THE DEVIL'S THUMB.
During the commander's absence the men had been variously busied in
attempts to relieve the ship from the pressure of the ice. Pen,
Clifton, Bolton, Gripper, and Simpson had this in charge; the fireman
and the two engineers came to the aid of their comrades, for, as soon
as the engines did not require their attention, they became sailors,
and as such could be employed in all that was going on aboard the
ship.
But there was a great deal of discontent among them.
"I declare I've had enough," said Pen; "and if we are not free in
three days, I swear I sha'n't stir a finger to get the ship out."
"Not stir a finger!" answered Plover; "you'd better use them in
getting back. Do you think we want to stay here till next year?"
"It certainly would be a hard winter," said Pen, "for we are exposed
on all sides."
"And who knows," said Brunton, "whether next spring the sea will be
any freer than it is now?"
"Never mind about next spring," answered Pen; "to-day is Thursday; if
the way is not clear Sunday morning, we shall turn back to the south."
"Good!" cried Clifton.
"Don't you agree with me?" asked Pen.
"We do," cried his companions.
"That's so," said Warren; "for if we have to work in this way and haul
the ship along with our own arms, I think it would be as well to haul
her backwards."
"We shall do that on Sunday," said Wolston.
"Only give me the order," resumed Brunton, "and my fires shall be
lighted."
"Well," remarked Clifton, "we shall light them ourselves."
"If any officer," said Pen, "is anxious to spend the winter here, he
can; we can leave him here contentedly; he'll find it easy to build a
hut like the Esquimaux."
"Not at all, Pen," retorted Brunton, quickly; "we sha'n't abandon any
one here; do you understand that, all of you? I think it won't be hard
to persuade the commander; he seems to me to be very much discouraged,
and if we propose it to him gently--"
"But," interrupted Plover, "Richard Shandon is often very obstinate;
we shall have to sound him cautiously."
"When I think," said Bolton, with a sigh of longing, "that in a month
we might be back in Liverpool! We can easily pass the line of ice at
the south! Davis Strait will be open by the beginning of June, and
then we shall have nothing but the free Atlantic before us."
"Besides," said the cautious Clifton, "if we take the commander back
with us, and act under his commands, we shall have earned our pay; but
if we go back without him, it's not so sure."
"True," said Plover; "Clifton talks sense. Let's try not to get into
any trouble with the Admiralty, that's safer, and don't let us leave
any one behind."
"But if they refuse to come with us?" continued Pen, who wished to
compel his companions to stand by him.
They found it hard to answer the question thus squarely put them.
"We shall see about that when the time comes," replied Bolton; "it
will be enough to bring Richard Shandon over to our side, and I fancy
that won't be hard."
"There's one I shall leave here," exclaimed Pen with fierce oaths,
"even if he should bite my arm off."
"O, the dog!" said Plover.
"Yes, that dog! I shall soon settle accounts with him."
"So much the better," retorted Clifton, returning to his favorite
theory; "he is the cause of all our troubles."
"He has thrown an evil spell upon us," said Plover.
"He led us into the ice," remarked Gripper.
"He brought more ice in our way," said Wolston, "than was ever seen at
this season."
"He made my eyes sore," said Brunton.
"He shut off the gin and brandy," cried Pen.
"He's the cause of everything," they all exclaimed excitedly.
"And then," added Clifton, "he's the captain."
"Well, you unlucky Captain," cried Pen, whose unreasonable fury grew
with the sound of his own words, "you wanted to come here, and here
you shall stay!"
"But how shall we get hold of him?" said Plover.
"Well, now is a good time," answered Clifton. "The commander is away;
the second mate is asleep in his cabin; the fog is so thick that
Johnson can't see us--"
"But the dog?" said Pen.
"He's asleep in the coal," answered Clifton, "and if any one wants--"
"I'll see to it," replied Pen, angrily.
"Take care, Pen; his teeth would go through a bar of iron."
"If he stirs, I'll rip him open," answered Pen, drawing his knife.
And he ran down between decks, followed by Warren, who was anxious to
help him.
Soon they both returned, carrying the dog in their arms; his mouth and
paws were securely tied; they had caught him asleep, and the poor dog
could not escape them.
"Hurrah for Pen!" cried Plover.
"And what are you going to do with him now?" asked Clifton.
"Drown him, and if he ever comes back--" answered Pen with a smile of
satisfaction.
Two hundred feet from the vessel there was a hole in the ice, a sort
of circular crevasse, made by the seals with their teeth, and always
dug out from the inside to the outside; it was there that the seals
used to come to breathe on the surface of the ice; but they were
compelled to take care to prevent the aperture from closing, for the
shape of their jaws did not permit them to make the hole from the
outside, and in any danger they would not be able to escape from their
enemies.
Pen and Warren hastened to this crevasse, and then, in spite of his
obstinate struggles, the dog was pitilessly cast into the sea; a huge
cake of ice they then rolled over the aperture, closing all means of
escape for the poor dog, thus locked in a watery prison.
[Illustration]
"A pleasant journey, Captain!" cried the brutal sailor.
Soon they returned on board; Johnson had seen nothing of it all; the
fog was growing thick about the ship, and the snow was beginning to
fall with violence.
An hour later, Richard Shandon, the doctor, and Garry regained the
_Forward_.
Shandon had observed in the northeast a passage, which he determined
to try. He gave his orders to that effect; the crew obeyed with a
certain activity; they wanted to convince Shandon of the impossibility
of a farther advance, and besides, they had before them three days of
obedience.
During a part of the following night and day the sawing and towing
went on busily; the _Forward_ made about two miles of progress. On the
18th they were in sight of land, five or six cable-lengths from a
strange peak, to which its singular shape had given the name of the
Devil's Thumb.
[Illustration]
At this very place the _Prince Albert_, in 1851, the _Advance_, with
Kane, in 1853, had been caught in the ice for many weeks.
The odd shape of the Devil's Thumb, the barren and desolate
surroundings, which consisted of huge icebergs often more than three
hundred feet high, the cracking of the ice, repeated indefinitely by
the echo, made the position of the _Forward_ a very gloomy one.
Shandon saw that it was necessary to get away from there; within
twenty-four hours, he calculated he would be able to get two miles
from the spot. But that was not enough. Shandon felt himself
embarrassed by fear, and the false position in which he was placed
benumbed his energy; to obey his instructions in order to advance, he
had brought his ship into a dangerous position; the towing wore out
his men; more than three hours were necessary to cut a canal twenty
feet in length through ice which was generally four or five feet
thick; the health of the crew gave signs of failing. Shandon was
astonished at the silence of the men, and their unaccustomed
obedience; but he feared it was only the calm that foreboded a storm.
We can, then, easily judge of the painful surprise, disappointment,
and even despair which seized upon him, when he noticed that by means
of an imperceptible movement in the ice, the _Forward_ lost in the
night of the 18th all that had been gained by such toilsome efforts;
on Saturday morning he was opposite the Devil's Thumb, in a still more
critical position; the icebergs increased in number and passed by in
the mist like phantoms.
Shandon was thoroughly demoralized; it must be said that fear seized
both this bold man and all his crew. Shandon had heard of the
disappearance of the dog; but he did not dare to punish the guilty
persons; he feared exciting a mutiny.
The weather during that day was horrible; the snow, caught up in dense
whirls, covered the brig with an impenetrable veil; at times, under
the influence of the hurricane, the fog would rise, and their
terror-stricken eyes beheld the Devil's Thumb rising on the shore like
a spectre.
The _Forward_ was anchored to a large piece of ice; there was nothing
to be done, nothing to be tried; darkness was spreading about them,
and the man at the helm could not see James Wall, who was on watch
forward.
Shandon withdrew to his cabin, a prey to perpetual disquiet; the
doctor was arranging his notes of the expedition; some of the crew
were on the deck, others in the common room.
At a moment when the violence of the storm was redoubling, the Devil's
Thumb seemed to rise immoderately from the mist.
"Great God!" exclaimed Simpson, recoiling with terror.
"What's the matter?" asked Foker.
Soon shouts were heard on all sides.
"It's going to crush us!"
"We are lost!"
"Mr. Wall, Mr. Wall!"
"It's all over!"
"Commander, Commander!"
All these cries were uttered by the men on watch.
Wall hastened to the after-deck; Shandon, followed by the doctor, flew
to the deck and looked out.
Through a rift in the mist, the Devil's Thumb appeared to have
suddenly come near the brig; it seemed to have grown enormously in
size; on its summit was balanced a second cone, upside down, and
revolving on its point; it threatened to crush the ship with its
enormous mass; it wavered, ready to fall down. It was an alarming
sight. Every one drew back instinctively, and many of the men, jumping
upon the ice, abandoned the ship.
[Illustration]
"Let no one move!" cried the commander with a loud voice; "every one
to his place!"
"My friends, don't be frightened," said the doctor, "there is no
danger! See, Commander, see, Mr. Wall, that's the mirage and nothing
else."
"You are right, Dr. Clawbonny," replied Johnson; "they've all been
frightened by a shadow."
When they had heard what the doctor said, most of the sailors drew
near him, and from terror they turned to admiration of this wonderful
phenomenon, which soon passed from their view.
"They call that a mirage," said Clifton; "the Devil's at the bottom of
it, I'm sure."
"That's true," growled Gripper.
But the break in the fog had given the commander a glimpse of a broad
passage which he had not expected to find; it promised to lead him
away from the shore; he resolved to make use of it at once; men were
sent out on each side of the canal; hawsers were given them, and they
began to tow the ship northward.
During long hours this work was prosecuted busily but silently;
Shandon had the furnace-fires lighted to help him through this passage
so providentially discovered.
"That's great luck," he said to Johnson, "and if we can only get on a
few miles, we may be free. Make a hot fire, Mr. Brunton, and let me
know as soon as you get steam on. Meanwhile, men, the farther on we
get, the more gained! You want to get away from the Devil's Thumb;
well, now is your chance!"
Suddenly the brig stopped. "What's the matter?" shouted Shandon.
"Wall, have the tow-ropes broken?"
"No," answered Wall, leaning over the railing. "See, there are the men
running back; they are climbing on board; they seem very much
frightened."
"What's happened?" cried Shandon, running forward.
"On board, on board!" cried the sailors, evidently exceedingly
terrified.
Shandon looked towards the north, and shuddered in spite of himself.
A strange animal, with alarming motions, whose steaming tongue hung
from huge jaws, was bounding along within a cable's length from the
ship; it seemed more than twenty feet high; its hair stood on end; it
was chasing the sailors as if about to seize them, while its tail,
which was at least ten feet long, lashed the snow and tossed it about
in dense gusts. The sight of the monster froze the blood in the veins
of the boldest.
[Illustration: "A strange animal was bounding along within a cable's
length from the ship."]
"It's an enormous bear," said one.
"It's the beast of Gevaudan!"
"It's the lion of the Apocalypse!"
Shandon ran to his cabin to get a gun which he kept always loaded; the
doctor seized his arms, and made ready to fire at the beast, which by
its size, recalled antediluvian monsters.
It drew near with long leaps; Shandon and the doctor fired at the same
time, and suddenly the report of the pieces agitated the air and
produced an unlooked-for effect.
The doctor gazed attentively, and could not help bursting out
laughing. "It's refraction!" said he.
"Refraction!" cried Shandon.
But a terrible cry from the crew interrupted them.
"The dog!" shouted Clifton.
"The dog-captain!" repeated his companions.
"It's he!" cried Pen.
In fact, it was the dog who had burst his bonds and had made his way
to the surface of the ice through another hole. At that moment the
refraction, by a phenomenon common in these latitudes, exaggerated his
size, and this had only been broken by the report of the guns; but,
notwithstanding, a disastrous impression had been produced upon the
minds of the sailors, who were not very much inclined to admit any
explanation of the fact from physical causes. The adventure of the
Devil's Thumb, the reappearance of the dog under such peculiar
circumstances, completely upset them, and murmurs arose on all sides.