DOCTORING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.--AN ANXIOUS NIGHT.--FROZEN UP.
La Salle examined the condition of his patient, and found his tongue
furred, his pulse quick and feverish, his tonsils badly inflamed, and
the chills alternating with flushes of fever heat. The mind of the
patient, too, was anxious; for at the close of the brief examination he
said, "I hope I shan't be sick, for there isn't much show for me out
here on the ice."
"And why not, George? Although I hope you will have nothing more than a
bad cold, yet I think I could cure a pretty sick man out here."
"But we have no medicines, or beds, or food, or anything, scarcely."
"What nonsense! We are far more comfortably housed than the poor
Esquimaux, and even Peter there lives no warmer than we do--do you,
Peter?"
"_Womegun_ hetter than this; but this place very comforble. _I_ no fraid
freeze here."
"Well, George, I must turn doctor now, and try to stop this cold; for
as yet it is no worse. Peter, make a fire outside, and heat the iron
bailer full of salt water. Regnie, reach me my powder-horn and the
little tin cup of the lantern."
Pouring four drachms of gunpowder into the cup, he filled it about half
full of water, and setting it near the hot coals under the red hot
cylinder, soon dissolved the explosive, forming an inky fluid. From the
ammunition bucket he drew a small phial, which had been filled with
olive oil, and pouring some hot water and a little shot into it, he soon
cleaned it for the reception of the fluid, which he filtered through
several thicknesses of his woolen gun-cover. About a fluid ounce of a
rather dirty-looking solution of saltpeter resulted, to which a little
sugar was added.
"Here we have," said the man of drugs, "some three drachms of saltpeter
in solution, of which, by and by, you may take about one sixth, letting
it gargle your throat going down. Peter, is the water hot?"
"Yes, broder, water boilin' hover. What do with him now?"
"I want to soak his feet; but what shall we do it in? I can fill my
seal-skin boots, but they would be awkward."
"There's the ammunition bucket," suggested Regnie.
"That was made to hold peas and such like, and leaks like a sieve."
"Put the rubber blanket around it," interposed the patient.
"That's the idea," said La Salle. And hanging up one of the bird-skin
rugs in its place, the "mackintosh" was drawn and carefully knotted
around the rim of the shaky receptacle. Into this the hot water was
poured, and being duly tempered to a safe degree of heat, Waring removed
his boots and stockings, and, seated on a couple of decoys, bathed his
feet and ankles for about fifteen minutes.
In the mean time, the portion of the sleeping-room farthest from the
door, was carefully fitted with dry twigs and one of the bird-skin
coverlets, and the lad's stockings were thoroughly dried at the stove
until they felt warm and comfortable. Taking one of the discarded
cotton-flannel shooting-gowns, duly warmed at the fire, La Salle and
Regnar carefully and energetically dried and rubbed Waring's
extremities, now warmed and suffused with blood drawn from the overtaxed
blood-vessels of the head and body, after which his warmed and dried
foot-gear were replaced, and he was tucked away in his berth.
"Does your chest pain you at all, George?" asked his attendant, as he
drew the thick feather covering over the sick boy.
"No; but my throat does a little. It feels much better, though, than it
did."
La Salle thought a moment, then drew from a little cavity in the wall
near the door a small junk of bird-fat, which he melted in the tin cup.
"I will rub your throat with goose-grease. It is a great favorite of the
old women, and will keep the air from your tender skin, if it doesn't
relieve the soreness of the inflamed membranes." So saying, he rubbed in
the warm, soft fat with his hands, covering the skin above the bronchial
tubes and the soft parts of the throat with the penetrating unguent,
then fastening a turn of his list gun-cover around his throat, he
replaced the covering, and taking his cap, went out into the night air,
and seeking the lookout, glanced eagerly out over the waste of ice.
The night was clear and cold, with only an occasional puff of wind from
the westward; but the temperature was falling fast, and the snow-crust
broke under the foot with a sound ominous of biting cold. All around was
ice, and even if the light-houses along that coast were lighted in
winter, it is doubtful if the party were near enough to land to see any
except that of Point Escumenac, which at noon bore north-west and about
fifteen miles away. Since that time, the drift of the pack, at nightfall
evidently making eastward, or rather north-east, had probably increased
the distance to nearly forty miles.
La Salle surveyed the wild scene around him--the pillars hewn from vast
masses of eternal ice by the shock of fearful collision, the slow action
of the sun, the corrosion of the waves, and the melting kisses of the
rain, and thus fashioned into fantastic mockeries of fane, monument,
tower, and spire, even by daylight were strangely wonderful, but under
the mystic night and the weird light of the stars, seemed like icy
statues, in whose chill bosoms were incarnated the genii of desolation
and death.
"Ay! thus we move, helpless, lost, and beyond the aid of man, convoyed
by a fleet of fantasies into a sailless sea, and to an unknown fate.
Well I know that by to-morrow, myriads of eyes will watch for signs of
our presence from Canseau to Gaspé, and on both shores of St. Jean; but
they will look in vain. A week hence they will hear of our disappearance
in Baltimore, and Paulie will know her own heart at last. I may not
regret this if I escape with life, for well I know we are like to come
back as men from the dead."
"Why do you speak of death, La Salle?" said a voice in good and even
polished French; and La Salle, turning, found that Regnar stood beside
him. An air of education which he had never noticed before seemed to
pervade this youth, who spoke English almost execrably, and had shown
little more than a passable knowledge of the coast of Labrador, and a
keen insight into all the varied craft of hunter and fisherman.
"I was only thinking," said La Salle, evasively, speaking in the same
language. "But how is it that you, who know French and German, speak
English so badly?"
"You will know some time, but not to-night; although I may tell you
this--that I shall receive from you the greatest good that man will ever
confer, or at least the realization of some long-cherished desire. God
grant that it may end my long search for him, although my life end with
it."
"Of whom do you speak?" asked La Salle, impressed with his manner.
"Regnar don't care talk now. Nights getting cold; so come in and look at
sick boy. Ha, ha, ha! You've been tinman, tailor, cook, navigator, and
now you're doctor. Come on!" And La Salle almost doubted his own sanity
as he followed the old Regnie of his Labrador voyage down the side of
the mound, where a moment ago an unsuspected, hidden fire had revealed
itself.
Just as they were about to enter the little outer enclosure, La Salle
laid his hand on the arm of his companion. "Regnie, don't for your life
let the others know that I have doubt of our safety; and keep up poor
Waring's spirits if you can."
Cheerfully and firmly the answer came back in good Parisian, "I will not
fail you. I have no fear now, and the life of the ice is nothing new to
me. When the winds have done their work, and we no longer look for the
loom of the cliffs, or the hazy purple of the distant forests, I will
take my turn in your place." And grasping La Salle's hand, Orloff
stepped into the chamber.
"How you do, George? Here's the doctor again," and La Salle, with no
little anxiety, approached his patient.
"I have no chills now, but my throat is still quite sore, and I have
some fever, I think."
La Salle laid his hand on the boy's forehead. It was parched with fever,
but a close search failed to discover any signs of dangerous throat
symptoms. He looked at his watch.
"It is now ten o'clock. You may take another dose of the nitre, and
gargle your throat well with a little of it. Are you warm enough?"
"Yes, thank you. I guess I can sleep now, and you had better go to bed
too. Good night!"
"Good night, George. You'll be better to-morrow."
And placing a few billets in the cylinder, La Salle rolled himself up in
his heavy coat, drew off his long moccason boots, and placing his
stockinged feet where the heat of the fire would dry the insensible
perspiration they had gathered during the day, he prepared for a short
nap.
"Regnie, keep up the fire for a couple of hours, and then call me, for
it grows cold, and we must not let George get chilled again, on any
account."
About one, La Salle awoke to find Regnie still awake, and keeping up a
good fire, although he used the wood but sparingly. The cold had
evidently increased, and La Salle drew on his boots, which had improved
much in drying. As Regnar turned to his berth, he said,--
"It cold to-night, colder to-morrow, and warm to-morrow night. Then we
be in the open Gulf, and the warm winds will come again."
George slept but restlessly; and once more during the night a small dose
of the sirup was administered. About three o'clock, Peter awoke, and
said,--
"Why no let Peter watch? No doctor, but keep good fire and let you
sleep."
"Well, Peter," said La Salle, "I shall be glad to rest; but you must be
careful of the wood, and put in as little as will keep up a blaze, for
we have not a great deal, and that not of a very good kind."
"Me know no woods here, and Peter will not waste any, you better
b'lieve."
Laying his hand on George's head, he felt a slight moisture; and
covering him still more closely, he lay down with a hopeful heart, and,
wearied in mind and body, slept until nearly nine the next morning.
Regnar was broiling the dismembered body of a goose at the rude grate,
and at that moment was arranging on a slender spit alternate portions of
the heart, liver, and fat of the bird. After being seasoned with salt,
this was rapidly rotated in front of the fire by Peter, who watched with
much interest the preparation of three similar sticks.
La Salle sprang to his feet, and first hastened to Waring, who professed
himself cured, and wanted to get up.
"No, George; you must lie abed to-day, and accept a cup of _very_ weak
coffee and some bread. I shall let you eat nothing. You see," he
continued, as the boy broke into a fit of coughing, "that the cold has
not left you yet, and I have no doubt you feel some pain in your chest
now."
"Yes, it has gone into my lungs a little, but will wear off soon, I
guess. It always does at home."
"Well, we can't risk anything here; so I'll get your coffee, and after
breakfast, if Peter will get me a little pitch off the branches, I'll
make something for your cough."
The birds were well cooked and quite appetizing; and as he rose Peter
handed La Salle a small handful of Canada balsam, which in the shape of
small tears clung to many of the larger branches on the floor.
"That enough? If not, Peter get more."
"That will do--thank you, Peter."
But the eye of the speaker caught a look directed by Regnar at the roof
of the hut, from whence exuded a few drops of a blacker resin.
"Yes, I see Stockholm tar; that will help the cure much."
Placing the two in an iron spoon, rudely made from a fragment of the
decoys, they were gently melted, and a small quantity of sugar added,
with enough powdered biscuit to enable the mass to be rolled into little
balls.
"You must chew these and swallow the tar-water thus formed, and finally
the resins themselves, and you will find your cough much loosened by
to-morrow."
"Sposum you no want boat-hook, me make draw-knife of him. He steel, I
s'pose."
"Yes, Peter. The spike is very fine steel, I believe, as I told the
blacksmith I wanted it light and sharp. If you want it you can have it;
that is, if you feel sure you can make a knife."
"Mos' all Ingin make own knife. You never see Ingin knife in store. In
old time old men say Ingin make work-knife, war-knife, arrow-head, axe,
all ting he want when can't buy. Me make best knife in tribe 'fore me
lose arm. Some one must strike for me, an' I turn iron now."
Going out, he brought in several fragments of hard wood, and the spike
or head of the boat-hook. Making a hot fire, he placed the spike
therein, and sinking the edge of an axe in one of the decoys, got Regnar
to strike for him.
"Now no strike hard--strike quick and heasy, right that place every
time;" and taking the glowing iron from the fire, he laid it on the
light anvil.
It was wonderful to see how, like one who uses a trip-hammer, he drew
the iron under the rapidly-plied axe, until the round spike was a
narrow, thin blade about six inches in length. Then shifting the angle
of the iron a little, he directed Regnar how to beat down one side to an
edge, and lastly how to curve the flat of the blade a little at the
point, or rather end. Then, producing several small pieces of lime and
sandstone, found among the earth kept in the boats, for the use of
snow-blind gunners, he proceeded to rub down the edge to something like
fitness for use.
After this he carefully tempered the blade, and with a penknife cut out
a handle, in which he inserted it, lashing the two firmly together with
twine made from one of the cod-lines. Long and patient labor with his
few pebbles, and the leather of his cowhide boots, brought the _waghon_
at length to a keen, smooth edge; and great was Peter's joy when he
again carried at his belt a tool so indispensable to the Indian hunter
and workman.
That day, the fourth of their drift, brought little change in their
position--the icebergs frozen together, were drifting, if at all, in one
vast body. Towards night a north-west wind sprang up, and the
thermometer, had the party possessed such an instrument, would probably
have registered at least -10°. A watch was kept all night to keep the
fire replenished, and all the appliances used to keep out the cold air,
and economize heat, scarcely kept the temperature up as high as +32°,
the freezing point of water.
Waring was kept carefully covered up, and professed to suffer nothing
from cold, having all the extra clothing of the party. It was luckily
the last cold snap of the season, and with the sunrise of the next day,
Sunday, the fifth day of their voyaging, the wind had given place to a
calm, although cold, clear, bracing atmosphere.
After the usual ablutions, which were never neglected by the party,
followed by breakfast, the ice being closely frozen together, a walk to
a high berg at the distance of a quarter of a mile was proposed, as it
was thought that the course of the ice should bring them in sight at
least, of the North Cape of St. Jean. This was generally acceded to by
all but Waring, who preferred to remain and keep up the fire.
Taking their weapons, an ice-axe, and a light coil of rope, the three
soon arrived, without misadventure, at the foot of an irregular mound of
ice, at least fifty feet in height.
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