Steve Young Part 39

"Well, that's what we are doing," said Steve to himself; and then he watched as the Norseman toiled away till he could get one hand through the opening he had made.

"Mind!" cried Steve. "Put on your glove, or you'll take the skin off."

"No," said Johannes gravely, "not yet awhile. It does not freeze in that way now; that is when the colder weather sets in. The sun is warming the air too much everywhere. Look, there are drips forming."

He worked as he spoke, and now sent the snow and ice showering down from the cask, till at last there was quite a little avalanche, after which he drew himself up inside, let the door close, and sc.r.a.ped and worked away, throwing out consolidated portions, and then sweeping the snow-dust till he could open the trap partially and shuffle it out with his feet. "Warm work, sir," he said at last, as he looked over the edge and down at Steve.

"Let me come and have a turn, then, for it's horribly cold here."

"Come along, then," said the Norseman; "there's room now."

There was an unusual sensation of numbness in Steve's arms as he climbed back on to the wooden spells, and he knew that he had been motionless quite long enough; and he could not help feeling that if he had remained there another hour clinging to the icy shrouds he would not have been able to live. But the circulation began to return as soon as he exerted himself, and, after a little effort, he squeezed himself up through the bottom of the cask, the trap fell into its place, and he dragged the case of the gla.s.s round to the front so as to get at the double telescope.

The scene from the deck had been wonderful, but from the interior of the crow's-nest the wonder was vastly increased, and Steve could have stood there for hours, sweeping with the gla.s.s in all directions, gazing with delight at the floating ice-islands of every form and size, from the little block that could be thrust aside with a boat-hook to the field or detached floe a mile across; and all in motion, drifting with the current toward the north-east, and rising and falling on the heavy swell left by the storm. There was an incessant cracking roar, too, from all around, as the blocks came in contact and ground together; while from time to time, consequent upon undulation of the surface, a field split right across with a tremendous report.

But there was no time to study the beauty of the surroundings, and Steve had to leave all contemplation of the silver islands floating upon a black sea, to try and trace the open water from where they were right up to the land.

Twice over he was at fault, as he supposed, for he followed with the gla.s.s a broad, ca.n.a.l-like line of clear water quite a couple of miles, and then it appeared to be blocked up with ice. He said so to Johannes; but the Norseman shook his head.

"The water goes round behind those blocks, sir," he said.

"But can you tell that with the naked eye, Johannes?"

"Yes, sir, clearly."

The result was that a clear way was well traced out for the _Hvalross_ right up to the rugged land with its mountains, not more than eight miles away, so that navigation would be perfectly easy at that moment.

What it would be with the vast army of ice blocks advancing to invade the sh.o.r.es of the unknown land, it would be impossible to say.

All these facts were communicated bit by bit to the deck, with the consequence that the speed was increased, and the vessel went gliding on in and out amongst the floating fields of ice, while Steve stayed with his companion, who kept pointing out objects worthy of notice.

"Seals yonder," he said, pointing to one low flat of snow-covered ice; and Steve brought the gla.s.s to bear upon the cl.u.s.ter of animals huddled up together.

"Yonder's a bear, too," said Johannes after a time.

"What eyes you have!" cried Steve. "I had not even seen that with the gla.s.s. Why, he's on quite a small island of ice, all to himself. How easily we could get to him with a boat!"

"Yes, easily enough, sir; but this is no time for hunting," said the Norseman. "While we are drifting onward with all this ice the danger is not great; but if we lay to while boats were out fis.h.i.+ng we should soon be fast, and it might be months before we got free. There is only one thing to do now: get the s.h.i.+p into a safe haven. Then we can talk about hunting."

"How long will it take us to get there?"

"Little more than an hour if we do not meet with a check," said Johannes, as the _Hvalross_ glided round the edge of an ice-field into quite a winding river of black water, more open than any they had pa.s.sed since the storm, and along which the vessel now made good way, while the land ahead began to grow more rugged and wild, looking grand, desolate, and apparently very much broken-up by jutting promontories and deep inlets.

"Yes," said Johannes, after a long inspection through the gla.s.s; "there are plenty of shelter havens there, if we are not shut off from them by the ice."

All these observations were duly communicated to the captain, who directed the course of the vessel by the instructions he received as to the lay of the water. And as Johannes had said, the places where Steve had imagined the open water to end proved to be quite clear, so that mile after mile was pa.s.sed, and at last the boy gave his opinion upon the state of the navigation.

"Why, it's easy enough," he said; "any one might go right on like this to the North Pole."

"It's too easy, sir," said Johannes, smiling. "How would you get back?"

"Wait till the tide turns and the ice is going the other way."

"Yes, that would be a capital plan," replied Johannes drily.

"Cold? Want to come down?" cried the captain from below.

"No, sir; quite warm shut up here," replied Steve.

"Stay up then, for you're making the navigation quite easy. All clear ahead?"

"Yes, sir; nothing but a few floating blocks of no consequence; and there are more openings farther on."

"That's right. Now look out, both of you, for a good deep inlet. That is what we want next."

Johannes held the gla.s.s at this time, and he said to Steve, as the captain turned away:

"There are two fiords that appear to be just right if we can reach them; but I cannot make out anything for certain yet. Have a try, sir?"

Steve took the gla.s.s, rested his arms on the rail, and began to try and make out the inlets by following the course of the open water from just ahead right up to the piled-up mountainous land.

"It looks like a bit of my own country," said Johannes, "and does not seem to be an island, for there is high ground as far as I can see."

"More seals," said Steve; "good big ones, too!"

"Where?"

"Away to the left of that big ice-field, right on its edge. Why, there must be fifty of them. See 'em?"

"Yes," said Johannes gravely; "more likely a hundred, sir; and, as you say, very fine ones indeed. The captain will not have any difficulty in loading up with oil to take back."

"Not if we can catch the seals," said Steve, with his eyes glued to the gla.s.s. "There, I think I can make out one of the fiords now. I say, isn't it rather funny that west coasts should be so much alike?"

"I don't understand you, sir."

"Why, all broken-up into fiords, as you call them. Ireland is, and Scotland, and Norway; then Spitzbergen was, and now this place seems to be the same."

"Yes, sir; I suppose it's the beating and was.h.i.+ng of the sea."

"But places like Spitzbergen and this can't be much beaten by the sea, because they are so much frozen-in. Yes, I can see the inlet now, and the other one, too. North of it, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir; those are the two, and there is plenty of open water."

"Plenty. Shall we tell the captain now?"

"He's forward talking to the men," replied Johannes.

"Then we'll wait. But, I say, about these seals? We shall have to shoot them, I suppose?"

"No, sir, harpoon them; but they are not seals."