Cast Away in the Cold Part 8

CHAPTER IX.

Contains a Recovery, a Discovery, and a Disappointment.

"And now," said the Captain, "what was the young man doing, when we knocked off the other day, after the storm?"

William, whose memory was always as good as his words were ready, said he was "just going to sleep."

"True, that's the thing; and I went to sleep and slept soundly, I can tell you. And this you may well enough believe when you bear in mind how much I had pa.s.sed through since the last sleep I had on board the s.h.i.+p,--for since then had come the s.h.i.+pwreck, the saving of the Dean and carrying him ash.o.r.e, the walk around the island, besides all the anxiety and worriment of mind in consequence of my own unhappy situation and the Dean's uncertain fate.

"More than twenty-four hours had elapsed since the s.h.i.+pwreck, and if I tell you that I slept full twelve hours, without once waking up, you must not be at all surprised.

"When I opened my eyes again, we were in the shadow of the cliffs once more; that is, the sun had gone around to the north again. The Dean was already wide awake. When I asked him how he was, he said he felt much better, only his head still pained him greatly, and he was very thirsty and hungry.

"I got up immediately, and a.s.sisted the Dean to rise. He was a little dizzy at first, but after sitting down for a few minutes on a rock he recovered himself. Then I brought him some water in an egg-sh.e.l.l to drink. And then I gave him a raw egg, which he swallowed as if it had been the daintiest morsel in the world. 'It's lucky, isn't it,' said he, 'that there are so many eggs about?' After a moment I observed that he was laughing, which very much surprised me, as that would have been about the last thing that ever would have entered into my head to do.

'Do you know,' he asked, 'what a very ridiculous figure we are cutting?

Look, we are all covered over with feathers. I have heard of people being tarred and feathered, but never heard of anything like this. Let's pick each other.'

"Sure enough we were literally covered over with the down in which we had been sleeping, and when I saw what a jest the poor Dean, with his sore head, made of the plight we were in, I forgot all my own troubles and joined in the laugh with him.

"We now fell to work picking each other, as the Dean had suggested, and were soon as clean of feathers as any other well-plucked geese.

"By this time the Dean's clothes had become entirely dry; so each dressed himself in the clothes that belonged to him, and then we started over to the nearest brook, where we bathed our hands and faces, drying them on an old bandanna handkerchief which I was lucky enough to have in my pocket. I had to support the Dean a little as we went along, for he was very weak; but in spite of this his spirits were excellent, and when he saw, for the first time, the ducks fly up, he said, 'What a great pair of silly dunces they must take us for,--coming into such a place as this.'

"After we had refreshed ourselves at the brook, and eaten some more eggs, we very naturally began to talk. I related to the Dean, more particularly than I had done before, the events of the s.h.i.+pwreck and our escape, and what I had discovered on the island, and then made some allusion to the prospect ahead of us. To my great surprise, the Dean was not apparently in the least cast down about it. In truth, he took it much more resignedly, and had a more hopeful eye to the future, than I had. 'If,' said he, 'it is G.o.d's will that we shall live, he will furnish us the means; if not, we can but die. I wouldn't mind it half so much, if my poor mother only knew what was become of me.' This reflection seemed to sadden him for a moment, and I thought I saw a tear in his eye; but he brightened up instantly as a great flock of ducks went whizzing overhead. 'Well,' exclaimed he, 'there seems to be no lack of something to eat here anyway, and we ought to manage to catch it somehow, and live until a s.h.i.+p comes along and takes us off.'

"The Dean took such a hopeful view of the future that we were soon chatting in a very lively way about everything that concerned our escape, and here I must have dwelt largely upon the satisfaction which I took in rescuing the Dean, for the little fellow said: 'Well, I suppose I ought to thank you very much for saving me; but the truth is, all the agony of death being over with me when you pulled me out, the chief benefit falls on you, as you seem so much rejoiced about it; but I'll be grateful as I can, and show it by not troubling you any more. See, I'm almost well. I feel better and better every minute,--only I'm sore here on the head where I got the crack.'

"To tell the truth, in thinking of other things, I had neglected, or rather quite forgotten, the Dean's wounded head; so now, my attention being called to it, I examined it very carefully, and found that it was nothing more than a bad bruise, with a cut near the centre of it about half an inch long. Having washed it carefully, I bound my bandanna handkerchief about it, and we once more came back to consider what we should do.

"Of course, the first thing we thought of and talked about was how we should go about starting a fire; next in importance to this was that we should have a place to shelter us. So far as concerned our food and drink, our immediate necessities were provided for, as we had the little rivulet close at hand, and any quant.i.ty of eggs to be had for the gathering, and we set about collecting a great number of them at once; for in a few days we thought it very likely that most of them would have little ducks in them, as, indeed, many of them had already. Another thing we settled upon was, that we would never both go to sleep at the same time, nor quit our present side of the island together; but one of us would be always on the lookout for a s.h.i.+p, as we both thought that, since our s.h.i.+p had come that way, others would be very likely to, though neither of us had the remotest idea in the world as to where we were, any more than that we were on an island somewhere in the northern sea.

"But the fire which we wanted so much to warm ourselves and cook our food,--what should we do for that? Here was the great question; and fire, fire, fire, was the one leading idea running through both our heads;--we thought of fire when we were gathering eggs, we talked of fire when, later in the day, we sat upon the rocks, resting ourselves, and we dreamed of fire when we fell asleep again,--not this time, however, under the eider-down where we had slept before, but on the green gra.s.s of the hillside, in the warm suns.h.i.+ne, under my overcoat, for we had turned night into day, and were determined to sleep when the sun was s.h.i.+ning on us at the south, and do what work we had to do when we were in the shade.

"Every method that either of us had ever heard of for making a fire was remembered and talked over; but there was nothing that appeared to suit our case. I found a hard flint, and by striking it on the back of my knife-blade I saw that there was no difficulty in getting any number of sparks, but we had nothing that would catch the sparks when struck; so that we did not seem to be any better off than we were before; and, as I have stated already, we fell asleep again, each in his turn,--'watch and watch,' as the Dean playfully called it, and as they have it on s.h.i.+pboard,--without having arrived at any other result than that of being much discouraged.

"When we had been again refreshed with sleep, we determined to make a still further exploration of the island; so, after once more eating our fill of raw eggs, we set out. The Dean, being still weak and his head still paining him very much from the hurt, remained at the lookout. He could, however, walk up and down for a few hundred yards without losing sight of the only part of the sea that was free enough of ice to allow a s.h.i.+p to approach the island. After a while he came to where I had discovered the dead seal and narwhal lying on the beach, when upon my first journey round the island. I had told him about them, as indeed I had of everything I had seen, and he was curious to try if he could not catch a fox; but his fortune in that particular was not better than mine.

"For myself, I had a very profitable journey, as I found a place among the rocks which might, with some labor in fixing it up, give us shelter.

I was searching for a cave, but nothing of the sort could I come across; but at the head of a little valley, very near to where I left the Dean, I discovered a place that would, in some measure at least, answer the same purpose. Its situation gave it the still further advantage, that we commanded a perfect view of the sea from the front of it.

"I have said that it was not exactly a cave. It was rather a natural tent, as it were, of solid rocks. At the foot of a very steep slope there were several large ma.s.ses of rough rocks heaped together, evidently having one day slid down from the cliffs above, and afterwards smaller rocks, being broken off, had piled up behind them. Two of these large rocks had come together in such a manner as to leave an open s.p.a.ce between them. I should say this s.p.a.ce was ten or twelve feet across at the bottom, and, rising up about ten feet high, joined at the top like the roof of a house. The rocks were pressed against them behind, so as completely to close the outlet in that direction. I climbed into this place, and was convinced that if we had strength to close up the front entrance with a wall, we should have a complete protection from the weather. But then, when I reflected how, if we did seek shelter there, we should keep ourselves warm, I had great misgivings; for then came up the question of all questions, 'What should we do for a fire?'

"Although this place was not a cave, yet I spoke to the Dean about it as such, and by that name we came to know it; so I will now use the term, inappropriate though it is. I also told the Dean about some other birds that I had discovered in great numbers. They were very small, and seemed to have their nests among the rocks all along the opposite side of the island, where they were swarming on the hillside, and flying overhead in even greater flocks than the ducks. I knew they were called 'little auks,' from descriptions the sailors had given me of them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Dean makes provision for a change of diet.]

"'But look here what I've got,' exclaimed the Dean, with an air of triumph, as soon as I came up with him. 'See this big duck!'

"The fellow had actually caught a duck, and in a most ingenious manner.

Seeing the ducks fly off their nests, the happy idea struck him that, if he could only contrive a trap, or 'dead-fall,' he might catch them when they came back. So he selected a nest favorable to his purpose, and then piled up some stones about it, making a solid wall on one side of it; then he put a thin narrow stone on the other side, and on this he supported still another stone that was very heavy. Then he took from his pocket a piece of twine which he was fortunate enough to have, and tied one end of it to the thin narrow stone, and, holding on to the other end, hid himself behind some rocks near by. When the duck came back to her nest, he jerked the thin narrow stone away by a strong pull on the twine string, and down came the heavy stone upon the duck's back. 'You should have heard the old thing quacking,' said he, evidently forgetting everything else but the sport of catching the bird: 'but I soon gave her neck a twist, and here we are ready for a dinner, when we only find a way to cook it. Have you discovered any way to make a fire yet?'

"I had to confess that on the subject of fire I was yet as ignorant as ever.

"'Do you know,' continued he, 'that I have got an idea?'

"'What is it?' said I.

"'Why,' replied he, 'you told me something about people making fire with a lens made of gla.s.s. Now, as I was down on the beach and looked at the ice there, I thought, why not make a lens out of ice,--it is as clear as gla.s.s?'

"'How ridiculous!' said I; 'but suppose you could, what will you set on fire with it?'

"'In the first place,' he answered, 'the pockets of my coat are made of some sort of cotton stuff, and if we could only set fire to that, couldn't we blow a blaze into the fire plant, as you call it? See, I've gathered a great heap of it.' And sure enough he had, for there was a pile of it nearly as high as his head, looking like a great heap of dry and green leaves.

"The idea did not seem to me to be worth much, but still, as it was the only one that had been suggested by either of us, it was at least worthy of trial; so we went down to the beach, and, finding a lump of ice about twice as big as my two fists, we began chipping it with my knife into the shape we wanted it, and then we ground it off with a stone, and then rubbed it over with our warm hands until we had worn it down perfectly smooth, and into the shape of a lens. This done, we held it up to the sun, relieving each other as our hands grew cold; but without any success whatever. We tried for a long time, and with much patience, until the ice became so much melted, that we could do nothing more with it, when we threw it away, and the experiment was abandoned as hopeless.

"Our disappointment at this failure was as great as the Dean's hopes had been high. The Dean felt it most, for he was, at the very outset, perfectly confident of success. Neither of us, however, wished to own how much we felt the failure, so we spoke very little more together, but made, almost in silence, another meal off the raw eggs, and, being now quite worn out and weary with the labors and anxieties of the day, we pa.s.sed the next twelve hours in watching and sleeping alternately in the bright suns.h.i.+ne, lying as before on the green gra.s.s, covered with the overcoat. We did not even dare hope for better fortune on the morrow. We had, however, made up our minds to struggle in the best manner we could against the difficulties which surrounded us, and mutually to sustain each other in the hard battle before us. Whether we should live or die was known but to G.o.d alone, and to his gracious protection we once more commended ourselves; the Dean repeating a prayer which he had learned from a pious and careful mother, who had brought him up in the fear of Heaven, and taught him, at a very early age, to have faith in G.o.d's endless watchfulness.

"And now, my children," concluded the Captain, "I have some work to do in my garden, to-day, so we must cut our story short this time. When you come to-morrow, I will tell you what next we did towards raising a fire, besides many other things for our safety and comfort."

So the party scattered from the "cabin,"--the Captain to his work, and the children to play for a while with the Captain's dogs, Port and Starboard, out among the trees; and to talk with Main Brace, whom they found to be the most singular boy they had ever seen; after which they went to the Captain to say "Good evening" to him, and then ran briskly home,--William eager to write down what he had heard, while it was yet fresh upon his memory, and all of them to relate to their parents, over and over again, what this wonderful old man had been telling them, and what a dear old soul he was.

CHAPTER X.

Shows how Some Things may be done as well as Others, with G.o.d's Help and with much Perseverance.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

When the children next went to the "Mariner's Rest," it was unanimously agreed that they should go back again to the Captain's "cabin,"--there were so many things that they had not seen, and which they wished to look at. Alice wanted to see the birds,--the owl with the great, big eyes, and the pelican that had no wings, at least only little stumps that were hardly an apology for wings. Fred wanted to see the Chinese junks and the little s.h.i.+p, while William was bent on having the Moorish gun, the Turkish sword, the j.a.panese "happy despatch," and all the other weapons, offensive and defensive, taken down, that he might have a better view of them. The old man, at all times very ready and willing to gratify his little friends, was never more so than when he found them so much interested in the contents of his cabin; for every little curiosity or treasure there had an a.s.sociation with some period of his eventful life, and he was never happier than when any one admired what he admired so much, and thus gave him a chance to talk about it.

"Heyday!" said he, when all the children had spoken and made known their wishes, "I'm glad you take so kindly to the old man's den; you shall come down there and look at it whenever you like, only you mustn't toss the things about too much. Run in now, and make yourselves at home.

I'll be with you in a little while."

So the children set off without another word, and were quickly diving among the old man's treasures, while the Captain went back to his garden to finish the hoeing of his cabbages.

When the Captain had completed what he was about, he rejoined the children; and after a great deal of conversation which there is no need that we should here repeat, the party at length sobered down as if they were bent on business, and the Captain, once more drawing his little friends about him by the open window, again took up the tale.

"Now I told you yesterday," said he, "that the Dean and I had gone asleep again after all our work and trouble and anxiety, without having come any nearer to getting up a fire. You have seen that we had enough to eat and drink, and that I had found a place to shelter us if a storm came on; but nothing could either of us think of to catch a spark. As soon as the Dean had opened his eyes, he said: 'Why, this is too bad!

indeed it is,--I thought I had been making a fire.'

"'What with?' I asked.