The statement was made so fervently that Helen Marr blushed and did not
answer as she followed the towering form of the Ice Pilot across the
quarter-deck and down into the cabin, which was warm from the steam
pipes which led from the boilers. The coffeepot was filled and placed
over an alcohol stove, and she added some biscuits and marmalade to the
meal.
Stirling had removed his cap, showing a slight sprinkle of gray in his
hair, but his eyes spoke of youth and were strong with resolve. She
raised her glance and smiled as she offered the coffee.
It came to her with force that he was no longer the aged, shaggy bear
who had crawled up the trapdoor in the deck of the cabin. Her influence
had been for good, and he reminded her of a faithful Viking who would
shed his last drop of blood for her protection. The revolutionists were
potentially dangerous, but she sensed with the intuition of woman that
they feared Stirling.
He rose from the table and stood with his head close to the deck beams.
"I'll go up now," he said, "and watch the ice. Your coffee was a fine
bracer."
She, too, rose and followed him to the step leading to the deck
companion. "Do you think the Russians will desert the ship?" she asked.
"They go to their death if they do. The land is impassable. It is five
hundred miles to the nearest Hudson Bay post. Franklin and others could
not cross that barren land. Nor can the revolutionists."
"But they are Russians and used to the cold."
Stirling shook his head and replaced his cap. "The ship is the only way
out," he said, sincerely. "We must stick by it!"
He was halfway up the steps when she called to him. He turned and
glanced down, his fingers on the combing of the hatch. His eyes widened
as she lifted her face to his and pouted slightly.
"There's one thing we've forgotten," she said.
"What is that?"
"About the man from San Francisco, the one you locked in the cabin.
Don't you think you should let him loose?"
Stirling caught the note of sympathy in her tones, but he shook his
head.
"He will behave," she added, quickly. "I'm sure that he will. He is
afraid of you."
Her eyes were wide and very blue.
"Please let him go," she asked. "I'm sure of him."
The Ice Pilot turned and strode across the cabin, brushed aside the
curtain, and passed into the alleyway. Voices sounded as Helen Marr
waited, then Slim appeared with one hand grasping the wrist of the
other.
He leered through the half light of the cabin, and glanced up at the
deck opening. "It's a fine way to----" he began, but Stirling silenced
him with a glance.
"Get on deck!" the Ice Pilot commanded. "Get up and forward! The
Russians won't kill you, they're too busy deciding whether to abandon
the ship or not. You'll find food in the galley. Go now!"
Slim paused at the top of the steps and glared down, then ducked his
unshaven face as Stirling moved toward the foot of the stairs and
started upward. There was that in Stirling's face which brooked no
excuses; his jaw was set with a fighting bulge at the point.
The deck was deserted, the wheel swung idle, and the _Pole Star_ rose
and fell with the ground swell which lifted the ice floes and packed
them upon the shelving beach.
Stirling crossed the planks, after shutting the cabin companion hatch,
and stood by the canvas rail, studying the excited knot of
revolutionists in the waist below him. The leader had mounted a hatch
and was speaking rapidly, pointing now and then to the menace of the ice
gathering to the north and west.
The land over the starboard rail held a certain lure to ignorant minds,
the green moss and lichens which showed being apparently a promise of
greener things to the southward. But Stirling knew that this inference
could not be made. The way to the American continent was ice strewn and
bare of animals; a trail of death and starvation.
The Russians moved in a flock to the rail and studied the ice about the
ship--already firm enough to support a man's weight. The low swinging
sun had not warmed the air enough to prevent the sea from freezing, and
floes and drift ice were being cemented in the laboratory of nature. The
ship alone was free, but encompassed by a ring of spongy ice and snow.
The sky overhead was pale; light flurries of ice particles dropped down
to the deck, while the Northern aurora played and shot streamers up to
the zenith. The sun plunged into a heavy haze which seemed to rim the
entire horizon, and the temperature fell. The barometer was steady at
twenty-nine, point six. Stirling played for a shift of wind which alone
would free the ship from the coming deadlock.
He waited, and watched the revolutionists. The dock rat emerged from the
galley door and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, stared at the
Russians and then toward the quarter-deck. He made no attempt to come
aft, and the evil that was stamped in his face held Stirling rigid.
The leader shouted something in Russian, and a hoarse cheer broke from
many throats. A decision had been reached in regard to abandoning the
_Pole Star_. Russians to the number of a score sprang forward, ripped
the battings from the fore hatch, and disappeared into the hold. Others
ransacked the galley for food and clothes.
A rude sled was devised from part of a whaleboat and rope-yarn
splicings. Upon this the leader climbed and pointed dramatically toward
the low-lying land, slapped the chart with the back of his hand, and
traced out an imaginary course. Stirling leaned far forward and watched
him, amusement, mingled with pity sweeping over his strong face. He
called, and then repeated the call. The leader lowered his chart and
turned.
"You're going to your doom!" declared Stirling. "Abandon this ship and
you are lost. There is no way to civilization by the land route!" He
pointed a mittened finger toward the island and the magnetic north.
The leader flushed and struck the chart with a sharp blow, sprang from
the sled, and hurried aft. Stirling met him with a cold smile. "I told
you," he said, "that there is no way. No way! Do you understand that?"
"There is a----"
Stirling thrust the leader from the quarter-deck, then turned and strode
to the companion. Pausing at the hatch, he glanced aloft. Ice had
appeared upon the cap of the mizzenmast, the rigging was coated with
frost, and the wind, from the north and east, held steadily. Its
velocity was not more than eight miles an hour, and it showed signs of
changing some time during the short Arctic night.
Stirling went below after sliding open the cabin hatch. Helen Marr stood
by a landward porthole, and she turned and smiled at Stirling, but the
smile died as she saw the sombre light in his eyes. "What happened?" she
asked.
"They're going to abandon the ship. It means their death."
"Can't you stop them?" The girl had begun to believe that Stirling was
strong enough to accomplish anything.
"It would be no use trying," he said, removing his cap and fingering it
with fingers which tingled. "Their minds are made up. The leader thinks
he can reach a Hudson Bay post. He does not know what I know----"
Stirling's voice trailed off into an expressive pause, as he thought of
the grim tales he had heard of Banks Land and the Gulf of Boothia. Many
trappers and explorers had laid their bones out on the Arctic wilds. The
land was barren, extending to the white ramparts of the Mackenzie River
on the south and west, and to the Hudson Bay on the east and north. It
was without vegetation or animal life for nine months of the year, and
the water courses were frozen over to the same dead level as the rest of
the world. Only the white fox and the skulking wolf were to be seen, and
these two animals were far too wary to be shot.
"They're lost if they leave the ship," said Stirling, waking from his
thoughts. "We'll stay here and winter, if necessary. The ice may crush
the _Pole Star_, but we can get enough provisions and fuel ashore to
last out. It might be possible to work to the west next summer in a
whaleboat. It all depends on the season. I never saw one so open as this
one was, but there may never be another like it, Miss Marr."
The girl turned toward the porthole, and the cold breeze which cut
through the opening brought colour to her cheeks and fanned her hair.
"Is there no chance of getting through to the open sea this summer?" she
asked, shivering slightly and drawing her deerskin jacket about her
slight waist.
"Yes, by Heaven; there is a chance!" Stirling's voice rose and filled
the cabin. "There's a fighting chance, Miss Marr!"
She turned and stared at him, and her lips formed the question. He laid
his cap on the table and opened his pea-jacket, breathing with giant
gulps of suppressed emotion. Suddenly the air had grown warm to him. "I
can get through," he said, "if within a few hours the wind shifts to the
south and west. That will clear Barrow Strait of ice. Once out of the
Strait, the way is open to Baffin Bay through the Lancaster Sound."
Helen Marr clapped her hands, then wheeled with swishing skirts and
stared out through the porthole. "The wind," she said, "is dying. Does
that indicate anything?"
"Everything!"
"Then the Russians will stay?"
"No; they are going. I want a few to remain with us. That dock rat will,
he's too lazy to try for the American continent. Perhaps there are
others who will listen to reason, but the time is short. Maybe through
the leader I can get the case stated to them, and ask for volunteers who
are willing to wait for the wind to shift."
Helen Marr glided to the piano and lifted a sealskin coat from its
stool. She thrust her arms into the sleeves of this as Stirling stepped
forward with wonder written across his features.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"Going to see all of them and talk to them. I'm going to make myself
understood in some way. Don't you see, Mr. Stirling, the matter is
serious? If they go, there will be nobody but you and me to work the
ship when the wind shifts. We couldn't do it alone."
"Well, it's worth trying," said Stirling. "I'll stand on the
quarter-deck at the weather steps, and you go down to them. Try Slim
first. The leader won't stay, but some of the younger Russians might."
The girl pressed a cap upon her head, gathered her hair into a knot, and
ran up the stairs which led to the deck. Stirling picked up a rifle
before he followed her. They stood in the frosty air and glanced
forward. The Russians had lowered the sled and provisions to an ice floe
which had grounded alongside the ship. More ice extended from the floe
to the shore, and three of the revolutionists had already made the
passage. They stood on the beach waving their arms.
The girl went down the quarter-deck steps and glided forward over the
main hatch. She touched Slim on the arm, and the dock rat followed her
forward to where the revolutionists were breaking out stores from the
hold.
Stirling watched and waited. The Russians took time to listen to the
girl's request, but most of them stared at each other dumbly. She
pointed to the telltale on the mizzenmast, her arm swinging in a
graceful circle and indicating that the wind would change. She finished
her argument by springing to the weather rail and showing where the ice
had cleared from the ship's side.
The magic of her voice and soft presence had its influence upon the
Russians, and they gathered and surged, and separated into groups.
Seven, after a shrewd glance toward the barren shore, moved with Slim to
the galley where the leader had stationed himself. These seven raised
their arms and turned toward Stirling.
"Come up!" shouted the Ice Pilot, gesturing to help make clear the
meaning of the words.
Fear had gripped the hearts of every Russian aboard the _Pole Star_; the
unknown sea and the frost which nipped to the bone had driven a panic
within their breasts. The leader had stated that it was possible to
reach a Hudson Bay fort before the setting in of winter, and had added
that the sea would soon be frozen and the ship crushed.
They believed this to be the case, and the seven which Helen Marr had
persuaded to remain were in danger from their fellows. Mutiny might
spread. The leader quickly shouted an order, and the boxes and cans were
hurled overboard to the ice floe, the Russians following in a long line.
They stood and glanced upward, their mouths agape, their whiskered faces
white with hoarfrost.
"Good-bye!" shouted Stirling, waving the rifle. "Good-bye to you all!"
The leader snarled an answer and set about getting the load onto the
sled where there was scant room for one half of the boxes and cans
thrown overside. The remainder was left as the troop started across the
floes and straggled to the beach. Here they turned and watched the ship
as if loath to give it up.
The girl climbed swiftly to the quarter-deck to Stirling's side.
"Seven stayed," she said, breathlessly. "Seven, and the man from San
Francisco. Didn't I do well?"
Stirling smiled down upon her and touched his cap. "Yes, little
captain," he said, gallantly. "You did fine! Tell Slim and four of the
squad--I guess you can make the Russians understand--to jump below and
get steam on in the boilers. Tell the men to bank the fires when they
get well started."
The girl touched her forehead with a regulation salute as she turned and
smiled upward from the waist of the ship, then advanced upon the dock
rat and the Russians by the galley door. The Russians understood her
gestures if not her words, and Slim frowned and scratched his matted
head, glancing from Russian to Russian. They had accepted him as their
leader without question, but their sheeplike eyes strayed aft and
fastened upon the grim figure of Stirling.
Four followed the sailor to the engine-room companion and went down the
iron ladder. Soon sounds of fires being freshened by new coal came
through the ventilators, and the ship surged and shook as if freeing
itself.
Stirling motioned for the three Russians who remained by the galley, and
they followed the girl to the waist of the ship. He leaned over the
quarter-deck canvas and stared at them.
The girl climbed the steps and stood by his side. He shielded her with
his body as they waited while the sun glided within the horizon haze. A
frosty nip came with its disappearance, and the lines about Stirling's
lips softened slightly. He turned from the girl and strode to the rail
on the landward side of the ship, where she joined him, and they watched
the Russians streaming in a long line over the snow-mantled island. The
leader turned on the brow of an icy hill and waved farewell; then he was
gone.
The wind died to a faint breeze which varied during the hours of
semi-darkness while Stirling and the girl stood the watch. Ice creaked
and splintered to the north and east; the aurora flamed and crimsoned
the heavens, with cold light points dying beneath its glow. The moon
rose with a double ring, revealing its position in the haze, and the
far-off North pack groaned and whispered its grim warning of danger.