Adrift in the Ice-Fields Read online

  CHAPTER XII.

  DOCTORING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.--AN ANXIOUS NIGHT.--FROZEN UP.

  La Salle examined the condition of his patient, and found his tonguefurred, his pulse quick and feverish, his tonsils badly inflamed, andthe chills alternating with flushes of fever heat. The mind of thepatient, too, was anxious; for at the close of the brief examination hesaid, "I hope I shan't be sick, for there isn't much show for me outhere on the ice."

  "And why not, George? Although I hope you will have nothing more than abad cold, yet I think I could cure a pretty sick man out here."

  "But we have no medicines, or beds, or food, or anything, scarcely."

  "What nonsense! We are far more comfortably housed than the poorEsquimaux, and even Peter there lives no warmer than we do--do you,Peter?"

  "_Womegun_ hetter than this; but this place very comforble. _I_ no fraidfreeze here."

  "Well, George, I must turn doctor now, and try to stop this cold; foras yet it is no worse. Peter, make a fire outside, and heat the ironbailer full of salt water. Regnie, reach me my powder-horn and thelittle tin cup of the lantern."

  Pouring four drachms of gunpowder into the cup, he filled it about halffull of water, and setting it near the hot coals under the red hotcylinder, soon dissolved the explosive, forming an inky fluid. From theammunition bucket he drew a small phial, which had been filled witholive oil, and pouring some hot water and a little shot into it, he sooncleaned it for the reception of the fluid, which he filtered throughseveral thicknesses of his woolen gun-cover. About a fluid ounce of arather dirty-looking solution of saltpeter resulted, to which a littlesugar was added.

  "Here we have," said the man of drugs, "some three drachms of saltpeterin solution, of which, by and by, you may take about one sixth, lettingit gargle your throat going down. Peter, is the water hot?"

  "Yes, broder, water boilin' hover. What do with him now?"

  "I want to soak his feet; but what shall we do it in? I can fill myseal-skin boots, but they would be awkward."

  "There's the ammunition bucket," suggested Regnie.

  "That was made to hold peas and such like, and leaks like a sieve."

  "Put the rubber blanket around it," interposed the patient.

  "That's the idea," said La Salle. And hanging up one of the bird-skinrugs in its place, the "mackintosh" was drawn and carefully knottedaround the rim of the shaky receptacle. Into this the hot water waspoured, and being duly tempered to a safe degree of heat, Waring removedhis boots and stockings, and, seated on a couple of decoys, bathed hisfeet and ankles for about fifteen minutes.

  In the mean time, the portion of the sleeping-room farthest from thedoor, was carefully fitted with dry twigs and one of the bird-skincoverlets, and the lad's stockings were thoroughly dried at the stoveuntil they felt warm and comfortable. Taking one of the discardedcotton-flannel shooting-gowns, duly warmed at the fire, La Salle andRegnar carefully and energetically dried and rubbed Waring'sextremities, now warmed and suffused with blood drawn from the overtaxedblood-vessels of the head and body, after which his warmed and driedfoot-gear were replaced, and he was tucked away in his berth.

  "Does your chest pain you at all, George?" asked his attendant, as hedrew the thick feather covering over the sick boy.

  "No; but my throat does a little. It feels much better, though, than itdid."

  La Salle thought a moment, then drew from a little cavity in the wallnear the door a small junk of bird-fat, which he melted in the tin cup."I will rub your throat with goose-grease. It is a great favorite of theold women, and will keep the air from your tender skin, if it doesn'trelieve the soreness of the inflamed membranes." So saying, he rubbed inthe warm, soft fat with his hands, covering the skin above the bronchialtubes and the soft parts of the throat with the penetrating unguent,then fastening a turn of his list gun-cover around his throat, hereplaced the covering, and taking his cap, went out into the night air,and seeking the lookout, glanced eagerly out over the waste of ice.

  The night was clear and cold, with only an occasional puff of wind fromthe westward; but the temperature was falling fast, and the snow-crustbroke under the foot with a sound ominous of biting cold. All around wasice, and even if the light-houses along that coast were lighted inwinter, it is doubtful if the party were near enough to land to see anyexcept that of Point Escumenac, which at noon bore north-west and aboutfifteen miles away. Since that time, the drift of the pack, at nightfallevidently making eastward, or rather north-east, had probably increasedthe distance to nearly forty miles.

  La Salle surveyed the wild scene around him--the pillars hewn from vastmasses of eternal ice by the shock of fearful collision, the slow actionof the sun, the corrosion of the waves, and the melting kisses of therain, and thus fashioned into fantastic mockeries of fane, monument,tower, and spire, even by daylight were strangely wonderful, but underthe mystic night and the weird light of the stars, seemed like icystatues, in whose chill bosoms were incarnated the genii of desolationand death.

  "Ay! thus we move, helpless, lost, and beyond the aid of man, convoyedby a fleet of fantasies into a sailless sea, and to an unknown fate.Well I know that by to-morrow, myriads of eyes will watch for signs ofour presence from Canseau to Gaspe, and on both shores of St. Jean; butthey will look in vain. A week hence they will hear of our disappearancein Baltimore, and Paulie will know her own heart at last. I may notregret this if I escape with life, for well I know we are like to comeback as men from the dead."

  "Why do you speak of death, La Salle?" said a voice in good and evenpolished French; and La Salle, turning, found that Regnar stood besidehim. An air of education which he had never noticed before seemed topervade this youth, who spoke English almost execrably, and had shownlittle more than a passable knowledge of the coast of Labrador, and akeen insight into all the varied craft of hunter and fisherman.

  "I was only thinking," said La Salle, evasively, speaking in the samelanguage. "But how is it that you, who know French and German, speakEnglish so badly?"

  "You will know some time, but not to-night; although I may tell youthis--that I shall receive from you the greatest good that man will everconfer, or at least the realization of some long-cherished desire. Godgrant that it may end my long search for him, although my life end withit."

  "Of whom do you speak?" asked La Salle, impressed with his manner.

  "Regnar don't care talk now. Nights getting cold; so come in and look atsick boy. Ha, ha, ha! You've been tinman, tailor, cook, navigator, andnow you're doctor. Come on!" And La Salle almost doubted his own sanityas he followed the old Regnie of his Labrador voyage down the side ofthe mound, where a moment ago an unsuspected, hidden fire had revealeditself.

  Just as they were about to enter the little outer enclosure, La Sallelaid his hand on the arm of his companion. "Regnie, don't for your lifelet the others know that I have doubt of our safety; and keep up poorWaring's spirits if you can."

  Cheerfully and firmly the answer came back in good Parisian, "I will notfail you. I have no fear now, and the life of the ice is nothing new tome. When the winds have done their work, and we no longer look for theloom of the cliffs, or the hazy purple of the distant forests, I willtake my turn in your place." And grasping La Salle's hand, Orloffstepped into the chamber.

  "How you do, George? Here's the doctor again," and La Salle, with nolittle anxiety, approached his patient.

  "I have no chills now, but my throat is still quite sore, and I havesome fever, I think."

  La Salle laid his hand on the boy's forehead. It was parched with fever,but a close search failed to discover any signs of dangerous throatsymptoms. He looked at his watch.

  "It is now ten o'clock. You may take another dose of the nitre, andgargle your throat well with a little of it. Are you warm enough?"

  "Yes, thank you. I guess I can sleep now, and you had better go to bedtoo. Good night!"

  "Good night, George. You'll be better to-morrow."

  And placing a few billets in the cylinder, La Salle
rolled himself up inhis heavy coat, drew off his long moccason boots, and placing hisstockinged feet where the heat of the fire would dry the insensibleperspiration they had gathered during the day, he prepared for a shortnap.

  "Regnie, keep up the fire for a couple of hours, and then call me, forit grows cold, and we must not let George get chilled again, on anyaccount."

  About one, La Salle awoke to find Regnie still awake, and keeping up agood fire, although he used the wood but sparingly. The cold hadevidently increased, and La Salle drew on his boots, which had improvedmuch in drying. As Regnar turned to his berth, he said,--

  "It cold to-night, colder to-morrow, and warm to-morrow night. Then webe in the open Gulf, and the warm winds will come again."

  George slept but restlessly; and once more during the night a small doseof the sirup was administered. About three o'clock, Peter awoke, andsaid,--

  "Why no let Peter watch? No doctor, but keep good fire and let yousleep."

  "Well, Peter," said La Salle, "I shall be glad to rest; but you must becareful of the wood, and put in as little as will keep up a blaze, forwe have not a great deal, and that not of a very good kind."

  "Me know no woods here, and Peter will not waste any, you betterb'lieve."

  Laying his hand on George's head, he felt a slight moisture; andcovering him still more closely, he lay down with a hopeful heart, and,wearied in mind and body, slept until nearly nine the next morning.

  Regnar was broiling the dismembered body of a goose at the rude grate,and at that moment was arranging on a slender spit alternate portions ofthe heart, liver, and fat of the bird. After being seasoned with salt,this was rapidly rotated in front of the fire by Peter, who watched withmuch interest the preparation of three similar sticks.

  La Salle sprang to his feet, and first hastened to Waring, who professedhimself cured, and wanted to get up.

  "No, George; you must lie abed to-day, and accept a cup of _very_ weakcoffee and some bread. I shall let you eat nothing. You see," hecontinued, as the boy broke into a fit of coughing, "that the cold hasnot left you yet, and I have no doubt you feel some pain in your chestnow."

  "Yes, it has gone into my lungs a little, but will wear off soon, Iguess. It always does at home."

  "Well, we can't risk anything here; so I'll get your coffee, and afterbreakfast, if Peter will get me a little pitch off the branches, I'llmake something for your cough."

  The birds were well cooked and quite appetizing; and as he rose Peterhanded La Salle a small handful of Canada balsam, which in the shape ofsmall tears clung to many of the larger branches on the floor.

  "That enough? If not, Peter get more."

  "That will do--thank you, Peter."

  But the eye of the speaker caught a look directed by Regnar at the roofof the hut, from whence exuded a few drops of a blacker resin.

  "Yes, I see Stockholm tar; that will help the cure much."

  Placing the two in an iron spoon, rudely made from a fragment of thedecoys, they were gently melted, and a small quantity of sugar added,with enough powdered biscuit to enable the mass to be rolled into littleballs.

  "You must chew these and swallow the tar-water thus formed, and finallythe resins themselves, and you will find your cough much loosened byto-morrow."

  "Sposum you no want boat-hook, me make draw-knife of him. He steel, Is'pose."

  "Yes, Peter. The spike is very fine steel, I believe, as I told theblacksmith I wanted it light and sharp. If you want it you can have it;that is, if you feel sure you can make a knife."

  "Mos' all Ingin make own knife. You never see Ingin knife in store. Inold time old men say Ingin make work-knife, war-knife, arrow-head, axe,all ting he want when can't buy. Me make best knife in tribe 'fore melose arm. Some one must strike for me, an' I turn iron now."

  Going out, he brought in several fragments of hard wood, and the spikeor head of the boat-hook. Making a hot fire, he placed the spiketherein, and sinking the edge of an axe in one of the decoys, got Regnarto strike for him.

  "Now no strike hard--strike quick and heasy, right that place everytime;" and taking the glowing iron from the fire, he laid it on thelight anvil.

  It was wonderful to see how, like one who uses a trip-hammer, he drewthe iron under the rapidly-plied axe, until the round spike was anarrow, thin blade about six inches in length. Then shifting the angleof the iron a little, he directed Regnar how to beat down one side to anedge, and lastly how to curve the flat of the blade a little at thepoint, or rather end. Then, producing several small pieces of lime andsandstone, found among the earth kept in the boats, for the use ofsnow-blind gunners, he proceeded to rub down the edge to something likefitness for use.

  After this he carefully tempered the blade, and with a penknife cut outa handle, in which he inserted it, lashing the two firmly together withtwine made from one of the cod-lines. Long and patient labor with hisfew pebbles, and the leather of his cowhide boots, brought the _waghon_at length to a keen, smooth edge; and great was Peter's joy when heagain carried at his belt a tool so indispensable to the Indian hunterand workman.

  That day, the fourth of their drift, brought little change in theirposition--the icebergs frozen together, were drifting, if at all, in onevast body. Towards night a north-west wind sprang up, and thethermometer, had the party possessed such an instrument, would probablyhave registered at least -10 deg.. A watch was kept all night to keep thefire replenished, and all the appliances used to keep out the cold air,and economize heat, scarcely kept the temperature up as high as +32 deg.,the freezing point of water.

  Waring was kept carefully covered up, and professed to suffer nothingfrom cold, having all the extra clothing of the party. It was luckilythe last cold snap of the season, and with the sunrise of the next day,Sunday, the fifth day of their voyaging, the wind had given place to acalm, although cold, clear, bracing atmosphere.

  After the usual ablutions, which were never neglected by the party,followed by breakfast, the ice being closely frozen together, a walk toa high berg at the distance of a quarter of a mile was proposed, as itwas thought that the course of the ice should bring them in sight atleast, of the North Cape of St. Jean. This was generally acceded to byall but Waring, who preferred to remain and keep up the fire.

  Taking their weapons, an ice-axe, and a light coil of rope, the threesoon arrived, without misadventure, at the foot of an irregular mound ofice, at least fifty feet in height.