It is not easy to conceive the state of alarm that prevailed in the
settlement of the Norsemen when it came to be known that little Snorro
and Olaf were lost. The terrible fact did not of course break on them
all at once.
For some hours after the two adventurers had left home, Dame Gudrid went
briskly about her household avocations, humming tunefully one of her
native Icelandic airs, and thinking, no doubt, of Snorro. Astrid,
assisted by Bertha, went about the dairy operations, gossiping of small
matters in a pleasant way, and, among other things, providing Snorro's
allowance of milk. Thora busied herself in the preparation of Snorro's
little bed; and Freydissa, whose stern nature was always softened by the
sight of the child, constructed, with elaborate care, a little coat for
Snorro's body. Thus Snorro's interests were being tenderly cared for
until the gradual descent of the sun induced the remark, that "Olaf must
surely have taken a longer walk than usual that day."
"I must go and meet them," said Gudrid, becoming for the first time
uneasy.
"Let me go with you," said Bertha.
"Come, child," returned Gudrid.
In passing the spot where the little bear had been cut up and skinned,
they saw Hake standing with Biarne.
"Did you say that Olaf took the track of the woodcutters?" asked Gudrid.
"Ay, that was their road at starting," answered Biarne. "Are they not
later than usual?"
"A little. We go to meet them."
"Tell Olaf that I have kept the bear's claws for him," said Biarne.
The two women proceeded a considerable distance along the woodcutters'
track, chatting, as they went, on various subjects, but, not meeting the
children, they became alarmed and walked on in silence.
Suddenly Gudrid stopped.
"Bertha," said she, "let us not waste time. If the dear children have
strayed a little out of the right road, it is of the utmost importance
to send men to search and shout for them before it begins to darken.
Come, we will return."
Being more alarmed than she liked to confess, even to herself, Gudrid at
once walked rapidly homewards, and, on approaching the huts, quickened
her pace to a run.
"Quick, Swend, Hake, Biarne!" she cried; "the children must have lost
their way--haste you to search for them before the sun goes down. Shout
as ye go. It will be ill to find them after dark, and if they have to
spend the night in the woods, I fear me they will--"
"Don't fear anything, Gudrid," said Biarne kindly. "We will make all
haste, and doubtless shall find them rambling in the thickets near at
hand.--Go, Hake, find Karlsefin, and tell him that I will begin the
search at once with Swend, while he gets together a few men."
Cheered by Biarne's hearty manner, Gudrid was a little comforted, and
returned to the house to complete her preparation of Snorro's supper,
while Hake gave the alarm to Karlsefin, who, accompanied by Leif and a
body of men, at once went off to scour the woods in every direction.
Of course they searched in vain, for their attention was at first
directed to the woods near home, in which it was naturally enough
supposed that Olaf might have lost his way in returning. Not finding
them there, Karlsefin became thoroughly alive to the extreme urgency of
the case, and the necessity for a thorough and extended plan of search.
"Come hither, Hake," said he. "This may be a longer business than we
thought for. Run back to the huts, call out all the men except the
home-guards. Let them come prepared for a night in the woods, each man
with a torch, and one meal in his pouch at least--"
"Besides portions for the twenty men already out," suggested Hake.
"Right, right, lad, and tell them to meet me at the Pine Ridge.--Away!
If ever thy legs rivalled the wind, let them do so now."
Hake sprang off at a pace which appeared satisfactory even to the
anxious father.
In half an hour Karlsefin was joined at the Pine Ridge by all the
available strength of the colony, and there he organised and despatched
parties in all directions, appointing the localities they were to
traverse, the limits of their search, and the time and place for the
next rendezvous. This last was to be on the identical ridge whence poor
Olaf had taken his departure into the unknown land. Karlsefin knew well
that it was his favourite haunt, and intended to search carefully up to
it, never dreaming that the boy would go beyond it after the strict
injunctions he had received not to do so, and the promises he had made.
"I'm not so sure as you seem to be that Olaf has not gone beyond the
ridge," observed Leif to Karlsefin, after the men had left them.
"Why not?" asked the latter. "He is a most trustworthy boy."
"I know it--who should know it so well as his own father?" returned
Leif; "but he is very young. I have known him give way to temptation
once or twice before now. He may have done it again."
"I trust not," said Karlsefin; "but come, let us make direct for the
ridge, while the others continue the search; we can soon ascertain
whether he has wandered beyond it. I know his favourite tree.
Doubtless his footsteps will guide us."
Already it had begun to grow dark, so that when they reached the ridge
it was necessary to kindle the torches before anything could be
ascertained.
"Here are the footsteps," cried Karlsefin, after a brief search.
Leif, who was searching in another direction, hurried towards his
friend, torch in hand.
"See, there is Olaf's footprint on that soft ground," said Karlsefin,
moving slowly along, with the torch held low, "but there is no sign of
Snorro's little feet. Olaf always carried him--yet--ah! here they are
on this patch of sand, look. They had halted here--probably to rest;
perhaps to change Snorro's position. I've lost them again--no! here
they are, but only Olaf's. He must have lifted the child again, no
doubt."
"Look here," cried Leif, who had again strayed a little from his friend.
"Are not these footsteps descending the ridge?"
Karlsefin hastily examined them.
"They are," he cried, "and then they go down towards the wood--ay,
_into_ it. Without doubt Olaf has broken his promise; but let us make
sure."
A careful investigation convinced both parents that the children had
entered that part of the forest, and that therefore all search in any
other direction was useless. Karlsefin immediately re-ascended the
ridge, and, putting both hands to his mouth, gave the peculiar halloo
which had been agreed upon as the signal that some of the searchers had
either found the children or fallen upon their tracks.
"You'll have to give them another shout," said Leif.
Karlsefin did so, and immediately after a faint and very distant halloo
came back in reply.
"That's Biarne," observed Karlsefin, as they stood listening intently.
"Hist! there is another."
A third and fourth halloo followed quickly, showing that the signal had
been heard by all; and in a very short time the searchers came hurrying
to the rendezvous, one after another.
"Have you found them?" was of course the first eager question of each,
followed by a falling of the countenance when the reply "No" was given.
But there was a rising of hope again when it was pointed out that they
must certainly be in some part of the tract of dense woodland just in
front of them. There were some there, however--and these were the most
experienced woodsmen--who shook their heads mentally when they gazed at
the vast wilderness, which, in the deepening gloom, looked intensely
black, and the depths of which they knew must be as dark as Erebus at
that hour. Still, no one expressed desponding feelings, but each spoke
cheerfully and agreed at once to the proposed arrangement of continuing
the search all night by torchlight.
When the plan of search had been arranged, and another rendezvous fixed,
the various parties went out and searched the live-long night in every
copse and dell, in every bush and brake, and on every ridge and knoll
that seemed the least likely to have been selected by the lost little
ones as a place of shelter. But the forest was wide. A party of ten
times their number would have found it absolutely impossible to avoid
passing many a dell and copse and height and hollow unawares. Thus it
came to pass that although they were once or twice pretty near the cave
where the children were sleeping, they did not find it. Moreover, the
ground in places was very hard, so that, although they more than once
discovered faint tracks, they invariably lost them again in a few
minutes. They shouted lustily, too, as they went along, but to two such
sleepers as Olaf and Snorro in their exhausted condition, their wildest
shouts were but as the whisperings of a sick mosquito.
Gradually the searchers wandered farther and farther away from the spot,
until they were out of sight and hearing.
We say sight and hearing, because, though the children were capable of
neither at that time, there was in that wood an individual who was
particularly sharp in regard to both. This was a scout of a party of
natives who chanced to be travelling in that neighbourhood at the time.
The man--who had a reddish-brown body partially clad in a deer-skin,
glittering black eyes, and very stiff wiry black hair, besides
uncommonly strong and long white teeth, in excellent order--chanced to
have taken up his quarters for the night under a tree on the top of a
knoll. When, in the course of his slumbers, he became aware of the fact
that a body of men were going about the woods with flaring torches and
shouting like maniacs, he awoke, _not_ with a start, or any such
ridiculous exclamation as "Ho!" "Ha!" or "Hist!" but with the mild
operation of opening his saucer-like eyes until they were at their
widest. No evil resulting from this cautious course of action, he
ventured to raise his head an inch off the ground--which was his rather
extensive pillow--then another inch and another, until he found himself
resting on his elbow and craning his neck over a low bush. Being almost
black, and quite noiseless, he might have been mistaken for a
slowly-moving shadow.
Gradually he gained his knees, then his feet, and then, peering into
space, he observed Biarne and Krake, with several others, ascending the
knoll.
For the shadow to sink again to its knees, slope to its elbows, recline
on its face, and glide into the heart of a thick bush and disappear, did
not seem at all difficult or unnatural. At any rate that is what it
did, and there it remained observing all that passed.
"Ho! hallo! Olaf! Snorro! hi-i-i!" shouted Biarne on reaching the
summit of the knoll.
"Hooroo!" yelled Krake, in a tone that must have induced the shadow to
take him for a half-brother.
"Nothing here," said Biarne, holding up the torch and peering round in
all directions.
"Nothing whatever," responded Krake.
He little knew at the time that the shadow was displaying his teeth, and
loosening in its sheath a long knife or dagger made of bone, which, from
the spot where he lay, he could have launched with unerring certainty
into the heart of any of those who stood before him. It is well for man
that he sometimes does not know what _might_ be!
After a brief inspection of the knoll, and another shout or two, they
descended again into the brake and pushed on. The shadow rose and
followed until he reached a height whence he could see that the
torch-bearers had wandered far away to the westward. As the friends and
relatives for whom he acted the part of scout were encamped away to the
eastward, he returned to his tree and continued his nap till daybreak,
when he arose and shook himself, yawned and scratched his head.
Evidently he pondered the occurrences of the night, and felt convinced
that if so many strange men went about looking for something with so
much care and anxiety, it must undoubtedly, be something that was worth
looking for. Acting on this idea he began to look.
Now, it must be well-known to most people that savages are rather smart
fellows at making observations on things in general and drawing
conclusions therefrom. The shouts led him to believe that lost human
beings were being sought for. Daylight enabled him to see little feet
which darkness had concealed from the Norsemen, whence he concluded that
children were being sought for. Following out his clue, with that
singular power of following a trail for which savages are noted, he came
to the cave, and peered through the bushes with his great eyes, pounced
upon the sleepers, and had his pug nose converted into a Roman--all as
related in the last chapter.
Sometime after sunrise the various searching parties assembled at the
place of rendezvous--fagged, dispirited, and hungry.
"Come," said Karlsefin, who would not permit his feelings to influence
his conduct, "we must not allow ourselves to despond at little more than
the beginning of our search. We will breakfast here, lads, and then
return to the ridge where we first saw their footsteps. Daylight will
enable us to track them more easily. Thank God the weather is warm, and
I daresay if they kept well under cover of the trees, the dear children
may have got no harm from exposure. They have not been fasting _very_
long, so--let us to work."
Leif and Biarne both fell in with Karlsefin's humour, and cheered the
spirits of the men by their tone and example, so that when the hurried
meal was finished they felt much refreshed, and ready to begin the work
of another day.
It was past noon before they returned to the ridge and began the renewed
search. Daylight now enabled them to trace the little footsteps with
more certainty, and towards the afternoon they came to the cave where
the children had slept.
"Here have they spent the night," said Leif, with breathless interest,
as he and Karlsefin examined every corner of the place.
"But they are gone," returned the other, "and it behoves us to waste no
time. Go, Biarne, let the men spread out--stay!--Is not this the foot
of a man who wears a shoe somewhat different from ours?"
"'Tis a savage," said Biarne, in a tone of great anxiety.
Karlsefin made no reply, and the party being now concentrated, they
followed eagerly on, finding the prints of the feet quite plain in many
places.
"Unquestionably they have been captured by a savage," said Leif.
"Ay, and he must have taken Snorro on his shoulder, and made poor Olaf
walk alongside," observed Biarne.
Following the trail with the perseverance and certainty of blood-hounds,
they at last came to the deserted encampment on the banks of the
rivulet. That it had been forsaken only a short time before was
apparent from the circumstance of the embers of the fires still smoking.
They examined the place closely and found the little foot-marks of the
children, which were quite distinguishable from those of the native
children by the difference in the form of the shoes. Soon they came to
marks on the bank of the stream which indicated unmistakeably that
canoes had been launched there. And now, for the first time, the
countenances of Leif and Karlsefin fell.
"You think there is no hope?" asked the latter.
"I won't say that," replied Leif; "but we know not what course they have
taken, and we cannot follow them on foot."
"True," observed Karlsefin, in bitter despondency.
"The case is not so bad," observed Heika, stepping forward at this
point. "You know we have a number of canoes captured from the savages;
some of us have become somewhat expert in the management of these. Let
a few of us go back and fetch them hither on our shoulders, with
provisions for a long journey, and we shall soon be in a position to
give chase. They cannot have gone far yet, and we shall be sure to
overtake them, for what we lack in experience shall be more than made up
by the strength of our arms and wills."
"Thou art a good counsellor, Heika," said Karlsefin, with a sad smile;
"I will follow that advice. Go thou and Hake back to the huts as fast
as may be, and order the home-guard to make all needful preparation.
Some of us will follow in thy steps more leisurely, and others will
remain here to rest until you return with the canoes."
Thus directed the brothers turned their powers of speed to good account,
so that, when some of their comrades returned foot-sore and jaded for
want of rest, they not only found that everything was ready for a start,
but that a good meal had been prepared for them.
While these remained in the settlement to rest and protect it, the
home-guards were ordered to get ready for immediate service. Before
night had closed in, the brothers, with torches in their hands, headed a
party of fresh men carrying three canoes and provisions on their
shoulders. They reached the encampment again in the early morning, and
by daybreak all was ready for a start. Karlsefin, Thorward, and Heika
acted as steersmen; Krake, Tyrker, and Hake filled the important posts
of bowmen. Besides these there were six men in each canoe, so that the
entire party numbered twenty-four strong men, fully armed with bow and
arrow, sword and shield, and provisioned for a lengthened voyage.
"Farewell, friends," said Karlsefin to those who stood on the banks of
the little stream. "It may be that we shall never return from this
enterprise. You may rest assured that we will either rescue the
children or perish in the attempt. Leif and Biarne have agreed to
remain in charge of the settlement. They are good men and true, and
well able to guide and advise you. Tell Gudrid that my last thoughts
shall be of her--if I do not return. But I do not anticipate failure,
for the God of the Christians is with us.--Farewell."
"Farewell," responded the Norsemen on the bank, waving their hands as
the canoes shot out into the stream.
In a few minutes they reached the great river, and, turning upstream,
were soon lost to view in the depths of the wide wilderness.