FACING THE POLAR NIGHT.
After steaming for several hours the next day, the Great Barrier
opened into a small bight with shelving shores, which seemed to
promise an easy landing place. A boat party, including the professor
and the boys, was organized and the pull to the shore begun, after the
two ships had swung to anchor.
The beach was a shelving one, formed of what seemed broken-off
portions of volcanic rock. A short distance back from the shore there
were several rocky plateaus, clear of snow, which seemed to offer a
good site for pitching camp. From the height, too, the boys could see,
at no great distance, stretched out on the snow, several dark forms
that looked not unlike garden slugs at that distance.
"What are they?" asked Billy.
"Seals," replied the professor; "though of what variety I do not know,
and it is impossible to tell at this distance."
Captain Barrington and Captain Hazzard, after viewing the landing
place and its surroundings, decided that a better spot could hardly be
found, and the men were set to work at once marking out a site for the
portable hut, which was to form the main eating and dwelling place,
and the smaller structure in which the officers of the expedition were
to make their homes.
The work of setting up the main hut, which had double walls, the space
between being filled with cork dust and felt, was soon accomplished,
and it was then divided off into small rooms. In the center a big
table was set up and at one end a huge stove was placed for heating
and cooking. At the other end the acetylene gas-plant, for providing
light during the antarctic night, was provided. A big porch provided
means of entrance and egress. This porch was fitted with double doors
to prevent any cold air or snow being driven into the house when it
was opened.
Captain Barrington and Captain Hazzard each had a small hut, another
was shared by Doctor Gregg and the first officer, while the boys and
the professor occupied still another. The engineer and Ben Stubbs were
placed in charge of the main hut, in which the twelve men who were to
be left behind after the Brutus sailed north, were to find quarters.
When everything had been fixed in position, a task that took more than
a week, the work of unloading the provisions and supplies was begun.
The cases which did not hold perishable goods, or ones likely to be
affected by cold, were piled about the walls of the main hut as an
additional protection against snow and cold. The glass jars of fruit
and others of the supplies were stored inside the main hut, where they
could be kept from freezing. The various scientific instruments of the
expedition were stored in the huts occupied by Captain Barrington and
Captain Hazzard. These huts, as well as the one occupied by the boys
and Professor Sandburr, were all warmed by a system of hot-air pipes
leading from the main stove in the hut. Specially designed oil heaters
were also provided. A short distance away the aeroplane shed or
"hanger" was set up.
The coal, wood, oil and fuel the expedition would need in its long
sojourn were stored in a canvas and wood shelter some distance from
the main camp, so as to avoid any danger of fire. When all was
completed and big steel stays passed above the roofs of the huts to
keep them in position, even in the wildest gale, a tall flag-pole,
brought for the purpose, was set up and the Stars and Stripes hoisted.
While all these preparations had been going on, the boys and the
professor had made several hunting trips over the ice and snow in the
neighborhood of the camp. Some little distance back from the barrier
they had been delighted to find two small lakes, connected by a narrow
neck of water, which they promptly christened Green Lake. The water in
these was warmish, and the professor said he had little doubt it was
fed by volcanic springs.
The lakes swarmed with seals, and the boys' first seal hunt was an
experience they were not likely to forget. Armed with light rifles,
they and the professor set out for the seal grounds one morning on
which the thermometer recorded seven degrees below zero. All wore
their antarctic suits, however, and none felt the cold, severe as it
was.
As they neared the seal grounds the soft-eyed creatures raised their
heads and regarded them with mild astonishment. A few of them dived
into the waters of Green Lake, but the rest stood their ground.
"There is one with a young one," shouted the professor, suddenly. "I
must have it. I will tame it."
He dashed upon the mother seal, who promptly raised herself up and
struck the professor a violent blow with her fin.
The professor was caught off his guard and, losing his footing,
staggered back several steps. As he did so Frank cried a note of
warning. The steep icy bank above Green Lake was below the scientist's
heel. Before he had time to heed the boys' warning cry the professor,
with a yell of amazement, slid backwards into the green pool, from
which he emerged, blowing and puffing as if he had been a seal.
Luckily, the water was warm and he suffered no serious consequences,
but thereafter he was much more careful.
The boys could not bring themselves to kill the seals that seemed so
gentle and helpless, but some of the men acted as butchers later on,
for seal meat is a valuable ration in the antarctic.
"Wait till you lads encounter a leopard seal, or a sea elephant," said
Captain Hazzard, when the boys confided their scruples to him.
"Sea leopards!" exclaimed Frank.
"Sea elephants!" echoed Harry.
"Yes, certainly," laughed the captain. "The creatures are well named,
too. The sea leopard is as formidable as his namesake on land. The sea
elephant is his big brother in size and ferocity."
"I shall give them a wide berth," said the professor. "That killer
whale was enough for me."
"You will be wise, too," was the rejoinder, and the captain turned to
busy himself with his books and papers, for this conversation occurred
about noon in his hut.
The next day there were good-byes to be said. The polar winter was
near at hand, when the sea for miles beyond the barrier would freeze
solid and it would have been foolhardy for the Brutus, which had
discharged all her coal but that necessary to steam north with, to
have remained longer. She sailed early in the morning, bearing with
her letters to their friends in the north, which the boys could not
help thinking might be the last they would ever write them. Unknown
perils and adventures lay before them. How they would emerge from them
they did not know.
All experienced a feeling of sadness as the ship that had gallantly
towed them into their polar berth lessened on the horizon, and then
vanished altogether in the direction of the north. The Southern Cross
alone remained now, but she was no longer their floating home, most of
her stores and comforts having been removed to the shore. Her boilers
were emptied and piping disconnected in preparation for her sojourn in
the ice.
With so much to be done, however, the adventurers could not long feel
melancholy, even though they knew their letters from home would not
reach them till the arrival of the relief ship late in the next
autumn.
The first duty tackled by Captain Hazzard was to call all the members
of the expedition into the main hut and give them a little talk on the
dangers, difficulties and responsibilities that lay before them. The
men cheered him to the echo when he had finished, and each set about
the duties assigned to him. Ben Stubbs was ordered to set the watches
for the nights and adjust any minor details that might occur to him.
"I want to speak to you boys for a minute," said Captain Hazzard, as
he left the hut and returned to his own.
Wondering what he could have to say to them the boys followed him.
"As you boys know, we are not alone in our anxiety to reach the pole,"
he began. "There is another nation anxious to achieve the glory also.
How much of our plans they have gained possession of, I do not know.
No doubt, not as much as they would have in their possession if the
Jap had not been captured. I am pretty confident that they know
nothing of the treasure ship, for instance. But it is probable that
they will watch us, as they have some suspicion that we are after more
than the pole itself, and have an ulterior object."
"Then you think that the Japanese expedition has landed?" asked Frank.
"They must have, if they made any sort of time," replied Captain
Hazzard. "Our own progress down the coast was very slow, and they have
probably established a camp already."
"Where?"
"That, of course, I have no means of knowing," was the reply. "I
suppose that they are somewhere to the west of us, however. What I
wanted to impress on you, however, is that some time ago a big
dirigible was purchased abroad, and it is believed that it was for the
use of the Japanese polar expedition, as it had means provided
specially to warm the gas and prevent its condensation in extremely
cold climates."
The boys nodded, but did not interrupt.
"It would be an easy matter for them to scout in such a ship and maybe
discover our camp," said the captain. "For that reason I want to ask
you boys to set an extra night watch of your own. Nobody else need
know anything about it. I feel that I can rely on you more than any of
the other subordinates of the expedition, excepting Ben Stubbs, and he
is too busy to do everything."
The boys willingly agreed to keep out a watch for any airship that
might appear, although privately they thought it was a bit of extra
caution that was unnecessary.
"I don't see why any one who could keep out of the cold at night,
would want to go scooting around in an airship in the dark for," said
Billy, when they were all seated in their own hut.
"Captain Hazzard knows best," said Frank, shortly. "You and Harry had
better take the first watch tonight, and I and--"
He stopped, puzzled. Who was to take the other watch with him? After
some reflection they decided on asking the captain if a colored man,
who acted as cook, couldn't be placed on to be Frank's companion. He
was the only person they could think of whose duties would permit him
to take the job, as his duties were only to cook for the officers, and
were consequently light.
Moreover, he was a trustworthy man and not likely to gossip if he saw
anything strange. Captain Hazzard readily gave his consent to the
colored man, whose name was Rastus Redwing, being Frank's companion on
the night watch.
"We can have our breakfast cooked by the other man," he said, "and
then all Rastus will have to do will be to prepare lunch and dinner
and extra pay."
But Rastus, when the plan was broached to him, was by no means so
willing.
"Wha' me tramp, tramp, tramp roun' in dat dar ice and snow all de
night time?" he gasped. "Laws a me Massa Frank, wha' kin' of man yo
all tink dese yar darky am?"
"It only means a few hours' more work, and you get double pay for it,"
said Frank.
"Oh-ho, dat alters de circumference ob de question," said Rastus,
scratching his head, when this had been explained to him. "All right,
Massa Frank, yo' count on me at twelve to-night fo' sho."
"Very well," said Frank. "I shall--and see that you are there."
"Ah'll be dar, don' you nebbe fear fo' dat," chuckled the colored man.
"Huh-huh double pay and no brakfus' ter git. Dat's what I calls
LIVIN'--yas, sah."
As Frank, well pleased at having adjusted the business of the night
watches so easily, was striding over the snow-powdered rocks toward
the boys' hut, he heard a sudden disturbance behind the main hut and
loud cries of:
"Help! help!"
The person who was uttering them seemed to be in great distress and
was apparently in dire need of aid.
"It's the professor," shouted Frank, as the cries were repeated.
"Whatever can have happened to him now."
As he spoke, the professor came dashing toward the camp, his arms were
outstretched as if in entreaty, and his long legs going up and down
like piston rods, at such speed was he running.
"Whatever is that caught to his coat tails?" exclaimed Frank, as he
saw that a large, heavy creature of some kind was clinging fast to the
flying professor's garment.