"Land!" called out the captain. "Where away?"
"On the weather-beam," answered the man aloft, who still spoke in a
voice which sounded as if he had been greatly startled. "It's rising
rapidly every moment, sir, out of the water."
"The fellow must be blind!" exclaimed Captain Dinks. "There is no land
there in that direction, if I know it. He must be taking one of those
big icebergs for an island; that's about the matter. Hanged if I don't
go up and see for myself!"
Running down the poop ladder, the captain soon started up the shrouds on
the port side towards the maintop where the lookout man was stationed.
It was not Karl Ericksen this time, whose word he would have implicitly
taken, but Bill Moody, one of the worst of the crew, and who, it may be
remembered, had already evinced an unsailorlike spirit by his
insubordination on an occasion when the pluck and endurance of everyone
required to be tested. From this fact alone, Captain Dinks was the less
inclined to trust him.
The captain, however, found mounting the ratlines not so easy a task as
he might have imagined, for the rigging was all frozen hard and as
unbending as iron; but he persevered unflinchingly, and disdaining to
creep through the "lubber's hole," climbed over the top in the usual
sailor's way, although he puffed and panted a good deal when he got
there, which proved to him that the flesh he had gained on his plump
little person, since he had been a youngster and first shinned up the
rigging, had not improved his climbing powers.
"Now, where's this wonderful land of your's!" he asked, as soon as he
got alongside of Bill Moody, taking his glass out of his pocket and
adjusting the focus ready for action.
"There," answered the man surlily, pointing towards the north-east,
where a faint blue bank seemed to rise out of the ocean above and beyond
the ice-fields. It could be seen with the naked eye to be of a
different colour to even the most distant bergs, the distinction being
quite marked.
"By Jove, the man's right!" ejaculated Captain Dinks with surprise.
"I knew I were," said Bill Moody in a bragging sort of way. "I think I
can see a hole in a ladder as well as most people; and if that ain't
land, why, I'll eat it."
"There, that will do," interposed the captain to stop any further
remarks, while he proceeded to inspect the hazy object with keen
attention for some minutes, after which he replaced his glass in his
pocket and prepared to descend to the deck again.
"Keep a sharp look-out," he said to Moody as he disappeared over the
side of the top, "and sing out, as soon as we get any nearer, whether
you can see a line of breakers at the foot of the island; for island it
is, sure enough!"
"Aye, aye," grunted out the man; and Captain Dinks went down the rigging
even more carefully than he had ascended, finding great difficulty in
preventing his unaccustomed feet from slipping off the ratlines, which
were like rungs of the smoothest and most polished ice.
"You were right, and I was wrong," he said to Mr Meldrum, as soon as he
had regained the poop. "There is land in sight, sure enough, although I
can at present only see it faintly towards the north-east. It must be,
as you say, either the Crozet Islands or Kerguelen Land, for there's
nothing else between us and the Australian continent, as we haven't yet
got quite so far south as the Antarctic regions."
"It's probably Kerguelen Land," observed Mr Meldrum, "for you couldn't
see the Crozets nearly so far off; but I hope there's not going to be
another change of the weather. It seems clouding over again."
"Not before we get an observation, I trust," replied the captain; "I
don't like knocking about any longer without knowing where I am."
"Nor I, sorr," put in the first mate heartily. "Sure it's like goin' in
the dark to Bandon Fair, for all the worruld over."
"It's not what we like," interposed Mr Meldrum somewhat dryly. "We
have got to put up with what we can get."
"True for you, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, not to be beaten; "sure, but
isn't it best to make the best on it."
"That's incontestable," replied Mr Meldrum with a laugh; and there the
conversation ended, Kate and her father going below to breakfast.
The weather got thicker, with the wind coming in gusts and now and then
shifting a bit, so that the solitary mizzen-topsail of the _Nancy Bell_
had now again to be close reefed, and her course directed more towards
the land, which they did not seem to near so rapidly as they had thought
they would--owing probably to some current that was all the time
carrying them southwards while they were steering towards the east.
They were actuated, however, by no vulgar curiosity to inspect this
ocean land in thus seeking to approach it.
On an ordinary occasion they would most certainly have given it a pretty
wide berth; but now, should the sky cloud over so much as to prevent
their getting an observation of the sun by which to correct their
latitude and longitude, the identification of the land would at once
prove their position on the chart without further trouble. This was why
they wanted to near it.
After breakfast, when Mr Meldrum came on deck again, the wind had
freshened considerably, although still blowing from the north-west,
while the outlook was generally squally; but the sky above still kept
clear, with the sun shining down at intervals, when the scud, which was
beginning to fly about again, did not interpose to hide its beams. The
land, the while, was steadily rising to the northward and eastward.
"It's Kerguelen Land, sure enough," said Mr Meldrum, when, after
imitating Captain Dinks and paying a visit to the maintop to
reconnoitre, he returned to the poop. "I can see the outlying rocks
towards its north-west extremity called `The Cloudy Isles,' and away to
the east I noticed the snow-white peak of Mount Ross, which stands in
the centre of the island and is over six thousand feet high."
"Well, you've good eyesight to see that at the distance," observed
Captain Dinks in a chaffing way. "I wish my optics were as clear."
"I can see pretty well," replied the other; "and if you had had to look
out as sharply as I've had to do for pirate junks up the Gulf of
Tonquin, I fancy you would have had your eyesight improved!"
"All right, Mr Meldrum," said Captain Dinks frankly. "I'm sure I did
not doubt your word for a moment. I've never been so far south before,
and feel a little out in my reckoning. However, it will soon be time to
take the sun, and that will decide the point."
A few stray snowflakes came fluttering down on the deck just then, and
both he and Mr Meldrum looked aloft. No cloud was to be seen exactly
overhead, but a heavy bank of haze was creeping up from the south
towards the zenith that looked ominous.
"We shall have a repetition of yesterday again, I'm afraid," said Mr
Meldrum presently with much concern, after a long interval of silence
between the two.
"I'm afraid so," was Captain Dinks' reply; "but I hope it won't come for
another hour at least." He then hailed the steward down the companion-
way, telling him to bring up his sextant from the cabin.
Fortunately, it just kept clear enough for an observation to be taken;
and when Captain Dinks had worked it out, both he and Mr Meldrum acting
independently so as to test the accuracy of the reckoning, it was found
that the ship was in 48 degrees 50 minutes south latitude, and 68
degrees 40 minutes east longitude. Consequently, the land they were
approaching could be none other than Kerguelen Land.
"As we now know where we are," said Mr Meldrum, when the fact was
established, "we must give the island as wide a berth as we can, for the
coast is most dangerous; and in winter-time, as it is now, July being
the December of the antipodes, the most fearful storms are said to
spring up at a moment's notice in its vicinity. As the wind is still
from the north-west, and we are well up to the northward, I should try
to weather it if possible; and, if we can't do that, we must pass to the
south of the land."
"Very good," replied the captain. "Only, you know the poor old _Nancy_
cannot sail as well now, as she could when in full trim. I don't at all
like the look of the weather, though, Mr Meldrum. It seems to me that
ono of those coast storms you were speaking of is brewing up. The ice,
too, is getting thick round us again; and if a fog comes on again we'll
be in a worse position than yesterday, for then we'd plenty of sea-room
at any rate, while now, we have that blessed island almost dead to
leeward."
"We must trust in Providence," said Mr Meldrum, "and keep a sharp look-
out if the fog thickens; but try to beat to windward we must, if
possible!"
During the bright morning, the hands, working diligently under the
supervision and help of the first mate and Adams, the second, had been
trying to make the _Nancy Bell_ a little more shipshape, and, although
they had been greatly hampered through the ropes and running gear being
frozen so stiff that it was almost impossible to unbend or run them,
they succeeded finally in trussing the mainyard again and splicing the
braces, so that they now were able to set the mainsail reefed, a welcome
addition to the limited sailing power of the ship in working to
windward.
All things were proceeding very satisfactorily in the afternoon, by
which time they had got the land to bear well on the lee-beam, and it
looked as if they could weather it; when, suddenly, there came on a
thick snowstorm, mingled with showers of hail, and the same kind of mist
which had risen almost at a precisely similar hour on the previous day
again enveloped them in its folds, shutting out all view of the water at
even a short distance from the vessel's side.
The _Nancy Bell_ was then steering nor'-nor'-east and some ten miles off
the land, with the wind coming from the northward and westward in
squalls. Presently, it blew so fresh that the lately set mainsail had
to be taken in again, and next the mizzen, for the ship heeled over so
much that it was thought at one time she would not recover her
stability; but, even under the reefed fore staysail, which was still
retained to enable her to weather the land, she tore through the water
at such a rate, that, in spite of the continual watch, it was most
difficult to avoid the heavy masses of floating ice that seemed to
spring up on all sides again, and which she had appeared to have been
leaving behind her in the morning.
"Sure and it's a worse look-out than last night, sorr," said the first
mate to Mr Meldrum, who was peering out anxiously to windward, the gale
veering round just at the most critical time to the northward. "Faix,
and I don't think we can weather them islands now, with all this ice
about too."
"Nor do I," replied Mr Meldrum. "Captain Dinks, we'll have to run for
it. Do you think you can wear her?"
"If your rudder holds out," said the captain.
"I'll guarantee the rudder," answered Mr Meldrum. "The only thing is,
I fear the spars will go."
"We must risk those, my friend. It's a case of neck or nothing now.
Listen! Can you hear anything?" and the captain bent his ear to
leeward.
Yes, Mr Meldrum could hear something. They all could hear something
above the shrieking of the wind, and the roar of the waves, and the
crash of the cakes and bergs of ice tumbling against each other. It was
something that sounded like the death-knell of the _Nancy Bell_, and
made their faces blanch with fear. It was the noise of breakers,
distant yet, but still as plainly distinguishable as if quite near--
breakers breaking on a lee-shore, the most terrible sound of all sounds
to a sailor's ear!
"Stand by to wear ship!" shouted Captain Dinks, and he himself took hold
of the spokes of the wheel as he uttered the words, easing it round,
while the mate rushed forwards, calling the hands.
"Tumble up, men, tumble up!" cried Mr McCarthy; "don't stop for your
clothes. All hands wear ship."
Frank Harness and Mr Adams had already darted towards the braces; and,
the men soon joining them, the yards were braced round, the mizzen and
mainsail being again dropped and sheeted home to enable her to pay off
from the shore, which the vessel soon did on the other tack, although
the canvas made her bury her bows in the sea and almost heel over till
the mainyard dipped.
"Let her carry on, she'll bear it," said the captain. "We cannot do too
much to get away from those confounded breakers; I'd sooner hear
anything than them!"
"So would I," responded Mr Meldrum, still looking pale, for the _Nancy
Bell_ had had a narrow squeak of going to the bottom when wearing; "but
we are rushing into almost as terrible a danger as the lee-shore. If we
come in contact with one of these icebergs, going at the speed we now
do, the shock will sink us to a certainty."
"Well," said the captain, "of the two dangers that is the least. By
keeping a good look-out we may avoid the ice, which we could never do
with the lee-shore, save by getting away from it, as we are doing now.
By Jove, isn't she walking along--the beauty, crippled as she is--just
as if she knew the peril she was in!"
"Better not holler till yer out of the wood," observed Mr McCarthy; "as
for myself, I wish it was mornin' agin, sure!"
He'd no sooner uttered the words, however, than the look-out man forward
suddenly gave vent to a frightened exclamation, drawn from him by the
sight of something unexpected and terrible.
"Ice on the lee bow!" shouted he. "Port your helm hard!"
But the warning came too late.
Almost at the same instant as the cry reached the ears of those aft, the
_Nancy Bell_ struck full butt against a dark object that loomed up out
of the fog right ahead of the ship, and which had been unperceived a
moment before.
There was a grinding rending crash and sound of breaking timbers, the
vessel quivering from stem to stern; and then, the main and mizzen
masts, with all their yards and the sails which had so lately been
urging the ship on to her destruction toppled over the sides, whilst a
wave, washing back from the base of the iceberg and coming in over the
bows, swept the decks fore and aft.