NORTHWARD HO!
During some days I saw no more of the doctor, or of anyone about the
ship save an old negro, who became my servant. He was not an
unkindly-looking man, being of a great age, and somewhat feeble in his
actions; but he never opened his lips when I questioned him, and gave a
plain "Yes" or "No" to any demand. Those days would have been
monotonous, had it not been for the ever-present sense of coming
danger, of a future dark and threatening, likely to be fruitful in
trial and in peril. Each morning at an early hour the age-worn black
entered my cabin and told me that my bath was ready. When I was
dressed, a breakfast, generous in quality and in quantity, was set upon
my cabin table. At one o'clock luncheon of like excellence was served;
and again at five o'clock and at eight, tea and dinner. Some thought
evidently was given to my condition, for on the second morning I found
clean linen with a neat suit of blue serge awaiting me in the bathroom,
and when I had breakfasted, the black brought a parcel of books to me;
I found amongst them, to my satisfaction, several light works by Bret
Harte, Mark Twain, and Max Adeler, as well as more solid literary food.
The books saved me from much of that foreboding which I should have
known wanting them, and after the first fears had passed I spent the
hours in reading or looking through the port-hole over the deserted
waste of a fretful sea. I had hoped to learn something of our
destination from this diligent watching of the waves; but for the first
forty hours, at any rate, I saw nothing--not so much as a small
ship--though it felt much colder; and again on the third day the lower
temperature was yet more marked, so that I welcomed fresh and warmer
clothing which the negro brought me for my bed; and observed with
satisfaction that there were means within the ship for heating the
cabin during the daytime.
It must have been on the fourth day after my capture that the nameless
ship, which hitherto had not been speeding at an abnormal pace, began
to go very fast, the rush of water from the head of her rising
frequently above my port, and permitting but rare views of the distant
horizon. The greater speed was sustained during that day until the
first dog-watch, when I was disturbed in my reading by the
consciousness that the ship had stopped, and that there was great
agitation on deck. I looked from my window and observed the cause of
the confusion, for there, ahead of us a mile or more, was one of the
largest icebergs I have ever seen. The mighty mass, from whose sides
the water was rushing as in little cataracts, towered above the sea to
a height of four or five hundred feet, rising up in three snow-white
pinnacles which caught the crimson light of the sinking sun and gave it
back in prismatic hues, all dazzling and beautiful. As a great island
of ice, all rich in waving colour and superb majesty, the berg passed
on, and the screw of the steamer was heard again. I watched intently,
hoping to see other bergs, or, indeed, any ships that should tell me
how far we had gone towards the north; but the night fell suddenly, and
the negro served dinner, asking me if I had warmth enough? My curt
answer seemed to astonish him; but the truth was that I was thinking of
the man Paolo's words when sick upon my own ship. He had cried, "Ice,
ice," more than once in his delirium; but none of us then had the
meaning of his cry. Yet I had it, and with it a notion of the second
secret of Captain Black. For surely he was running to hiding; and his
hiding-place lay to the north, far above the course even of
Canadian-bound vessels, as I knew by the number of days we had been
steaming.
This new surmise on strange openings did not in any way combat the
terror which visited me so often in that floating prison. Every day,
indeed, seemed to take me farther from humanity, from friends, from the
lands and the peoples of civilisation. Every day confirmed me in the
thought that I was hopelessly in this man's grip, the victim of his
mercy, or his rigour; that none would know of my end when that end
should come; no man say "God help you!" when at last the fellow should
show his teeth. Such dire communings robbed me of my sleep at night;
led me to books whose pages passed blurred before me; made me start at
every rap upon the cabin door; brought me to fear death even in the
very food I ate. Yet during the week I was a prisoner on the ship no
harm of any sort befell me. I was treated with the hospitality of a
great mansion, served with all I asked, unmolested save for the
doctor's threat.
And so the time passed, the weather growing colder day by day, the
bergs more frequent about my windows; until on the evening of the
seventh day the ship stopped suddenly, and I heard the anchor let go.
This was late in the watch, at the time when I was in the habit of
going to bed; but hearing great movement and business on the deck I sat
still, waiting for what should come; and after the lapse of an hour or
more I found that we were moving very slowly again, and with but
occasional movements of the screw. I opened my port, and could hear
loud shoutings from above, and although there was no light of the moon,
I could see enough to conclude that we were passing by a great wall of
rock, and so into some harbour or basin.
The work of mooring the ship was not a long one when once we had come
to a stand. When all was done the noise ceased, and no one coming to me
I went to bed as usual. On the next morning I got up at daybreak, and
looked eagerly from my spying place; but I could discern only a blank
cliff of rock, the ship being now moored against the very side of it.
The negro came to me at the usual hour, but he brought a note with my
breakfast; and I read an invitation to dine with Captain Black at eight
o'clock on that evening. You may be sure that I welcomed even such a
prospect of change, for the monotony of the cabin prison had become
nigh unbearable; and when at a quarter to eight that evening the old
man threw open the door and said, "The Master waits!" I went with him
almost joyfully, even though the next step might have been to my open
grave.
He led the way up the companion ladder, which was, in fact, a broad
staircase, elaborately lit with the electric light; and so brought me
to the deck, where there was darkness save in one spot above the
fore-turret. There a lantern threw a great volume of white light which
spread out upon the sea, and showed me at once that we were in a cove
of some breadth, surrounded by prodigiously high cliffs; and the light
being focussed right across the bay, disclosed a cleft in these rocks
leading apparently to a farther cove beyond. I had scarce time to get
other than a rough idea of the whole situation, for a boat was waiting
at the gangway, and the negro motioned to me to pass down the ladder
and take my seat in the stern. The men gave way at once, keeping in the
course of the searchlight, and rowing straight to the cleft in the
cliffs, through which they passed; and so left the light and entered a
narrower fjord, which was ravine-like in the steepness of its sides,
and so dark, that one could see but a narrow vista of the sky through
the overhanging summits of the giant rocks. This second cove opened
after a while into a lake; above whose shores, at a high spot in the
side of the precipice on the left hand, I observed many twinkling
lights, which seemed to come from windows far up the face of the cliff.
These lights marked our destination, the men rowing straight to them;
and I found, when we came near the precipitous shore which bound the
fjord, that there was a rough landing-stage, cut in the rock, and that
an iron stairway led thence to the chambers which evidently existed
above.
When we had come to shore, and had been received there by several men
who held lanterns, and had the look of Lascars, the negro conducting me
pointed to the iron stairway and told me to mount: he following me to
the summit, where there was a platform and an iron door. The door
opened as we arrived before it, and there standing by it I found the
young doctor, who greeted me very heartily and appeared to be
altogether in a merry mood.
"Come in," he said, "they're waiting for you; and this infernal cold
gives men appetites. This way--but it isn't very dark, is it?"
We were in a broad passage lit by electric light--a passage cut in a
crystal-like rock, whose surface had almost the lustre of a mirror. At
intervals facing the cove were incisions for windows, but these were
now hung with heavy curtains; and there were cupboards and pegs against
the rock wall on the opposite side to make the place serve the purposes
of a hall. The passage led up to a second door--this one built of fine
American walnut; and we passed through it at once into a room where I
was astounded to see indisputable evidence of civilisation and of
refinement. The whole chamber was hung round with superb skins, the
white fur of the Polar bear predominating; but there were couches
cushioned with deep brown seal; and the same glossy skin was laid upon
the floor in so many layers that the footfall was noiseless and
pleasantly luxuriant. The furniture otherwise was both modern and
artistic. A heavy buhl-work writing-table opposite the door was
littered with maps, books and journals; there was a secretaire
book-case in Chippendale by the side of the enormous fire-place, in
which a great coal fire burned; and above this was an ivory overmantel
of exquisite work. A grand piano, open and bearing music, was the chief
ornament of the left-hand corner; while another Chippendale cabinet,
filled with a multitude of rare curiosities, completed an apartment
which had many of the characteristics of a salon and not a few of a
study.
But I had not eyes so much for the room as for the solitary occupant of
it, who sat before the writing-table, but rose after I had entered. One
glance assured me that I was face to face with Captain Black--the
Captain Black I had seen at the drunken orgie in Paris; but yet not the
same, for all the bravado and rough speech which then fell from his
lips was wanting; and his "Come in!" given in answer to the young
doctor's knock, was spoken melodiously in a rich baritone voice that
fell very pleasantly upon the ear. When he stepped forward and held out
his hand to me, I had the mind almost to draw back from him, for I knew
that the man had crime heavy upon him; but a second thought convinced
me of the folly of making a scene at such a moment; so I took the great
hard hand and looked him full in the face. He was not so tall as I was,
but a man who appeared to possess colossal strength in his enormous
arms and shoulders; and one not ill-looking, though his black beard
fell upon his waistcoat, and his jacket of seal was loose and
ill-fitting. The strange thing about our meeting was this, however.
When he had taken my hand, he held it for a minute or more, looking me
straight in the face with an interest I could not understand; and,
indeed, he then forgot himself entirely, and continued to gaze upon me
and to shake my hand until I thought he would never let it go.
When at last he recovered himself it was with a quick start.
"I am glad to see you," said he; "dinner waits us;" and with that we
passed into another chamber, hung with skins as the first was, but
containing a dining-table laid for four persons in a very elegant
manner, with cut glass, and silver epergnes laden with luscious-looking
fruit and the best of linen. The light came from electric lamps in the
ceiling, and from other lamps cunningly placed in a great block of ice,
which formed the central ornament. Nor have I eaten a better dinner
than the one then served. The only servant was a black giant, who
waited with a dexterity very singular in such a place; and the guests
of the captain were the young doctor, the Scotsman known as Dick the
Ranter, and myself. The Scotsman alone displayed signs of that
rollicking spirit of dare-devil which had characterised the meeting in
Paris; but the captain soon silenced him.
"D'ye ken that we've no said grace?" remarked the lantern-jawed fellow,
as we sat to table; and then, raising his hands in impudent mockery, he
began to utter some blasphemy, but Black turned upon him as with the
growl of a wild beast.
"To the devil with that," said he. "Hold your tongue, man!"
The Scotsman looked up at the rebuke as though a thunderbolt had hit
him.
"Verra weel, mon; verra weel," he muttered; "but ye're unco melancholy
the nicht, unco melancholy." And then he fell to the silence of
consumption, eating prodigiously of all that was set before him; but in
high dudgeon, as a man rebuked unworthily. Of the others, the doctor
alone talked, chatting fluently of many European cities, and proving
himself no mean _raconteur_. I listened in the hope of getting some
idea of what was intended in my case; also, if that could be, of the
situation of this strange place in which I found myself; for as yet I
knew not if it were to the North of America; or, indeed, in what part
of the Arctic Sea it might be. To my satisfaction the captain made no
attempt to conceal the information from me. The first occasion of his
speaking during dinner was in answer to a remark of mine that I found
the room very pleasantly warm.
"Yes," he said, "you must feel the change, although you will feel it
more when we get winter here. You know where you are, of course."
I said unsuspectingly that I had not the faintest idea, when he cast a
quick glance at the doctor, and the latter slapped me on the back quite
joyously.
"Bravo!" he cried. "That prevents our putting one unpleasant question
to you, anyway. I knew that your innuendo in the cabin was all
make-believe."
"Of course it was," added the captain; "but the knowledge of it saves
our bustling you. However, this isn't the time for talk of that sort. I
may tell you, since you do not know, that you are on the west coast of
Greenland, and that there is a Danish settlement not fifty miles from
you--although we don't leave cards on our neighbours."
He called for champagne then, and gave a toast--"The new recruit!" I
did not raise my glass with the others, which he saw, and became stern.
"Well," said he, "I won't have you hurried, and you're my guest until I
put the straight question to you. When that happens you won't think
twice about the answer, for we can be very nasty, I assure you. Now try
a cigar. These are good. They came from the collection of Lord
Remingham, who was on his way to America a few weeks ago."
"And met with an unfortunate accident," said the doctor, with mock
seriousness, which was taken up by the Scotsman, who remarked in his
best drawl--"May his soul ken rest!" and they all shouted with infamous
laughter, but I listened with a morbid interest when the doctor
continued--
"It's astonishing how good the quality of the tobacco and the champagne
is on board the ocean-going steamers; now this Bolinger '84 was the
special pride of the skipper of the _Catalania_, which unhappily sank
in the Atlantic through the sheer impudence of the man who commanded
her. As he liked it so much, I broke a bottle over his head before we
sent him to the devil, with five hundred others."
"You may say, in fact, that he made the acquaintance o' the auld man
wi' the flavour o' this gude stuff on him," said the Scotsman, which
made them laugh again; but Black was satiated with the banter, and he
rose from the table suddenly as the man Four-Eyes entered.
"This pleasant party must disperse," he said to me; "you can go to the
quarters we have provided for you, unless you would like to see more of
us. We are well worth seeing, I think, and we may give you some idea of
our other side."
"I should like to see everything you can show me," I replied, being
aflame with curiosity to know all that the strange situation could
teach me; and then he made a motion for the others to follow, and we
passed from the room.