CHAPTER XVIII.
AFTER THE STORM.
"Sure she"s deserted, are you?" asked the cautious Teddy, as he followed the other members of the little party aboard, the old Cree Indian guide bringing up the rear.
"Not a sign of any living thing here," came the answer, as Ned peered about.
"Sometimes, I understand, that you can run across all sorts of horrible sights on one of these same wrecks," continued Teddy. "Sailors get drowned, you know, down in the hold or in the forecastle. I hope we don"t discover anything like that now. I never did fancy sights as ghastly as that."
"And I don"t think you need bother your head about it," Ned told him, "because, in the first place, this wreck has been here quite some time; and, then again, you can see that wreckers have been aboard and stripped nearly all the iron and bra.s.s and copper out, because it was valuable.
Perhaps there may be some Esquimaux living along the sh.o.r.e of Hudson Bay; or else it was the men up at the mine who did it. What we want to do is to find out what state the cabin happens to be in. A dry roof would be about the best we could ask to-day."
They made a rush toward the stairs that led down, which in most vessels would be known as the companionway. A shout went up as they looked into the cabin. It was almost dest.i.tute of anything that might serve as a comfort, but a broken stove gave promise of a fire, with all the delight that this carried in its train.
"We bunk here, all right," said Frank, as soon as he had sighted that stove; it was really a sorry object, but then everything depends on the conditions surrounding one when rendering judgment--at home, they would have never given such a dilapidated thing house room; but shipwrecked mariners are not likely to be critical, and that broken stove was still capable of carrying fire.
"Get busy with your hatchets, those who have them, and lay in a supply of wood for burning," Jack called out, suiting his own actions to the words, and beginning to chop away vigorously.
"I don"t suppose it matters a cent where you bang," remarked Jimmy, following the example set by the other scout; "and if we stay here long enough, we might burn up the whole bally ship. All she"s good for, anyhow, to give a bunch of fellers that have lost their blankets a lift in a rain storm. Whack away, boys; n.o.body ain"t goin" to say a word what you do, only cut wood."
"We didn"t get in here any too soon," Frank told them; and upon listening they could hear the rain falling heavily on the broken deck of the derelict.
When one is securely sheltered that sound never strikes awe to the soul; in fact, it seems almost a merry tune, like that played upon the attic roof, in the good old days when you visited grandpa out on the farm, and could lie in bed, feeling glad you were not out in that downpour.
"Let her rain all she wants to," said Teddy; "it can"t hurt us, because I don"t think any kind of a downpour would raise the whole bay enough to float us off this sandy beach."
The others laughed at his remark. Teddy was so ready to conjure up troubles that never could have any real excuse for existing.
"What I"m provoked about," Jack ventured, "is that we didn"t get a chance to signal to that nearest vessel before the fog cut her out again. But let"s hope they"ll hang around somewhere till the rain"s over, and we can let them know the fix we"re in."
"Huh! s"pose they don"t know anything about wigwagging with the flags?"
Jimmy put in. "Vessels have a way of talking across miles of water, but then their code is a whole lot different from the one scouts use ash.o.r.e.
We might be able to let "em know we wanted some help, and would pay well for it. Money talks when a lot of other things are like mud."
Willing hands made light work, and a fire was soon burning in the old remnant of a stove that had once done duty in the midst of ice-packs, when the wreck was a gallant vessel in search of oil or, perhaps, sealskins.
After all, they had little reason to complain. The rain pattered on the deck, and, in a few places, leaked through; but there was plenty of dry s.p.a.ce, so that none of the boys need get sprinkled. As for fuel, they had abundance of it, so long as their camp hatchets kept an edge, and their muscles held out for service.
"Not so bad, is it, Jimmy?" Teddy wanted to know, as they tried to make themselves as comfortable as possible, by hunting up all sorts of things capable of being turned into rough seats.
Of course, these were of no value whatever, for in frequent raids on the part of wreckers, whoever they may have been, everything worth taking had long since been carried away. Indeed, Frank declared he was puzzled to know why they had overlooked the broken stove; and all of them agreed it must have been by mistake.
"Well, I should say not," was the reply, on the part of the freckled-face lad, as he sighed and looked around him. "D"ye know I was just thinking how happy we could be in this palace if only we had those lovely blankets along; yes, and all that good stuff to eat. I think I"d be apt to pick up some weight here, if we had a cinch like that. But now every meal we enjoy means we"re that much closer to the end. Mebbe we"ll have to do what shipwrecked sailors do, draw lots for a sacrifice. I see my finish, if ever it comes to that, because I always get the wrong end of the deal or the stick."
"I pity the one who has to take a bite out of such a tough case as you,"
Teddy frankly told him; and somehow Jimmy seemed to consider that he had been given a bouquet, for he bowed and smiled and looked pleased.
"Tell the rest that," he whispered to Teddy "and I"ll be safe."
The rain kept coming down steadily as the hours wore on.
"Tell me about your tropical showers," Jimmy remarked, as noon came and found no change in the conditions, "right up here on the border of the Arctic regions, when it takes a notion to rain, it does make up for lost time. Why, I wouldn"t be surprised if it kept the plug out of the rain barrel for a week now."
"It"s bound to make the going worse for us," Frank grumbled.
"Why, all the marshes will be flooded, and we"ll have a high old time trying to navigate through the same. What do you think, Ned?" Teddy wanted to know.
The patrol leader looked at them, and smiled.
"I think history is repeating itself, and that you fellows are crossing bridges again before you get to them," he replied.
"Do you mean that there"s a chance we won"t have to tramp through these bogs and cross the salt water marshes?" demanded Jimmy.
"Well, we"re here right now, and fairly comfortable," Ned told him.
"What will happen next is something none of us can more than guess; but, as long as some of those vessels keep hovering around out on the bay, I"ll hug a hope that we"ll find some way of getting in touch with them."
"Which I take it means you firmly believe they"re real, and not Flying Dutchmen, like they tell about in yarns of the sea?" Jimmy asked.
"I believe what my eyes tell me," answered the other, "and through the gla.s.s I saw men on those vessels, going about their regular daily tasks.
Whatever they may be doing up here in Hudson Bay, take my word for it, there"s nothing of the phantom about that fleet. They have some good reason for coming and going so mysteriously. Perhaps we"ll know what it is before we get away from here."
Jimmy and Teddy, the pair of doubters, seemed to feel somewhat better after this little heart-to-heart talk with Ned. The leader of the Wolf Patrol had a happy faculty for inspiring others with some of his own confidence, which is one of the finest qualities a scout can possess.
There was a watch being kept to guard against any unexpected happening.
As was to be expected, the two guides took it upon themselves to look after this part of the business. One of them was on duty at a time, and it could be so arranged that the sentry did not necessarily have to expose himself to the inclemency of the weather, in order to stand guard.
Nothing came to pa.s.s, and the long, dreary day gradually neared its end.
"Never knew such a terribly monotonous time in all me life," Jimmy grumbled; for he would not have been happy unless he could find an occasional chance to "let off steam," as Teddy called it.
"Well," said Jack, "it"s nearly night now, and let me tell you a great secret."
"Go on!" exclaimed the other, looking interested.
"The rain"s stopped!" Jack explained.
"Well, I declare, if that isn"t true for you, Jack!" cried Jimmy; "and to think that after me waiting for hours to be the first to tell the joyful tidings, I had to get thinking so deeply about our affairs that I clean forgot all about it. But it may not last. Sometimes there"s a break, and then the old storm comes back again, worse nor ever."
"Clouds zey be break right now, over zere," and Francois, who had just come in from the sheltered nook where watch was kept, pointed as he spoke toward the southwest, where the storm had been coming from.
"Oh! if that"s the case," added Jimmy, thinking it best to cheer up, "I"ll take back what I said. And let"s hope a lot of this water"ll soak away before we have to put our best foot forward again in the morning."
"I suppose we"ll have to eat again," remarked Frank.