Both Claude and the doctor were on a high hill-top next day to watch for
the coming of the sun. Nor were they disappointed. About noon the sun
duly put in an appearance, looking fiery-fierce and angry through a kind
of blue-grey haze that lay along the horizon.
The doctor was ready prepared to take sights, and did so coolly enough,
despite the sun's angry glare--coolly in more ways than one, for as he
could only work with bare hands, whenever his fingers came in contact
with the brass parts of his instruments they seemed to freeze thereto,
and the sensation was that of touching red-hot metal.
I do not know how it was, but after the sun had once more sunk, and
twilight had commenced to deepen into night, the scenery of the bleak
world around them--the rugged mountains, the rocks and cliffs that
looked like bergs of ice, the wide expanse of snow-clad sea, with their
vessel lying so cold and comfortless-looking--had a very saddening
effect both on Claude and the doctor.
"It is like going back into the grave," said Claude.
"Well," the doctor replied, "we must not forget that the sun will--rise
again to-morrow and stay a little longer with us, and so on, longer and
longer, until he rises not to set again."
"While we are here?"
"Yes, while we are here. I pray it may be so, for we ought to be out
into blue open water by the beginning of August, and homeward bound."
"Happy thought!" said Claude, after a pause; "I'll send off another
bird."
"I would certainly do so; and say in your message the sun has come, that
all is well and happy; give latitude and longitude exactly."
"Do you really think these birds ever reach home?"
"Now," said Dr Barrett, "that is a question that many would ask. Many
doubt the capabilities of flight or home instincts of sea-birds. I am
as firmly convinced that a seagull, which has been reared in captivity
from an egg procured from the parent nest and hatched under a duck or
fowl, can be made the best of carriers of messages over sea and land, as
I am that the sun we have just seen will rise again to-morrow."
"It is not that I altogether doubt it," said Claude; "but you know the
story I have confided to you about my love for Meta and my quarrel with
my mother--alas! that I should have to give it so harsh a name. Well,
although I do not doubt, I sometimes fear."
"I can fully appreciate your feelings, my dear sir," was the reply.
"Rough old sea-dog though I be, I, too, have had my little romance in
life. Yes, let the poor bird fly; it will reach in safety."
But it may be as well to say at once here that the good doctor was
rather sanguine, for of all the six sea-birds that had been, or would
be, let fly, only two reached Iceland safely. One of these had been
thrown up near Desolation Point; it was that bird which reached home.
"Ought I to communicate the safety of her son to the proud Lady Alwyn?"
had been Meta's thought on receiving the welcome intelligence. She
dreaded doing so; she feared to put harder feelings in the lady's heart
against poor Claude than she already possessed. "Besides," argued Meta,
"the _Kittywake_ will soon return and bring her the news that I do not
doubt she is pining to hear, if she only loves him half as much as I
do."
The other bird that made its haven in Iceland, though I ought not to
anticipate, was one of the last sent up. Of it I shall have more to say
anon.
As soon as the day was an hour long, with about an hour of twilight on
each side to back it up, Dr Barrett recommenced his explorations in
earnest.
The ground all round the inland sea was of adamant; nor pick nor spade
could dare on that. But to continue the mine begun the previous summer
was far more feasible, for the snow that had filled it had kept out the
frost.
Here, then, work was begun. It would keep the men at earnest exercise,
at all events, the doctor said, and prevent sickness.
The mine was soon so far advanced as to be a perfect shelter for the
workers, even daring the worst of weather.
When little morsels of nuggets of gold and silver came to be found the
excitement grew intense. Even the hands who did not strictly belong to
the surgeon's party prayed the captain to permit them to "have a dig,"
as they called it, in their spare moments.
And Claude did not refuse.
Rab McDonald, the third officer, was the first to make a lucky find. It
was a nugget of pure gold as big as his thumb, and that was by no means
a small one.
"Man! look!" he cried exultingly, showing it round to his fellows.
"I'll soon be as rich as Rothschild."
His face fell somewhat when the doctor quietly told him that all the
precious ore found belonged by rights to the company who had sent them
out.
A good many more faces fell also, but when Claude explained that he
would make such representations as would ensure a goodly percentage of
the gold or silver dug out being given to the finders, the enthusiasm
was restored, and all hands went to work with a will. For months the
gold fever raged among the _Icebear's_ crew, from February till nearly
the end of May, and even sports would have been forgotten in the
excitement; but about twice a week Claude ordered all hands to play, if
the weather was at all propitious. Then football was resumed, and
Paddy's wild game of tobogganing also, to say nothing of fishing.
Fishing? you may repeat, in some surprise. Yes, dear reader. It was
done so: a hole was made in the ice, and baited hooks were lowered
through. But Jack and Joe despised such cultivated plans of proceeding
to business, and, if the truth must be told, they were quite as
successful, if not more so, than the British sailors. The tackle these
Indians used and their method of using it were of the most primitive
description. Each had his own ice-hole, each had a short gut line with
a strong strangely shaped bone hook. This was lowered into the water,
and if fish even snapped at it--and many did, for the fish are hungry in
Greenland during winter--out they came, and they never got back.
The days got longer and longer now, and the weather got sensibly less
cold, till lo, and behold! about the middle of April the sun rose one
morning and announced his intention of not going to bed again for three
months and more to come. At all events, he did _not_ set that night.
He only made pretence he would. He went so low on the northern horizon
that our heroes fancied he meant disappearing altogether, then he began
slowly climbing round again.
Do not imagine, however, that it was all sunshine even now. Far from
it. There were terrible gales of wind now, and whirling, drifting snow
that seemed to rise as high as the highest mountain peaks.
Some of these hills were evidently extinct volcanoes, but how long ago
it might have been since fire and smoke belched from their lofty
summits, even Dr Barrett himself would hardly have dared to guess. But
working down in their mine one day, about the end of April, the men were
startled at hearing a hollow, rumbling sound apparently far down beneath
them; it was like the noise of waggon wheels rattling over a rough road,
only muffled.
The surgeon and Claude were both in the mine at the time.
"Don't be alarmed, men," said the former; "you may safely go on with
your work. It is the noise of steam you hear, or rather of water and
steam combined. That sound was sent to tell us summer is coming. It is
a way the earth has in Greenland."
"You have heard something similar before?" asked Claude.
"I have, only not in Greenland proper, but in caves among the hills in
Spitzbergen."
Now, giant cataracts began to tumble down from the cliffs of the
mountains, and roaring rivers and torrents appeared where rivers had not
been suspected before. Water overflowed the inland sea all around the
_Icebear_, making the snow slush, and rendering the passage to and from
the shore not only difficult but even dangerous.
And this state of things increased, the sky being meanwhile thickly
covered over with dark rolling cumulus, drifting onwards on the wings of
a southern breeze. But in a day or two the wind fell flat, the clouds
were lifted like a veil from east to west; in half an hour's time there
was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun shone down cold and clear.
Strange adjectives to use when speaking of the sun, but none other could
express my meaning, for this silver shield of a sun seemed shorn of its
rays; you could look at it without pain or inconvenience, just as,
raising my eyes, I now gaze upon the flame of the oil lamp by which I am
writing.
At eight bells next morning, everybody both fore and aft having
breakfasted once, and the boy Bounce twice at least, all hands were on
deck waiting orders for the day. Presently the captain and surgeon came
up, and took a turn or two up and down the quarter-deck, laughing and
talking.