The Giant of the North: Pokings Round the Pole Part 14

How sad the knowledge makes me! Better far In ignorance to live, than hear of things that jar, And think of things that are not,--not of things that are.

"`If ignorance is bliss,' the poet saith--why `if?'

Why doubt a fact so clearly proven, stubborn, stiff?

The heavy griefs and burdens of the world around, The hideous tyranny by which mankind is ground, The earthquake, tempest, rush of war, and wail of woe, Are all as though they were not--if I do not know!

Wrapped in my robe of ignorance, what _can_ I miss?

Am I not saved from all--and more than all--of this?

Do I not revel in a regal realm of bliss?"

"Bravo! Buzzby," cried the Captain, "but, I say, Alf, don't it seem to smack rather too much of selfishness?"

"Of course it does, uncle. I do not think Buzzby always sound in principle, and, like many poets, he is sometimes confused in his logic."

"You're right, Benjy, the land is clear enough now," remarked the Captain, whose interest in Buzzby was not profound, and whose feelings towards logic bordered on the contemptuous, as is often the case with half-educated men, and, strange to say, sometimes with highly-educated men, as well as with the totally ignorant--so true is it that extremes meet!

In the course of a couple of hours the sledges drew near to the island, which proved to be a large but comparatively low one, rising not more than a hundred feet in any part. It was barren and ragged, with patches of reindeer moss growing in some parts, and dwarf willows in others.

Myriads of sea-birds made it their home, and these received the invaders with clamorous cries, as if they knew that white men were a dangerous novelty, and objected to the innovation.

Despite their remonstrances, the party landed, and the Eskimos hurried over the rocks to that part of the island where they had left their kayaks and women's boats in charge of a party of natives who were resident on the island at the time they pa.s.sed, and from whom they had borrowed the dogs and sledges with which they had travelled south.

Meanwhile the white men took to rambling; Leo to shoot wild-fowl for supper, Alf to search for "specimens," and Benjy to scramble among the rocks in search of anything that might "turn up." b.u.t.terface a.s.sisted the latter in his explorations. While the rest were thus engaged, the Captain extemporised a flag-staff out of two spears lashed together with a small block at the top for the purpose of running up a flag, and formally taking possession of the island when they should re-a.s.semble.

This done, he wrote a brief outline of his recent doings, which he inserted in a ginger-beer bottle brought for that very purpose. Then he a.s.sisted Anders in making the encampment and preparing supper.

The two were yet in the midst of the latter operation when a shout was heard in the distance. Looking in the direction whence it came they saw Chingatok striding over the rocks towards them with unusual haste. He was followed by the other Eskimos, who came forward gesticulating violently.

"My countrymen have left the island," said Chingatok when he came up.

"And taken the kayaks with them?" asked Captain Vane anxiously.

"Every one," replied the giant.

This was depressing news to the Captain, who had counted much on making use of the Eskimo canoes in the event of his own appliances failing.

"Where have they gone, think you?" he asked.

"Tell Blackbeard," replied Chingatok, turning to Anders, "that no one knows. Since they went away the lanes of open water have closed, and the ice is solid everywhere."

"But where the kayak and the oomiak cannot float the sledge may go,"

said the Captain.

"That is true; tell the pale chief he is wise, yet he knows not all things. Let him think. When he comes to the great open sea what will he do without canoes?"

"Huk!" exclaimed Oolichuk, with that look and tone which intimated his belief that the pale chief had received a "clincher."

The chattering of the other Eskimos ceased for a moment or two as they awaited eagerly the Captain's answer, but the Captain disappointed them.

He merely said, "Well, we shall see. I may not know all things, Chingatok, nevertheless I know a deal more than you can guess at. Come now, let's have supper, Anders; we can't wait for the wanderers."

As he spoke, three of the wanderers came into camp, namely Leo, Benjy, and b.u.t.terface.

"What's come of Alf?" asked the Captain.

Neither Leo nor Benjy had seen him since they parted, a quarter of an hour after starting, and both had expected to find him in camp, but b.u.t.terface had seen him.

"Sawd him runnin'," said the sable steward, "runnin' like a mad kangaroo arter a smallish brute like a mouse. Nebber sawd nuffin' like Ma.s.sa Alf for runnin'."

"Well, we can't wait for him," said the Captain, "I want to take possession of the island before supper. What shall we call it?"

"Disappointment Isle," said Leo, "seeing that the Eskimos have failed us."

"No--I won't be ungrateful," returned the Captain, "considering the successes already achieved."

"Call it Content Isle, then," suggested Benjy.

"But I am not content with partial success. Come, b.u.t.terface, haven't you got a suggestion to make."

The negro shook his woolly head. "No," he said, "I's 'orrible stoopid.

Nebber could get nuffin' to come out o' my brain--sep w'en it's knocked out by accident. You's hard to please, ma.s.sa. S'pose you mix de two,-- dis'pintment an' content,--an' call 'im Half-an'-half Island."

"Home is in sight now," said Chingatok, who had taken no interest in the above discussion, as it was carried on in English. "A few days more and we should be there if we only had our kayaks."

"There's the name," exclaimed the Captain eagerly when this was translated, "`Home-in-sight,' that will do."

Rising quickly, he bent a Union Jack to the halyards of his primitive flag-staff, ran it up, and in the name of Queen Victoria took possession of _Home-in-sight Island_. After having given three hearty British cheers, in which the Eskimos tried to join, with but partial success, they buried the ginger-beer bottle under a heap of stones, a wooden cross was fixed on the top of the cairn, and then the party sat down to supper, while the Captain made a careful note of the lat.i.tude and longitude, which he had previously ascertained. This latest addition to Her Majesty's dominions was put down by him in lat.i.tude 85 degrees 32 minutes, or about 288 geographical miles from the North Pole.

CHAPTER TEN.

A SKETCHER IN IMMINENT DANGER. DIFFICULTIES INCREASE, AND ARE OVERCOME AS USUAL.

The first night on Home-in-sight Island was not so undisturbed as might have been expected. The noisy gulls did indeed go to sleep at their proper bed-time, which, by the way, they must have ascertained by instinct, for the sun could be no certain guide, seeing that he shone all night as well as all day, and it would be too much to expect that gulls had sufficient powers of observation to note the great luminary's exact relation to the horizon. Polar bears, like the Eskimo, had forsaken the spot. All nature, indeed, animate and inanimate, favoured the idea of repose when the explorers lay down to sleep on a mossy couch that was quite as soft as a feather bed, and much more springy.

The cause of disturbance was the prolonged absence of Alf Vandervell.

That enthusiastic naturalist's failure to appear at supper was nothing uncommon. His non-appearance when they lay down did indeed cause some surprise, but little or no anxiety, and they all dropped into a sound sleep which lasted till considerably beyond midnight. Then the Captain awoke with a feeling of uneasiness, started up on one elbow, yawned, and gazed dreamily around. The sun, which had just kissed his hand to the disappointed horizon and begun to re-ascend the sky, blinded the Captain with his beams, but did not prevent him from observing that Alf's place was still vacant.

"Very odd," he muttered, "Alf didn't use to--to--w'at's 'is name in-- this--way--"

The Captain's head dropped, his elbow relaxed, and he returned to the land of Nod for another half-hour.

Again he awoke with a start, and sat upright.

"This'll never do," he exclaimed, with a fierce yawn, "something _must_ be wrong. Ho! Benjy!"

"Umph!" replied the boy, who, though personally light, was a heavy sleeper.

"Rouse up, Ben, Alf's not come back. Where did you leave him?"

"Don' know, Burrerface saw 'im las'--." Benjy dropped off with a sigh, but was re-aroused by a rough shake from his father, who lay close to him.

"Come, Ben, stir up b.u.t.terface! We must go look for Alf."