CHAPTER XII.THE ICE PRISON.
The next day they determined to arrange the hunt, in which Hatteras,Altamont, and the carpenter were to take part; no more tracks were tobe seen; the bears had decidedly given up their plan of attack, eitherfrom fear of their unknown enemies, or because there had been no signof living beings beneath the mass of snow. During the absence of thethree hunters, the doctor was to push on to Johnson Island to examinethe condition of the ice, and to make some hydrographicinvestigations. The cold was sharp, but they supported it well, havingbecome accustomed to it by this time. The boatswain was to remain atDoctor's House; in a word, to guard the house.
The three hunters made their preparations; each one took adouble-barrelled rifled gun, with conical balls; they carried a smallquantity of pemmican, in case night should fall before their return;they also were provided with the snow-knife, which is so indispensablein these regions, and a hatchet which they wore in their belts. Thusarmed and equipped they could go far; and since they were both skilledand bold, they could count on bringing back a good supply.
At eight in the morning they set out. Duke sprang about ahead of them;they ascended the hill to the east, went about the lighthouse, anddisappeared in the plains to the south, which were bounded by MountBell. The doctor, having agreed on a danger-signal with Johnson,descended towards the shore so as to reach the ice in Victoria Bay.
The boatswain remained at Fort Providence alone, but not idle. Hefirst set free the Greenland dogs, which were playing about the DogPalace; they in their joy rolled about in the snow. Johnson then gavehis attentions to the cares of housekeeping. He had to renew the fueland provisions, to set the stores in order, to mend many brokenutensils, to patch the coverings, to work over the shoes for the longexcursions of the summer. There was no lack of things to do, but theboatswain worked with the ease of a sailor, who has generally asmattering of all trades. While thus employed he began to think of thetalk of the evening before; he thought of the captain, and especiallyof his obstinacy, which, after all, had something very heroic and veryhonorable about it, in his unwillingness that any American man or boatshould reach the Pole before him, or even with him.
"Still, it seems to me," he said to himself, "no easy task to crossthe ocean without a boat; and if we have the open sea before us, weshould need one. The strongest Englishman in the world couldn't swimthree hundred miles. Patriotism has its limits. Well, we shall see. Wehave still time before us; Dr. Clawbonny has not yet said his lastword in the matter; he is wise, and he may persuade the captain tochange his mind. I'll bet that in going towards the island he'llglance at the fragments of the _Porpoise_, and will know exactly whatcan be made out of them."
Johnson had reached this point in his reflections, and the hunters hadbeen gone an hour, when a loud report was heard two or three miles towindward.
"Good!" said the sailor; "they have come across something, and withoutgoing very far, for I heard them distinctly. After all, the air is soclear."
A second and then a third report was heard.
"Hulloa!" continued Johnson, "they've got into a good place."
Three other reports, in quicker succession, were heard.
"Six shots!" said Johnson; "now they've fired off everything. It was ahot time! Is it possible--"
At the thought, Johnson grew pale; he quickly left the snow-house, andin a few moments he had run up to the top of the cone. He saw a sightthat made him tremble.
"The bears!" he shouted.
The three hunters, followed by Duke, were running rapidly, followed byfive enormous animals; their six bullets had not disabled them; thebears were gaining on them; Hatteras, behind the others, could onlykeep his distance from the animals by throwing away his cap, hatchet,and even his gun. The bears stopped, according to their habit, tosniff at the different objects, and lost a little on this ground onwhich they would have outstripped the swiftest horse. It was thus thatHatteras, Altamont, and Bell, all out of breath, came up to Johnson,and they all slid down the slope to the snow-house. The five bearswere close behind, and the captain was obliged to ward off the blow ofa paw with his knife. In a moment Hatteras and his companions werelocked in the house. The animals stopped on the upper plateau of thetruncated cone.
"Hatteras could only keep his distance from the animalsby throwing away his cap, hatchet, and even his gun."]
"Well," said Hatteras, "we can now defend ourselves better, five tofive!"
"Four to five!" shouted Johnson in a terrified voice.
"What?" asked Hatteras.
"The doctor!" answered Johnson, pointing to the empty room.
"Well?"
"He is on the shore of the island!"
"Poor man!" cried Bell.
"We can't abandon him in this way," said Altamont.
"Let us run!" said Hatteras.
He opened the door quickly, but he had hardly time to shut it; a bearnearly crushed his skull with his claw.
"They are there," he cried.
"All?" asked Bell.
"All!" answered Hatteras.
Altamont hastened to the windows, heaping up the bays with pieces ofice torn from the walls of the house. His companions did the samewithout speaking. Duke's dull snarls alone broke the silence.
But it must be said these men had only a single thought; they forgottheir own danger, and only considered the doctor. Poor Clawbonny! sokind, so devoted! the soul of the little colony! for the first time hewas missing; extreme peril, a terrible death, awaited him; for whenhis excursion was over he would return quietly to Fort Providence, andwould find these ferocious animals. And there was no way of warninghim.
"If I'm not mistaken, he will be on his guard; your shots must havewarned him, and he must know something has happened."
"But if he were far off," answered Altamont, "and did not understand?There are eight chances out of ten that he'll come back withoutsuspicion of danger! The bears are hiding behind the scarp of thefort, and he can't see them."
"We shall have to get rid of these dangerous beasts before hisreturn," answered Hatteras.
"But how?" asked Bell.
To answer this question was not easy. A sortie seemed impossible. Theytook the precaution to barricade the entrance, but the bears couldeasily have overcome the obstacles if the idea had occurred to them;they knew the number and strength of their adversaries, and they couldeasily have reached them. The prisoners were posted in each one of thechambers of Doctor's House to watch for every attempt at entrance;when they listened, they heard the bears coming and going, growling,and tearing at the walls with their huge paws. But some action wasnecessary; time was pressing. Altamont resolved to make a loop-hole toshoot the assailants; in a few minutes he had made a little hole inthe ice-wall; he pushed his gun through it; but it had scarcelyreached the other side before it was torn from his hands withirresistible force before he could fire.
"The devil!" he cried, "we are too weak."
And he hastened to close the loop-hole. Thus matters went for an hour,without any end appearing probable. The chances of a sortie werediscussed; they seemed slight, for the bears could not be foughtsingly. Nevertheless, Hatteras and his companions, being anxious tofinish it, and, it must be said, very much confused at being thusimprisoned by the beasts, were about to try a direct attack, when thecaptain thought of a new means of defence.
He took the poker and plunged it into the stove; then he made anopening in the wall, but so as to keep a thin coating of ice outside.His companions watched him. When the poker was white hot, Hatterassaid,--
"This bar will drive away the bears, for they won't be able to seizeit, and through the loop-hole we will be able to fire at them, withouttheir taking our guns away from us."
"A good idea!" cried Bell, going towards Altamont.
Then Hatteras, withdrawing the poker from the stove, pushed it throughthe wall. The snow, steaming at its touch, hissed sharply. Two bearsran to seize the bar, but they roared fearfully when four shots werefired at once.
&nbs
p; "Hit!" shouted the American.
"Hit!" repeated Bell.
"Let us try again," said Hatteras, closing the opening for a moment.
The poker was put again into the fire; in a few minutes it was redhot.
Altamont and Bell returned to their place after loading their guns;Hatteras again pushed the poker through the loop-hole. But this timean impenetrable substance stopped it.
"Curse it!" cried the American.
"What's the matter?" asked Johnson.
"The matter! These cursed animals are heaping up the ice and snow soas to bury us alive!"
"Impossible!"
"See, the poker can't go through! Really, this is absurd!"
It was more than absurd, it was alarming. Matters looked worse. Thebears, which are very intelligent beasts, employed this method ofsuffocating their prey. They heaped the ice in such a way as to renderflight impossible.
"The bears heaped the ice in such a way as to renderflight impossible."]
"This is hard," said Johnson, with a very mortified air. "It's wellenough to have men treat you in this way, but bears!"
After this reflection two hours passed by without any material changein their situation; a sortie became impossible; the thickened wallsdeadened all sound without. Altamont walked to and fro like a bold manin face of a danger greater than his courage. Hatteras thoughtanxiously of the doctor, and of the great danger awaiting him when heshould return.
"Ah," shouted Johnson, "if Dr. Clawbonny were only here!"
"Well, what would he do?" asked Altamont.
"O, he would be able to help us!"
"How?" asked the American, with some asperity.
"If I knew," answered Johnson, "I shouldn't want him here. Still, Ican think of a piece of advice he would give us at this moment."
"What is that?"
"To take some food. It can't hurt us. What do you think, Mr.Altamont?"
"Let us eat if you care to," was the answer; "although our conditionis stupid, not to say disgraceful."
"I'll bet," said Johnson, "that we'll find some way of driving themoff after dinner."
They made no reply, but sat down to dinner. Johnson, as a pupil of thedoctor, tried to be a philosopher in the face of danger, but hesucceeded ill; his jokes stuck in his throat. Besides, they began tofeel uncomfortable; the air was growing bad in this hermeticallysealed prison; the stove-pipe drew insufficiently, and it was easy tosee that in a short time the fire would go out; the oxygen, consumedby their lungs and the fire, would be replaced by carbonic acid, whichwould be fatal to them, as they all knew. Hatteras was the first todetect this new danger; he was unwilling to hide it from the others.
"So, at any risk we must get out!" said Altamont.
"Yes," answered Hatteras; "but let us wait till night; we will make ahole in the snow that we may get fresh air; then one shall take hisplace here and fire at the bears."
"It's the only thing we can do," said the American.
Having agreed on this, they waited for the time of action; and duringthe following hours, Altamont did not spare imprecations against astate of things in which, as he put it, "there being men and bearsconcerned, the men were getting the worst of it."