Chapter XXIX.
DECIDING UPON A NEW MOVE.
The warm rain continued all that day and the next night, while theboys rested, except that Tug went to his set-lines and brought back afine pike of about six pounds' weight, which gave them a good dinner.By the next morning the snow had nearly all melted away, and the sunshone warm, while great glistening pools of water lay spread out uponthe ice. It was evident that the long-delayed January thaw had come atlast.
The disappearance of the snow brought several things to light thatthey had not seen before. Bits of iron and general rubbish appearedabout the door. A heap of snow which they had thought concealed abowlder, exposed by its melting an old flat-bottomed skiff, turnedupside down, and under it lay a torn sail, with its mast. Behind thehouse Tug found several articles he thought "might come handy;" amongthe rest a short piece of lead pipe, which he seized upon at once.Then, while Aleck and Jimmy walked out to look at the traps, Tug builta hot fire, and went to work at making bullets of the lead. He meltedhis old pipe in a piece of tin, which he had hammered into a spoon,and dropped the molten metal into cold water. The bullets, or shot,were not all of the same size, and were more pear-shaped than round;but by whittling and hammering they did very well, and in two hours hehad a handful.
"Now," said he, with a vengeful tone in his voice, "just let me get ashot at those or'nary curs!"
Later, Aleck came back, reporting no birds, but bringing a smallpickerel.
"But I saw another flock of cross-bills, and I'm going to take my'pitchfork' and go after them," Jimmy added, eagerly; and at once wentout, while Katy put on her hat and started for a short walk.
"Aleck," said Tug, when they were alone, "I have wanted a good chanceto talk with you about the fix we're in. I feel sure that, snug as weare, it's no good to stay here."
"How are we going to get away? Our boat is useless for ice travel, nowthat the sledge is gone, even if we save her in decent condition,which we must see about this afternoon."
"I have been looking at that little scow down on the shore. She is bigenough to carry us in water, and I believe we could put a couple oflow runners on her bottom, so as to move over an ice-field. Come withme and have a look at her."
So the two lads went down to the old boat, and looked her carefullyover, discussing all the repairs she would need, and how they could bemade.
"But why don't you think we could stay here longer?" Aleck asked,after a time.
"Because," his companion replied, "we have almost no ammunition andalmost no fishing-tackle. In a week from now we should have to livewholly on what we could catch in fishing and by traps, and we get solittle now that I think it foolish to risk it if we can get a chanceto escape. I reckon it'll freeze up hard again in a few days, but forthe last time this winter. Probably the ice'll break up so badly nexttime it thaws that we couldn't sledge on it; and after that, you know,come the long, stormy months of spring, when, if we tried sailing, ourboat wouldn't keep afloat with four people in it during a journeyacross the lake. If we can't get away over the ice before the nextbreak-up, I believe we're goners."
"It can't be very far to the mainland; but the weather has always beenso thick I never could see far southward," Aleck remarked.
"It's clear to-day," said Tug. "Let's go and take a look."
Inspired with hope, the two comrades, forgetful of everything else,hastened up the hillside, and soon reached the pinnacle of rocks thatformed their lookout.
The air was clear, the sky cloudless, and the first glance southwardshowed them, faint upon the low horizon, yet distinct enough to beunmistakable, the long, dark line of the mainland. Between them and itall lay white, mixed with blue--a plain of ice covered with thinpatches of rain-water. They could not see more than eight or tenmiles; but in no direction except on the northern horizon (towards thecentre of the lake) was there any sign of open water. They hoped, andthis helped them to believe, that between them and the shore lay anunbroken plain of ice.
"If that is so," said Aleck, "and it will only come on cold before itsnows, we could skate right across."
"Take us a couple of days, you'll find," Tug replied.
"Pshaw! it can't be more than twenty miles."
"Yes, but we're not so strong as we were when we started. We've noneof us really had a square meal for a fortnight, and some of us havebeen knocked on the head, you know, and that don't help a man any."
"At any rate, it will be best to get ready right away."
"That's my ticket," Tug replied. "By the way, can we see the _RedErik_? Oh, yes, there she is--all right, I reckon."
"Yes, she appears to be."