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Steve Young, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 14. The Land Of Peaks |
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_ CHAPTER FOURTEEN. THE LAND OF PEAKS "Here, Steve! Hi, my lad, wake up!" "Eh? Yes! What is it, whales?" cried the boy, hurrying into his clothes. "Come and look. You wanted something fresh." It was the captain who roused him up the very next morning, and on reaching the deck he was perfectly astounded at the scene before him. There was no more monotony in the view, for there before him and spreading to right and left was as lovely a land as the human mind could conceive. It was twenty or thirty miles away, and as Steve Young gazed it was at peak after peak rising up toward the skies, all dazzling with ice and snow, and dyed by the distance, of the most lovely tints of amethyst and sapphire blue, while the icy pinnacles were fretted with silver and gold. Upon the slopes of the lower hills there were even patches of a dull green, made beautiful by the brilliant sunshine, while the steeper mountains were of rich orange and brown or of a clear, pure grey. "Is this Spitzbergen?" asked Steve. "Yes, and well named," said the captain, who was using his glass; "the land of mountain points--_spitzes_ as they call them, or _piz_ in North Italy among the mountains there." The wind still favoured them, and they rapidly glided on toward what seemed for hours to be fairyland, and so lovely that Steve spent nearly all the time upon deck, scarcely allowing himself enough to obtain the necessary meals. At last he came to the conclusion that he must be tired and surfeited with the view, for somehow it did not appear to be so beautiful as at first. The dazzling peaks of glittering ice shrank lower and lower, till they disappeared behind hills which had hardly been seen before, and now rose apparently higher and higher, with every ledge deep in snow, and the steep slopes and perpendicular precipices that in some places ran down to the sea looking grim, grey, or black as they were granite or a dark shaley slate. Not a tree was visible, only in places traces of dry-looking heathery stuff and patches of what looked to be moss. In places the water seemed to be foaming down from a great height inland to the sea; but in a short time, as they neared the land, the cascades proved to be ice, and Steve woke to the fact that the place was far more beautiful at a distance, when its rugged asperities were softened and seen through a medium which tinged everything of a delicious blue. That he was not alone in this way of thinking was soon proved by the doctor's remark as he joined him. "What a land of desolation, Steve!" he said. "I thought you said it was beautiful?" "Yes, at a distance, my lad. But close in: look at it--ice, snow, rocks, everywhere. I suppose we are too early in the summer for anything green and bright to be seen." "Here's Johannes," said Steve, as the big Norwegian came by. "I say, what shall we find here, Johannes? It looks to be a very bleak spot." "Not for a visit, sir," replied the man. "It is a grand place for game." "Game? What game?" "Reindeer, sir. A good fat buck will be a pleasant addition to the salt and preserved meat." "Of course; and what else?" "A kind of grouse, sir; abundance of wild ducks. Then, for the use of the ship for cargo, there should be an abundance of seals, and no doubt before long we shall encounter the walrus, if other people have not been before us and scared them away. Lastly, sir, I think it very likely that we shall find your friends in one of the sheltered fiords along the coast." That was enough. Steve glowed with excitement, and when, later on, the vessel was steered slowly in between a couple of great grim headlands and quitted the heaving sea for still water, his eyes began to search the shore on both sides for a signal-staff or some signs of occupation. But at the end of half a mile sails had to be lowered, for a barrier of ice extended right across the fiord, and any further search would require to be performed on foot. But no one repined at that. It was delightful after being cooped up on shipboard so long. A boat was lowered, guns and ammunition placed therein, the four Norwegians took their places with the walrus lances, and, very much to Andrew's disgust, he was not selected to act as gunbearer, Hamish being taken instead. "We don't want to be left in the lurch again, Steve," said the captain, "if we do happen to meet a bear. What do you say, Johannes? There are bears here, I suppose?" "For certain, sir. You never know where you may meet them. But this is hardly the place. You see, there are not likely to be any seals here. Where there are seals there are pretty sure to be bears." "What are we likely to get, then?" asked the doctor. "Deer, sir. If we go cautiously up the valley yonder, we shall see the deer where the snow has melted off the slope. There will be moss there." But a long and tedious tramp over exceedingly tangled ground followed their landing, and they trudged along among stones, over snow, and through swampy patches, where there were wild fowl; but these were left in peace in the hope of a more substantial addition to the larder being found. Snow was all around them, but the sun poured down with so much power that they were all pretty well exhausted when the captain proposed that they should endeavour to make their way back by another valley, separated from the one they were in merely by a lofty hog-back-like range of rocky hill. "I saw wild fowl going in that direction, and we must direct our attention to them now." Jakobsen gave his opinion that such a course was quite possible, and leading the way he struck along a narrow gulley, which evidently connected the two valleys at the end of the range. The walking was worse than ever there, and Steve was beginning to lag and wish that some one else would carry his heavy gun, when Jakobsen, who had passed out of sight behind a chaotic mass of rocks, suddenly came hurriedly back. "He has seen deer," whispered Johannes, who was close beside Steve, and seemed to look upon himself as the boy's bodyguard. Jakobsen held up his hand to make the party stop, and the next minute he was close up. "Reindeer," he whispered. "Four just round the point yonder feeding on the moss. Come." "Stay back, the rest of you," said the captain in a low voice. "You can come, Steve, my lad, and you, Johannes, be cautious." Then the novel kind of deer-stalking commenced, Jakobsen leading and taking advantage of every block of stone, turning round at times to make sure that his companions were keeping out of sight, and at last coming to a stand at where the defile they were threading opened out into a plain. He was behind a mass of rocks whose hollows were filled up with ice; and when all were together he whispered to them to be ready, and then clambered up till he was high enough to peer over cautiously before descending. "They are very wild and cautious," he whispered; "but they have not moved. Go forward now, creeping from rock to rock, and you are sure of one or two." "Come, Steve," whispered the captain. "Don't fire unless I tell you. Be ready to hand me your gun if I miss." He went off to the right of the pile of rocks, and the doctor took the left, all stooping and sheltering themselves till the end of the stones was reached; and upon raising himself a little so as to peer round the last, there, not fifty yards away, and grazing or tearing up the moss with their feet, were four deer, with their peculiarly shaped, branching antlers, and all apparently in perfect ignorance of danger being so near. "Can you see Mr Handscombe?" whispered the captain, drawing back to speak. "No, he is not in sight." "I'll wait, then, so as to give him a chance of getting within shot as well. It will steady my hand, too." "What's that?" whispered Steve, as a sound like one stone being thrown against another reached his ear. The captain reached forward again, and uttered an exclamation which brought Steve close up just in time to see the four deer bounding away, and to have his ears half deafened by the report of the piece, for the captain fired directly. "Gone! Lost them!" he cried, as the deer tore on. "Fire again." "With small shot?" said the captain. "No use, my lad. And I should have been so glad to have got a brace of these deer. It would have been such a good change for the men." "Hooray!" shouted Steve. "One's down!" For all at once the foremost of the deer stopped short, then staggered on a few yards, stopped again, and fell. At that moment a rifle shot rang out from their left, and the last of the flying deer pitched headlong amongst the stones and lay kicking. "Well done, doctor! and a very long shot, too! Ahoy, Johannes! Jakobsen!" he shouted as he placed a fresh cartridge in his gun. Then, as the men came up, "There you are! We'll get back to the boat with the fresh provisions. What shall you do, cut them up here?" "No, sir; tie their legs, and carry them on the lance-poles. We are enough to manage them." In a very short time the two deer were being borne, hanging head downwards, over the rough ground till the ice was reached, and finally the boat, the welcome supply of fresh meat being greeted with a cheer as it was hauled up over the side to the deck of the _Hvalross_; and that evening the cook had a busy time, while, as Steve remarked, the smell of that kind of cooking was far better than that which prevailed when the Norsemen were busy rendering down the oil. _ |
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