Chapter XIX.
ADRIFT ON AN ICE RAFT.
Meanwhile Aleck, startled by the upset of the sled and Jim'sdisappearance, had let go of his support. Now, seeing Jim safe, he wastrying to regain it, when suddenly Tug saw him throw up his hand andsink out of sight.
Tug knew what that meant, and that there was not an instant to spare.Tearing off his coat--he had thrown aside his overcoat in the heat ofthe work before-he watched till he saw Aleck rising through the clearwater, then dashed in, followed by the noble dog, and grasped hishair. Aleck hung in his hold a dead weight, as though life had gone;but Tug knew that the fatal end had not come yet, and that this wasonly the fainting of utter exhaustion and the cramping paralysis ofcold. Cold! Tug had felt the dreadful chill striking through andthrough him the instant he had touched the water. Already it wasclogging his motions and overcoming his strength with a fearfulnumbness that would fast render him powerless. And Aleck had been inthat stiffening, paralyzing flood several minutes!
All this went through Tug's mind, as on a dark night a flash oflightning enters and leaves the pupil of the eye; it took "no time atall," and the instant he had hooked his fingers in Aleck's hair heshouted to Katy to shove out the sled where he might reach it. She didso, and by it drew both the lads to the ice, the brave rescuergrasping the friendly box and towing his senseless Captain.
Then a new difficulty presented itself. Aleck was perfectly helpless,and like a log in the water; or worse than that, for he would sink ifTug loosed his hold. How should they get him out?
Katy saw this problem, and said to Tug, as soon as the ice had beenreached, while she knelt at the brink of the splashing water:
"Let me hold his head up--I can do it--until you can climb out; thenboth of us together, I guess, can drag him up on to the ice. Oh dear!will he ever come to?"
Her tears blinded her eyes, but she dashed them away, and took firmhold upon Aleck's collar, while Tug scrambled out. Then, while Katyheld his head above the curling, gurgling little waves that the windwas chasing, Tug slipped one end of the rope under Aleck's arms, andmade a loop about his body, by which they were able to drag hislifeless form out upon the ice, as though he were a fish or a seal.
"Now let's have the sled!" screamed Tug, minding neither his ownfreezing garments nor Katy's anguish; and having pulled this from thewater, he and Katy lifted Aleck upon it, and set off as fast as theycould for the tent, whither the miserable Youngster had alreadystarted in a staggering trot, with many groans and rough tumbles. Theothers overtook him, and all went on together; but Jimkin got nocomfort, for Aleck might be drowned--they did not know; while Jim,though certainly miserable, was alive and active, enough so, at least,to look after himself.
"THEY WERE ABLE TO DRAG HIS LIFELESS FORM OUT UPON THEICE."]
"How fortunate that there happened to be a kettle of hot water on thefire!"
"Yes. Now here we are. We'll have to drag him through the low doorwayheels first. Help me lift him off the sled, Katy."
Laid on straw and overcoats by the warm fire, Tug quickly stripped offthe Captain's wet clothes, while Katy brought warm blankets, andwrapped him in them.
"Didn't you say you had a little bottle of brandy, Katy?"
"Yes; Miss Marshall told us we ought never to go on a long journeywithout it, and I brought it along for fear something like this mighthappen. Here it is."
Taking the bottle, Tug forced a few drops between Aleck's lips and sawthem trickle down his throat. A minute later there was a strongerthrob of the fluttering heart, a quiver of the eyelids, and a faint,sighing groan, which the anxious watchers could just hear. At thissign of returning life they rose and grasped each other's hands. Thetears Katy had so bravely kept back when she had had work to do and notime to cry came now in an unrestrained shower; but they were tears ofjoy, for the Captain was waking up all right.
Now poor little Jim got some attention, and Katy left them tothemselves while the three boys helped each other to get rid of theiricy clothes and crawl into the blankets and warm straw of theirbedrooms, as they called the hull of the boat. This done, Katy cameback and made hot tea for her three tucked-up patients, which sorevived them that Tug and Jim begged to be allowed to get up as soonas their clothes had been dried; but Aleck said he wanted to sleep twoweeks, and so would stay in bed a little longer.
As for Rex, whose heroism in bringing back Aleck's floating coat, whenhe was unable to aid his drowning master himself, had been forgottenuntil now, he was content to lie in a snug corner and wait for thehalf-frozen fish his mistress had promised him should presently be thereward of his faithfulness.
That eventful day came to an end without anything further to disturbtheir peace. Aleck rose towards evening, and went out fishing with Jimand Tug, catching two or three pickerel. The night passed in unusualquiet, for the wind, though steady, was not a whistling gale, nor didthe grinding roar of moving ice come to their ears, as it hadsometimes during the previous daytime.
In the morning the same clouds were overhead, the same vague haze hidthe horizon, the same waste of ice and water surrounded their lonelycamp, the same quiet breeze breathed steadily across the lake, and,but for occasional noises of their own making, the whole world seemedprofoundly still. This was depressing, and the spirits of each one ofour young adventurers sank to a level with the flat ice and the dullgray sky; yet it was evident that nothing could be done except to waitas patiently as possible for some change.
"If yez can't be aisy, be as aisy as ye can," remarked Tug, quoting anexcellent Irish rule of life under adverse circumstances; but thepleasantry met with only a faint smile from his disheartenedcompanions. All thought that any _active_ perils would be better thanthis motionless, objectless gloom, so threatening because so still anduncertain.
"I wonder if we haven't stopped drifting," said Katy, as they werepretending to eat a bit of luncheon, for which nobody had muchappetite; and, more for the sake of doing something than because itseemed to make much difference whether they had come to a standstillor not, they took a few chips to the edge of the floe, and threw theminto the water. These tossed up and down on the gentle waves, but didnot change their position at all, so our navigators concluded theirfloe to be at last stationary.
"How far do you think we have drifted?" Jim asked his brother.
"Well," Aleck replied, "I've been studying over that. We don't knowjust when we started nor exactly when we stopped--if we havestopped--nor whether we have gone steadily on. I have seen somethingof drifting ice, and I should say we had gone probably between twentyand twenty-five miles, all right out into the middle of the lake."
"Then you have some idea of where we are?"
"Oh, yes; that's quite easily calculated by 'dead-reckoning,' assailors say."
The west wind now began to subside, and before long the air becamestill and the mists thicker, with dense, low clouds massing closeoverhead. On land it must have been a warm, thawing day. Out here itwas always chilly, but the four persons were not uncomfortable, evenwhen their overcoats were unbuttoned, partly, however, because theyhad become accustomed to constant exposure.
Before the sun went down the air grew much cooler, and the fog thinnedout, while the wind freshened and worked around until it blew brisklyand very cold from the north. This soon swept away the mists, but notthe clouds; yet light enough remained just before dusk to give Aleck abrief look to the northward. He could see a great field of rough ice,apparently made up of broken pieces crushed and jammed together,stretching in that direction to the horizon. This horizon was brokenin one place, however, by a darker patch, that looked as though itmight be land; but before he could examine it more carefully it hadbecome lost in the darkness.
Returning to the house, the Captain ordered every preparation to bemade for a possible removal. While Katy cooked their evening meal, theboys worked with axe and shovel until they had freed the runners underthe boat, so that she could be dragged away quickly. Then the wall wastaken down, and the boxes stowed carefully. Several o
f them had beenemptied during the long halt, and it made the lads feel very grave tonotice how low their stock of provisions and lamp-oil had run. Jimmyrefused to see the use of all this hard work when everything seemed assafe as ever it was, and Aleck confessed that he had no better reasonfor his precautions than that the weather had changed, and it was bestto be on the safe side--in which he showed himself a good commander.
"We won't take the tent down, Jim, nor throw in the mess kit, nor rollaway our good beds, till we find we have to; but, if the ice shoulddrop from under our feet at this moment, we could scramble into theboat, and have our necessary property with us."
Katy, meanwhile, had set half a ham boiling--they had only one moreleft after this--and was only waiting for it to be done before goingto bed, for it was late in the evening, and much colder than usual,since the hummock no longer sheltered them from this new wind, whichblew in under the boat where the snow had been shovelled away, andthreatened to tear the frail hut to pieces. Finally the ham was done,and the girl crept shivering to Jim's side amid the straw and quilts,thoroughly frightened and weary.
She had not been there five minutes when there came a quick series ofcrashing reports, such as she had heard before. The ice was breakingup again. Tug was quickest to jump out, calling to all to stay in theboat till he came back. They could feel the ice shake and tip underthem--or, at any rate, imagined they could--while the wind was blowingsnow-flakes in their scared faces. It seemed an age, though really itwas hardly a minute, before Tug came back and said they were afloatupon a small piece--a piece only a few yards square.
"Then," said Aleck, decisively, "we must take to the boat and get offthis cake, for the wind is blowing us right back into the open lake,and we couldn't live out there. I think I saw land just north of us,and we must try to reach it, or, at any rate, to get upon the bigice-field in front. It's our only hope."
He and Tug were buttoning their overcoats and tying tippets abouttheir heads and necks, but talking at the same time.
"Now for our orders, Captain."
"Well, then, listen. Katy and Jim must not step out of the boat unlessI say so. They must light the lantern, ship the rudder, roll up thebedding and stow it under the thwarts, and fix everything as snug asthey can. Jim's place will be forward; Katy will stay by the tiller;and remember, whatever happens, that the compass direction is duenorth. Now, Tug," he continued, "you and I will throw this kitchenstuff aboard, and let The Youngster pack it away the best he can.Then, down with the oars and mast and canvas. We must hurry."
So saying, he snatched the kettle, ham and all, from the fire, andtossed it into the boat, where it lit on Jim's foot, and was greetedwith an angry howl. The other goods and the spare canvas followed.Then they began to tear down the roof, and in five minutes this hadbeen piled in a stiff, frozen heap on the bow of the boat, for theythought there would be no time to bend and fold it into shape. It wasall the united efforts of the four could do to hoist it over the lowgunwale.
All these preparations took perhaps fifteen minutes--a quarter of anhour of terror, for now the great cake was plainly rocking undertheir feet. Then calling Jim out of the boat to help them, the threeput their heads through the collars of the drag-ropes, and tried theirbest to move the boat, but it wouldn't budge an inch.
"We must throw off that icy canvas. I should think it weighs a hundredpounds," Tug remarked.
"Yes, off with it!" ordered Captain Aleck.
This done, they tried again, and slowly and laboriously worked theboat twenty or thirty paces towards the edge of the ice, when itbecame clogged with the fast-falling snow, and could be pushed nofarther.