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exertions of his people, a whole month in filling up might readily be
gained.
All thoughts of climbing the peak were at once abandoned; and, in fifteen
minutes after the sail was seen, Roswell and Stephen both came panting
down to the house; so much easier is it to descend in this world than to
mount. A swivel was instantly loaded and fired as a signal; and, in half
an hour, a boat was manned and ready. Roswell took command himself,
leaving his second mate to look after the schooner. Stimson went with his
captain, and in less than one hour after he had first seen the strange
sail, our hero was actually pulling out of the cove, with a view to go to
her assistance. Roswell Gardiner was as good-hearted a fellow as ever
lived. He had a sufficient regard for his own interests, as well as for
those of others entrusted to his care; but, these main points looked
after, he would cheerfully have worked a month to relieve the Vineyard-men
from the peril that so plainly beset them. Setting his sails the instant
the boat was clear of the rocks, away he went, then, as fast as ash and
canvass could carry him, which was at a rate but little short of eight
knots in the hour.
As he was thus flying towards his object, our young mariner formed a
theory in his own mind, touching the drift of the ice in the adjacent
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seas. It was simply this. He had sounded in entering the great bay, and
had ascertained that comparatively shallow water existed between the
south-eastern extremity of Sealer's Land and the nearest island opposite.
It was deep enough to admit the largest vessel that ever floated, and a
great deal more than this; but it was not deep enough to permit an
ice-berg to pass. The tides, too, ran in races among the islands, which
prevented the accumulation of ice at the southern entrance, while the
outer currents seemed to set everything past the group to allow of the
floating mountains to collect to the eastward, where they appeared to be
thronged. It was on the western verge of this wilderness of ice-bergs and
ice fields that the strange sail had been seen working her way towards the
group, which must be plainly in view from her decks, as her distance from
the nearest of the islands certainly did not exceed two leagues.
It required more than two hours for the whale-boat of Roswell to cross the
bay, and reach the margin of that vast field of ice, which was prevented
from drifting into the open space only by encountering the stable rocks of
the first of the group. Every eye was now turned in quest of an opening,
by means of which it might be possible to get further to the eastward.
One, at length, was discovered, and into it Gardiner dashed, ordering his
boat's crew to stretch themselves out at their oars, though every man with
him thought they were plunging into possible destruction. On the boat
went, however, now sheering to starboard, now to port, to avoid projecting
spurs of ice, until she had ploughed her way through a fearfully narrow,
and a deviating passage, that sometimes barely permitted them to go
through, until a spot was reached where the two fields which formed this
strait actually came in close crushing contact with each other. Roswell
took a look before and behind him, saw that his boat was safe owing to the
formation of the two outlines of the respective fields, when he sprang
upon the ice itself, bidding the boat-steerer to wait for him. A shout
broke out of the lips of the young captain the instant he was erect on the
ice. There lay the schooner, the Martha's Vineyard craft, within half a
mile of him, in plain sight, and in as plain jeopardy. She was jammed,
with every prospect, as Roswell thought, of being crushed, ere she could
get free from the danger.
Chapter XVI.
"A sculler's notch in the stern he made,
An oar he shaped of the bottle blade;
Then sprung to his seat with a lightsome leap
And launched afar on the calm, blue deep."
_The Culprit Fay._
Roswell was hardly on the ice before a sound of a most portentous sort
reached his ear. He knew at once that the field had been rent in twain by
outward pressure, and that some new change was to occur that might release
or might destroy the schooner. He was on the point of springing forward in
order to join Daggett, when a call from the boat arrested his steps.
"These here fields are coming together, Captain Gar'ner, and our boat will
soon be crushed unless we get it out of the water."
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Sure enough, a single glance behind him sufficed to assure the young
master of the truth of this statement. The field he was on was slowly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]