The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 16

"Take care, Pen; his teeth would go through a bar of iron."

"If he stirs, I'll rip him open," answered Pen, drawing his knife.

And he ran down between decks, followed by Warren, who was anxious to help him.

Soon they both returned, carrying the dog in their arms; his mouth and paws were securely tied; they had caught him asleep, and the poor dog could not escape them.

"Hurrah for Pen!" cried Plover.

"And what are you going to do with him now?" asked Clifton.

"Drown him, and if he ever comes back--" answered Pen with a smile of satisfaction.

Two hundred feet from the vessel there was a hole in the ice, a sort of circular creva.s.se, made by the seals with their teeth, and always dug out from the inside to the outside; it was there that the seals used to come to breathe on the surface of the ice; but they were compelled to take care to prevent the aperture from closing, for the shape of their jaws did not permit them to make the hole from the outside, and in any danger they would not be able to escape from their enemies.

Pen and Warren hastened to this creva.s.se, and then, in spite of his obstinate struggles, the dog was pitilessly cast into the sea; a huge cake of ice they then rolled over the aperture, closing all means of escape for the poor dog, thus locked in a watery prison.

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"A pleasant journey, Captain!" cried the brutal sailor.

Soon they returned on board; Johnson had seen nothing of it all; the fog was growing thick about the s.h.i.+p, and the snow was beginning to fall with violence.

An hour later, Richard Shandon, the doctor, and Garry regained the _Forward_.

Shandon had observed in the northeast a pa.s.sage, which he determined to try. He gave his orders to that effect; the crew obeyed with a certain activity; they wanted to convince Shandon of the impossibility of a farther advance, and besides, they had before them three days of obedience.

During a part of the following night and day the sawing and towing went on busily; the _Forward_ made about two miles of progress. On the 18th they were in sight of land, five or six cable-lengths from a strange peak, to which its singular shape had given the name of the Devil's Thumb.

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At this very place the _Prince Albert_, in 1851, the _Advance_, with Kane, in 1853, had been caught in the ice for many weeks.

The odd shape of the Devil's Thumb, the barren and desolate surroundings, which consisted of huge icebergs often more than three hundred feet high, the cracking of the ice, repeated indefinitely by the echo, made the position of the _Forward_ a very gloomy one.

Shandon saw that it was necessary to get away from there; within twenty-four hours, he calculated he would be able to get two miles from the spot. But that was not enough. Shandon felt himself embarra.s.sed by fear, and the false position in which he was placed benumbed his energy; to obey his instructions in order to advance, he had brought his s.h.i.+p into a dangerous position; the towing wore out his men; more than three hours were necessary to cut a ca.n.a.l twenty feet in length through ice which was generally four or five feet thick; the health of the crew gave signs of failing. Shandon was astonished at the silence of the men, and their unaccustomed obedience; but he feared it was only the calm that foreboded a storm.

We can, then, easily judge of the painful surprise, disappointment, and even despair which seized upon him, when he noticed that by means of an imperceptible movement in the ice, the _Forward_ lost in the night of the 18th all that had been gained by such toilsome efforts; on Sat.u.r.day morning he was opposite the Devil's Thumb, in a still more critical position; the icebergs increased in number and pa.s.sed by in the mist like phantoms.

Shandon was thoroughly demoralized; it must be said that fear seized both this bold man and all his crew. Shandon had heard of the disappearance of the dog; but he did not dare to punish the guilty persons; he feared exciting a mutiny.

The weather during that day was horrible; the snow, caught up in dense whirls, covered the brig with an impenetrable veil; at times, under the influence of the hurricane, the fog would rise, and their terror-stricken eyes beheld the Devil's Thumb rising on the sh.o.r.e like a spectre.

The _Forward_ was anch.o.r.ed to a large piece of ice; there was nothing to be done, nothing to be tried; darkness was spreading about them, and the man at the helm could not see James Wall, who was on watch forward.

Shandon withdrew to his cabin, a prey to perpetual disquiet; the doctor was arranging his notes of the expedition; some of the crew were on the deck, others in the common room.

At a moment when the violence of the storm was redoubling, the Devil's Thumb seemed to rise immoderately from the mist.

"Great G.o.d!" exclaimed Simpson, recoiling with terror.

"What's the matter?" asked Foker.

Soon shouts were heard on all sides.

"It's going to crush us!"

"We are lost!"

"Mr. Wall, Mr. Wall!"

"It's all over!"

"Commander, Commander!"

All these cries were uttered by the men on watch.

Wall hastened to the after-deck; Shandon, followed by the doctor, flew to the deck and looked out.

Through a rift in the mist, the Devil's Thumb appeared to have suddenly come near the brig; it seemed to have grown enormously in size; on its summit was balanced a second cone, upside down, and revolving on its point; it threatened to crush the s.h.i.+p with its enormous ma.s.s; it wavered, ready to fall down. It was an alarming sight. Every one drew back instinctively, and many of the men, jumping upon the ice, abandoned the s.h.i.+p.

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"Let no one move!" cried the commander with a loud voice; "every one to his place!"

"My friends, don't be frightened," said the doctor, "there is no danger! See, Commander, see, Mr. Wall, that's the mirage and nothing else."

"You are right, Dr. Clawbonny," replied Johnson; "they've all been frightened by a shadow."

When they had heard what the doctor said, most of the sailors drew near him, and from terror they turned to admiration of this wonderful phenomenon, which soon pa.s.sed from their view.

"They call that a mirage," said Clifton; "the Devil's at the bottom of it, I'm sure."

"That's true," growled Gripper.

But the break in the fog had given the commander a glimpse of a broad pa.s.sage which he had not expected to find; it promised to lead him away from the sh.o.r.e; he resolved to make use of it at once; men were sent out on each side of the ca.n.a.l; hawsers were given them, and they began to tow the s.h.i.+p northward.

During long hours this work was prosecuted busily but silently; Shandon had the furnace-fires lighted to help him through this pa.s.sage so providentially discovered.

"That's great luck," he said to Johnson, "and if we can only get on a few miles, we may be free. Make a hot fire, Mr. Brunton, and let me know as soon as you get steam on. Meanwhile, men, the farther on we get, the more gained! You want to get away from the Devil's Thumb; well, now is your chance!"

Suddenly the brig stopped. "What's the matter?" shouted Shandon.

"Wall, have the tow-ropes broken?"

"No," answered Wall, leaning over the railing. "See, there are the men running back; they are climbing on board; they seem very much frightened."

"What's happened?" cried Shandon, running forward.

"On board, on board!" cried the sailors, evidently exceedingly terrified.