CHAPTER X.
THE COUNCIL.--PASSING THE CAPE.
Drawing his coat tightly around him, La Salle first drew aside therubber blanket which had been hung up for a door, and crawled out intothe storm. The snow still fell heavily, but although the wind blew veryhard, few drifts were formed, owing to the wet and heavy nature of thelarge, soft flakes, although at times a flurry of sharp, stinging hailrattled against the boats and the roof of the ice-chamber.
As nearly as he could judge, the wind was north-east, or perhaps a pointor two south of that, for at times there came warmer gusts, as if thewind veered to a milder quarter. The roar of the sea could be plainlyheard, but evidently far up to windward, and there was little doubt thatthey need have no apprehensions from that source at present.
Re-entering he found his friends anxiously awaiting his report on theaspect of things outside, and he plunged at once into the gist of thematter before them.
"I see no reason to expect any change in our situation until the tideturns, which will be in about an hour. I can notice no change in thewind, nor do I think we have shifted our relative position to itscourse. Should the storm decrease towards morning, we shall probablyfind ourselves up the straits, in the vicinity of the capes. Only onedanger can possibly assail us, and that is being ground to pieces on theNew Brunswick shore. We must keep a watch to-night, commencing at abouttwelve o'clock. Regnar, will you keep the first watch of an hour and ahalf, and then call me?"
"Yes, sir; all right. I wake any time, and I know what 'nip' means. Wemust not get caught napping if that happens."
"Can't we get ashore and off of this horrid floe, if we strike on theother shore?" asked Waring, a little dolorously.
"I'm afraid not, my dear George. The straits here, nearly thirty mileswide, converge to about twelve at the capes; and this terrible gale,although we feel it scarcely at all in the heart of this berg, willdrive us with the rising ebb, at a velocity little less than ten milesan hour, through that narrow, choked pass, bordered by the ice-cliffswhich form, on the shallows every winter, to the height of from ten totwenty feet above the water."
"Should this berg be driven against the verge of these immovable cliffs,our only resource will be to take to our boats and retreat farther offon the floes; for a single mishap in crossing the terrible chasm whichborders the irresistible course of this great ice-stream, would consignus all to irremediable destruction. I propose that we thank God for hismercies thus far, and implore his aid in the future. Then we may liedown secure in His protection, and gather new strength for whatever maybe before us."
Thus saying, La Salle knelt, and in solemn but unfaltering tonesrepeated the short but inimitable prayer which embodies the needs ofevery petitioner. Peter crossed himself at the close, and broke out,--
"I feel 'fraid, all time till now. I hear Lund see ghost. I think wenever get back. Now I feel sure all go right, and I worry like woman nomore."
"Thank you, Peter. I shall depend on good service from you; and I maysay that I have little doubt of landing somewhere to-morrow, if theweather clears so that we can see. Come, Regnie, get the rest of thosedry decoys out of the boat, and we'll turn in for two or three hours,when you must take the first watch."
Regnar brought in about twenty bundles more of fir-twigs, which werepiled against the wall so as to form a kind of slanting pillow, againstwhich the party might rest their backs and heads in a half-sittingposture, without being chilled by the ice-wall of their narrowdormitory. Waring drew his seal-skin cap over his ears, turned up hiswide coat-collar of the same costly fur, and placed himself next toPeter, who, as the worst clad of the party, wrapped himself in his dingyblanket, and seated himself at the back of the hut. Regnar, in hisCanadian capote, was next, and La Salle with difficulty found roombetween himself and the door for his faithful dog, whose natural warmthhad already dried his long fur, and made him a very welcome bed-fellowunder such circumstances. Thus disposed, it was not long before they allfell asleep; and at twelve o'clock, La Salle, only half awake, gaveRegnar his watch, and saw the resolute boy go out into the storm tocommence his lonely vigil.
Scarcely feeling that he had more than got fairly to sleep again, he wasagain awakened by Regnar, who said in a low voice, "'Tis two o'clock,master; but I would not waken you if I did not think that the floe hasshifted sides, for we are no longer under a lee. I hear too, at times,cracking and grinding of the ice, and I think we are not far fromshore."
La Salle hurriedly went out. The wind blew into his very teeth, as heemerged from the narrow door; but it seemed no warmer or colder, and thesnow fell much the same as before. Near them, through the storm, anotherberg of equal height with their own seemed to appear at times, and thecrash of falling and breaking ice arose on all sides. Still, for an hournothing could be seen, until between three and four the snow gave placeto a sleety rain, and the watchers saw that they were passing withfrightful rapidity a line of jagged ice-cliffs, not two hundred yardsaway. La Salle called his companions, and they watched for nearly anhour in constant expectation of having to take to their boat.
The pressure was tremendous, and on every side floes heaped up theirdebris on each other, and pinnacles forced into collision were groundinto common ruin. Now shut out from view in darkness and storm, and nowclose at hand in the multitudinous shiftings of the ice, the immovableand gigantic buttresses of the ice-pool ground into powder acres oflevel floe, and bergs containing hundreds of thousands of tons of ice.Along that terrible line of impact rolled and heaved a chaos of mealysludge and gigantic fragments, while from time to time a mass of manytons would be thrown, like a child's plaything, high up amid the debrisalready heaped along the inaccessible shore. Half a dozen times thestartled voyagers seized their boat to drag her down from the berg, asthe shore-ice gnawed into the sides of their narrowing ice-field.
At last a move appeared inevitable. The distance between their refugeand the shore was less than fifty yards, and in the gray of the morningthey saw castle after castle crushed off by this fearful attrition,while high above their heads rose the ruin-strewed and inhospitableice-foot.
"Stand by, lads, to move the boats, when I give the word. Look, Regnar!What is that above the cliff?"
"That a light-house, I think. Guess that on Cape Torment. No light therein winter; not many vessels here then."
"Yes, we are passing the capes, and not a mile distant is the hostelryof Tom Allan. Well, we can't land, that's certain; and as we can't, Ihope we shall soon get into a wider channel. How the trees fly past! Ah,here the pressure lessens; we shall soon be above the narrows, and ifthe tide only serves--Good Heaven! what is that?"
An eddy seemed to catch the floe as he spoke, and whirling like a top,it brought between it and the shore a fantastically-shaped berg, atleast twenty-five feet high. The "nip" was but momentary; but the loftyshaft and its floating base cracked like a mirror, the huge fabric fellinto ruins, and one of its pieces, striking the smaller boat, crushed itinto utter uselessness.
La Salle viewed the wreck of his little bark ruefully a moment.
"Well, the worst is over, and we are fortunate in losing so little, forit might have struck the larger boat, and that would have been indeed aloss. Come, boys, we have passed Cape Torment; let us pick some of thosebirds and get breakfast, for we shan't land this day, with an easterlygale hurrying the ice-pack thus to the north-west."