When Jimmy went on deck the next morning, fog hung heavily about the
land and the slate-green sea ran with a sluggish heave out of belts of
vapor. The air felt unusually sharp and the furled mainsail glistened
with rime. This was disturbing, because they must finish their work, or
abandon it, before winter set in; but Jimmy reflected that it was some
weeks too soon for a severe cold snap. While he watched the smoke from
the stove funnel rise straight up in a faint blue line, he heard a
splash of oars and Bethune appeared in the dory.
"I took the water breaker off before you were up," he said as he came
alongside. "There was ice on the pool. It struck me as a warning that we
had better lose no time."
"That's obvious," returned Jimmy. "Hand me up the breaker. We'll get the
pumps rigged first thing."
Breakfast was hurried. The weather was favorable for work, and they
could not expect it to continue so. In an hour the sloop had been warped
close to the wreck and Jimmy put on the diving dress. He was surprised
to feel the half-instinctive repugnance from going down which he thought
he had got rid of; but this could not be allowed to influence him, and
he resolutely descended the ladder. In a few minutes he reached the
wreck, and found one bilge deeply embedded; but the opposite side was
lifted up, and a broad strip of planking had been torn away. Jimmy could
see some distance into the interior, and his lamp showed that the stream
had washed out part of the sand which had barred their way to the
bulkhead cutting off the strong-room. This had been strained by the
working of the wreck, and it seemed possible to wrench the beams loose.
He attacked the nearest with his shovel, using force when he found a
purchase, but the timber proved to be firmly mortised in. He lost count
of time as he struggled to prize it out, and did not stop until he grew
distressed from the pressure. His heart was beating hard and his breath
difficult to get, but the beam still defied him. Making his way out of
the hold, he stumbled forward toward the ladder; and when his comrades
removed his helmet on board the sloop, he sat still for a few moments to
recover. It was inexpressibly refreshing to breathe the keen, natural
air. At last he explained what he had found below, and added:
"My suggestion is that we bore out an opening for the saw; then we could
cut the stanchion through and prize the cross-timbers off."
"The trouble is that we haven't a big auger," Bethune objected. "You
often run up against a difficulty of the kind when you're using tools:
the thing you want the most is the one you haven't got."
"Mortise-chisel might do," said Moran. "How thick's the timber?"
"Three or four inches. By its toughness I imagine it's oak or
hackmatack."
"Then, there's a big job ahead," grumbled Bethune; "and my experience is
that as soon as you drive a chisel into old work you come upon a spike.
Unfortunately, we haven't a grindstone."
"Quit your pessimism and find the chisel!" snapped Moran. "I'm going
down."
They watched the bubbles that marked his progress rise to the surface in
a wavy line and then stop and break in a fixed patch. Rather sooner than
they expected the bubbles moved back; and Moran looked crestfallen when
they took off his diving dress.
"Did you cut out much stuff?" Bethune asked.
"No," said Moran, holding up the chisel; "this is what I did. Came
across a blamed big spike at the second cut."
Bethune giggled. Even Jimmy grinned. There was a deep notch in the edge
of the tool.
"Your philosophy isn't much good," Moran said grumpily. "It helps you to
prophesy troubles, but not to avoid them. We'll have to spend some time
in rubbing that nick out."
"I'll try the engineer's cold-chisel," Bethune replied. "With good luck,
I might cut the spike."
He took the tool and an ordinary carpenter's chisel down with him; and
the edge of the chisel was broken when he returned.
"I've cut the spike, and dug out about an inch of the wood," he
reported. "Why are you frowning, Jimmy?"
"It looks as if we may spend a week over that timber. These confounded
preliminaries sicken me!"
"They're common." Bethune launched off into his philosophy. "If you
undertake anything that's not quite usual, half your labor consists in
clearing the ground; when you get at the job itself, it often doesn't
amount to much."
"Chuck it!" Moran interrupted. "Jimmy, it's your turn."
Jimmy stayed below as long as he could stand it, hacking savagely with
broken chisels at the hard wood, and scraping out the fragments with
bruised fingers; then he came up and Moran took his place. It was trying
work, and grew no easier when, by persistent effort, they made an
opening for the saw. The tool had to be driven horizontally at an
awkward height from the sand, and the position tired their wrists and
arms. Still, the weather was propitious, which was seldom the case, and
they toiled on, until exhaustion stopped them when it was getting dark.
Then Moran sent Bethune ashore to look for stones with a cutting grit,
and they sat in the cabin patiently rubbing down the nicked tools, while
the deck above them grew white with frost.
It cost them two days to break the beam, and on the evening they
succeeded there was a sharp drop in the temperature.
Jimmy was cooking supper when Moran called him up on deck and pointed
seaward.
"See that?" he said. "Seems to me we've got notice to quit."
Searching the western horizon, where the sea cut in an indigo streak
against a dull red glow, Jimmy made out a faintly glimmering patch of
white. Taking up the glasses, he saw that it was low and ragged, and
fringed on its windward edge by leaping surf. This showed it was of some
depth in the water, and he recognized it as a floe of thick northern
ice.
"Yes," he answered gravely; "we'll have to hurry now."
They spent the next week attacking the bulkhead. Jimmy thought it would
have resisted them only that it had obviously been built in haste and
here and there the strengthening irons had wrenched away through the
working of the hull. They lost no time, but the work was heavy, and
tried them hard.
It was late in the afternoon, and blowing fresh enough to make diving
risky, when Jimmy prepared to go down for what he hoped would be the
last attempt; but stopping a few moments he looked anxiously about. Gray
fog streamed up from seaward in ragged wisps, and the long swell had
broken into short, white-topped combers, over which the sloop plunged
with spray-swept bows, straining hard at her cables as the flood tide
ran past.
"We might hold on for another hour," Bethune said hopefully; but
breaking off he pointed out to sea. "That settles it," he added. "If
it's any way possible, we must cut the bulkhead to-night."
A tall, glimmering shape crept out of the fog about a mile away. It was
irregular in outline, and looked like a detached crag, except that it
shone with a strange ghostly brightness against the leaden haze. It came
on, sliding smoothly forward with the tide, another mass which was
smaller and lower rocking in its wake; and then a third crept into sight
behind. The men gazed at them with anxious faces; then Jimmy held out
his hand for the helmet.
"They'll ground before they reach us, but the sooner I get to work the
better," he said.
A bent iron plate hung from a tottering beam when he crawled up to the
after end of the hold, and he savagely tried to wrench it out with a
bar. The effort taxed his strength, but when he felt that he could keep
it up no longer the timber yielded, and he fell forward into the gap. It
cost him some trouble to recover his balance, and while he crouched on
hands and knees, the disturbed water pulsed heavily into the dark hole.
Lifting his lamp, he saw that the floor was deep in sand; and out of the
sand two wooden boxes projected. He found that he could not drag them
clear, and it seemed impossible to remove them without some tackle, but
in groping about he came upon a bag. It was made of common canvas, and
had been heavily sealed, though part of the wax had broken away, but on
lifting it Jimmy found the material strong enough to hold its contents.
He sat still for a moment or two, his heart beating with exultant
excitement. The sand was much deeper at the other side of the small,
slanted room. He could not tell what lay beneath it; but he could see
two boxes, and he held a heavy bag. Gold was worth about twenty dollars
an ounce, and value to a large amount would go into a small compass. It
looked as if wealth were within his grasp.
The effects of the continued pressure made themselves felt, and Jimmy
hastily picked his way out of the hold. He had some trouble in getting
up the ladder, which swung to and fro, and when he reached the deck he
saw Moran busy forward, shortening cable. Bethune released him from his
canvas dress, and lifted the bag.
"You got in?" he cried.
"Yes; here's a bag of gold. I saw two boxes, and expect there are others
in the sand."
Bethune clenched his hand tight.
"And we can't hold on! It's devilish luck, I say! She has dragged the
kedge up to the stream anchor, and is putting her bows in. Still, I'm
going to make a try."
Glancing at the sea, Jimmy shook his head. The combers were getting
bigger with the rising tide and the sloop plunged into them viciously,
flooding her forward deck, and jarring her cable.
"No," he said. "I had trouble in reaching the ladder, and she might drag
to leeward before you could get back. The thing's too risky."
Moran, coming aft, felt the bag, and looked at the diving dress with
longing, but he supported Jimmy's decision.
"I surely don't want to light out, but we'll have to get sail on her."
Crouching in the spray that swept the bows, they laboriously hauled in
the chain with numbed and battered hands, and, leaving Bethune to hoist
the reefed mainsail, coiled the hard, soaked kedge warp in the cockpit.
Then they set the small storm-jib, and the _Cetacea_ drove away before
the sea for the sheltered bight.
"We'd have known how we stood in another hour," Bethune grumbled,
shifting his grasp on the wheel to ease his sore wrist.
They were too tensely strung up to talk much after supper, for the
weight of the bag was sufficient to indicate the value of its contents,
and they thought it better not to break the seals. Jimmy grew drowsy,
and he had lain down on a locker when Moran opened the scuttle-hatch.
"Now that it's too late to dive, the wind's dropping and coming off the
land," he said.
Jimmy went to sleep, and it was daybreak when he was wakened by an
unusual sound. It reminded him of breaking glass, though now and then
for a few moments it was more like the tearing of paper. He jumped up
and listened with growing curiosity. The noise was loudest at the bows,
but it seemed to rise from all along the boat's waterline. Moran was
sleeping soundly, but when Jimmy shook him he suddenly became wide
awake.
"What is it?" Jimmy asked quickly.
"Ice; splitting on her stem."
"Then it's too thin to worry about."
"That's the worst kind," Moran replied, slipping into his pilot coat.
"Get your slicker on; I'm going out."
There was not much to be seen when they reached the deck. Clammy fog
enveloped the boat, but Jimmy could see that the surface of the water
was covered by a glassy film. He knew that heavy ice is generally opaque
and white, but this was transparent, with rimy streaks on it that ran to
and fro in irregular patterns. As the tide drove it up the channel, it
splintered at the bows, throwing up sharp spears that rasped along the
waterline. Still, it did not seem capable of doing much damage, and
Jimmy was surprised at Moran's anxious look.
"Shove the boom across on the other quarter!" Moran said sharply.
Jimmy moved the heavy spar, the boat lifted one side an inch or two, and
Moran, lying on the deck, leaned down toward the water. Jimmy, dropping
down beside him, saw a rough, white line traced along the planking where
the water had lapped the hull. It looked as if it had been made by a
blunt saw.
"She won't stand much of this," Jimmy said gravely, running the end of
his finger along the shallow groove made by the sharp teeth of the
splitting ice.
"That's so. I've seen boats cut down in a tide. The trouble is, the
stream sets strong through the gut, except at the bottom of the ebb."
Jimmy nodded. This was his first experience of thin sheet-ice, but he
could understand the dangerous power it had when driven by a stream fast
enough to break it on the planking, so that its edge was continually
furnished with keen cutting points. He could imagine its scoring a
boulder that stood in its way; while, instead of changing with flood and
ebb, the tide flowed through the channel in the sands in the same
direction, as tidal currents sometimes do round an island.
Bethune came up and looked over the side. A glance was enough to show
him their danger.
"What's to be done?" he asked.
"I don't quite know," said Moran, with a puzzled air. "The ice gathers
along the beach, and the patches freeze together as the tide sweeps them
out. She'd lie safe where the stream is pretty dead, but there's no
place except this bight where we'd get shelter from wind and sea."
"It's plain that we can't stay here, and we'd better get off as soon as
possible," said Jimmy. "We can hang on to the wreck unless it blows, but
I want the breakers filled before we start."
"It will take us some time," Bethune objected. "I feel I'd rather get up
those boxes from the hold."
"So do I," Jimmy rejoined. "But I'm taking no chances when there's a
risk of our being blown off the land."
"The skipper's right," declared Moran. "We'll go off with the dory,
while he drops her down with the tide."
They helped to shorten cable, and, after breaking out the anchor, pulled
the dory toward the beach through the thin ice, while the sloop drifted
slowly out to sea. Jimmy was relieved to hear the unpleasant crackle
stop, and he leisurely set about making sail, for the wind was light. He
must have canvas enough to stand off and on until the others rejoined
him.
He found the waiting dreary when he reached open water, for he was
filled with keen impatience to get to work. The gold lay in sight in the
hold of the wreck, and an hour or two's labor was all that was required
to transfer it to the sloop. And it was obvious that this must be done
at once, because the drift ice was gathering in the offing, and an
on-shore breeze might suddenly spring up. They had nowhere to run for
shelter, now that the only safe haven was closed to them. Still, Jimmy
felt that he had done wisely in exercising self-control enough to send
for the water.
It was almost calm and very cold. Sky and water were a uniform dingy
gray, and the mist, which had grown thinner round the land, still
obscured the seaward horizon. Once Jimmy thought he made out an ominous
pale gleam in a belt of haze, but when it trailed away before a puff of
fitful breeze, he saw nothing. For two hours he sailed to and fro in
half-mile tacks, finding just wind enough to stem the tide; and then,
when his patience was almost exhausted, he felt a thrill of relief as he
heard the measured splash of oars. A few minutes later the dory came
alongside, and Bethune handed up the casks.
"We had to break the ice with a big stone, and I hardly thought we'd get
through," he said. "It froze up again while we carried the first load
down."
"It doesn't matter so much now," Jimmy replied. "If all goes well, we
should be away at sea by daybreak to-morrow."
While they stowed the breakers the wind dropped, and Jimmy, watching the
sails shake slackly, made a gesture of fierce impatience.
"The luck is dead against us! It looks as if we should never get at that
gold! There's a two-knot stream on her bow, and she'll drift to leeward
fast."
"Then we'll tow her!" Moran said stubbornly. "Get into the dory; you
haven't carried those breakers, and I'm not used up yet."
Though Jimmy had rested since the previous evening, he found the work
hard. He had suffered from his exertions under water during the past
week, and the tide ran against them, and the long heave threw a heavy
strain upon the line as the sloop lifted. The smaller craft was often
jerked back almost under her bowsprit, and it needed laborious rowing to
straighten out the sinking line. Still, they made progress, and at last
dropped anchor beside the wreck early in the afternoon.
"Now," said Moran, "I guess we'll go down unless you want your dinner
before you start. We haven't had breakfast yet."
Bethune laughed and looked at Jimmy.
"Could you eat anything?" he asked.
"Not a bite! I don't expect ever to feel hungry until we get those boxes
up. Lash the ladder while I couple the pipe to the pump!"
Bethune was the first to go down. When he came back after an unusually
long stay, he reported that he had been unable to extricate the nearest
box, though he had cleared the sand from it before he was forced to
ascend. Jimmy took his place, and worked savagely, dragging out the box
and moving it toward the bulkhead, but in the confined space, which was
further narrowed by some broken timbers, he could not lift it through
the opening. While he tried, with every muscle strained, a piece of
timber shifted in the sand beneath his feet; and Jimmy lost his balance
and fell forward, putting out his lamp.
He felt smaller and less buoyant when he got up, his breath was hard to
get, and he grew uncomfortably hot. Then it flashed upon him with a
shock of unnerving fear that his air-pipe was foul, and for a moment he
grappled sternly with his dismay. There was no time to lose, but he must
keep his head. Passing his hand over the canvas dress, which felt
ominously slack, he fumbled at the lamp. As he did so a wavering beam of
light shot out, shining uncertainly through the water; and he supposed
that in falling he must have broken the circuit by pressing the switch.
Lifting the lamp, he saw that the tube was bent sharply round a ragged
timber, and while his heart throbbed painfully and his breath grew
labored, he moved back and reached for it; but he found his hands
nerveless and his legs unsteady, and when he stooped to loose the line
his head reeled and he pitched forward across the timber, grasping the
line as he fell.