behind a cloud, spread themselves over hill anddale and rugged glen. Oh! the splendour of those sunrises and sunsets,the rose tints, the purples, the emerald greens and cool greys, thatblaze and blend, grow faint and fade as they chase each other amongmountains and ravines! What a poor morsel of steel my pen feels as Iattempt to describe them! Yet have they a beauty peculiarly theirown,--a beauty which never can be forgotten by those whose eyes haveonce rested thereon.
The fair-haired Danish girl has been landed, and for a time has foundshelter and peace in the humble home of her uncle the clergyman. Ourheroes have been on shore studying the manners and customs of theprimitive but hospitable people they find themselves among.
Several city worthies have been off to see the ship and to dine. Butto-night our heroes are all by themselves in the saloon. Dinner isfinished, nuts and fruit and fragrant coffee are on the table, at thehead of which sits the captain, on his right the doctor and Ralph, onhis left Allan and Rory. Freezing Powders, neatly dressed, is hoveringnear, and Peter, the steward, is not far off, while the cockatoo is busyas usual, helping himself to tremendous billfuls of hemp-seed, butnevertheless putting in his oar every minute, with a "Well, duckie?" ora long-drawn "Dea-ah me!"
I cannot say that all is peace, though, beyond the wooden walls of the_Arrandoon_, for a storm is raging with almost hurricane violence,sweeping down from the hills with ever-varying force, and threatening totear the vessel from her anchorage. Steam is up, the screw revolves,and it taxes all the engineer's skill to keep up to the anchors so as toavert the strain from them.
But our boys are used to danger by this time, and there is hardly amoment's lull in the conversation. Even Sandie McFlail, M.D. o'Aberdeen, has already forgotten all the horrors of _mal-de-mer_; he evenbelieves he has found his sea-legs, and feels all over as good a sailoras anybody.
"Reikjavik?" says Ralph; "isn't it a queer break-jaw kind of a name. Itputs one in mind of a mouthful of exceedingly tough beefsteak."
"A gastronomic simile," says Rory; "though maybe neither poetical norelegant, sure, but truly Saxon."
"Ah! weel," the doctor says, in his quiet, thoughtful, canny way, "Idinna know now. Some o' the vera best poetry of all ages bearsreference to the pleesures o' the table. Witness Horace's Odes, forinstance."
"Hear! hear!" from Allan; and "Horace was a brick!" from honest EnglishRalph; but Rory murmurs "Moore?"
"But," continues the doctor, "to my ear there is nothing vera harsh inthe language that these islanders speak. They pronounce the `ch' hard,like the Scotch; their `j's' soft, like the Spanish; and turn their`w's' into `v's.' They pronounce church--kurk; and the `j' is a `y,' ornext thing to it. `Reik' or `reyk' means smoke, you know, as it is inScotch `reek;' and `wik,' or `wich,' or `vik' means a bay, as in theEnglish `Woolwich,' `Sandwich,' etc, so that Reikjavik is simply `thebay of smoke,' or `the smoking bay;' but whether with reference to thesmoke that hangs over the town, or the spray that rises mistlike fromthe seething billows when the wind blows, I cannot say--probably theformer; and it is worthy of note, gentlemen, that some savage races far,far away from here--the aborigines of Australia, for example--designatetowns by the term `the big smoke.'"
"How profoundly erudite you are, doctor!" says Rory. "Now, wouldn't ithave been much better for your heirs and assigns and the world at large,if you had accepted a Professorship of Antiquity in the University ofAberdeen, instead of coming away with us, to cool the toes of you at theNorth Pole, and maybe leave your bones to bleach beneath the AuroraBorealis, eh?"
"Ha! there I have you," cries Sandie, smiling good-humouredly, for bythis time he was quite used to Rory's bantering ways,--"there I haveyou, boy Rory; and it is with the profoundest awe and respect foreverything sacred, that I remind you that the Aurora Borealis neverbleached any bones; and those poor unfortunates who, in their devotionfor science, have wandered towards the mystery land around the Pole, andthere laid down their lives, will never, never moulder into dust, but,entombed in the green, salt ice, with the virgin snow as theirwinding-sheet, their bodies will rest in peace, and rest intact untilthe trumpet sounds."
There was a lull in the conversation at this point, but no lull in thestorm; the waves dashed wildly over the ship, the wind roared throughthe rigging, the brave vessel quivered from stem to stern, as if inconstant fear she might be hurled from the protection afforded by anchorand cable, and cast helpless upon the rock-bound shore.
A lull, broken presently by a deep sigh from Freezing Powders.
"Well, duckie?" said Polly, in sympathising tones.
"Well, Freezing Powders," said McBain, "and pray what are you sighingabout?"
"What for I sigh?" repeated Freezing Powders. "Am you not afraidyou'se'f, sah! You not hear de wild winds roar, and de wave make toomuch bobbery? 'Tis a'most enuff, sah, to make a gem'lam turn pale,sah!"
"Ha! ha?" laughed Rory; "really, it'll take a mighty big storm, FreezingPowders, to make you turn pale. But, doctor," he continued, "what sayyou to some music?"
"If you'll play," said the surgeon, "I'll toot."
And so the concert was begun; and the shriek of the storm spirit wasdrowned in mirth and melody, or, as the doctor, quoting Burns, expressedit,--
"The storm without might roar and rustle, They didna mind the storm a whustle."
But after this night of storm and tempest, what a wonderful morning itwas! The sun shot up amidst the encrimsoned mountain peaks, and shonebrightly down from a sky of cloudless blue. The snow was everywheredazzling in its whiteness, and there was not a sigh of wind to raise somuch as a ripple on the waters of the bay, from which every bit of icehad been blown far to sea. Wild birds screamed with joy as they wheeledin hundreds around the ship, while out in the bay a shoal of porpoiseswere disporting themselves, leaping high in air from out of thesparkling waters, and shrieking--or, as the doctor called it,"whustling"--for very joy.
Every one on board the _Arrandoon_ was early astir--up, indeed, beforethe sun himself--for there were to be great doings on shore to-day. Thefirst great experimental balloon ascent and flight was about to be made.Every one on shore was early astir, too; in fact, the greatestexcitement prevailed, and on the table-land to the right of, and somelittle distance from, the town, from which the balloon was to ascend,the people had assembled from an early hour, even the ladies ofReikjavik turning out dressed in their gayest attire, no smallproportion of which consisted of fur and feathers.
The aeronaut was a professional, Monsieur De Vere by name. McBain hadgone all the way to Paris especially to engage his services. Nor had hehired him at random, for this canny captain of ours had not onlysatisfied himself that De Vere was in a scientific point of view aclever man, but he had accompanied him in several ascents, and couldthus vouch for his being a really practical aeronaut.
Who would go with De Vere in this first great trip over the regions ofperpetual snow? The doctor stepped forward as a volunteer, and by hisside was Rory. Perhaps Allan and Ralph were rather lazy for any suchaerial exploit; anyhow, they were content to stay at home.
"We'll look on, you know," said Ralph, "as long as we can see you; andwhen you return--that is, if ever you do return--you can tell us allabout it."
When all was ready the ropes were cast loose, and, with a ringing cheerfrom the assembled multitude, up arose the mighty balloon, straight asarrow from bow, into the blue, sunny sky. Like the eagle that soarsfrom the peak of Benrinnes, she seemed to seek the very sun itself.
Rory and the surgeon, who had never been in a balloon before--nor even,for the matter of that, down in a coalpit--at first hardly relishedtheir sudden elevation, but they soon got used to it.
Not the slightest motion was there; Rory could hardly credit the factthat he was moving, and when at last he did muster up sufficient courageto peep earthwards over the side of the car.
"Oh, look, doctor dear!" he cried; "sure, look for yourself; the worldis moving away from us altogether!"
And this was precisely the sensation they exper
ienced. Both the doctorand Rory were inclined to clutch nervously and tremulously the sides ofthe car in the first part of their ascent; but though the former was notmuch of a sailor, somewhat to his surprise he experienced none of thosegiddy feelings common to the landsman when gazing from an immenseheight. He could look beneath him and around him, and enjoy to the fullthe strange bird's-eye landscape and seascape that every moment seemedto broaden and widen, until a great portion of the northern island, withits mountains, its lakes, its frozen torrents, its gulfs and bays andislands, and the great blue southern ocean, even to the far-off