CHAPTER XXXIVCOASTING FIVE MILES IN FIVE MINUTES
In spite of their faintness and weakness from hunger and exhaustion, Phil and Serge were so stimulated by the emergency that within half an hour they had dug a cavity in the great drift sufficiently large to hold the three dogs as well as themselves. The excavation was driven straight for a few feet, and then turned to one side, where it was so enlarged that they could either lie down or sit up. Into this diminutive chamber they dragged their robes and sleeping-bags. The shivering dogs crept in and curled up at their feet. The sledge was left outside, and the opening was closed as well as might be by the slab of compacted snow that had been cut from it.
Poor little Nel-te, who was numbed and whimpering with cold and hunger, was rubbed into a glow, comforted, and petted, until at length he fell asleep, nestled between the lads, and then they found time to talk over their situation. For a while they had no thought save for the dear friend and trusty comrade who, alive or dead, was still out in that terrible storm, and, as they believed, lost to them forever.
“I don’t suppose there is the faintest hope of ever seeing him again,” said Phil. “If he went over the precipice he must have been killed, and is buried deep in the snow by this time. Even if he did not, and is still wandering somewhere in this vicinity, he must perish before morning. Oh, Serge, can’t we do anythingfor him? It makes me feel like a cowardly traitor to be sitting here in comfort while the dear old chap may be close at hand, and perishing for want of our help. And it is my fault, too! The fault of my inexcusable carelessness. It seems, old man, as if I should go crazy with thinking of it.”
“But you mustn’t think of it in that way, Phil,” answered Serge, soothingly. “As leader of the party it was your duty to go ahead and pick out the road, while it was ours to keep you in sight. If either of us is to blame for what has happened, I am the one. I should have looked back oftener, and made sure that he was still close behind me. Now there is nothing we can do except wait for daylight and the end of the storm. We have our parents, this child, and ourselves to think of first. Nor could we accomplish anything even if we tried. The storm has doubled in fury since we halted. A foot of snow must already have fallen, and to venture a single rod outside of this place would serve to lose us as certainly as though we went a mile. We mustn’t give up all hope, though. Mr. Coombs is very strong, and well used to exposure. Of course, if he has gone over the precipice there is little chance that we shall ever see him again; but if he escaped it, and has made a burrow for himself like this one, he will pull through all right, and we shall find him in the morning.”
“Why haven’t we dug places like this before?” asked Phil. “It is actually getting warm and comfortable in here. We might have had just such a warm cave every night that we have been in the mountains and spent so miserably.”
“Of course we might,” agreed Serge, “and we would have had but for my stupidity in not thinking of it sooner. While I never took refuge in one before, I have often heard of them, and ought to have remembered.I didn’t, though, until this storm struck us, and I knew that without shelter we must certainly perish.”
“If you hadn’t thought of a snow-burrow,” said Phil, “it is certain I never should. It is snug, though, and if only poor Jalap were with us, and we had food and a light of some kind, I wouldn’t ask for a better shelter. I can understand now how an Eskimo stone lamp, with seal-oil for fuel and a wick of moss, can give out all the heat that is needed in one of their snow-huts, and I only wish we had brought one with us.”
After this the boys grew drowsy, their conversation slackened, and soon all their troubles were forgotten in sleep. Outside, through the long hours, the gale roared and shrieked with impotent rage at their escape from its clutches. It hurled its snow legions against their place of refuge until it was deep buried, and then in a frenzy tore away and scattered the drifted accumulation, until it could once more beat directly upon their slender wall of defence. But its wiles and its furious attacks were alike in vain, and at length its fierce ravings sank into whispers. Thepoorgaspent its force with the darkness, and at daylight had swept on to inland fields, leaving only an added burden of a million tons of snow to mark its passage across the mountains.
When the boys awoke a soft white light was filtering through one side of their spotless chamber, and they knew that day had come. They expected to dig their way to the outer air through a great mass of snow, and were agreeably surprised to find only a small drift against the doorway. As they emerged from it they were for a few minutes blinded by the marvellous brilliancy of their sunlit surroundings. Gradually becoming accustomed to the intense light, they gazed eagerly about for some sign of their missingcomrade, but there was none. They followed back for a mile over the way they had come the evening before, shouting and firing their guns, but without avail.
No answering shout came back to their straining ears, and there was nothing to indicate the fate of the lost man. Sadly and soberly the lads retraced their steps, and prepared to resume their journey. To remain longer in that place meant starvation and death. To save themselves they must push on.
They shuddered at the precipice they had escaped, and over which they feared their comrade had plunged. At its foot lay a valley, which, though it trended westward, and so away from their course, Phil determined to follow; for, far below their lofty perch, and still miles away from where they stood, it held the dark mass he had seen the night before, and knew to be timber. Besides, his sole desire at that moment was to escape from those awful heights and reach the coast at some point; he hardly cared whether it were inhabited or not.
So the sledge was dug from its bed of snow, reloaded, and the dogs were harnessed. Poor little Nel-te, crying with hunger, was slipped into his fur travelling-bag, and a start was made to search for some point of descent. At length they found a place where the slope reached to the very top of the cliff, but so sharply that it was like the steep roof of a house several miles in length.
“I hate the looks of it,” said Phil, “but as there doesn’t seem to be any other way, I suppose we’ve got to try it. I should say that for at least three miles it is as steep as the steepest part of a toboggan-slide, though, and I’m pretty certain we sha’n’t care to try it more than once.”
“I guess we can do it all right,” replied Serge,“but there’s only one way, and that is to sit on a snow-shoe and slide. We couldn’t keep on our feet a single second.”
They lifted Nel-te, fur bag and all, from the sledge, tightened the lashings of its load, which included the guns and extra snow-shoes, and started it over the verge. It flashed down the declivity like a rocket, and the last they saw of it it was rolling over and over.
“Looks cheerful, doesn’t it?” said Phil, grimly. “Now I’ll go; then do you start the dogs down, and come yourself as quick as you please.”
Thus saying, the plucky lad seated himself on a snow-shoe, took Nel-te, still in the fur bag, in his lap, and launched himself over the edge of the cliff.For a moment the sensation, which was that of falling from a great height,was sickening, and a thick mist seemed to obscure his vision. Then it cleared away, and was followed by a feeling of the wildest exhilaration as he heard the whistling backward rush of air, and realized the tremendous speed at which he was whizzing through space. Ere it seemed possible that he could have gone half-way to the timber-line, trees began to fly past him, and he knew that the worst was over. In another minute he was floundering in a drift of soft snow, into which he had plunged up to his neck, and the perilous feat was accomplished.
Poor Serge arrived at the same point shortly afterwards, head first, and dove out of sight in the drift; but fortunately Phil was in a position to extricate him before he smothered. The dogs appeared a moment later, with somewhat less velocity, but badly demoralized, and evidently feeling that they had been sadly ill-treated. So the sledge party had safely descended in five minutes a distance equal to that which they had spent half a day and infinite toil in ascending on the other side of the mountains.
When Nel-te was released from the fur bag and set on his feet he was as calm and self-possessed as though nothing out of the usual had happened, and immediately demanded something to eat.
After a long search they discovered the sledge, with only one rail broken and its load intact.
“Now for a fire and breakfast!” cried Phil, heading towards the timber as soon as the original order of things was restored. “After that we will make one more effort to find some trace of poor Jalap, though I don’t believe there is the slightest chance of success.”
They entered the forest of wide-spreading but stunted evergreens, and Phil, axe in hand, was vigorously attacking a dead spruce, when an exclamation from his companion caused him to pause in his labor and look around.
“What can that be?” asked Serge, pointing to a thick hemlock that stood but a few yards from them. The lower ends of its drooping branches were deep buried in snow, but such part as was still visible was in a strange state of agitation.
“It must be a bear,” replied Phil, dropping his axe and springing to the sledge for his rifle. “His winter den is in there, and we have disturbed him. Get out your gun—quick! We can’t afford to lose him. Meat’s too scarce in camp just now.”
Even as he spoke, and before the guns could be taken from their moose-skin cases, the motion of the branches increased, there came a violent upheaval of the snow that weighted them down, and the boys caught a glimpse of some huge shaggy animal issuing from the powdered whiteness.
“Hurry!” cried Phil. “No, look out! We’re too late! What? Great Scott! It can’t be! Yes, it is! Hurrah! Glory, hallelujah! I knew he’d pull throughall right, and I believe I’m the very happiest fellow in all the world at this minute.”
“Mebbe you be, son,” remarked Jalap Coombs, “and then again mebbe there’s others as is equally joyful. As my old friend Kite Roberson useter say, ‘A receiver’s as good as a thief,’ and I sartainly received a heap of pleasure through hearing you holler jest now.”