ice-wall had been flung upon the wandering island, the volume below the
water being five times that of the projecting part, it had come under
the influence of the submarine currents, and, opening a way for itself
between the broken ice-masses, it had fallen bodily upon Victoria
Island, which, driven along by this mighty propelling force, was
drifting rapidly to the south.
Mac-Nab and his companions, aroused by the noise of the avalanche
dashing down upon the dog-house, stable, and principal house, had been
able to escape in time, but now the work of destruction was complete.
Not a trace remained of the buildings in which they had slept, and
the island was bearing all its inhabitants with it to the unfathomable
depths of the ocean! Perhaps, however, Mrs Barnett, Madge, Kalumah, and
the astronomer, were still living! Dead or alive they must be dug out.
At this thought Hobson recovered his composure and shouted—
“Get shovels and pickaxes! The house is strong! it may have held
together! Let us set to work!”
There were plenty of tools and pickaxes, but it was really impossible
to approach the enceinte. The masses of ice were rolling down from the
summits of the icebergs, and some parts of the ice-wall still towered
amongst the ruins two hundred feet above the island. The force with
which the tossing masses, which seemed to be surging all along the
northern horizon, were overthrown can be imagined; the whole coast
between the former Cape Bathurst and Cape Esquimaux was not only hemmed
in, but literally invaded by these moving mountains, which, impelled by
a force they could not resist, had already advanced more than a quarter
of a mile inland.
Every moment the trembling of the ground and a loud report gave notice
that another of these masses had rolled over, and there was a danger
that the island would sink beneath the weight thrown upon it. A very
apparent lowering of the level had taken place all along that part of
the coast near Cape Bathurst, it was evidently gradually sinking down,
and the sea had already encroached nearly as far as the lagoon.
The situation of the colonists was truly terrible, unable as they were
to attempt to save their companions, and driven from the enceinte by the
crashing avalanches, over which they had no power whatever. They could
only wait, a prey to the most awful forebodings.
Day dawned at last, and how fearful a scene was presented by the
districts around Cape Bathurst! The horizon was shut in on every side by
ice-masses, but their advance appeared to be checked for the moment at
least. The ruins of the ice-wall were at rest, and it was only now and
then that a few blocks rolled down from the still tottering crests of
the remaining icebergs. But the whole mass—a great part of its volume
being sunk beneath the surface of the sea—was in the grasp of a
powerful current, and was driving the island along with it to the south,
that is to say, to the ocean, in the depths of which they would alike be
engulfed.
Those who were thus borne along upon the island were not fully conscious
of the peril in which they stood. They had their comrades to save, and
amongst them the brave woman who had so won all their hearts, and for
whom they would gladly have laid down their lives. The time for action
had come, they could again approach the palisades, and there was not a
moment to lose, as the poor creatures had already been buried beneath
the avalanche for six hours.
We have already said that Cape Bathurst no longer existed. Struck by a
huge iceberg it had fallen bodily upon the factory, breaking the boat
and crushing the dog-house and stable with the poor creatures in them.
The principal house next disappeared beneath the masses of earth and
sand, upon which rolled blocks of ice to a height of fifty or sixty
feet. The court of the fort was filled up, of the palisade not a post
was to be seen, and it was from beneath this accumulation of earth,
sand, and ice, that the victims were to be dug out.
Before beginning to work Hobson called the head carpenter to him, and
asked if he thought the house could bear the weight of the avalanche.
“I think so, sir,” replied Mac-Nab; “in fact, I may almost say
I am sure of it. You remember how we strengthened it, it has been
‘casemated,’ and the vertical beams between the ceilings and floors
must have offered great resistance; moreover, the layer of earth and
sand with which the roof was first covered must have broken the shock of
the fall of the blocks of ice from the icebergs.” “God grant you may
be right, Mac-Nab,” replied Hobson, “and that we may be spared the
great grief of losing our friends!”
The Lieutenant then sent for Mrs Joliffe, and asked her if plenty of
provisions had been left in the house.
“Oh, yes,” replied Mrs Joliffe, “there was plenty to eat in the
pantry and kitchen.”
“And any water?”
“Yes, water and rum too.”
“All right, then,” said Hobson, “they will not be starved—but
how about air?”
To this question Mac-Nab could make no reply, and if, as he hoped, the
house had not given way, the want of air would be the chief danger of
the four victims. By prompt measures, however, they might yet be saved,
and the first thing to be done was to open a communication with the
outer air.
All set to work zealously, men and women alike seizing shovels and
pickaxes. The masses of ice, sand, and earth, were vigorously attacked
at the risk of provoking fresh downfalls; but the proceedings were ably
directed by Mac-Nab.
It appeared to him best to begin at the top of the accumulated masses,
so as to roll down loose blocks on the side of the lagoon. The smaller
pieces were easily dealt with, with pick and crowbar, but the large
blocks had to be broken up. Some of great size were melted with the aid
of a large fire of resinous wood, and every means was tried to destroy
or get rid of the ice in the shortest possible time.
But so great was the accumulation, that although all worked without
pause, except when they snatched a little food, there was no sensible
diminution in its amount when the sun disappeared below the horizon. It
was not, however, really of quite so great a height as before, and it
was determined to go on working from above through the night, and when
there was no longer any danger of fresh falls Mac-Nab hoped to be able
to sink a vertical shaft in the compact mass, so as to admit the outer
air to the house as soon as possible.
All night long the party worked at the excavation, attacking the masses
with iron and heat, as the one or the other seemed more likely to be
effective. The men wielded the pickaxe whilst the women kept up the
fires; but all were animated by one purpose—the saving of the lives of
Mrs Barnett, Madge, Kalumah, and the astronomer.
When morning dawned the poor creatures had been buried for thirty hours
in air necessarily very impure under so thick a cover.
The progress made in the night had been so great that Mac-Nab prepared
to sink his shaft, which he meant to go straight down to the top of the
house; and which, according to his calculation, would not have to be
more than fifty feet deep. It would be easy enough to sink this
shaft through the twenty feet of ice; but great difficulty would
be experienced when the earth and sand were reached, as, being very
brittle, they would of course constantly fill in the shaft, and its
sides would therefore have to be lined. Long pieces of wood were
prepared for this purpose, and the boring proceeded. Only three
men could work at it together, and the soldiers relieved each other
constantly, so that the excavation seemed likely to proceed rapidly.
As might be supposed the poor fellows alternated between hope and fear
when some obstacle delayed them. When a sudden fall undid their work
they felt discouraged, and nothing but Mac-Nab’s steady voice could
have rallied them. As the men toiled in turn at their weary task the
women stood watching them from the foot of a hill, saying little, but
often praying silently. They had now nothing to do but to prepare the
food, which the men devoured in their short intervals of repose.
The boring proceeded without any very great difficulty, but the ice was
so hard that the progress was but slow. At the end of the second day
Mac-Nab had nearly reached the layer of earth and sand, and could not
hope to get to the top of the house before the end of the next day.
Night fell, but the work was continued by the light of torches. A
“snow-house” was hastily dug out in one of the hummocks on the shore
as a temporary shelter for the women and the little boy. The wind had
veered to the south-west, and a cold rain began to fall, accompanied
with occasional squalls; but neither the Lieutenant nor his men dreamt
of leaving off work.
Now began the worst part of the task. It was really impossible to bore
in the shifting masses of sand and earth, and it became necessary to
prop up the sides of the shaft with wood, the loose earth being drawn
to the surface in a bucket hung on a rope. Of course under the
circumstances the work could not proceed rapidly, falls might occur at
any moment, and the miners were in danger of being buried in their turn.
Mac-Nab was generally the one to remain at the bottom of the narrow
shaft, directing the excavation, and frequently sounding with a long
pick, but as it met with no resistance, it was evident that it did not
reach the roof of the house.
When the morning once more dawned, only ten feet had been excavated in
the mass of earth and sand, so that twenty remained to be bored through
before the roof of the house could be reached, that is to say, if it had
not given way, and still occupied the position it did before the fall of
the avalanche.
It was now fifty-four hours since Mrs Barnett and her companions were
buried!
Mac-Nab and the Lieutenant often wondered if they on their side had made
any effort to open a communication with the outer air. They felt sure
that with her usual courage, Mrs Barnett would have tried to find some
way out if her movements were free. Some tools had been left in the
house, and Kellet, one of the carpenter’s men, remembered leaving his
pickaxe in the kitchen. The prisoners might have broken open one of the
doors and begun to pierce a gallery across the layer of earth. But such
a gallery could only be driven in a horizontal direction, and would be
a much longer business than the sinking of a shaft from above, for
the masses flung down by the avalanche, although only sixty feet deep,
covered a space more than five hundred feet in diameter. Of course the
prisoners could not be aware of this fact, and if they should succeed in
boring their horizontal gallery, it would be eight days at least before
they could cut through the last layer of ice, and by that time they
would be totally deprived of air, if not of food.
Nevertheless the Lieutenant carefully went over every portion of
the accumulation himself, and listened intently for any sounds of
subterranean digging, but he heard nothing.
On the return of day the men toiled with fresh energy, bucket after
bucket was drawn to the surface of the shaft loaded with earth. The
clumsy wooden props answered admirably in keeping the earth from filling
in the pit, a few falls occurred, but they were rapidly checked, and no
fresh misfortunes occurred throughout the day, except that the soldier
Garry received a blow on the head from a falling block of ice. The wound
was not however severe, and he would not leave his work.
At four o’clock the shaft was fifty feet deep altogether, having been
sunk through twenty feet of ice and thirty of sand and earth.
It was at this depth that Mac-Nab had expected to reach the roof of the
house, if it had resisted the pressure of the avalanche.
He was then at the bottom of the shaft, and his disappointment and
dismay can be imagined when, on driving his pickaxe into the ground as
far as it would go, it met with no resistance whatever.
Sabine was with him, and for a few moments he remained with his arms
crossed, silently looking at his companion.
“No roof then?” inquired the hunter.
“Nothing whatever,” replied the carpenter, “but let us work on,
the roof has bent of course, but the floor of the loft cannot have given
way. Another ten feet and we shall come to that floor, or else”——
Mac-Nab did not finish his sentence, and the two resumed their work with
the strength of despair.
At six o’clock in the evening, another ten or twelve feet had been dug
out.
Mac-Nab sounded again, nothing yet, his pick still sunk in the shifting
earth, and flinging it from him, he buried his face in his hands and
muttered—
“Poor things, poor things!” He then climbed to the opening of the
shaft by means of the wood-work.
The Lieutenant and the Sergeant were together in greater anxiety than
ever, and taking them aside, the carpenter told them of his dreadful
disappointment.
“Then,” observed Hobson, “the house must have been crushed by the
avalanche, and the poor people in it”——
“No!” cried the head-carpenter with earnest conviction, “no, it
cannot have been crushed, it must have resisted, strengthened as it was.
It cannot—it cannot have been crushed!”
“Well, then, what has happened?” said the Lieutenant in a broken
voice, his eyes filling with tears.
“Simply this,” replied Mac-Nab, “the house itself has remained
intact, but the ground on which it was built must have sunk. The house
has gone through the crust of ice which forms the foundation of the
island. It has not been crushed, but engulfed, and the poor creatures in
it”——
“Are drowned!” cried Long.
“Yes, Sergeant, drowned without a moment’s notice—drowned like
passengers on a foundered vessel!”
For some minutes the three men remained silent. Mac-Nab’s idea was
probably correct. Nothing was more likely than that the ice forming the
foundation of the island had given way under such enormous pressure. The
vertical props which supported the beams of the ceiling, and rested on
those of the floor, had evidently aided the catastrophe by their weight,
and the whole house had been engulfed.
“Well, Mac-Nab,” said Hobson at last, “if we cannot find them
alive”——
“We must recover their bodies,” added the head carpenter.
“And with these words Mac-Nab, accompanied by the Lieutenant, went
back to his work at the bottom of the shaft without a word to any of his
comrades of the terrible form his anxiety had now assumed.
The excavation continued throughout the night, the men relieving each
other every hour, and Hobson and Mac-Nab watched them at work without a
moment’s rest.
At three o’clock in the morning Kellet’s pickaxe struck against
something hard, which gave out a ringing sound. The head carpenter felt
it almost before he heard it.
“We have reached them!” cried the soldier, “they are saved.”
“Hold your tongue, and go on working,” replied the Lieutenant in a
choked voice.
It was now seventy-six hours since the avalanche fell upon the house!
Kellet and his companion Pond resumed their work. The shaft must have
nearly reached the level of the sea, and Mac-Nab therefore felt that all
hope was gone.
In less than twenty minutes the hard body which Kellet had struck
was uncovered, and proved to be one of the rafters of the roof. The
carpenter flung himself to the bottom of the shaft, and seizing a
pickaxe sent the laths of the roof flying on every side. In a few
moments a large aperture was made, and a figure appeared at it which it
was difficult to recognise in the darkness.
It was Kalumah!
“Help! help!” she murmured feebly.
Hobson let himself down through the opening, and found himself up to the
waist in ice-cold water. Strange to say, the roof had not given way, but
as Mac-Nab had supposed, the house had sunk, and was full of water. The
water did not, however, yet fill the loft, and was not more than a foot
above the floor. There was still a faint hope!
The Lieutenant, feeling his way in the darkness, came across a
motionless body, and dragging it to the opening he consigned it to Pond
and Kellet. It was Thomas Black.
Madge, also senseless, was next found; and she and the astronomer were
drawn up to the surface of the ground with ropes, where the open air
gradually restored them to consciousness.
Mrs Barnett was still missing, but Kalumah led Hobson to the very end of
the loft, and there he found the unhappy lady motionless and insensible,
with her head scarcely out of the water.
The Lieutenant lifted her in his arms and carried her to the opening,
and a few moments later he had reached the outer air with his burden,
followed by Mac-Nab with Kalumah.
Every one gathered round Mrs Barnett in silent anxiety, and poor
Kalumah, exhausted as she was, flung herself across her friend’s body.
Mrs Barnett still breathed, her heart still beat feebly, and revived by
the pure fresh air she at last opened her eyes.
A cry of joy burst from every lip, a cry of gratitude to Heaven for the
great mercy vouchsafed, which was doubtless heard above.
Day was now breaking in the east, the sun was rising above the horizon,
lighting up the ocean with its brilliant beams, and Mrs Barnett
painfully staggered to her feet. Looking round her from the summit of
the new mountain formed by the avalanche, which overlooked the whole
island, she murmured in a changed and hollow voice——
“The sea! the sea!”
Yes, the ocean now encircled the wandering island, the sea was open at
last, and a true sea-horizon shut in the view from east to west.