CHAPTER VII.THE CAIRN.
Pomp’s position was one of awful peril. The huge whale was making for him like an avalanche.
It was not likely that the monster was intending to assail him.
It simply happened that Pomp was in the cetacean’s way.
The darky dropped the jack-screws, completely overcome with terror.
“Massy sakes alibe!” he groaned. “Dis chile am lost!”
Pomp imagined that the whale intended to eat him up.
But such was not the case.
Indeed it was doubtful if the monster even saw the darky.
But this did not lessen the danger, however.
The whale came straight for Pomp.
The darky fell flat upon his face in the hopes of dodging the monster.
In this he was successful.
The whale passed over him and made straight at the Explorer.
He struck the submarine boat full force, and the shock was tremendous.
Pomp had tried to regain his feet, but was knocked down again.
The whale recoiled from its attack upon the Explorer and started upon a new course.
Away he went out of sight in the water.
Pomp was relieved when he was gone. It was a narrow escape.
Once more he picked up the jack-screws and started for the ice.
Reaching it, Pomp very quickly set the screws beneath the block of ice and began to raise it.
Slowly the vast body of ice began to rise up.
Pomp’s plan was a success.
In a very few moments the submarine boat was sufficiently released.
Then Pomp went back aboard the Explorer.
It was the work of but a few moments to back the Explorer out from its position and free it.
Then Pomp quickly set the pumps going in the air-chamber, and the Explorer sprang up to the surface.
It was at this moment, as we have seen at the close of the preceding chapter, that the two explorers, Frank and Barney, reached the verge of the basin.
The commotion in the waters was nothing more nor less than the Explorer rising to the surface.
As the submarine boat sprang above the surface, Frank and Barney were fairly electrified.
It was a most unlooked for proceeding.
They could hardly believe their senses. A great cry went up from the two lost explorers.
“Whurroo!” shouted Barney. “It’s the Explorer as shure as I’m a Tipperary man, Misther Frank.”
“The Explorer!” gasped Frank; “but how on earth did it come here?”
This was a conundrum.
Yet there it was.
They certainly must believe their own eyesight.
In the pilot-house Pomp was seen with his diving suit yet on.
The darky chanced, at that moment also to see his friends.
The effect upon him was magical.
A great cry went up from his lips and he came tumbling out upon the deck.
“Fo’ de good Lor’, am dat yo’, Marse Frank?” he cried. “Hooray! Dis am de happiest hour ob mah life!”
“All roight, naygur!” yelled Barney. “We’re jist as glad to see yez. But, howiver do yez think we kin come aboard that boat, anyhow?”
“A’right; jes’ yo’ wait one moment!” cried Pomp. “I’se gwine fo’ to fix dat a’right very soon!”
Into the pilot-house he rushed.
In a few moments he had run the boat up alongside the shelf of ice.
Barney and Frank easily stepped aboard then.
That was a joyous meeting to be sure.
Explanations quickly followed, and then the serious question presented itself as to how they were to get out into the open sea again.
This was certainly a question of no mean sort.
But Frank asked Pomp:
“Did you try every available point under the water?”
“No, sah!” replied the darky. “Dar am some direckshuns I didn’t take.”
“Well, let us try that, then!” said Frank. “It may be a dernier ressort, but we must do something.”
“Dat am a fac’, Marse Frank!”
Down went the submarine boat once more to the bottom of the ocean.
As luck had it this time, it landed directly in front of a deep cavernous passage.
Frank felt confident that this would take them out into the ocean.
Accordingly he started the Explorer through the passage.
As they went on, this seemed to widen and deepen.
Very soon they began to leave the ice walls behind.
A great hope sprang up in Frank’s breast.
“Hurrah!” he cried. “I believe we are out of the wilderness!”
“Dat am joyful!” cried Pomp.
“Whurroo!” shouted Barney.
In a few moments more Frank felt assured that they were in the open sea.
He gave the lever a turn and set the pumps going.
The Explorer rose to the surface.
Frank’s joyful hopes were realized.
They were in the open sea.
The berg was a hundred yards to the eastward.
There it was grounded, and there they left it.
This was all the experience of the sort that Frank Reade, Jr., cared for.
“No more visits to icebergs!” he cried. “That is quite enough for me.”
Straight to the northward now they kept.
The coast of Greenland lay to the east. Up the straits the Explorer went until Smith’s Sound was reached.
This was full of ice.
But by using the Explorer’s ram, very good progress was made.
Immense blocks of ice were shattered and fields of ice broken by the wonderful ram of the Explorer.
No incident of thrilling sort occurred until one day when they were besieged by ice off a small island.
Frank had thought of lowering the Explorer and going under the ice field, when an incident caused him to change his mind.
Upon the shores of the island a strange object was seen.
It was a barrel mounted upon a long pole.
At once Frank was interested.
He concluded at once that it must mark a cairn where some former Arctic travelers had visited.
The young explorer was at once possessed of a desire to investigate.
Accordingly he said to Pomp:
“Come on, Pomp, let us visit the shore. This time you may go with me.”
Pomp gave a yell of delight and cut a joyous caper.
“A’right, Marse Frank.”
Barney did not demur.
He had had his turn and was quite willing to remain aboard the submarine boat.
Frank and Pomp were soon quite ready for the expedition.
It was easy to reach the shore over the ice cakes.
After quite a lively climb they finally reached the shore of the island.
Frank advanced to a pile of rock, above which was the barrel.
It was truly a cairn.
Opening the barrel, Frank took out a small tablet of slate, upon which was cut the following in rude letters:
“Here lie the bodies of Jim Peters, Andy Hardy, and Mike Walsh, of the crew of the brig Solitaire. Lost in a fog, six of us are cast adrift in the Arctic without food, and with a limited supply of ammunition and weapons. Three of us are left--Sam Hatch, Dick Davey, and Roger Harmon.
“We are going from here to a settlement twenty miles east, whence we hope to reach a Greenland port, and thence home. May God help us!”
“Amen!” said Frank, sincerely.
He knew that one of the survivors was Roger Harmon.
He experienced a thrill.
“How overjoyed old Alex Harmon would be if I should find his boy here!” he exclaimed. “It is not impossible that he may be found in some Esquimau settlement. I shall try.”
Frank was desirous of seeing what was beyond the island.
So he climbed to the cliff above and looked eastward.
He saw beyond the isle a narrow strait and a long stretch of what looked like the mainland of a continent.
“Golly, Marse Frank!” exclaimed Pomp, “dat looks a bit like a big stretch ob land ober dar.”
“That is certainly what it is,” agreed Frank.
“Does yo’ s’pose it am inhabited?”
“I hardly know,” replied the young inventor. “But what is that over yonder hill--is it not smoke?”
The darky looked in the direction indicated.
Both saw a column of smoke rising into the air.
At once Frank’s curiosity was aroused.
“It must be a camp,” he cried. “And yet what human beings could exist here?”
He was thinking intently of the Solitaire’s party, and did not think of such a thing as Esquimaux.
Frank decided to investigate the distant smoke.
Accordingly, accompanied by Pomp, he set out for the distant hill.
Before reaching it, they were obliged to pass through a narrow pass.
Just as they reached this, an excited cry went up from Pomp.
“Whatebber was dat, Marse Frank?”
“What?”
“Jes’ yo’ listen!”
From the distance came the faint sound of hallooing.
Frank said nothing but pressed on. They passed through the defile, and came out in view of a broad intervale leading down to the sea.
At a spot halfway down from this, a long column of smoke was ascending into the air.
But not a sign of a human being was in sight.
Frank and Pomp went down to the spot, and found only a pile of half-burned sticks.
But these were all the signs of an Esquimau, although none of the latter were in sight.
But as they stood, there, from the hill above came a loud halloo. Looking up, the two explorers were astounded to see fully a dozen dog teams coming down over the snow wastes.
Upon each sledge was an Esquimau, and Frank knew enough from former visits to this region of the colors worn by the tribes that this was a band of hostiles.
Instantly he threw back the hammer of his rifle.