd rather you had said, 'I'll try to take care.'"

"Snubbed," thought Steve. "Why, of course I shall take care. Does he think I shall shoot one of the men?"

He had other things to think of a few minutes later, for there before them, as they toiled on over the rocks and sand, with the breakers thundering away just to their right, lay the wreck, making them all hasten their pace, which gradually increased until it was a run, Steve at last leading, in spite of the weight of the heavy gun, and reaching the stranded vessel many yards in front of the doctor, who was next.

"I forgot all about the bears," said the latter, giving a sharp look round with his gun ready.

But there was nothing in sight but a great gull floating gently along over the breaking waves, and looking down eagerly for anything edible cast up by the sea.

Then the rest came up, and they looked round the vessel, lying quite firmly wedged in the rocks, one of them having pierced its bottom, making a gap, through which the sand had made its way till it was half filled.

The bows were examined and then the stern, but everything bearing the vessel's name and the port from which she sailed had been swept away, save two letters--two E's on the starboard side, just below the stern cabin window.

"Do you think it is the _Ice Blink_, sir?" said Steve in an awe-stricken whisper; for in spite of the bright suns.h.i.+ne and dazzling blue of sea and sky, there was something so weird and grim about the loose, torn, shattered wreck that the boy felt as if it were impossible to speak aloud.

"No," said the captain decidedly; and in an instant the sight of the torn timbers seemed less terrible, and the pictures Steve was calling up of his uncle and crew lying somewhere about buried in the sand faded away.

As the captain gave vent to that decisive utterance he climbed on board, and stood up on the stones and sand which filled the angle between the bulwarks and the sloping deck.

"What do you say she is, Johannes?" cried the captain to the st.u.r.dy Norseman, who stood leaning on the shaft of his great spear.

"Whaler, sir, and been here for three or four years," replied the man.

"Yes, I thought it was not a last season's wreck. E--E," he said thoughtfully; "where can she be from?"