Part 43 (1/2)
”Can you come down, Marsham?” said the doctor ”It is many hours since we have broken our fast”
”Eh?” came back ”Yes Ahoy, there, Johannes! that will do Cohtfully ”Yes, weto eat, for we shall have plenty of tiht across the inlet, and said quietly:
”A man needs to be well educated in the ways of nature in the north to navigate his shi+p Our only hope now is--”
”Let's talk of that e have studied nature's daily wants,” said the doctor, s ”We are safe, are we not?”
”Oh yes,” said the captain bitterly, ”we are quite safe now”
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
THE NORTHERN PRISON
As the doctor said, _il faut h, their appetites were so sharp-set that they made a most hearty repast, and were ready to declare theht that this was rather boastful, and due in a great measure to the fact that they all, himself included, felt that, for the present at any rate, they had no danger to encounter, but he said nothing
In fact, when they returned on deck the noise of the ice had died away into a distant e, nearly perpendicular walls, and shattered rocks of dark stone made brilliant with ice, looked so beautiful that their position appeared to be ratulation than complaint Certainly they were blocked in; but ice that shut theh set them free; and, besides, ian or Highland coasts-- channels inside islands; and consequently, for aught they knew to the contrary, there was a way out to the north which ht not be closed
But the captain had no intention ofexploration on that day He was content to run on a short distance, to anchor in what looked to be a snug berth behind a jutting mass of the rocky side which sheltered the down the channel, and faced the sunny south The fires were then raked out, and that night, after the watch was set, those ere free indulged in a long and ht and cheerful, to find the others the same The intense cold which accompanied the storm had passed, and there in the sheltered fiord the air felt, by coh, quite salutary The change one to rest, for the warreat extent, so that ropes and stays had resumed their customary aspect, and the snohich had penetrated the furled sails, was coe, and Steve eagerly waited for the captain's first proceedings in this unknown land--unknown as far as any one there could say
Watty Links was sunning hi at the galley door, his head resting upon his paws, and his figure suggesting that heseemed to be fast asleep, but one eye opened a little as Steve approached, and his tail was raised to give three sole up, yawned, stretched hiave Watty a word, too; but that gentlerunted, and the lad went on to where theof the deck
Here he encountered Mr Lowe, the hy to exaes But she had been too well prepared for her journey into ice-land with a casing of tough wood as a kind of partial outer skin, and this had only been rubbed and channelled a little by the blocks which had tried to plough her sides, so that he had nothing but good to report to the captain, who had been about for an hour looking bright and eager for the long day's work
Breaking away froreeted hirave way
”Well, Mr Steve,” said Johannes, ”I suppose we shall begin hunting directly; there is plenty of gas fros,” said Steve; ”they would all be bloay by the stors on the bare stones generally? Oh, but of course you knew that,” he added hurriedly, as it struck him that the Norseman must know ten times as much as he
”Yes,” said Johannes quietly ”I know that, and I have also noticed hoonderfully they stay on those shelves in spite of the great winds that blow No doubt many were blown off in the storm; but many would stay”
”Why, do the sea-birds stick the ”But you have seen the strange shape of s of sea-birds They are not like those of other fowls”
”No, they're thick at one end and very thin at the other, going off quite straight instead of being rounded”
”That is why they stay on the rocks,” said the Norseht, thin end flies round, and they begin to spin so fast that you can hardly see them turn”
”That's curious,” said Steve, who looked hard at Johannes, as if ready to think that thehim a travellers' tale But the Norsee in fiction, and the boy hastened to ask about their prospects