It was quite a month before Tom crossed the hills again. By this time spring had already come back to Fairy Island. The buds were all out on the trees, and the green leaves on a thousand bushes. Wild flowers were everywhere. The birds, too, had returned, and the sea-gulls had taken up their abode on a great patch of level ground just on the other side of the lake. When anyone went near to their nests, which were in thousands, and so close together that it was difficult to thread one"s way through them, the noise and screaming they made was deafening.
Now I don"t think that Tom and Frank were cruel, but they had to live, and those great green-speckled eggs made a splendid addition to the larder, so that, what with sunshine and better food, the girls soon got back all the colour they had lost during the long, long night of winter.
But where was the _Valhalla_ and her crew all this time? Would they never, never come?
The Crusoes lived in hope.
Now in spring-time the foxes and bears of the north, that have slept or starved for months, become bold and dangerous through hunger. Bears are always to be feared, but more so at this time of the year than any other.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
One day the prisoners of Fairy Island had been gayer than usual, but at last, tired and happy, they had lain down to rest. It might have been about midnight when they were awakened by a warning growl from Briton.
Then, with Veevee, he sprang up and rushed to the gate barking furiously.
Tom sprang to his feet, and s.n.a.t.c.hed up his rifle. He was not left long in doubt as to who the enemy was. The wild wolf-foxes were in force, and the yelping and howling outside was terrible to listen to.
He fired his rifle several times right into the centre of the pack, killing many and wounding more. This only made matters worse. The fierce and hungry beasts dashed themselves at the gate and tried to tear it in pieces.
Stones were hurled at them, but all in vain. Poor Briton was as anxious to get out as they were to get in, and had to be kept back by force.
"Go, quick, Frank," shouted Tom, "and stir up the fire; heap more peats and wood on, and bring lighted torches as soon as you can. I will guard the gate till you come."
So there Tom stood opposed to the whole awful crowd, with their glaring eyes, red tongues, and white-flashing teeth, with only a slight gateway between him and death. When he thrust his rifle between the willow bars to take a shot, the beasts bit and tore at it, as if they would have dragged it from his grasp.
Aralia was busy helping Frank, and presently both came running up with lighted fir-torches, which Tom at once flung over the gate, together with pieces of burning peat and wood. These did splendid work, and after a time the terrible pack drew off.
There was no more sleep that night, however, and towards morning the attack began again. The foxes had dragged off their dead and wounded and devoured them. In the gray light of morning they rushed to the gate once more, and the battle raged again in all its fury.
Poor little Pansy was trembling and shaking with fear as she looked up and saw that high up on the walls of the fort those savage, wild animals had taken their stand.
It was a terrible morning, and hope seemed at last to fade, for even brave Tom had grown faint and weary, and could fight but little longer.
CHAPTER IX
"Come along, Professor! Come along, Mate! The children are there somewhere, over in that strange island. Ha! here is a bridge of rocks!
Thank goodness for that! And look! here, too, are tracks!"
It was Uncle Staysail who spoke, and behind him was "Fessor Pete himself, and at least a dozen well-armed sailors.
"Listen!" cried the captain. "What is that?"
"Wolves, I think," said the professor. "And hark! surely that was a rifle-shot. Pray Heaven we may be in time, Staysail!"
"Hurry up, men! Hurry up!" cried the captain; and the men dashed onwards.
Tom had revived a little, and he and Frank were fighting harder than ever to hold the gate, as bold
"Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old".
But it was already giving way, and the beasts without seemed to know it.
Briton was on his legs ready, and all seemed to be lost, when suddenly a rattling volley of rifle fire was heard from beneath, with shouts of men.
Volley followed volley, and in less time than it takes me to tell it, the wild wolf-foxes were seeking safety in flight.
"Tell us all your story again," said Tom to his uncle, as the children sat round the stove that same evening in the cosy cabin of the _Valhalla_.
They were all washed and clean by this time, and the girls were beautifully dressed.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Ah! well, you see," said Uncle as he relit his pipe, "the professor here made a dart for the vessel when the storm came on. He wanted a stronger crew.
"He caught us just in time, for though the gale was a furious one we could steam up to it, and were doing so, when suddenly there was a loud explosion; one of the boilers had burst, and the engines were smashed and useless.
"We were now at the mercy of the sea, the waves, and the icebergs too, and before another day we were blown far away to sea.
"Even then we had hope. But in a week"s time we were frozen into the main pack, and there we have had to winter, and it is hardly a week since we got clear by cutting a ca.n.a.l with our great ice-saws. Oh! it has been a dreary time for us, but must have been more so to you, poor darlings! and well and bravely you have borne it all!
"I am sure," he added, "that even Pansy has grown, and her mother will hardly know her again when we all get home."
"We are going now, aren"t we, "Fessor Pete?" said Pansy, who was sitting on his knee.
"Yes, my dear, yes. It is no use staying here when we have no steam, so the ship is now making for England"s sunny sh.o.r.es. And we"ll get there in the rosy month of June. Won"t it be nice?"
Pansy was jumping with joy.
Aralia clapped her hands and cried: "Just too jolly for anything!"
By and by Aralia sat down to the piano, and Pete brought out his fiddle, and a very happy evening indeed was spent in the _Valhalla_.
The men were keeping it up forward too, around the galley fire, singing songs and spinning yarns, for the ship was "homeward bound".
"Oh, by the by," said Tom one day to the professor, "I forgot to tell you that in the cave where poor Veevee got lost I picked up this curious stone!"
The professor put his spectacles on his nose and gazed at it for a moment.