Steve Young Part 36

"She never meant me to come oop here in the cauld to be starved to death."

"What?" cried the cook. "Eh? Oh, it's you, Mr Steve. How are you, sir? Managed to get you a good breakfast this morning."

"Yes, thank you. It was grand. What's the matter with Watty Links?"

"Why, sir, he had a lot of biscuits and fried bacon an hour ago, and a quart of hot coffee to wash it all down, and now he says that his 'mither' never meant him to come up here to be starved."

"I didn't!" cried Watty angrily. "I never said a word aboot eatin' and drinkin'. I said 'starved wi' the cauld.'"

"Hey, but you're a poor, weak, sappy kind of a fellow," cried the cook.

"There's precious little solid meat on you, I'm afraid. Going, Mr Steve, sir?"

"Yes, I must be off."

"Right, sir. Roast venison for dinner to-day. The deer meat will be prime."

Steve nodded, and was turning away, when his eyes encountered those of the boy, who had evidently forgotten all about his "mither," and was grinning at him derisively, and in a way which made Steve's fingers tingle to tighten up into a fist and teach the lad a lesson. But he went out and shut the door, before going forward to where the four Norwegians were fending off the ice.

"Morning," he cried; and the great, st.u.r.dy fellows greeted him with a pleasant smile on their grave faces.

"Glad to see you out and well, Mr Steve," said Johannes; and the others uttered something which was evidently meant as acquiescence in their companion's greeting.

"Oh, I'm all right," said Steve, "only a bit cold; but I say, have all you chaps had plenty of breakfast?"

"Plenty, sir, plenty!" they cried, as they levelled their poles to meet the charge of a great block which was coming on to them.

The concussion staggered them a little, but the ma.s.s of ice was turned aside, and they had a few minutes' respite.

"What an awful storm!" said Steve.

"Yes, sir, it was. The worst we were ever in," replied Johannes; "but it's brought us close up to a grand land for hunting."

"What, that land over yonder?" cried Steve, pointing.

"Yes, sir. It's many years since any one reached that land, if it ever was reached, and we're thinking all of us that the walrus will be there in herds."

"But did Mr Lowe tell you that was land yonder?"

"No, sir; we saw him pointing with his gla.s.s, and Jakobsen there has wondrous eyes; he could see the tops of the mountains when he looked.

There's good coming out of evil, sir; and you'll see we shall load up with oil when we get there."

"But do you really think we shall find the sea-horses there. I want to see a walrus."

"We feel sure of it, sir, because they have been hunted and driven back farther and farther every year of late; and we all felt that they must have retired to somewhere farther north, and by a great stroke of good fortune the ice has opened enough for us to get there."

"Then the storm was all for the best, Johannes?"

"Yes, sir, I hope so," said the man, joining another in sending off a great block as he spoke.

"But I say," said Steve anxiously, "suppose we get frozen up there, and can't get back."

"We don't talk like that, sir, at the beginning of summer out here,"

said the Norseman. "If it was September, it would be different. We've got nearly three months for the ice to keep on melting and breaking up."

"Yes, I see, and a better chance for exploring and searching for the _Ice Blink_!"

"Yes, sir, of course," said the man, with a slight change in his voice; and Steve left them to go and talk to Andrew and Hamish, who were both aft, the latter being at the wheel.

"They don't think we shall ever find the poor fellows," thought Steve sadly. "I could see it in their looks when I spoke. But they can't tell any more than I can; and, for all we know, they may be frozen-in, waiting for the ice to break up. Yes; as it has broken up, so that we may come across them at any time."

Just then he encountered the doctor in a heavy sheep-skin coat. He had been in the cabin.

"Captain's sleeping like a top," said the doctor. "I've been to see.

Couldn't you and I relieve Mr Lowe here?"

He looked up as he spoke, for they were just below the bridge, and the mate leaned over and spoke.

"No, thank you, gentlemen," he said. "I can stand it for a couple of hours longer, and then the captain will wake up and relieve me. You could not con the vessel through this ice, and there's only one man on board to whom I'd give up my place--the captain."

"We seem very helpless people here. Let's go and talk to our two Scotch friends. But look here, my lad, hadn't you better get on a fur coat?"

"I'm not cold," replied Steve; and they went on to the man by the wheel, where Andrew greeted them with a grin.

"The pipes are a' recht, Meester Steve," he said. "She'll like to hear them the noo?"

"I don't believe they'd go."

"She ton't pelief they'd go?"

"No. The potatoes were frozen in the cook-house, and I'll be bound to say they're spoiled."

Andrew McByle's face was a study as he looked from the speaker forward, and then turned hastily to Hamish.

"She'll mind ta wheel her nainsel," he said huskily, "while she goes to see aboot her pipes."

He turned to Steve again, and saw the twinkle in the lad's eye.

"She's lairfin'!" he cried. "The pipes are quite safe a' wrapped oop in her auld plaidie"; and he shook his head and laughed heartily.

"Look!" cried Hamish excitedly, pointing to their right.

"What is it?"

"A seal. Ay, there's twa bonnie laddies. Look at them watching us, and looking like twa bodies after having a swim."

Steve did not see the animals at once, for a piece of ice intervened.

The next moment, though, they came into sight, where they lay upon the snow, and raised their round heads to gaze at the s.h.i.+p.

"No wonder that some of the old mariners who first saw these large seals fancied that there were mermen and mermaids at sea," said the doctor, as they watched the peculiar semi-human faces of the creatures gazing at them with their great, soft eyes.