Crusoes of the Frozen North by Gordon Stables
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Gordon Stables >> Crusoes of the Frozen North
[Illustration: THEY FOUND TOM AT THE LAKE-SIDE, STANDING OVER
A HUGE DEAD BEAR.]
The Crusoes Of
The Frozen North
From the Well-known Story by
Dr. Gordon Stables
CHAPTER I
"I'm sure of one thing," said Aralia to her little sister Pansy, as they
sat together one lovely summer afternoon on the garden seat, and gazed
away and away far over the North Sea. "I'm quite sure of one thing.
Nobody ever could have so good an uncle as our uncle. Now, could anybody,
Pansy?"
"Oh no!" answered Pansy, shaking her pretty head. Pansy was hardly eight
years old, and always agreed with her older sister, who was nearly
eleven.
"How I wish he were home again from his old ship," sighed Aralia, "and
Tom with him!"
"Well, Ara, we can sit here hours and hours every day and watch the sea,
can't we?"
"Yes, and we shall easily know the ship. As she goes by, shell set all
her flags a-flying, and, if Father isn't at home, Mother will send up our
great red flag on the garden pole. Oh dear! I could nearly cry for joy to
think of it!"
"And me too!" said Pansy.
"And me too!" Veevee seemed to say, as he gave a short bark, and, jumping
down from the seat, ran round the garden, looking like a fluffy white
ball.
The sea was very blue, only patched with green wherever a cloud-shadow
fell on it. Down beneath the cliff on which the cottage stood, the waves
broke lazily in long white lines of foam. On the sea itself were vessels
of almost every kind, from the little fishing craft with brown sails to
great ships sailing away to distant lands.
Aralia knew what class of vessel each was by its rig; her best of uncles
had taught her. And well could she use the spy-glass too, which she now
held to her right eye. It had been hard at first to keep the left closed,
but she could manage it now quite easily without asking Pansy to clap a
hand over it.
Soon she began to talk in little gasps:
"Oh, Pansy--I think--Oh, I'm nearly sure--yes--yes--it must be! it _is_
Uncle's ship! I can see the flags all a-flying--Hurrah! Come and look!"
[Illustration]
Pansy sat on her sister's knee and peeped through the glass. Then both
the children started up and waved their arms in the air at the far-off
ship. They were just about to rush off to tell Mother, when their cousin
Frank came up. He was a lad of about thirteen or fourteen, but he was so
tall and manly that he looked older.
Frank came into the garden with a rush and a run when he heard the girls
call out. A fishing basket was slung over his back, from which the tails
of fish stuck out, showing what good sport he had had.
"Hillo, Ara! Hillo, Pansy! What are you dancing and 'hoo-laying' about?
Been stung by a wasp, my little Pansy Blossom?"
"Oh, Frank," cried the elder girl, "look through the glass! Uncle's
coming! Look at the ship, and all the flags."
The boy was almost as excited now as the girls themselves, and presently
they were all running in a string through the pretty garden towards the
cottage with the news, Veevee bringing up the rear and barking bravely.
* * * * *
Rat-tat-tat at the door next afternoon, and little Pansy ran to open it,
expecting to see the postman, but the knocking was only a bit of Tom's
fun. Frank had left for Hull the evening before to meet him, and here was
Tom the sailor, tall and bonny and dark. Pansy jumped into his arms like
a baby, Aralia rushed to meet him, and his mother came out, though a
little more slowly. When the bustle was all over, and Tom had answered
nearly a hundred questions, they all went in to tea.
"Yes, Aralia, Uncle is coming up from Hull with Father and Cousin Frank,
and we shall stop here three whole days before we go back to clear ship
and pay off"
"And," added Tom, "Uncle has something so strange and nice to tell you!"
"What is it, Tom?" said his two sisters, both in a breath as it were.
"I can't, won't, and sha'n't tell you, girls," cried Tom, laughing,
"because that would spoil the fun when Uncle comes."
So all, even Veevee, who would not get off Tom's knees for a minute, had
to be as patient as they could. But the time passed so quickly, listening
to all this hearty young sailor had to tell of his voyage to the far
north, that before anyone was aware it was nearly seven o'clock.
And now down jumps Veevee and runs towards the door, barking aloud as if
he were a very big dog.
"They're coming! They're coming! Veevee knows!" And coming they were
indeed.
Tom had had a hearty welcome when he arrived, but when this best of
uncles at last managed to sit down on the sofa: "Shiver my timbers,
sister," he said to Mrs. Dunlop, "if it isn't worth while going all the
way to the back of the North Pole just to get such a welcome home as
this."
Jack Staysail was a sailor every inch of him. He had roughed it so much
in the Greenland seas, and been out in so many storms, that his face was
as red as a boiled beet; but his eyes were as full of fun and merriment
as a boy's.
"We're not all here yet," he said. "I have asked my friend, Professor
Peterkin, the Swede, to come in to-night with his mastiff." When their
uncle mentioned the mastiff, Aralia and Pansy began to tremble for
Veevee, but Tom only laughed.
"Why," he said, "although Briton--that's his name--is big enough to
tackle a bear, he wouldn't injure a mouse."
It was nearly nine o'clock when the professor arrived. Briton marched in
first, and a bigger and more noble-looking fellow was never seen. Veevee
said he couldn't stand another dog in the place. So he started up,
barking loudly, and offering to fight the mastiff to the death on the
spot. But Briton stepped gingerly over the little dog, and went and lay
quietly down on the rug.
Then in bustled the professor himself, very droll, very small,
clean-shaven, merry-eyed, and with as much hair on his great head as
would have stuffed a cushion. He bowed and smiled to all, patted the
children, and at last sat down to supper.
All made a very hearty supper, though it was long past the children's
bed-time. Only Uncle didn't come home every night, you know.
When they had finished, Briton had a huge dish of scraps; Veevee sat
watching him eat, and the children were very much surprised to see
Briton shove one of the biggest and best morsels towards him. The tiny
dog picked up the titbit and wagged his tail. After he had eaten it,
he went and lay down beside Briton on the hearth-rug.
The "something nice" that Uncle had to tell was soon told now.
Captain Staysail cleared his throat before he began: "Ahem! Oh,
you're all waiting, are you, to hear what I've got to say? Well,
then--ahem!--Professor Peterkin--"
"Pete--Pete--Pete--Pete!" cried the droll, wee man, stopping him, and
one would have thought he was calling a dog. "I'm not going to be called
Professor, and I won't Peterkin. Just Pete, as I was on board ship, as I
am to everybody, and must be to you.
"But just look here, Staysail, you're a sailor, and you can't make a
speech. Let me speak." And speak he did without waiting for a reply.
"It's all in a nutshell, dear Mr. and Mrs. Dunlop, and I'll tell you in
two or three sentences what your worthy sailor-brother would have kept
you up all night to hear. Now listen! Briton, you lie down! Good again!
Now I, Dan Peterkin, am a man who has been used to study hard, and think
hard. You follow me so far? Good again!
"Well, there is one thing has taken me years to work out, and that is,
where in this world gold and coal are to be found. And I've done it. I
can go right to the spots. One of them lies on an island right away up in
the Frozen North. And we're going there. Your brother, Mrs. Dunlop, is
going to take me.
"Well, we may have some hardships. Paff! What do we care? We shall win
such wealth as has never been seen before. You follow still? Good again!
Well, I go to a town in the north last spring, when the seal ships are
all there, and I look for an honest face. I find Staysail. I say to him:
'You give me a passage to Greenland, my friend.' He say: 'What for I give
you passage?' I smile. I take him by one button, and pull him all the way
into a private room of the hotel. Briton follows. We all dine well--we
all come out smiling--Briton too. And now, my friends, all is arranged.
We sail away and away and away next spring for the seas of ice and the
islands of gold.
"That is all. You have followed me? Good again!" And once more the
professor sat down, and the big arm-chair seemed to swallow him up.
* * * * *
Ara and Pansy lay awake a long time that night thinking of what Pete had
said. But the next day they went about their duties as usual. They did
not go to school, as they had a governess, of whom they were both very
fond. Nearly half their day would be spent out-of-doors with her and
Veevee. In spring and summer they would gather flowers inland, but what
they liked best was to play about on the sands, to go out boating with an
old seaman they knew, or climb the rocks and get into very steep and
giddy places.
[Illustration]
Poor Frank Dunlop was an orphan, and was now the adopted son of Ara's
father. As for Tom, who was a year or two older, his father had wanted
him to go into business at home in England, but nothing would satisfy the
lad but going to sea, so he had been sent to rough it with his uncle in
the stormy seas of the Frozen North. The cruise now ended was his second,
and Tom wasn't tired of the sea yet.
Frank went back to school, and appeared no more at the cottage until
Christmas came round. Then not only Uncle, but Pete and Briton came to
spend a whole fortnight with the Dunlop family, and to make their final
plans for the spring. And I should say that no fortnight seemed to pass
so quickly to the children as did the two weeks when their visitors
stayed with them.
At last, one day in early spring, there left Hull on a trial trip one of
the handsomest little steamers, and, for her size, one of the strongest
that ever put to sea from that port. She was Captain Staysail's new ship,
the _Valhalla_. Everything on board, both on deck and between decks, and
in the saloon, was as clean and beautiful as if she had been a royal
yacht. The decks were as white as ivory, the polished wood shone in the
sun, and the brass-work looked like gold. The saloon itself, with its
curtains, its mirrors, tables pillars, and piano, was really fit for a
fairy princess to live in. Everything had been prepared under the eye of
Professor Peterkin himself, so everything was perfect in its way.
Pansy, who was on board, and had been peeping in some of the rooms, said
to Aralia at last: "Oh, Aralia, what a dear little doll's house of a
cabin; I should like to live in it always!"
Neither of the children was sea-sick when the _Valhalla_ went out under
steam, and they had such fun with the sailors and the two dogs that they
were quite sorry when the ship once more steamed into port.
And didn't everybody sleep soundly that night in the hotel! I should say
so!
CHAPTER II
The merry month of May had hardly begun when the brave _Valhalla_ steamed
away on her perilous cruise to the far and icy north.
Frank, with his two little cousins, had begged leave to go to Hull in
order to see the very, very last of the beautiful ship and that best of
uncles, Captain Staysail. Leave had been given by their parents, because
"Wherever Frank is," said Mr. Dunlop, "the children are sure to be safe."
There had been a good deal of stir and bustle on the very last evening,
and many visitors had been to the _Valhalla_, for somehow word had gone
out that Professor Peterkin, the great Swedish traveller, was off to find
the North Pole!
And all believed that he would find it. Some of the sailors even went so
far as to say that he would bring it back with him rigged up as a mast of
his ship!
But by the time eight bells had rung out all was quiet. The hands had
turned in, and only Tom and two men were left on watch.
"Go forward," said Tom, "and have a cup of coffee and a smoke, and I'll
see to the safety of the ship here at the gangway."
The men took the young officer at his word, and it was not very long ere
their smoke was finished, and they, too, were fast asleep. Had any other
eyes than Tom's been watching the shore, about half an hour afterwards,
they must have noticed that something very strange was taking place.
Dark figures could be seen drawing near with stealthy footsteps to the
farther end of the gangway. Then they stopped as if in fear and dread.
But Tom whistled a long, low whistle, and three figures, muffled in
oil-skins, stole along the gangway and stepped silently on deck.
Then Tom sprang a small bull's-eye lantern, and let its light shine right
in front of him, so that no one meeting him could have told who or what
was stealing up behind. In the same quiet way he led the little party
down a ladder to the deck below, and then beneath hammocks filled with
sleeping sailors, and along a passage, until he came to a door, which he
carefully unlocked, and soon afterwards locked again.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
By midnight next night the _Valhalla_ was far out at sea, bearing to the
north, for Captain Staysail did not mean to touch at any of the English
or Scotch ports on this voyage.
The weather at first was very beautiful, and so it remained, with a calm
sea and hardly a breath of wind, until nearly sunset of the second day.
Then clouds began to bank up, dark and threatening, and the glass--so
Webb, the first mate, reported to the captain--was going tumbling down.
"We are going to have a blow, sir," he said, "and it's coming up sharp
behind us. I reckon, sir, we'll have a ten-knotter afore the middle watch
is called!"
"Well, then, have the fires banked, Mr. Webb, as soon as the wind is
strong enough to get way on her. I wouldn't set too much sail, and if it
does come a gale, I'd ease her right away. You know what she can do,
Mate."
"Ay, ay, sir!"
"Well, I think that's all."
But the mate didn't move.
"Anything else, Mr. Webb?"
"There is something else, sir," said the mate rather sheepishly.
"Well, out with it. Why, you look as if you'd seen a ghost!"
"Well, sir, there is a ghost, or demon, or something aboard of this very
ship, and some of the crew are in a state next door to mutiny about it."
"What on earth do you mean, Mr. Webb?"
The tall, handsome, fair-haired Webb leaned over the table and spoke to
Staysail almost in a whisper.
"It's the little professor they all blame, sir; and there are four of
them who swear the ship is haunted--that he keeps evil spirits under lock
and key for'ard--"
"But--but--Mr. Webb--Evil spirits under lock and key! Do you mean bad
rum? And who is he?"
"Hush, sir! don't talk so loud. He's walking the deck now. It's the
professor I mean, sir. As to the evil spirits, I've heard them
myself--mutter, mutter, squeak, squeak, squeak! Ugh! it is awful,
sir--awful!"
And the mate shuddered as he spoke.
Now, Staysail was always a good laugher, but at this tale he fairly
yelled with laughter until everything jingled in the cabin, and the tears
ran down his cheeks.
The mate never moved a muscle.
"That awful fore-cabin, sir!" he said. "It's in there, and Broomberg, the
Finlander, declares that if you don't land him and his mates at Bergen
they'll seize the ship and sail for Aberdeen."
"But why on earth don't you open the fore-cabin?"
"Oh, that's where it is, sir! The key is lost, or else the professor has
it."
"Hark!"
A squall at that moment struck the ship and heeled her over. It blew with
tremendous force for a time, and at last settled down to a steady gale.
But in less than an hour the captain's orders were carried out, and the
good ship _Valhalla_ was speeding before the wind at a good rate with
very little sail on her.
The storm increased towards midnight, and at that dark hour the
_Valhalla_ had to lie to under almost bare poles. So busy had all hands
been kept that there was very little time to think of ghosts or evil
spirits, and now that the crew had a chance of turning in, it is needless
to say that sleep was the first thing to be considered.
But fresh trouble came with the new day. The wind had gone down, and the
sea as well, and the _Valhalla_ was now bowling along on a pretty even
keel, for the breeze was well astern.
Webb, the mate, and Tom both slept in bunks in the same cabin. Just as
the steward was laying breakfast, Webb popped his head out from his cabin
curtains.
"Hillo, steward!"
"Good-morning, sah!" said Jake Brown, who, strange as it may seem, was a
tall and important-looking black man, with hair as white as snow.
"Have you seen Master Tom? He hasn't been here all night. I slept too
sound to take much notice."
"Sakes alive, no!" cried burly Jake. "I run and search de ship plenty
quick." And away he went.
Webb was dressed and leaving his cabin when Jake returned. But neither
high nor low, fore nor aft, could Tom be found, nor had he been seen
since the main-topsail had carried away just before midnight.
The captain was now roused and the terrible news reported.
"Poor Tom! poor Tom! Washed overboard without a doubt!" he said.
Tom had been a great favourite on board, and the news caused a general
gloom all over the ship.
But Broomberg and his mates received the news in another way.
"It is von unlucky ship," cried the former, "and did not those below hear
the shrieking of the ghosts when the waves and wind were highest? Come we
to the captain at once, men. I will not sail in a haunted ship. No, no."
Some minutes before eight bells rang out in the morning air, the captain
on the quarter-deck, with Mr. Webb and the professor, were engaged in
angry talk with Broomberg and his fellows.
"Return to your duty, men," the captain said. "I will make enquiries
into the matter. As for you, Broomberg, hand over that knife you are
fingering, and consider yourself under arrest."
"I will not," shouted the fellow. "See!"
He made a wild rush aft, holding the glittering blade high in air, and
seized the professor by the neck.
But help from an unexpected quarter was at hand, and next moment
Broomberg was sprawling on his back with Briton's great paws on his
chest.
Mutiny and ghosts and storm were at once forgotten. The men cheered
wildly, Broomberg's knife was snatched from his hand, and he himself
bound hand and foot, while everybody crowded round to shake hands with
the little professor, or to pat the noble dog who had saved his life.
But suddenly joy was changed to terror, for shriek after shriek could be
heard forward, and in a few seconds' time the cook rushed helter-skelter
up on deck, almost pale with fright, followed by the men of the watch
below.
"The ghosts!" somebody shouted.
The captain stood as if stupefied, the little professor's eyes were as
big as watch-glasses, and the mate had to catch hold of a back-stay to
prevent himself from falling.
The whole crew now took to the rigging, and the only marvel is that some
of them did not slip overboard and make food for the sharks.
"Look, look!--oh, look, sir!" shouted the mate with a cry like one in
a nightmare; and the next moment he fainted and fell on the top of
Broomberg the mutineer.
CHAPTER III
Two little girls, one little boy, and one little dog, all as black as
chimney-sweeps, the girls with their arms in the air, now came wildly
racing aft.
Tom himself, come back to life, was standing on the capstan waving his
cap in the air, and cheering and laughing like a mad thing.
Aralia and Pansy reached the quarter-deck before anyone could say
"knife", and, black as they were, sprang right into Captain Staysail's
arms, hugging him and kissing him.
"What!--what!--what!--" He tried to get out a sentence, but failed.
"Oh, I was so frightened, Unky dear, but I is so happy now!" cried Pansy.
"Bless my soul and body," cried Staysail at last, "how did all this
happen?"
[Illustration]
Then he went forward a few paces, the little ones clinging to him all the
time, and Veevee racing round the deck like a live muff.
"Tom, you young rascal, jump down here at once. This is all your work.
Now, give a full account of it, sir."
"Oh, I do hope, Uncle, you'll forgive me, but Frank and little Pansy and
Aralia did want to come with us so much, that--that--!"
"That you took them as stowaways, eh?"
"I'm afraid that's it, sir."
The captain pretended to be awfully angry, and said he would put about
and land the lot at Aberdeen.
"In the meantime, go below, children, and get yourselves washed; the
steward will see to you. Steward!"
"Ay, ay, sir, I'se heah, sah."
"Let Miss Aralia and Pansy have that spare cabin near mine. I'll talk to
you afterwards, Tom."
Tom hung his head in sorrow--so it seemed,--but it really was to hide a
smile.
He got near enough to his sisters to say: "Keep up your pecker, Pansy,
for there won't be any Aberdeen about it."
In the spare cabin stood a big box that nobody had noticed before. Tom
had smuggled it on board, and it contained his sisters' best things, and
a full rig-out for them for the Arctic regions.
Sly old Tom!
He now stole into their cabin and gave them their clothes, and when
Staysail came down to dinner at twelve, with his spy-glass under his arm,
no wonder he cried: "Hillo! Hillo!"
For here were the three children, all mirth and smiles, seated beside
Pete, and Tom, with head bowed down, waiting to take his seat.
"Hillo! Hillo! But what will your father and mother think, my dears?"
"Oh," cried Tom, "we made that all right! Father gave his consent, and
he'll easily manage Mother."
"Steward!" shouted the captain, and Jake came running. "Put the other
half-leaf in the table to-night, and lay covers for three more, for these
young ragamuffins must mess with us in future."
There was no more word about ghosts now, and the kind professor forgave
the Finlander. He was set free and sent to duty, and now for weeks and
weeks there wasn't a much happier vessel afloat than the brave ship
_Valhalla_ bound for the Frozen North.
The two dogs became great friends, but, strangely enough, both disliked
Broomberg, and kept out of his way whenever they could. Once, indeed,
when the man bent down to stroke Veevee, Briton stood guard over his
little friend and growled.
"Hands off!" the mastiff seemed to say, "hands off till we know more
about you!"
* * * * *
Of course Uncle was chief favourite with the children, but all the three
of them came to like the little professor very much indeed. He was with
them nearly all day long. Tom was usually very busy; so, too, was Uncle
Staysail; and though it must not be thought that Pete was an idle man,
for he had much to study, still he always found time to romp and play
with Aralia, Pansy, and the two dogs.
Though the weather grew colder for a time, it was all one long, long
summer's day. For in the Arctic regions the sun never sets for at least
three months, but just goes round and round, blazing high in the south at
mid-day, and lower in the north at midnight. Indeed, in these seas, if
you were not to look at the clock, you could not really tell whether it
was night or day.
Every evening now the little party gathered round the large stove, on
which a copper urn of coffee was always gently simmering. Then the
professor told his strangest stories, with perhaps Pansy on his knee, and
Aralia lying on the hearth-rug with the dogs. Most of his yarns were
about the Frozen North, its dangers and perils, its joys and pleasures.
"And shall we see all these strange sights?" Pansy used to ask.
"Yes, dear, and many more than these, because I mean to give you a treat
if you are good and don't get your fingers frozen."
One day great lumps of white snow-clad ice came floating by, and that
same evening the crow's-nest was hoisted high, high up at the very top of
the main-mast. The crow's-nest was like a big barrel with a lid at the
bottom, Pansy said, and Tom, or the mate, used to climb and crawl through
the bottom, and stand, spy-glass in hand, and look all about them.
"Oh," cried Pansy one day, "shouldn't I like to get up just once!
Wouldn't you, Ara?"
"But we could never climb up," sighed her sister.
The clever professor heard them, and lo and behold! the very next day he
had a kind of easy-chair ready for them to go up in. He himself sat down
in it with the children, and up they were hoisted, up and up. It was so
fearsome that the girls shut their eyes and clung to Pete, but when they
did open them what a sight they saw!
They were not far off the main pack, and as far as the eye could see was
one vast field of snow-covered ice. Their eyes were dazzled in looking at
it.
They were not in the crow's-nest, but close beside it, and Pete made them
look through the spy-glass. This was wonderful, for away yonder to the
north, and near to the edge of the pack, where the sea looked as black
as ink, they could see four great ships, with their crews on the ice,
shooting seals and dragging skins. But in two hours' time the _Valhalla_
herself got north as far as these ships, and was stopped.