THE CHAPEL BELL.--THE FIRST SEAL.--THE NORTH CAPE.--A SNOW-SQUALL.
The way was rough, and not without its dangers, for more than once
Peter, who led the file, sprang just in time to save himself, as the
treacherous crust above some yawning chasm between two heavy "Pans"
crumbled under his feet; and once he fell headlong, clutching at a
friendly spur, just in time to escape tumbling among a lot of jagged and
flinty shards of young "crushed ice."
The wind was light at times, coming in puffs and squalls; and although
the day was bright, a mist here, snowy white, there crimson with
sunbeams, again darkening into purplish blue, and elsewhere of a heavy
and leaden obscurity, hung over the greater part of the sky, and made it
a doubtful task to prognosticate, with any degree of certainty, the
state of the weather for even an hour in advance.
As they proceeded, a strangely solemn, though faint and distant, sound
broke the oppressive silence. The three halted and listened intently.
Again, low as the moan of the dying surges on a distant bar, the sound
came thrilling over the icy sea to the southward, and each face flushed
with a new hope of speedy release from their wild prison-house.
"Hark!" said Orloff, raising his hand. "I hear the sound of a church
bell. We must be near the land."
"It must be from the tower of the Tignish Chapel, then," said La Salle,
"for no other land save the North Cape lies in our course."
Again a blast came whistling among the defiles, and again a calm
succeeded. All listened in breathless silence, and again the wished-for
sound which spoke of the proximity of human society and Christian
worship, came pealing across the desolate wastes, deserted of everything
having life, and impressing the fancy of the beholder as does the
desolation of long-forgotten cities, or the shattered marbles of the
unremembered dead.
"I know that place. That bell Tignish Chapel. Two year ago I camp on
Tignish Lun. Make basket, catch trout, shoot flover. Go hevery Sunday to
mass,--that same place,--take squaw, papoose, boy, girl, all folks. Know
that bell, sure. To-day Sunday, and folks going into chapel."
"He must be right," said La Salle, "but we are now near the berg, and
from its top we shall see if we are indeed near the North Cape. Make
haste, Peter; perhaps we may get near enough to-day to make our way to
the shore."
A broad, level floe was all that intervened between the party and the
berg which they sought. Running across it; although with some little
difficulty, for the ice was covered with slush concealed by a crust
insufficient to bear the weight of a man, they soon reached the berg. It
was evidently of Arctic origin, for it was much larger than any of the
many "pinnacles" in sight. It was composed of ice, which, wherever the
snow had failed to lodge, appeared hard, transparent, and prismatic in
the rays of the sun. Its sides were steep and precipitous, and at first
the members of the party began to fear that they should be unable to
mount the steep escarpment of eight or ten feet high, which formed its
base, which was further defended by a moat of mingled sludge and rounded
fragments, cemented by young ice.
Had the opposite bank been attainable, any of the party would have
readily leaped across, trusting to their speed to save themselves from
immersion among the rolling fragments; but no one cared to risk the
treacherous footing beneath that inaccessible wall.
"I'm afraid we shall have to go back to our own lookout, and trust to a
shift of the ice," said La Salle. "Can you think of any way of climbing
that pinnacle, Peter?"
"No way do that, unless cut a way into that hice, and then no safe
place to stan' on, sartain, this time," answered the Indian.
"Let me have that rope," said Regnar, quietly.
Taking the light Manilla painter, he proceeded to form a large loop, and
grasping it near the running knot, laid half a dozen turns across his
hand. Then swinging the coil around his head, he launched the rope at a
group of jagged points, which projected just above the edge of the
lowest part of the cliff. Again and again the noose came back unreeved,
and again and again the patient boy, with rare strength and skill, flung
the ample noose over the slippery spires of ice. At last, however,
success rewarded his efforts, and a strong pull, with the united weight
of all three, failed to start the closely-drawn bowline. Taking the axe
and bearing the most of his weight on the cord, Regnar crossed the
bending surface and shifting fragments, and finding a precarious footing
on the berg, wound the rope around his left arm, and with the right cut
steps into the brittle ice-wall.
In a few moments he ascended the cliff, and the others, leaving their
guns behind them, found little difficulty in following him. Leaving the
rope still fast, the three ascended the berg, which rose high above the
surrounding ice. Their first look was to the southward. For a moment the
distance and the ever-present snow deceived them; but the sun came from
behind a cloud, and they saw, afar off, the red sandstone face of the
snow-covered cliffs of the North Cape.
"They are now about twelve miles distant, and, as I judge, there can be
but little open water between us and the shore. Let us hasten back and
get the boat ready, for if this wind only holds, and no snow or rain
comes on, we shall soon be able to reach the shore."
At that moment something fell with a splash into a small, partially open
pool, on the farther side of the berg, and all saw a huge form disappear
under the surface. Each started, felt mechanically for his weapons, and
in brief monosyllables of Esquimaux, Micmac, and English, ejaculated the
name of the animal whose presence none had even suspected.
"_Ussuk!_" whispered Regnar.
"_Nashquan_," murmured Peter.
"A seal," said La Salle.
Orloff slid down the berg, caught the firmly fastened cord, swung
himself over the ice-foot, skipped lightly over the yielding fragments,
seized his gun, and returned in almost less time than it takes to
describe his movements. The seal, a huge male, had come to the surface
among the floating fragments at the farther side of the pool, some fifty
yards away, and now lay with his round head, protruding eyes, and stiff
bristles, strikingly expressing anger, fear, and curiosity--the last
predominating. Regnar threw his gun to his shoulder.
"What size shot have you?" said La Salle, laying his hand on his
shoulder.
"Two buckshot cartridge,--heavy enough for him. If he were old 'hood'
now! Look! I show you something."
The lad took deliberate aim, and then, with the full force of his
capacious lungs, gave a sharp, shrill whistle, which almost deafened his
companions, and was re-echoed from the icy walls on the farther side of
the pool, in piercing reverberations.
Surprised and affrighted by the unusual sound, the huge ussuk rose half
his length above the water, and looked around him. The icy cliffs echoed
the crashing volley, as both barrels poured forth their deadly hail
almost in unison, and the huge animal settled down amid incarnadined
waters and ice crimsoned with his life-blood, shot to death through the
brain so skilfully that scarce a struggle or a tremor bore witness that
the principle of life had departed.
Descending the berg, a small fragment of ice capable of bearing a man
was found, and Regnar, taking the end of his line, stepped upon it, and
with his gunstock paddled off to the dead seal, and affixing the line to
one of its flippers, pulled himself ashore, and joined the others in
towing the game to the berg. Landing it on a little shelf, La Salle and
Peter began to speculate as to how the huge carcass, which must have
weighed five hundred pounds, could be hauled over the berg, and safely
landed. Regnar laughed at the idea.
"We want not the meat--only the skin, blubber, and liver. Why not skin
here? Save much work for nothin'. Here, Peter, give me knife."
Peter drew the long blade from his belt, and Regnar making a single
incision from chin to tail, the body seemed fairly to roll out of the
thick, soft blubber coat which adhered to the skin. In less than two
minutes Regnar had finished what La Salle had no doubt would take at
least a good half hour. With equal deftness the liver was extracted, and
a few pounds of meat taken from the flanks.
Fastening the whole to the line, it was drawn to the top of the berg,
and thence down the slope to the rude stairs. As the weight was nearly
half that of a man, Regnar merely placed the bight of the rope around
the object on which it had caught. Its shape excited curiosity, and a
few strokes of the axe cleared off its covering of ice.
"This ice from Greenland," said Regnar. "Here is the stone the Inuit
uses for pots--what you call soapstone."
"Well, I hope we shall not need it," said La Salle, "for the North Cape
is now only ten miles away, and it is not yet noon. I want the blubber
for fuel, or I would not waste time with this skin even."
"We shall have all we want to get back to George. See how the clouds
close in. Plenty snow right away now. Come, Peter, get across quick."
La Salle groaned in spirit, as, from the berg which he had reascended,
he saw the distant red ledges shut out from view, and marked the first
scattering flakes fall silently through the now calm atmosphere. Looking
down, he saw that Peter and Regnar had got safely across the chasm, and
almost despairing of the fate of his party, he followed down the rude
steps, and across the treacherous bridge.
Letting the line slacken a little, Regnar gave a deft whirl, which cast
off the bight from the rock, and the party, dragging behind them their
prize, retraced their path amid what soon became a blinding snow-squall.
Luckily their track had been through deep snow, and therefore not easily
covered up; for when they reached their own island of refuge, they could
see scarce a rod in any direction.
Regnar dragged his prize to the little enclosure, and, pointing to the
snow-flake, said,--
"Soon they grow larger, softer, then turn to rain. Then this skin and
our boat must cover us, for the snow-water will spoil our house."
At that moment a flaw from the westward bore on its wings a repetition
of the sounds they had heard in the morning, but nearer and more
distinct than before. Heavily, measured, and mournfully, came the tones
of the great bell, as the storm-vapors shut down closer, and the west
wind blew fiercer across the icebound sea.
"They toll for the dead," said Regnar.