Chapter 7. The Lonely Isle

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_ CHAPTER SEVEN. THE LONELY ISLE

With the steam up the captain's task became easier; but it was dangerous work in that dense fog, and some hours of nervous navigation followed amongst the ice-floes, which gathered round them of all sizes, from masses which went spinning away at a touch from the iron prow of the _Hvalross_ to huge fields acres in extent, broken away from the icy barrier to the northward, to be carried by the current south into the warm waters, where they would gradually melt away. So heavy were some of the shocks received, in spite of all watchfulness, care, and orders to go astern, that Captain Marsham was at one time for following the example of the drifting floes and going south. But there was the knowledge that somewhere, not far from where they were creeping along, the almost unknown island of Jan Mayen must lie; and it seemed a pity to leave it now, when the first time the sun appeared they would be able to learn their position for certain; so he held on.

"I've lost count," said Steve at last. "Is it to-day or to-morrow? The clock says it's eleven; but is it eleven to-night or eleven to-morrow morning?"

"Eleven to-night, sir, if you like to call it so," said Johannes. "We're up so far north now that the sun never sets for months."

"Never rises, you mean. Where is he?"

"You'll see soon, when the fog lifts."

"But will it break up?"

"Of course, sir. Wait a bit, and it will be all hot sunshine, and always day."

"Go aloft now, my lad," said Captain Marsham; "the fog seems to be thinner higher up. You may be able to get an observation."

Johannes started for the main shrouds, and Steve saw the captain's beard, all covered with moisture from the mist, twitch as if he were laughing.

"At me," thought the lad; and the captain evidently divined his idea, for he said quietly:

"Wait a bit, Steve, till you get a little more confidence. You would be certain to feel nervous if you went aloft now."

"I wish he'd forget all about that," muttered the lad.

A minute later there was the loud snap of the cask bottom falling into its place, and the captain hailed the Norseman.

"Clearer there?"

"Just a wee bit, sir," came from up in the clouds.

"Make out anything?"

"Can't see the length of the ship, sir; but I can hear breakers quite plain."

"Silence!" cried the captain, and, to use the familiar expression, a pin might have been heard to drop on the deck.

"I can hear nothing," said the captain softly. "Can you, my boy?"

Steve listened for some time.

"No, sir, not a sound."

"We can hear nothing below. Try once more."

Again there was silence for a few moments, and then, sounding muffled and strange from the invisible man in the thick cloud, which made even the main-yard look indistinct, came:

"Breakers, sir, quite plain, away on the starboard bow."

"On ice or rock?"

"So faint, sir, I can't tell yet."

A couple of hours later the low, murmurous roar could be heard from the deck by listening attentively; but it was impossible to say whether it was caused by breakers on a rocky coast, which might be that of Jan Mayen, or by the sea beating on the vast icy barrier lying to the north, near which the officers felt that they must be. So the engine was slowed till the rate of progress was deemed to be sufficient to keep the vessel from drifting south, and then they waited for the first breathings of the wind which would break up the dense mist that shut them in, chilly, wet, and horribly depressing; and night and day seemed to Steve always the same, just as if they had sailed into a latitude where everything was Welsh flannel in a state of solution.

This lasted for many hours, during which time Johannes ascended to the crow's-nest again and again, and then one of his companions took his turn.

He had hardly reached his lofty perch, when it seemed to Steve on the deck that the noise of the breakers suddenly grew louder, and he was about to say so when there was a shout from aloft.

"Fog's lifting, sir."

And then, as if it were a magical change, the mist overhead grew opalescent, then lighter still, as there was a warm breath of air sweeping over the dingy, murky sea. At that moment the dull, distant murmur of water beating against an obstacle grew louder, as the fog rolled away from the ship off to the north, and five minutes later the crew burst into a loud cheer; for, flashing from the waters and dazzling their eyes, the sun burst through the now iridescent mist, and so quickly that it was hard to realise the truth that astern, and to southward, the sea was sparkling like some wondrous stretch of sapphire blue, while the yards, stays, and ropes of the ship, which were hung with great mist-drops, glittered like diamonds in the glorious light.

The change was indeed wonderful, and, feeling as if he must climb up somewhere and shout, and then that he should like to run to the door of the galley and shake hands with Watty Links, Steve drew in long, deep breaths of soft, warm air. But he neither shouted nor shook hands with the cook's boy, for he stood with Captain Marsham and the doctor, waiting for the explanation of the heavy, increasing roar which came from somewhere behind the vast curtain of mist which lay drifting to the north-west, a couple of hundred yards on the starboard bow, and rising up to the skies, now one glorious span of silver and gold.

They had not long to wait, for the fog was gliding away fast before the soft, summer wind.

All at once the blue water stretching from them to the foot of the mist began to look white, a minute later it could be seen to be in wild commotion, and in another minute to north and south there lay, not more than a mile away, a wave-beaten beach, upon which the blue waves beat and fell back in dazzling silver and diamond spray with a tremendous roar.

But there was plenty yet to see; for, as the mist reached the shore, it seemed to grow more dense, and began to roll in great clouds up some vast slope, and then higher and higher, revealing a long, narrow beach; then a line of chaotic rocks, which had fallen from above; then higher and higher, cliff upon cliff, weather-beaten to a hundred hues; and up above these again, towering mountains; lastly, as if to give the culminating beauty to the scene, the clouds rolled away from one tremendous peak, attended by a score of minor heights, crowned with dazzling ice and snow, vivid and beautiful in the glorious summer sun.

"That's worth some trouble to come and see!" said Captain Marsham.

"Worth trouble?" cried Steve, whose heart was swelling with delight and the words he wanted to say. "Oh!"

That ejaculation contained all. It was very short, but it meant everything; and it was some time before he woke up to the knowledge of what he was gazing at and what was being done.

It was with quite a start that he turned on being touched upon the shoulder, and found Dr Handscombe at his side.

"Well, Steve boy," said the doctor, "what do you think of Jan Mayen?"

"Is this Jan Mayen--the island?"

"Yes."

"Beautiful! lovely! What a place to live in!"

"Delightful!" said the doctor drily. "Not a tree hardly a green thing, eternal ice and snow!"

"Oh, but it's dazzling, lovely!"

"Yes, when the mist's off it," said the doctor.

"And it is not quite off that mountain."

"Yes, quite off. That smoke you are looking at is from a volcano."

"And shall we land and explore it?"

"I hope so."

"When?"

"That depends on the captain. I hope to spend a few good days there."

"And do you think _they_ are here?"

"Impossible to say yet," said the doctor. "If our friends have taken refuge here, it will be on this southern shore, where they could get most sunshine; but I can see no signal flying, no sign of a wreck. But there, I daresay Captain Marsham will run close in for us to explore."

By this time the mist had been driven back so far that they saw, opening before them, white and glistening in the sunshine like a band of silver stretching beyond the floe, the ice of the polar ocean. It was miles away to north, to east, and west, and apparently only a few feet above the sea, that, strain their eyes as they would, there was always the floe offering itself as a barrier to stay further progress in that direction.

To their left, and extending toward the north, there was the island; but apparently, too, it did not go very far in the latter direction, but trended round, as if that were the termination of the island. Southward they could not make out its extent.

"Well, Handscombe, what do you say to landing and examining the wreck?"

It was the captain who spoke, and the doctor and Steve both echoed his last word.

"Wreck?"

"Yes; didn't you see it. There, high up yonder, this side of the sharp point which runs out to the east. I daresay that was the cause of the wreck. Here, take the glass."

He handed his telescope to the doctor, who made a long inspection, and then passed it to Steve, who took it with hands trembling from eagerness to view what was in all probability the remains of his uncle's vessel, whose return had been so anxiously awaited all through the past winter, but in the spring given up as being ice-bound somewhere in the north.

Yes, there was the hull of a good-sized ship fast on the rocks, and with decks ripped up by the waves, so that, as the vessel lay over on its port side, Steve could peer with the glass right into the hold between the deck beams. There was the stump of the bowsprit pointing upward toward the stony cliffs, but the masts were completely gone, and an ugly gap in the port side suggested that it would not be long before the timbers quite disappeared.

Steve handed the glass back with a sigh, and his face contracted.

"No, no; don't look like that," said the captain gently; "we don't know that this is the _Ice Blink_."

"You are saying that to comfort me," replied the boy sadly. "It must be."

"Why?"

"You said it was possible that they might have made for Jan Mayen and been frozen up there."

"I did."

"Well, there is the vessel," said Steve piteously.

"How do you know?"

The boy looked at him almost angrily, and pointed to the wreck, as if there was the answer to the question.

"That is not satisfactory proof. I have been looking hard, but the stern is battered away, and there is no name. It may be any one of the hundreds of boats that sailed north during the past ten years, or a derelict brought up by the current and washed ashore."

But Steve shook his head.

"Ah! you are determined to take the worst view of it, my lad," said the captain kindly. "Even if it is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_, Steve, my boy, they must have had plenty of stores and timber, and we may find them with a snug cabin built up, and all well and hearty."

"You think so?" cried Steve eagerly.

"I do not say I think so, my boy. I say it is possible, if--mind _if_-- that is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_."

"Of course," said the doctor encouragingly, as he used his glass. "They may be up one of those gullies in some sheltered spot inland."

"No," said the captain decisively; "I doubt very much whether there are any sheltered spots inland. To me it seems as if the whole of the interior is one icy desert. Look at that gully, Handscombe, there to the right. A regular alpine glacier running nearly down to the shore."

"Yes; but still there may be sheltered valleys."

"Of course; but it strikes me that if we find our friends it will be somewhere along the narrow stretch of shore. But we'll see."

"What are you going to do, sir--land?" cried Steve eagerly.

"Yes, when we can find a landing-place. No boat could get ashore here. We'll go gently along to the north, and keep a good look-out both for them and a sheltered cove."

And, giving the necessary orders, the _Hvalross_ began to glide slowly in toward the wreck, with a man in the chains heaving the lead, and always finding deep water till they were quite close in to where the surf beat heavily with its deafening roar upon the rocks.

A boat was in readiness for landing an exploring party, with guns and spears in case of game being met with, or, as the doctor pleasantly put it, a polar bear should come down prepared to make game of them.

Even when close in there was nothing visible about the wreck which indicated its name or the port to which it belonged, and, the course being altered, they steamed along at a safe distance from the rocks, carefully scanning the shore and the cliffs right up to where the ice and snow lay thickly. But there was no sign of human habitation, no signal, no living creature but the sea-birds, which flew about the face of the cliffs in flocks, looking in places as thick as the flakes in a snow-squall, shrieking, whistling, and circling round to gaze down at the strange visitors to their solitude.

Seen from the vessel, a more lovely spot could not be imagined; its beauty was dazzling; and Steve's spirits rose as he felt that if the captain and crew of the _Ice Blink_ had escaped safely from the wreck, they had found a glorious island in which to make their sojourn.

He said something of the kind to Captain Marsham, but there was a saddened look and a shake of the head.

"Heavenly-looking, Steve, my boy," he said, "with the blue sea and sky, the silvered rocks, and the lovely greys, reds, and browns of the cliffs; but don't you see why it is so beautiful? Once this glorious sunshine is blotted out by a cloud, and you have before you a terrible spot--desolate, sterile, storm-swept. Fancy what it must be when the arctic night, with its months of darkness, sets in!"

Steve was silent, and his heart sank for the time, as he saw the truth of the captain's words; but there was hope still waiting to assert itself: he had his glass in his hand, with which he swept the shore as they steamed on mile after mile, till all at once he uttered a shout.

"What is it?" said the captain, for the boy was pointing to where there was a perfect wilderness of rocks stretching down from the cliffs to the sea.

"Some one! Look! There he goes! He is trying to get down to the sea to hail us."

Steve had seen the moving figure with the naked eye, and his hands trembled so with excitement that he could not adjust his glass.

"A bear--a monster," said the captain, who was gazing through his.

"A bear in an island?" said the doctor in a tone of doubt; and Steve, whose hopes had been cast down by this announcement, felt his spirits rise again.

"An island? Yes," said the captain; "but an island hemmed in on two or three sides by the ice. Look, we are close to the pack which touches it on the north. We can get no farther this way, and I daresay that the channel between the island and Greenland is one solid floe. Yes, that's a fine bear; and look, there is its mate."

Steve shaded his eyes and gazed shoreward, to see the second bear slowly rise up on its hind legs, looking in the distance wonderfully like some human being, watching the vessel gliding slowly along over the clear water.

"You will land and have a try for the bears?" said the doctor; and at another time Steve would have felt all eagerness to be of the party; but he was disappointed, and his eyes were wandering over the shore, which suddenly ended and gave place to ice.

"Where shall we land?" said the captain quietly. "No boat can get ashore amongst these breakers, and we can go no farther north. It will be deep water right up to the floe, so we will go close to it in case there is a passage between it and the land. But I doubt it; and our friends yonder will save their skins unless we can land south and come up to them along the shore."

"Then you think they have come over the ice?"

"Of course; just as reindeer do from other regions hundreds of miles away."

They steamed on, passing the bears, which, after watching them for a time as if feeling their security, went on searching among the rock pools and crevices for food. A quarter of an hour later the engine was slowed; five minutes later it was stopped, and the _Hvalross_ lay in the crystal water at the foot of a perpendicular ice cliff ten or fifteen feet high, wonderfully regular at the top, and extending straight to the land on one side, where it met the high rocky cliffs. On their right it stretched away, as far as the telescopes could help them to see, an impassable icy barrier, shutting off all ships from further progress to the north.

"You see," said the captain, "we cannot land here, and we can go no farther till the ice breaks up or opens out in channels."

"Don't you think a boat could land just there, sir, where the sea is calmer?" said Steve, who felt a strange attraction to the shore.

Captain Marsham did not answer, but stood looking in the direction pointed out by Steve, where for a few moments the shore did look quiet; the next minute a heavy swell glided slowly in, rose, curled over, and deluged the shore with white water.

"Do you want me to answer your question, Steve?" he said at last. "That breaker was at least ten feet high. Do you think a boat could live there?"

"No," said Steve sorrowfully. "But you will try to the south, sir?"

"Of course, my lad," was the reply; and the engine was reversed, the _Hvalross_ backing away from the glittering ice cliff, in which the waves were working gigantic honeycombs of the most delicate sapphire blue, in and out of which the waters raced and made strange sucking and splashing sounds, peculiarly suggestive of savage sea monsters gliding in and out and playing amidst the icy caverns. Then, with her head to the south, she glided swiftly back, retracing the ground already passed over, leaving the bears still busy amongst the rocks, too much engrossed to give them even a passing look; and soon after they were once more abreast of the wreck, and gliding south, but with the engine slowed once more and the man in the chains busy with the lead. _

Read next: Chapter 8. Disappointment

Read previous: Chapter 6. First Perils

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