KATY TRAPPING THE SNOW-BUNTINGS."Yes? Well, they seemed to enjoy warming their wings in the smoke, for they flew through it lots of times. Then pretty soon one spied a crumb, and I suppose he called his fellows, for in a minute they came all hopping about on the snow, and getting nearer and nearer the boxes. I got so nervous I could hardly hold the strings still, but I kept as quiet as a mouse—""Or as a cat after a mouse!" interrupted Aleck, who had come in with an armful of wood."—and pretty soon one little bird went right under the locker. There was another close behind him, but I was too anxious to wait, and I pulled the string, catching one and knocking the other over. It made so little noise that the rest of the flock were not alarmed, and I suppose they didn't miss the lost one, for pretty soon they began to go around the locker, and one flew right on top of it. I was afraid he would tumble it down, but he didn't, and in a minute another had gone under. But there was a third hopping right towards the paper, and so I just waited till he had run under, when—piff!—I had them both!""Good for you, Katy!" cried the delighted boys. "You'll make a sportsman yet!"Chapter XVI.HOW TUG MADE "TWITCH-UPS.""It's cold work, though," Katy replied, "sitting so still out on that ice. I am just stiff.""I'll fix that all right," Tug said, showing some small forked and notched sticks he had cut out of oaken chips. "Come out with me, and I'll show you how to set a trap that will drop itself, or, rather, where the bird shuts his own prison door."Gathering up Jim's blocks and slabs of ice, the whole party climbed to the top of the hummock, which, as I have said, was almost the only spot in the wide plain free from deep snow, and Tug went to work.Making a little hole in the ice, he wedged into it a short, flat-topped peg, and packed a handful of snow about its base.Then with the brick-like blocks of ice he arranged a hollow square around the peg. On top of the peg he laid the flattened side of the stem of a forked stick, like a letterlaid flat, and on top of that, as though it were a continuation of the peg, he set a post about ten inches high. Asking Aleck to hold these twigs in position for him, he took one of the slabs, lodged an end of it on the rim of the little wall made by his "bricks," and gently rested the other end upon the top of the post, which was held in its upright position under the pressure, at the same time keeping thein place. This arranged, he spread crumbs about the trap and thickly inside. Then he announced it ready.SETTING THE NEW TRAPS."Oh, I see how it works," Katy cried. "The bird, in leaping down, is almost sure to perch on the forked twig, or, at least, to strike it. That throws it out of place, and tumbles the whole cover down, shutting him in.""Correct!" said Tug, admiringly, as he went to work on a second trap of the same kind.This set, all left the hummock (except Jim, who agreed to take his turn, wrapped in a blanket, at watching the strings) and joined labor in making two or three more of the new ice traps, for now that the birds were plenty, they wanted to capture as many as possible."If only I had some sort of a spring," Tug announced, "I could make twitch-ups. I've all the rest of the fixin's, 'cause I found some horse-hairs in my 'shop' this morning; but I don't see how I am to get a springy twig or a strip of whalebone. I had some old umbrella-ribs, but I didn't bring 'em along. Wish I had."Aleck thought over all his stores, but could remember nothing that would answer the purpose. "How about your ramrod?" he asked."Too stiff," Tug replied.So they gave up talking, and attended to their work. Suddenly Aleck went to the log, split off a strip of oak, and whittled it into a thin rod. "How is that?" he said, as he handed it to his comrade.Tug beat his hands and blew on his aching fingers a while before answering. Then he bent the rod gently, but before it was curved half as far as he needed, it broke."No good. Nothing but hickory will stand the strain.""I'll tell you what you might do, perhaps," Katy suggested, having come out just in time to witness this little trial. "The handle of the boat-hook is hickory. If you could make an oak handle for that, you could split the hickory up into springles, couldn't you?""That's so!—that's a bright idea. Try it, Tug," and the Captain ran off for the boat-hook. The shaft of this was straight-grained, well-seasoned, and tough, but an oaken staff would serve its purpose quite as well."I should think that would answer first-rate," said Tug, "but you had better whittle out your oak stick first. It would be rough to be caught suddenly without any handle to our boat-hook.""That's so," Aleck assented, and took his axe to split a suitable piece from the log.The making and shaping of a new handle, even in the rough, cost him much labor with his few tools. It was nearly an hour, therefore, before he was ready to pull the irons off the old handle and fasten the new one into its place; and fully another hour had passed by the time this difficult job had been done.Then, with great care, and by the help of little wedges, a clean, straight splinter about as thick as your finger was split from the tough hickory staff. It was tried by the trapmaker, very gently at first, and bent well, so that it was pronounced serviceable, though not as good as a green twig or sapling, such as one would cut in the woods for the same purpose. It would answer to try with, however, and after a bit of luncheon they watched Tug make his twitch-ups—or, at least, all did except the one on duty at the strings. As Tug himself had to take a turn, he didn't get his traps done in time to put them up that day.Next morning, however, all were out bright and early to help him do so. The snow-flakes had been there before, however, and one unfortunate had stepped on a treacherous fork, and was caught.Having arranged two more ice-boxes and lettertraps, for which the pieces had been cut yesterday, they all gathered around Tug to watch him set his first twitch-up.With one of the tent spikes he dug a slanting hole in the ice, into which he inserted one end of his hickory splint, which was about four feet long, fastening it firmly by ramming ice and snow down into the hole beside it, which would quickly freeze solid. A short distance from the foot of the splint he then laid down a short board, which was braced at the foot (or end farthest from the splint) against the side of a trough cut in the ice. The remaining three sides of the board were then fenced in by small blocks of ice.Next, taking from his pocket a cord made by twisting two horse-hairs together, he slipped one end through a loop in the other, thus making a noose, and tied it to the top of the hickory splint. This done, he bent down the splint until he hooked its tip under the nearest end, or head, of the board, which was raised a couple of inches from the ground. Spreading the noose carefully out upon the board, he sprinkled within a particularly nice lot of crumbs, then laid a little train away from the foot of the board as a leader, and the snare was ready. The weight of the bird treading upon the board to get the bait would press it down enough to let the lightly caught whip end of the splint spring up: this would pull the noose with a sudden movement, and the bird would find itself dangling in the air by the legs or a wing, or possibly by the neck.Removing their captive, and resetting the square trap, the whole party went out of sight to await further results. Yesterday they had captured thirteen birds in all, and had eaten only nine. With three more traps, they ought to do better to-day, and so accumulate a little stock ahead."At any rate," Katy observed, "we've plenty of refrigerator room to keep them in."They had, indeed—a refrigerator about a hundred miles square!Chapter XVII.THE BREAKING UP OF THE ICE.Breakfast was late the next morning, for Katy proposed to vary their fare by frying some snow-birds with bacon, and Jim was called upon to help pluck and prepare them—work which did not please that young gentleman very much."I suppose now we shall have nothing but snow-birds, snow-birds," he growled."Do try and be a little more cheerful, Jim," said Katy. "You are always grumbling about something.""What else do you want?" asked Tug. "You have got beef, though it's dried, and bacon and poultry.""Flesh, fowl, and good red herring," quoted Aleck, from an old proverb."All but the herring," grunted The Youngster, crossly. "Now if only we had some fish—""Fish!" Tug shouted, leaping to his feet. "Never thought of it, as I'm a Dutchman! Why shouldn't we? We have only got to cut a hole in the ice, and 'drop 'em a line,' as the man told his wife to do when he went off to Californy.""Strange we never thought of that," said Katy."Strange? I'm the biggest dolt in three counties. Why, I'll catch you some be-'utiful muskallonge for dinner. Come on, Captain. Let's cut a hole while the boy is cleaning those twopenny tomtits.""Hold on!" cried the disgusted Jim; "I'm coming too.""No, no, my dear child" (Tug's voice was that of a pitying mother). "Remember Captain's order. You're to be a nice boy, and help in the kitchen. Maybe we'll let you cut the heads off our fishes, if you do well with the birds. Ca-a-reful!" and the tormentor dodged a club hurled by the angry lad, who wished (and said so) that he was only a little bigger.Jim and Katy both felt it was hard indeed that he should be deprived of this particular fun, in which he took so much interest, and it seemed as though the big fellows might have waited. The cook would willingly have let her scullion depart, but an order was an order, and he had to stay, plucking savagely at the pretty feathers of the innocent buntings, and declining to come back to good-humor, until the lads returned with the report that they had cut two holes in the thin ice that formed over the "lead," which, the reader will remember, was crossed just a few rods back, and now were ready to set their lines.Here was a chance of revenge. Jim's own line was themost important one in their small stock. He was tempted to refuse to let them use it; but he was not a bad fellow, and a better heart prevailed."You'll find my line and pickerel spoon in that little box of things in our chest," he said.Tug walked up to him and offered his hand."Jeems, I'll accept your apology for throwing sticks of wood at your uncle, and call it square. Agreed?""Yes!" said Jim, with a laugh, and peace was restored.Doubtless you expect an entertaining chapter out of the fishing, but it can't be given if we are to stick to the facts of this cruise. No: the big muskallonge they hoped to catch was somewhere under the ice, but whether it was because he didn't see their bait, or was not tempted, or knew better than to bite, certain is it that none of these giants of winter fishing were caught. With the toothsome pickerel they had better luck, and several were taken on this first and on following days, so that Jim did not lose all the fun by his unlucky engagement in the kitchen. The greatest adventures of the trip were not so much in fishing and hunting as in being fished and huntedafter; and these were to begin without much delay.The day the log was found and the first snow-birds were captured it had turned cold again, and it remained so for a whole week; but our heroes were kept busy in watchingthe traps, which caught them more snow-birds than they could eat; in attending to the fishing; and in getting wood. The snow did not melt at all, for the weather was very cold indeed, and sometimes the wind blew frightfully, but always in such a way that the hummock sheltered the tenthouse pretty well, so that, with the help of a big fire, they could keep warm enough. For amusement, they marked out a checker-board, and played checkers and other games. They tried their hands—or, rather, their heads—at spinning yarns also; they examined each other in geography or grammar, and held spelling competitions, choosing words out of Dr. Dasent's book, which they came to learn almost by heart. At all these studious entertainments Katy was likely to be ahead. But when the subject was turned to arithmetic, Aleck became teacher, for that was his favorite study.Thus the week had passed, and its close completed the fifteenth day since they had left home, which seemed very far away now. They had no anxiety so long as the weather held cold; or, if any one felt worried, he did not talk about it.At the end of this week, however, the wind changed in the night to the southward, so that on the eighth morning of their stay in the igloo they found the air almost as balmy as spring, with a gentle breeze from the south. The sun was shining, also, and no birds came near the house allday. This was compensated for, however, by their taking the largest pickerel yet. Towards noon it clouded up, and began to rain, melting the snow with such rapidity that the whole region was covered with slush. The shapeless tent-roof let streams of water pour in at the sides, and, altogether, affairs were very disagreeable.No one felt disposed to grumble, however, since, when the snow had been washed away, or cold weather came again to freeze solid the slush and surface-water, they could go ahead on their journey—something all were extremely anxious to do.The wind continued to blow from the south all night, and when Aleck went out next morning he hurried back with an alarmed face to report that distant open water could be seen in that direction."The snow has almost gone. I must take a scout after breakfast, and see what the prospect is."As soon as the coffee and fried pickerel had been disposed of, therefore, Aleck set out, taking Jim with him.When two hours had passed, and the scouts did not return, Tug and Katy became alarmed, and went to the crest of the ridge. It had grown so foggy, however, that nothing could be seen."Hadn't we better make a big smoke," Katy suggested, "as a signal? The fog might lift for a minute, andgive them a chance to catch sight of it. They must be lost.""It's a good idea, as are most of your notions, Katy. I'll get some of that wet root-wood, and make a fire on top of the hummock."It was done, and another hour passed. Chilly with the fog and the raw wind, they had gone down into the hut to get warm, and were just attending to the "kitchen" fire, when their ears were startled by a loud, sharp noise, like the report of a distant cannon, only much sharper; then another, still louder; then a third, somewhat nearer; and, after a minute's interval, a fourth tremendous crash, close by the house, which trembled under their feet and over their heads as though an earthquake had shaken it."The ice is cracking!" Tug cried, seizing Katy's hand, and dragging her to the boat, into which both jumped in terror.An instant later Tug recovered himself. "This is no use," he said. "Our ice is firm just here, and I don't hear her bursting any more. Let's go outside.""Don't you think we'd better put some of the food-boxes and things into the boat, so that they won't be lost if the ice here should break to pieces suddenly?""Yes, we might do that. Let's hurry."Five minutes was enough for this work, and then bothwent out and climbed upon the hummock. They found the whole appearance of things changed towards the south and east. Where, yesterday, had lain one broad white field of solid ice, as far as the eye could reach, now were spread before them (for the fog had lifted a little, so that they could see better) the long, slow waves of a lake of blue water, filled with cakes and wide sheets of floating ice."Oh! oh!" Katy cried, wringing her little hands at the thought, "Aleck and Jim are drowned.""No, I guess not," said Tug, encouragingly. "They are probably safe on some of those big pieces of ice.""But how will they ever get back?""I don't know," her companion answered, slowly. "If only this terrible fog would go away, so that we could see something, perhaps we might help them. I don't know what we can do now but to keep up our smoke.""I wonder ifweare afloat?" Katy asked, trying to steady her voice, for she saw how useless it was to weep when so much might be required of her any minute. "Ah, Rex, good dog, what shall we do now? Can't you find your master?"Chapter XVIII.RESCUING THE WANDERERS.Rex wagged his tail mournfully, and looked at the strange scene, whining as if he understood it all, but was at his wits' end how to act."Afloat?" Tug repeated, after a minute. "There are cracks on each side of us, and a narrow one part way behind, between us and that high hummock over there to the southward, which, in my opinion, hides the low, flat land, for I think it is only four or five miles to the shore. But it might as well have been four or five hundred while that snow lasted. Let's watch, and see if the crack gets wider.""Do you feel quite sure, Tug, that Aleck and Jim are on one of those big cakes of ice?" The tone of Katy's voice was very anxious."Yes, I do, Katy. They certainly have not jumped off and drowned themselves on purpose."This made Katy smile, in spite of her anxiety."They surely are not very far off; but, the most alarming part of the business is, how they are to get to us if thatbig crack increases to the size of a river. Can you make up your mind whether it is really growing wider?"In the course of half an hour it became very plain that the crack was getting wider rapidly, and their icy foundation, which they had thought so fixed, had now become a big raft, slowly drifting down the lake under the pushing of the steady west wind—moving a little faster than its companion rafts in the wide waste, because its high hummock served as a sort of sail. All the cakes our watchers could see were much smaller than this one. Occasionally these pieces would crash together, and crumble, or one would slide under the other. Sometimes their own "floe," as Dr. Kane would have called so large a piece, collided with others, but always came off victorious. They came to the conclusion that its having the thick hummock, like a great, solid back-bone, rendered it far stronger than the rest, as well as a better sailer.Beside them another floe, also bearing a hummock (a section of their own), was pressing its way on, to the ruin of smaller ones. It was separated from their floe by an open canal, perhaps five hundred yards wide, and floated along about even with them, sometimes swinging nearer, sometimes receding. This great cake, an acre or more in extent, lay in the direction whither the absent ones had gone, and it was hoped that they were upon it. This would bethe next best thing to having them safely back, but the chance was a small one, at best.Talking over these loopholes of escape, Katy and Tug tried to forget their discomforts and dangers, and to show each other cheerful and reliant faces. Nevertheless it was dreary work.The weary day wore on—the day they thought would perhaps be their last—until night, with its starless gloom, was surrounding the desolate picture of grinding ice and of black, rolling waves, dimly seen. Chilled to the bone, for neither could bear to stay within the hut, they had grown silent and almost despairing, when Rex suddenly started to his feet, and, pricking up his ears, looked intently towards the great floe beside them, which had now approached much nearer. Then, after listening a moment, he uttered a loud bark, and bounded off. The two castaways followed to the edge of the ice, and there, having silenced Rex, could presently hear a faint halloo—her brother's voice!"Halloo! halloo-o!" they shrieked back."Let us get the boat, and go after them!" cried Katy, nearly wild with joy and excitement."Can't do it," said Tug, in a discouraged tone. "All four of us couldn't budge that boat and sledge before morning. It is frozen in, and has got to be chopped out and dried up. Must do something besides get the boat.""That floe is nearer than it has been before, Tug. Maybe it'll come quite close.""Yes, mebbe it will. I 'low that's our only hope. We can do nothing, Katy, but watch, and—and pray, Katy. Let us go back to the fire. It is cold here, and we can do no good. Once in a while I'll come down and scream across to cheer 'em up."Reluctantly, therefore, they returned to the igloo, warmed their feet, and picked up something to eat, but did not go to bed. Tug and Rex would frequently run out and shout across to Aleck, reporting at each return that the water-space (as well as could be guessed in the darkness) seemed to be surely narrowing. Towards morning Katy was persuaded to lie down, consenting to do so only when promised that she should be roused as soon as daylight appeared. Tug himself fell asleep, but both awoke with the first light of dawn, and hastened together to the edge of the floe, where the water lay calm and smooth, gray as iron and cold as death, between the divided friends."Oh, I can see them!" cried the girl, and sent a cheery call across the "lead," which had now narrowed to a few rods. "Poor little Jim! See how he has to lean against Aleck.""We're safe," came back the shout, "but almost worn-out. Can you move the boat?""No.""Then unroll the ball of twine, and tie one end of it to the clothes-line, and to the other end of the clothes-line knot all the drag-ropes put together. Then fasten the loose end of the twine to Rex's collar, and make the dog bring it to me. Understand?""Yes."But Tug didn't quite understand. He was off too soon, in his haste to get the twine and clothes-line and ropes. Aleck hadn't finished his directions."Tell Tug," he shouted again to Katy, "to bring the sled, and fasten that to the drag-ropes. When I have hauled the ropes across, and got hold of the sled, I'll send Rex back, and you can pull in the twine, and catch the ropes, and tow us across. Hurry up, if you want us alive! This ice may drift apart again."In five minutes Tug came running back, with all his preparations made. Now everything depended upon Rex. The twine was slipped through his collar, and securely knotted, Katy kneeling the while with her arms about his shaggy head, whispering to him what he was to do. Then, in a stern voice, Tug commanded:"Go, Rex—go to Aleck!" at the same time pushing him into the water, while the Captain coaxed from the other side, and even Jim roused himself at this joyful prospect of deliverance.At first the dog, brave as he was, turned back, whining pitifully at the freezing water. But they fought him away, and finally poor Rex struck out and swam across to where Aleck was anxiously waiting to lift him out. Taking hold of the twine the dog had brought, the Captain reeled it in as rapidly as his stiffened fingers would let him, until the clothes-line began to come, and after it the heavier drag-ropes.But both clothes-line and drag-ropes together proved too short to reach quite across, and the floes seemed to have stopped their approach to each other, so that waiting would be useless, if not dangerous."There is about ten feet lacking," Aleck shouted. "You must find some more rope.""Can't do it, unless I cut it off the mainsail.""Cut it off, then, and make haste."Tug went off on a run, and another five minutes passed by before he got back. Already the canal had begun to widen, so that fifteen feet instead of ten would be required.Tossing the rope into the sled-box, Tug screamed, "All right!" and the captain began drawing the sled to his side as quickly as possible, so that the two parties were again disconnected, and wholly reliant upon the nervous and frightened dog, which Jim was holding firmly, and coaxing into quiet. Swiftly splicing the rope with the newpiece, the dog was let go. This time he leaped eagerly into the water for his return trip, apparently feeling perfectly the responsibility laid upon him, though perhaps he was only frightened, and eager to get back to what seemed home."REX STRUCK OUT AND SWAM ACROSS."Positions were now reversed. Aleck and Jim had the sled—Tug and Katy the twine. Drawing this in, all waited with feverish anxiety to see if there would be length of rope enough. There was; but so rapidly had the floes drifted apart that Tug held the very end of the taut line in his outstretched hand, and had not a bit to spare. One minute more, and the lines would not have reached across.Then they saw Aleck snatch off his overcoat, his undercoat, and his boots, and put them into the box of the sled, which was floating unsteadily at the margin of the ice. They saw him half lift the exhausted Jim, helping him to get into the box, and then heard him call out in quick words:"Don't try to pull at all hard until you can catch the big rope. I am going to swim and push a little ways, but I expect I shall be too chilled to do more than a little. When I stop pushing, and you get hold of the drag-ropes, haul us both ashore as fast as you can. Here goes!"With these words he slid into the water, swimming with his right hand, while with his left he pushed along the box and sled, which was half sunken, and in which Jimmy crouched, shaking with cold, but afraid to stir."Keep it up a little longer!" Tug sung out, as he knelt on the edge of the ice, and carefully gathered in the clothes-line until he could almost clutch the end of the stronger rope. "I've almost got it! About two strokes more! All right! Now hold on with both arms, and we'll soon have you." Whereupon Katy seized the rope with him, and both together pulled as hard and as fast as they knew how.The strange little ferry-boat and its passengers seemed to approach very slowly, but finally it came so near that Tug stopped hauling on the line, and knelt down in order to lean out and grasp the box after Katy should have pulled it a few inches closer. Jim, seeing this motion, forgot how delicate was the balance, and rose up, when in an instant the unsteady craft tipped, and the boy went backward into and under the blue lake. At any rate, so it seemed to the spectators; but the little fellow, making a despairing clutch as he went over, had gripped a runner of the sled, and a second later his face appeared close by the ice, where the fond sister, pale as he, seized his arm and helped him scramble out.Chapter XIX.ADRIFT ON AN ICE RAFT.Meanwhile Aleck, startled by the upset of the sled and Jim's disappearance, had let go of his support. Now, seeing Jim safe, he was trying to regain it, when suddenly Tug saw him throw up his hand and sink out of sight.Tug knew what that meant, and that there was not an instant to spare. Tearing off his coat—he had thrown aside his overcoat in the heat of the work before-he watched till he saw Aleck rising through the clear water, then dashed in, followed by the noble dog, and grasped his hair. Aleck hung in his hold a dead weight, as though life had gone; but Tug knew that the fatal end had not come yet, and that this was only the fainting of utter exhaustion and the cramping paralysis of cold. Cold! Tug had felt the dreadful chill striking through and through him the instant he had touched the water. Already it was clogging his motions and overcoming his strength with a fearful numbness that would fast render him powerless. And Aleck had been in that stiffening, paralyzing flood several minutes!All this went through Tug's mind, as on a dark night aflash of lightning enters and leaves the pupil of the eye; it took "no time at all," and the instant he had hooked his fingers in Aleck's hair he shouted to Katy to shove out the sled where he might reach it. She did so, and by it drew both the lads to the ice, the brave rescuer grasping the friendly box and towing his senseless Captain.Then a new difficulty presented itself. Aleck was perfectly helpless, and like a log in the water; or worse than that, for he would sink if Tug loosed his hold. How should they get him out?Katy saw this problem, and said to Tug, as soon as the ice had been reached, while she knelt at the brink of the splashing water:"Let me hold his head up—I can do it—until you can climb out; then both of us together, I guess, can drag him up on to the ice. Oh dear! will he ever come to?"Her tears blinded her eyes, but she dashed them away, and took firm hold upon Aleck's collar, while Tug scrambled out. Then, while Katy held his head above the curling, gurgling little waves that the wind was chasing, Tug slipped one end of the rope under Aleck's arms, and made a loop about his body, by which they were able to drag his lifeless form out upon the ice, as though he were a fish or a seal."Now let's have the sled!" screamed Tug, minding neitherhis own freezing garments nor Katy's anguish; and having pulled this from the water, he and Katy lifted Aleck upon it, and set off as fast as they could for the tent, whither the miserable Youngster had already started in a staggering trot, with many groans and rough tumbles. The others overtook him, and all went on together; but Jimkin got no comfort, for Aleck might be drowned—they did not know; while Jim, though certainly miserable, was alive and active, enough so, at least, to look after himself."THEY WERE ABLE TO DRAG HIS LIFELESS FORMOUT UPON THE ICE.""How fortunate that there happened to be a kettle of hot water on the fire!""Yes. Now here we are. We'll have to drag him through the low doorway heels first. Help me lift him off the sled, Katy."Laid on straw and overcoats by the warm fire, Tug quickly stripped off the Captain's wet clothes, while Katy brought warm blankets, and wrapped him in them."Didn't you say you had a little bottle of brandy, Katy?""Yes; Miss Marshall told us we ought never to go on a long journey without it, and I brought it along for fear something like this might happen. Here it is."Taking the bottle, Tug forced a few drops between Aleck's lips and saw them trickle down his throat. A minute later there was a stronger throb of the fluttering heart, a quiver of the eyelids, and a faint, sighing groan, which theanxious watchers could just hear. At this sign of returning life they rose and grasped each other's hands. The tears Katy had so bravely kept back when she had had work to do and no time to cry came now in an unrestrained shower; but they were tears of joy, for the Captain was waking up all right.Now poor little Jim got some attention, and Katy left them to themselves while the three boys helped each other to get rid of their icy clothes and crawl into the blankets and warm straw of their bedrooms, as they called the hull of the boat. This done, Katy came back and made hot tea for her three tucked-up patients, which so revived them that Tug and Jim begged to be allowed to get up as soon as their clothes had been dried; but Aleck said he wanted to sleep two weeks, and so would stay in bed a little longer.As for Rex, whose heroism in bringing back Aleck's floating coat, when he was unable to aid his drowning master himself, had been forgotten until now, he was content to lie in a snug corner and wait for the half-frozen fish his mistress had promised him should presently be the reward of his faithfulness.That eventful day came to an end without anything further to disturb their peace. Aleck rose towards evening, and went out fishing with Jim and Tug, catching two or three pickerel. The night passed in unusual quiet, for thewind, though steady, was not a whistling gale, nor did the grinding roar of moving ice come to their ears, as it had sometimes during the previous daytime.In the morning the same clouds were overhead, the same vague haze hid the horizon, the same waste of ice and water surrounded their lonely camp, the same quiet breeze breathed steadily across the lake, and, but for occasional noises of their own making, the whole world seemed profoundly still. This was depressing, and the spirits of each one of our young adventurers sank to a level with the flat ice and the dull gray sky; yet it was evident that nothing could be done except to wait as patiently as possible for some change."If yez can't be aisy, be as aisy as ye can," remarked Tug, quoting an excellent Irish rule of life under adverse circumstances; but the pleasantry met with only a faint smile from his disheartened companions. All thought that anyactiveperils would be better than this motionless, objectless gloom, so threatening because so still and uncertain."I wonder if we haven't stopped drifting," said Katy, as they were pretending to eat a bit of luncheon, for which nobody had much appetite; and, more for the sake of doing something than because it seemed to make much difference whether they had come to a standstill or not, they took a few chips to the edge of the floe, and threw them into the water. These tossed up and down on the gentle waves,but did not change their position at all, so our navigators concluded their floe to be at last stationary."How far do you think we have drifted?" Jim asked his brother."Well," Aleck replied, "I've been studying over that. We don't know just when we started nor exactly when we stopped—if we have stopped—nor whether we have gone steadily on. I have seen something of drifting ice, and I should say we had gone probably between twenty and twenty-five miles, all right out into the middle of the lake.""Then you have some idea of where we are?""Oh, yes; that's quite easily calculated by 'dead-reckoning,' as sailors say."The west wind now began to subside, and before long the air became still and the mists thicker, with dense, low clouds massing close overhead. On land it must have been a warm, thawing day. Out here it was always chilly, but the four persons were not uncomfortable, even when their overcoats were unbuttoned, partly, however, because they had become accustomed to constant exposure.Before the sun went down the air grew much cooler, and the fog thinned out, while the wind freshened and worked around until it blew briskly and very cold from the north. This soon swept away the mists, but not the clouds; yet light enough remained just before dusk to give Aleck a brief lookto the northward. He could see a great field of rough ice, apparently made up of broken pieces crushed and jammed together, stretching in that direction to the horizon. This horizon was broken in one place, however, by a darker patch, that looked as though it might be land; but before he could examine it more carefully it had become lost in the darkness.Returning to the house, the Captain ordered every preparation to be made for a possible removal. While Katy cooked their evening meal, the boys worked with axe and shovel until they had freed the runners under the boat, so that she could be dragged away quickly. Then the wall was taken down, and the boxes stowed carefully. Several of them had been emptied during the long halt, and it made the lads feel very grave to notice how low their stock of provisions and lamp-oil had run. Jimmy refused to see the use of all this hard work when everything seemed as safe as ever it was, and Aleck confessed that he had no better reason for his precautions than that the weather had changed, and it was best to be on the safe side—in which he showed himself a good commander."We won't take the tent down, Jim, nor throw in the mess kit, nor roll away our good beds, till we find we have to; but, if the ice should drop from under our feet at this moment, we could scramble into the boat, and have our necessary property with us."Katy, meanwhile, had set half a ham boiling—they had only one more left after this—and was only waiting for it to be done before going to bed, for it was late in the evening, and much colder than usual, since the hummock no longer sheltered them from this new wind, which blew in under the boat where the snow had been shovelled away, and threatened to tear the frail hut to pieces. Finally the ham was done, and the girl crept shivering to Jim's side amid the straw and quilts, thoroughly frightened and weary.She had not been there five minutes when there came a quick series of crashing reports, such as she had heard before. The ice was breaking up again. Tug was quickest to jump out, calling to all to stay in the boat till he came back. They could feel the ice shake and tip under them—or, at any rate, imagined they could—while the wind was blowing snow-flakes in their scared faces. It seemed an age, though really it was hardly a minute, before Tug came back and said they were afloat upon a small piece—a piece only a few yards square."Then," said Aleck, decisively, "we must take to the boat and get off this cake, for the wind is blowing us right back into the open lake, and we couldn't live out there. I think I saw land just north of us, and we must try to reach it, or, at any rate, to get upon the big ice-field in front. It's our only hope."He and Tug were buttoning their overcoats and tying tippets about their heads and necks, but talking at the same time."Now for our orders, Captain.""Well, then, listen. Katy and Jim must not step out of the boat unless I say so. They must light the lantern, ship the rudder, roll up the bedding and stow it under the thwarts, and fix everything as snug as they can. Jim's place will be forward; Katy will stay by the tiller; and remember, whatever happens, that the compass direction is due north. Now, Tug," he continued, "you and I will throw this kitchen stuff aboard, and let The Youngster pack it away the best he can. Then, down with the oars and mast and canvas. We must hurry."So saying, he snatched the kettle, ham and all, from the fire, and tossed it into the boat, where it lit on Jim's foot, and was greeted with an angry howl. The other goods and the spare canvas followed. Then they began to tear down the roof, and in five minutes this had been piled in a stiff, frozen heap on the bow of the boat, for they thought there would be no time to bend and fold it into shape. It was all the united efforts of the four could do to hoist it over the low gunwale.All these preparations took perhaps fifteen minutes—a quarter of an hour of terror, for now the great cake was plainlyrocking under their feet. Then calling Jim out of the boat to help them, the three put their heads through the collars of the drag-ropes, and tried their best to move the boat, but it wouldn't budge an inch."We must throw off that icy canvas. I should think it weighs a hundred pounds," Tug remarked."Yes, off with it!" ordered Captain Aleck.This done, they tried again, and slowly and laboriously worked the boat twenty or thirty paces towards the edge of the ice, when it became clogged with the fast-falling snow, and could be pushed no farther.Chapter XX.A NIGHT IN AN OPEN BOAT.What should be done? Aleck was sure that their only chance for life lay in getting the boat afloat; but unless it could be brought nearer the edge this could not be done, and perhaps it was impossible, anyway. Yet to stay where they were meant destruction. Katy and Jim climbed into the boat, and crouched down out of the snow, while the larger lads stood outside trying to find some way out of their desperate situation. They must think fast; minutes were precious; but, cudgel their brains as they might, only darkness, a howling snow-squall, and crashing blocks of ice greeted their eyes or thoughts. One minute passed, two minutes passed, yet they could see no way to help themselves. The third minute was slipping by, when a huge ice-cake crowded its resistless way underneath the rear edge of their own raft, towards which the stern of the boat was pointing, and slowly lifted it above the level of the water.At once the sledge began to feel this inclination, and started to move forward."Jump in!" shouted Aleck, and leaped aboard, with Tug beside him. "Try to steady her!" they heard him cry, and each seized an oar, or a boat-hook, or whatever was nearest. But it was of little use. Slowly but gently the hinder part of the ice-cake rose, and the front part tipped down. As the slant deepened, the speed of the sliding boat increased, until it went with a rush, and struck the water with a plunging splash that would surely have swamped them had it not been for the tight half-deck forward; this shed the water, and caused the little craft to rise upon an even keel as soon as she had fairly left the surface of the ice. It was evident in an instant, however, that she would sink in a very short time unless freed of the great sledge that was dragging upon her bottom. Already the water was pouring over her sides, and Aleck knew that they were in imminent danger of sinking or capsizing, or both. Tug had leaped in forward, and to him Aleck shouted, "Cut those bands!""Haven't any knife.""Here's the hatchet. Hurry up!"One stroke of Tug's arm parted one of the bands, and he raised his hatchet for the second one, for there were two straps forward. As it descended, Aleck drew his pocket-knife across the strained band astern, which parted with a loud ripping noise. The idea was that both straps should be severed at the same instant; but in the darkness Tugpartly missed his aim, and the poor boat, held to the sledge by a single strap, began to yaw and jerk and ship water in a most alarming manner—a strain she could not have borne one moment had not the half-cut band of canvas broken, setting the boat free. Aleck had intended to hold to the strap and take the sledge aboard; but this struggle, which came so near wrecking them all, wrenched it out of his hand, and the first wave washed the bobs beyond recovery—a loss whose full force did not strike them at once, for they had too much else to think of.
KATY TRAPPING THE SNOW-BUNTINGS.
KATY TRAPPING THE SNOW-BUNTINGS.
"Yes? Well, they seemed to enjoy warming their wings in the smoke, for they flew through it lots of times. Then pretty soon one spied a crumb, and I suppose he called his fellows, for in a minute they came all hopping about on the snow, and getting nearer and nearer the boxes. I got so nervous I could hardly hold the strings still, but I kept as quiet as a mouse—"
"Or as a cat after a mouse!" interrupted Aleck, who had come in with an armful of wood.
"—and pretty soon one little bird went right under the locker. There was another close behind him, but I was too anxious to wait, and I pulled the string, catching one and knocking the other over. It made so little noise that the rest of the flock were not alarmed, and I suppose they didn't miss the lost one, for pretty soon they began to go around the locker, and one flew right on top of it. I was afraid he would tumble it down, but he didn't, and in a minute another had gone under. But there was a third hopping right towards the paper, and so I just waited till he had run under, when—piff!—I had them both!"
"Good for you, Katy!" cried the delighted boys. "You'll make a sportsman yet!"
HOW TUG MADE "TWITCH-UPS."
"It's cold work, though," Katy replied, "sitting so still out on that ice. I am just stiff."
"I'll fix that all right," Tug said, showing some small forked and notched sticks he had cut out of oaken chips. "Come out with me, and I'll show you how to set a trap that will drop itself, or, rather, where the bird shuts his own prison door."
Gathering up Jim's blocks and slabs of ice, the whole party climbed to the top of the hummock, which, as I have said, was almost the only spot in the wide plain free from deep snow, and Tug went to work.
Making a little hole in the ice, he wedged into it a short, flat-topped peg, and packed a handful of snow about its base.
Then with the brick-like blocks of ice he arranged a hollow square around the peg. On top of the peg he laid the flattened side of the stem of a forked stick, like a letterlaid flat, and on top of that, as though it were a continuation of the peg, he set a post about ten inches high. Asking Aleck to hold these twigs in position for him, he took one of the slabs, lodged an end of it on the rim of the little wall made by his "bricks," and gently rested the other end upon the top of the post, which was held in its upright position under the pressure, at the same time keeping thein place. This arranged, he spread crumbs about the trap and thickly inside. Then he announced it ready.
Then with the brick-like blocks of ice he arranged a hollow square around the peg. On top of the peg he laid the flattened side of the stem of a forked stick, like a letterlaid flat, and on top of that, as though it were a continuation of the peg, he set a post about ten inches high. Asking Aleck to hold these twigs in position for him, he took one of the slabs, lodged an end of it on the rim of the little wall made by his "bricks," and gently rested the other end upon the top of the post, which was held in its upright position under the pressure, at the same time keeping thein place. This arranged, he spread crumbs about the trap and thickly inside. Then he announced it ready.
SETTING THE NEW TRAPS.
SETTING THE NEW TRAPS.
"Oh, I see how it works," Katy cried. "The bird, in leaping down, is almost sure to perch on the forked twig, or, at least, to strike it. That throws it out of place, and tumbles the whole cover down, shutting him in."
"Correct!" said Tug, admiringly, as he went to work on a second trap of the same kind.
This set, all left the hummock (except Jim, who agreed to take his turn, wrapped in a blanket, at watching the strings) and joined labor in making two or three more of the new ice traps, for now that the birds were plenty, they wanted to capture as many as possible.
"If only I had some sort of a spring," Tug announced, "I could make twitch-ups. I've all the rest of the fixin's, 'cause I found some horse-hairs in my 'shop' this morning; but I don't see how I am to get a springy twig or a strip of whalebone. I had some old umbrella-ribs, but I didn't bring 'em along. Wish I had."
Aleck thought over all his stores, but could remember nothing that would answer the purpose. "How about your ramrod?" he asked.
"Too stiff," Tug replied.
So they gave up talking, and attended to their work. Suddenly Aleck went to the log, split off a strip of oak, and whittled it into a thin rod. "How is that?" he said, as he handed it to his comrade.
Tug beat his hands and blew on his aching fingers a while before answering. Then he bent the rod gently, but before it was curved half as far as he needed, it broke.
"No good. Nothing but hickory will stand the strain."
"I'll tell you what you might do, perhaps," Katy suggested, having come out just in time to witness this little trial. "The handle of the boat-hook is hickory. If you could make an oak handle for that, you could split the hickory up into springles, couldn't you?"
"That's so!—that's a bright idea. Try it, Tug," and the Captain ran off for the boat-hook. The shaft of this was straight-grained, well-seasoned, and tough, but an oaken staff would serve its purpose quite as well.
"I should think that would answer first-rate," said Tug, "but you had better whittle out your oak stick first. It would be rough to be caught suddenly without any handle to our boat-hook."
"That's so," Aleck assented, and took his axe to split a suitable piece from the log.
The making and shaping of a new handle, even in the rough, cost him much labor with his few tools. It was nearly an hour, therefore, before he was ready to pull the irons off the old handle and fasten the new one into its place; and fully another hour had passed by the time this difficult job had been done.
Then, with great care, and by the help of little wedges, a clean, straight splinter about as thick as your finger was split from the tough hickory staff. It was tried by the trapmaker, very gently at first, and bent well, so that it was pronounced serviceable, though not as good as a green twig or sapling, such as one would cut in the woods for the same purpose. It would answer to try with, however, and after a bit of luncheon they watched Tug make his twitch-ups—or, at least, all did except the one on duty at the strings. As Tug himself had to take a turn, he didn't get his traps done in time to put them up that day.
Next morning, however, all were out bright and early to help him do so. The snow-flakes had been there before, however, and one unfortunate had stepped on a treacherous fork, and was caught.
Having arranged two more ice-boxes and lettertraps, for which the pieces had been cut yesterday, they all gathered around Tug to watch him set his first twitch-up.
Having arranged two more ice-boxes and lettertraps, for which the pieces had been cut yesterday, they all gathered around Tug to watch him set his first twitch-up.
With one of the tent spikes he dug a slanting hole in the ice, into which he inserted one end of his hickory splint, which was about four feet long, fastening it firmly by ramming ice and snow down into the hole beside it, which would quickly freeze solid. A short distance from the foot of the splint he then laid down a short board, which was braced at the foot (or end farthest from the splint) against the side of a trough cut in the ice. The remaining three sides of the board were then fenced in by small blocks of ice.
Next, taking from his pocket a cord made by twisting two horse-hairs together, he slipped one end through a loop in the other, thus making a noose, and tied it to the top of the hickory splint. This done, he bent down the splint until he hooked its tip under the nearest end, or head, of the board, which was raised a couple of inches from the ground. Spreading the noose carefully out upon the board, he sprinkled within a particularly nice lot of crumbs, then laid a little train away from the foot of the board as a leader, and the snare was ready. The weight of the bird treading upon the board to get the bait would press it down enough to let the lightly caught whip end of the splint spring up: this would pull the noose with a sudden movement, and the bird would find itself dangling in the air by the legs or a wing, or possibly by the neck.
Removing their captive, and resetting the square trap, the whole party went out of sight to await further results. Yesterday they had captured thirteen birds in all, and had eaten only nine. With three more traps, they ought to do better to-day, and so accumulate a little stock ahead.
"At any rate," Katy observed, "we've plenty of refrigerator room to keep them in."
They had, indeed—a refrigerator about a hundred miles square!
THE BREAKING UP OF THE ICE.
Breakfast was late the next morning, for Katy proposed to vary their fare by frying some snow-birds with bacon, and Jim was called upon to help pluck and prepare them—work which did not please that young gentleman very much.
"I suppose now we shall have nothing but snow-birds, snow-birds," he growled.
"Do try and be a little more cheerful, Jim," said Katy. "You are always grumbling about something."
"What else do you want?" asked Tug. "You have got beef, though it's dried, and bacon and poultry."
"Flesh, fowl, and good red herring," quoted Aleck, from an old proverb.
"All but the herring," grunted The Youngster, crossly. "Now if only we had some fish—"
"Fish!" Tug shouted, leaping to his feet. "Never thought of it, as I'm a Dutchman! Why shouldn't we? We have only got to cut a hole in the ice, and 'drop 'em a line,' as the man told his wife to do when he went off to Californy."
"Strange we never thought of that," said Katy.
"Strange? I'm the biggest dolt in three counties. Why, I'll catch you some be-'utiful muskallonge for dinner. Come on, Captain. Let's cut a hole while the boy is cleaning those twopenny tomtits."
"Hold on!" cried the disgusted Jim; "I'm coming too."
"No, no, my dear child" (Tug's voice was that of a pitying mother). "Remember Captain's order. You're to be a nice boy, and help in the kitchen. Maybe we'll let you cut the heads off our fishes, if you do well with the birds. Ca-a-reful!" and the tormentor dodged a club hurled by the angry lad, who wished (and said so) that he was only a little bigger.
Jim and Katy both felt it was hard indeed that he should be deprived of this particular fun, in which he took so much interest, and it seemed as though the big fellows might have waited. The cook would willingly have let her scullion depart, but an order was an order, and he had to stay, plucking savagely at the pretty feathers of the innocent buntings, and declining to come back to good-humor, until the lads returned with the report that they had cut two holes in the thin ice that formed over the "lead," which, the reader will remember, was crossed just a few rods back, and now were ready to set their lines.
Here was a chance of revenge. Jim's own line was themost important one in their small stock. He was tempted to refuse to let them use it; but he was not a bad fellow, and a better heart prevailed.
"You'll find my line and pickerel spoon in that little box of things in our chest," he said.
Tug walked up to him and offered his hand.
"Jeems, I'll accept your apology for throwing sticks of wood at your uncle, and call it square. Agreed?"
"Yes!" said Jim, with a laugh, and peace was restored.
Doubtless you expect an entertaining chapter out of the fishing, but it can't be given if we are to stick to the facts of this cruise. No: the big muskallonge they hoped to catch was somewhere under the ice, but whether it was because he didn't see their bait, or was not tempted, or knew better than to bite, certain is it that none of these giants of winter fishing were caught. With the toothsome pickerel they had better luck, and several were taken on this first and on following days, so that Jim did not lose all the fun by his unlucky engagement in the kitchen. The greatest adventures of the trip were not so much in fishing and hunting as in being fished and huntedafter; and these were to begin without much delay.
The day the log was found and the first snow-birds were captured it had turned cold again, and it remained so for a whole week; but our heroes were kept busy in watchingthe traps, which caught them more snow-birds than they could eat; in attending to the fishing; and in getting wood. The snow did not melt at all, for the weather was very cold indeed, and sometimes the wind blew frightfully, but always in such a way that the hummock sheltered the tenthouse pretty well, so that, with the help of a big fire, they could keep warm enough. For amusement, they marked out a checker-board, and played checkers and other games. They tried their hands—or, rather, their heads—at spinning yarns also; they examined each other in geography or grammar, and held spelling competitions, choosing words out of Dr. Dasent's book, which they came to learn almost by heart. At all these studious entertainments Katy was likely to be ahead. But when the subject was turned to arithmetic, Aleck became teacher, for that was his favorite study.
Thus the week had passed, and its close completed the fifteenth day since they had left home, which seemed very far away now. They had no anxiety so long as the weather held cold; or, if any one felt worried, he did not talk about it.
At the end of this week, however, the wind changed in the night to the southward, so that on the eighth morning of their stay in the igloo they found the air almost as balmy as spring, with a gentle breeze from the south. The sun was shining, also, and no birds came near the house allday. This was compensated for, however, by their taking the largest pickerel yet. Towards noon it clouded up, and began to rain, melting the snow with such rapidity that the whole region was covered with slush. The shapeless tent-roof let streams of water pour in at the sides, and, altogether, affairs were very disagreeable.
No one felt disposed to grumble, however, since, when the snow had been washed away, or cold weather came again to freeze solid the slush and surface-water, they could go ahead on their journey—something all were extremely anxious to do.
The wind continued to blow from the south all night, and when Aleck went out next morning he hurried back with an alarmed face to report that distant open water could be seen in that direction.
"The snow has almost gone. I must take a scout after breakfast, and see what the prospect is."
As soon as the coffee and fried pickerel had been disposed of, therefore, Aleck set out, taking Jim with him.
When two hours had passed, and the scouts did not return, Tug and Katy became alarmed, and went to the crest of the ridge. It had grown so foggy, however, that nothing could be seen.
"Hadn't we better make a big smoke," Katy suggested, "as a signal? The fog might lift for a minute, andgive them a chance to catch sight of it. They must be lost."
"It's a good idea, as are most of your notions, Katy. I'll get some of that wet root-wood, and make a fire on top of the hummock."
It was done, and another hour passed. Chilly with the fog and the raw wind, they had gone down into the hut to get warm, and were just attending to the "kitchen" fire, when their ears were startled by a loud, sharp noise, like the report of a distant cannon, only much sharper; then another, still louder; then a third, somewhat nearer; and, after a minute's interval, a fourth tremendous crash, close by the house, which trembled under their feet and over their heads as though an earthquake had shaken it.
"The ice is cracking!" Tug cried, seizing Katy's hand, and dragging her to the boat, into which both jumped in terror.
An instant later Tug recovered himself. "This is no use," he said. "Our ice is firm just here, and I don't hear her bursting any more. Let's go outside."
"Don't you think we'd better put some of the food-boxes and things into the boat, so that they won't be lost if the ice here should break to pieces suddenly?"
"Yes, we might do that. Let's hurry."
Five minutes was enough for this work, and then bothwent out and climbed upon the hummock. They found the whole appearance of things changed towards the south and east. Where, yesterday, had lain one broad white field of solid ice, as far as the eye could reach, now were spread before them (for the fog had lifted a little, so that they could see better) the long, slow waves of a lake of blue water, filled with cakes and wide sheets of floating ice.
"Oh! oh!" Katy cried, wringing her little hands at the thought, "Aleck and Jim are drowned."
"No, I guess not," said Tug, encouragingly. "They are probably safe on some of those big pieces of ice."
"But how will they ever get back?"
"I don't know," her companion answered, slowly. "If only this terrible fog would go away, so that we could see something, perhaps we might help them. I don't know what we can do now but to keep up our smoke."
"I wonder ifweare afloat?" Katy asked, trying to steady her voice, for she saw how useless it was to weep when so much might be required of her any minute. "Ah, Rex, good dog, what shall we do now? Can't you find your master?"
RESCUING THE WANDERERS.
Rex wagged his tail mournfully, and looked at the strange scene, whining as if he understood it all, but was at his wits' end how to act.
"Afloat?" Tug repeated, after a minute. "There are cracks on each side of us, and a narrow one part way behind, between us and that high hummock over there to the southward, which, in my opinion, hides the low, flat land, for I think it is only four or five miles to the shore. But it might as well have been four or five hundred while that snow lasted. Let's watch, and see if the crack gets wider."
"Do you feel quite sure, Tug, that Aleck and Jim are on one of those big cakes of ice?" The tone of Katy's voice was very anxious.
"Yes, I do, Katy. They certainly have not jumped off and drowned themselves on purpose."
This made Katy smile, in spite of her anxiety.
"They surely are not very far off; but, the most alarming part of the business is, how they are to get to us if thatbig crack increases to the size of a river. Can you make up your mind whether it is really growing wider?"
In the course of half an hour it became very plain that the crack was getting wider rapidly, and their icy foundation, which they had thought so fixed, had now become a big raft, slowly drifting down the lake under the pushing of the steady west wind—moving a little faster than its companion rafts in the wide waste, because its high hummock served as a sort of sail. All the cakes our watchers could see were much smaller than this one. Occasionally these pieces would crash together, and crumble, or one would slide under the other. Sometimes their own "floe," as Dr. Kane would have called so large a piece, collided with others, but always came off victorious. They came to the conclusion that its having the thick hummock, like a great, solid back-bone, rendered it far stronger than the rest, as well as a better sailer.
Beside them another floe, also bearing a hummock (a section of their own), was pressing its way on, to the ruin of smaller ones. It was separated from their floe by an open canal, perhaps five hundred yards wide, and floated along about even with them, sometimes swinging nearer, sometimes receding. This great cake, an acre or more in extent, lay in the direction whither the absent ones had gone, and it was hoped that they were upon it. This would bethe next best thing to having them safely back, but the chance was a small one, at best.
Talking over these loopholes of escape, Katy and Tug tried to forget their discomforts and dangers, and to show each other cheerful and reliant faces. Nevertheless it was dreary work.
The weary day wore on—the day they thought would perhaps be their last—until night, with its starless gloom, was surrounding the desolate picture of grinding ice and of black, rolling waves, dimly seen. Chilled to the bone, for neither could bear to stay within the hut, they had grown silent and almost despairing, when Rex suddenly started to his feet, and, pricking up his ears, looked intently towards the great floe beside them, which had now approached much nearer. Then, after listening a moment, he uttered a loud bark, and bounded off. The two castaways followed to the edge of the ice, and there, having silenced Rex, could presently hear a faint halloo—her brother's voice!
"Halloo! halloo-o!" they shrieked back.
"Let us get the boat, and go after them!" cried Katy, nearly wild with joy and excitement.
"Can't do it," said Tug, in a discouraged tone. "All four of us couldn't budge that boat and sledge before morning. It is frozen in, and has got to be chopped out and dried up. Must do something besides get the boat."
"That floe is nearer than it has been before, Tug. Maybe it'll come quite close."
"Yes, mebbe it will. I 'low that's our only hope. We can do nothing, Katy, but watch, and—and pray, Katy. Let us go back to the fire. It is cold here, and we can do no good. Once in a while I'll come down and scream across to cheer 'em up."
Reluctantly, therefore, they returned to the igloo, warmed their feet, and picked up something to eat, but did not go to bed. Tug and Rex would frequently run out and shout across to Aleck, reporting at each return that the water-space (as well as could be guessed in the darkness) seemed to be surely narrowing. Towards morning Katy was persuaded to lie down, consenting to do so only when promised that she should be roused as soon as daylight appeared. Tug himself fell asleep, but both awoke with the first light of dawn, and hastened together to the edge of the floe, where the water lay calm and smooth, gray as iron and cold as death, between the divided friends.
"Oh, I can see them!" cried the girl, and sent a cheery call across the "lead," which had now narrowed to a few rods. "Poor little Jim! See how he has to lean against Aleck."
"We're safe," came back the shout, "but almost worn-out. Can you move the boat?"
"No."
"Then unroll the ball of twine, and tie one end of it to the clothes-line, and to the other end of the clothes-line knot all the drag-ropes put together. Then fasten the loose end of the twine to Rex's collar, and make the dog bring it to me. Understand?"
"Yes."
But Tug didn't quite understand. He was off too soon, in his haste to get the twine and clothes-line and ropes. Aleck hadn't finished his directions.
"Tell Tug," he shouted again to Katy, "to bring the sled, and fasten that to the drag-ropes. When I have hauled the ropes across, and got hold of the sled, I'll send Rex back, and you can pull in the twine, and catch the ropes, and tow us across. Hurry up, if you want us alive! This ice may drift apart again."
In five minutes Tug came running back, with all his preparations made. Now everything depended upon Rex. The twine was slipped through his collar, and securely knotted, Katy kneeling the while with her arms about his shaggy head, whispering to him what he was to do. Then, in a stern voice, Tug commanded:
"Go, Rex—go to Aleck!" at the same time pushing him into the water, while the Captain coaxed from the other side, and even Jim roused himself at this joyful prospect of deliverance.
At first the dog, brave as he was, turned back, whining pitifully at the freezing water. But they fought him away, and finally poor Rex struck out and swam across to where Aleck was anxiously waiting to lift him out. Taking hold of the twine the dog had brought, the Captain reeled it in as rapidly as his stiffened fingers would let him, until the clothes-line began to come, and after it the heavier drag-ropes.
But both clothes-line and drag-ropes together proved too short to reach quite across, and the floes seemed to have stopped their approach to each other, so that waiting would be useless, if not dangerous.
"There is about ten feet lacking," Aleck shouted. "You must find some more rope."
"Can't do it, unless I cut it off the mainsail."
"Cut it off, then, and make haste."
Tug went off on a run, and another five minutes passed by before he got back. Already the canal had begun to widen, so that fifteen feet instead of ten would be required.
Tossing the rope into the sled-box, Tug screamed, "All right!" and the captain began drawing the sled to his side as quickly as possible, so that the two parties were again disconnected, and wholly reliant upon the nervous and frightened dog, which Jim was holding firmly, and coaxing into quiet. Swiftly splicing the rope with the newpiece, the dog was let go. This time he leaped eagerly into the water for his return trip, apparently feeling perfectly the responsibility laid upon him, though perhaps he was only frightened, and eager to get back to what seemed home.
"REX STRUCK OUT AND SWAM ACROSS."
"REX STRUCK OUT AND SWAM ACROSS."
Positions were now reversed. Aleck and Jim had the sled—Tug and Katy the twine. Drawing this in, all waited with feverish anxiety to see if there would be length of rope enough. There was; but so rapidly had the floes drifted apart that Tug held the very end of the taut line in his outstretched hand, and had not a bit to spare. One minute more, and the lines would not have reached across.
Then they saw Aleck snatch off his overcoat, his undercoat, and his boots, and put them into the box of the sled, which was floating unsteadily at the margin of the ice. They saw him half lift the exhausted Jim, helping him to get into the box, and then heard him call out in quick words:
"Don't try to pull at all hard until you can catch the big rope. I am going to swim and push a little ways, but I expect I shall be too chilled to do more than a little. When I stop pushing, and you get hold of the drag-ropes, haul us both ashore as fast as you can. Here goes!"
With these words he slid into the water, swimming with his right hand, while with his left he pushed along the box and sled, which was half sunken, and in which Jimmy crouched, shaking with cold, but afraid to stir.
"Keep it up a little longer!" Tug sung out, as he knelt on the edge of the ice, and carefully gathered in the clothes-line until he could almost clutch the end of the stronger rope. "I've almost got it! About two strokes more! All right! Now hold on with both arms, and we'll soon have you." Whereupon Katy seized the rope with him, and both together pulled as hard and as fast as they knew how.
The strange little ferry-boat and its passengers seemed to approach very slowly, but finally it came so near that Tug stopped hauling on the line, and knelt down in order to lean out and grasp the box after Katy should have pulled it a few inches closer. Jim, seeing this motion, forgot how delicate was the balance, and rose up, when in an instant the unsteady craft tipped, and the boy went backward into and under the blue lake. At any rate, so it seemed to the spectators; but the little fellow, making a despairing clutch as he went over, had gripped a runner of the sled, and a second later his face appeared close by the ice, where the fond sister, pale as he, seized his arm and helped him scramble out.
ADRIFT ON AN ICE RAFT.
Meanwhile Aleck, startled by the upset of the sled and Jim's disappearance, had let go of his support. Now, seeing Jim safe, he was trying to regain it, when suddenly Tug saw him throw up his hand and sink out of sight.
Tug knew what that meant, and that there was not an instant to spare. Tearing off his coat—he had thrown aside his overcoat in the heat of the work before-he watched till he saw Aleck rising through the clear water, then dashed in, followed by the noble dog, and grasped his hair. Aleck hung in his hold a dead weight, as though life had gone; but Tug knew that the fatal end had not come yet, and that this was only the fainting of utter exhaustion and the cramping paralysis of cold. Cold! Tug had felt the dreadful chill striking through and through him the instant he had touched the water. Already it was clogging his motions and overcoming his strength with a fearful numbness that would fast render him powerless. And Aleck had been in that stiffening, paralyzing flood several minutes!
All this went through Tug's mind, as on a dark night aflash of lightning enters and leaves the pupil of the eye; it took "no time at all," and the instant he had hooked his fingers in Aleck's hair he shouted to Katy to shove out the sled where he might reach it. She did so, and by it drew both the lads to the ice, the brave rescuer grasping the friendly box and towing his senseless Captain.
Then a new difficulty presented itself. Aleck was perfectly helpless, and like a log in the water; or worse than that, for he would sink if Tug loosed his hold. How should they get him out?
Katy saw this problem, and said to Tug, as soon as the ice had been reached, while she knelt at the brink of the splashing water:
"Let me hold his head up—I can do it—until you can climb out; then both of us together, I guess, can drag him up on to the ice. Oh dear! will he ever come to?"
Her tears blinded her eyes, but she dashed them away, and took firm hold upon Aleck's collar, while Tug scrambled out. Then, while Katy held his head above the curling, gurgling little waves that the wind was chasing, Tug slipped one end of the rope under Aleck's arms, and made a loop about his body, by which they were able to drag his lifeless form out upon the ice, as though he were a fish or a seal.
"Now let's have the sled!" screamed Tug, minding neitherhis own freezing garments nor Katy's anguish; and having pulled this from the water, he and Katy lifted Aleck upon it, and set off as fast as they could for the tent, whither the miserable Youngster had already started in a staggering trot, with many groans and rough tumbles. The others overtook him, and all went on together; but Jimkin got no comfort, for Aleck might be drowned—they did not know; while Jim, though certainly miserable, was alive and active, enough so, at least, to look after himself.
"THEY WERE ABLE TO DRAG HIS LIFELESS FORMOUT UPON THE ICE."
"THEY WERE ABLE TO DRAG HIS LIFELESS FORMOUT UPON THE ICE."
"How fortunate that there happened to be a kettle of hot water on the fire!"
"Yes. Now here we are. We'll have to drag him through the low doorway heels first. Help me lift him off the sled, Katy."
Laid on straw and overcoats by the warm fire, Tug quickly stripped off the Captain's wet clothes, while Katy brought warm blankets, and wrapped him in them.
"Didn't you say you had a little bottle of brandy, Katy?"
"Yes; Miss Marshall told us we ought never to go on a long journey without it, and I brought it along for fear something like this might happen. Here it is."
Taking the bottle, Tug forced a few drops between Aleck's lips and saw them trickle down his throat. A minute later there was a stronger throb of the fluttering heart, a quiver of the eyelids, and a faint, sighing groan, which theanxious watchers could just hear. At this sign of returning life they rose and grasped each other's hands. The tears Katy had so bravely kept back when she had had work to do and no time to cry came now in an unrestrained shower; but they were tears of joy, for the Captain was waking up all right.
Now poor little Jim got some attention, and Katy left them to themselves while the three boys helped each other to get rid of their icy clothes and crawl into the blankets and warm straw of their bedrooms, as they called the hull of the boat. This done, Katy came back and made hot tea for her three tucked-up patients, which so revived them that Tug and Jim begged to be allowed to get up as soon as their clothes had been dried; but Aleck said he wanted to sleep two weeks, and so would stay in bed a little longer.
As for Rex, whose heroism in bringing back Aleck's floating coat, when he was unable to aid his drowning master himself, had been forgotten until now, he was content to lie in a snug corner and wait for the half-frozen fish his mistress had promised him should presently be the reward of his faithfulness.
That eventful day came to an end without anything further to disturb their peace. Aleck rose towards evening, and went out fishing with Jim and Tug, catching two or three pickerel. The night passed in unusual quiet, for thewind, though steady, was not a whistling gale, nor did the grinding roar of moving ice come to their ears, as it had sometimes during the previous daytime.
In the morning the same clouds were overhead, the same vague haze hid the horizon, the same waste of ice and water surrounded their lonely camp, the same quiet breeze breathed steadily across the lake, and, but for occasional noises of their own making, the whole world seemed profoundly still. This was depressing, and the spirits of each one of our young adventurers sank to a level with the flat ice and the dull gray sky; yet it was evident that nothing could be done except to wait as patiently as possible for some change.
"If yez can't be aisy, be as aisy as ye can," remarked Tug, quoting an excellent Irish rule of life under adverse circumstances; but the pleasantry met with only a faint smile from his disheartened companions. All thought that anyactiveperils would be better than this motionless, objectless gloom, so threatening because so still and uncertain.
"I wonder if we haven't stopped drifting," said Katy, as they were pretending to eat a bit of luncheon, for which nobody had much appetite; and, more for the sake of doing something than because it seemed to make much difference whether they had come to a standstill or not, they took a few chips to the edge of the floe, and threw them into the water. These tossed up and down on the gentle waves,but did not change their position at all, so our navigators concluded their floe to be at last stationary.
"How far do you think we have drifted?" Jim asked his brother.
"Well," Aleck replied, "I've been studying over that. We don't know just when we started nor exactly when we stopped—if we have stopped—nor whether we have gone steadily on. I have seen something of drifting ice, and I should say we had gone probably between twenty and twenty-five miles, all right out into the middle of the lake."
"Then you have some idea of where we are?"
"Oh, yes; that's quite easily calculated by 'dead-reckoning,' as sailors say."
The west wind now began to subside, and before long the air became still and the mists thicker, with dense, low clouds massing close overhead. On land it must have been a warm, thawing day. Out here it was always chilly, but the four persons were not uncomfortable, even when their overcoats were unbuttoned, partly, however, because they had become accustomed to constant exposure.
Before the sun went down the air grew much cooler, and the fog thinned out, while the wind freshened and worked around until it blew briskly and very cold from the north. This soon swept away the mists, but not the clouds; yet light enough remained just before dusk to give Aleck a brief lookto the northward. He could see a great field of rough ice, apparently made up of broken pieces crushed and jammed together, stretching in that direction to the horizon. This horizon was broken in one place, however, by a darker patch, that looked as though it might be land; but before he could examine it more carefully it had become lost in the darkness.
Returning to the house, the Captain ordered every preparation to be made for a possible removal. While Katy cooked their evening meal, the boys worked with axe and shovel until they had freed the runners under the boat, so that she could be dragged away quickly. Then the wall was taken down, and the boxes stowed carefully. Several of them had been emptied during the long halt, and it made the lads feel very grave to notice how low their stock of provisions and lamp-oil had run. Jimmy refused to see the use of all this hard work when everything seemed as safe as ever it was, and Aleck confessed that he had no better reason for his precautions than that the weather had changed, and it was best to be on the safe side—in which he showed himself a good commander.
"We won't take the tent down, Jim, nor throw in the mess kit, nor roll away our good beds, till we find we have to; but, if the ice should drop from under our feet at this moment, we could scramble into the boat, and have our necessary property with us."
Katy, meanwhile, had set half a ham boiling—they had only one more left after this—and was only waiting for it to be done before going to bed, for it was late in the evening, and much colder than usual, since the hummock no longer sheltered them from this new wind, which blew in under the boat where the snow had been shovelled away, and threatened to tear the frail hut to pieces. Finally the ham was done, and the girl crept shivering to Jim's side amid the straw and quilts, thoroughly frightened and weary.
She had not been there five minutes when there came a quick series of crashing reports, such as she had heard before. The ice was breaking up again. Tug was quickest to jump out, calling to all to stay in the boat till he came back. They could feel the ice shake and tip under them—or, at any rate, imagined they could—while the wind was blowing snow-flakes in their scared faces. It seemed an age, though really it was hardly a minute, before Tug came back and said they were afloat upon a small piece—a piece only a few yards square.
"Then," said Aleck, decisively, "we must take to the boat and get off this cake, for the wind is blowing us right back into the open lake, and we couldn't live out there. I think I saw land just north of us, and we must try to reach it, or, at any rate, to get upon the big ice-field in front. It's our only hope."
He and Tug were buttoning their overcoats and tying tippets about their heads and necks, but talking at the same time.
"Now for our orders, Captain."
"Well, then, listen. Katy and Jim must not step out of the boat unless I say so. They must light the lantern, ship the rudder, roll up the bedding and stow it under the thwarts, and fix everything as snug as they can. Jim's place will be forward; Katy will stay by the tiller; and remember, whatever happens, that the compass direction is due north. Now, Tug," he continued, "you and I will throw this kitchen stuff aboard, and let The Youngster pack it away the best he can. Then, down with the oars and mast and canvas. We must hurry."
So saying, he snatched the kettle, ham and all, from the fire, and tossed it into the boat, where it lit on Jim's foot, and was greeted with an angry howl. The other goods and the spare canvas followed. Then they began to tear down the roof, and in five minutes this had been piled in a stiff, frozen heap on the bow of the boat, for they thought there would be no time to bend and fold it into shape. It was all the united efforts of the four could do to hoist it over the low gunwale.
All these preparations took perhaps fifteen minutes—a quarter of an hour of terror, for now the great cake was plainlyrocking under their feet. Then calling Jim out of the boat to help them, the three put their heads through the collars of the drag-ropes, and tried their best to move the boat, but it wouldn't budge an inch.
"We must throw off that icy canvas. I should think it weighs a hundred pounds," Tug remarked.
"Yes, off with it!" ordered Captain Aleck.
This done, they tried again, and slowly and laboriously worked the boat twenty or thirty paces towards the edge of the ice, when it became clogged with the fast-falling snow, and could be pushed no farther.
A NIGHT IN AN OPEN BOAT.
What should be done? Aleck was sure that their only chance for life lay in getting the boat afloat; but unless it could be brought nearer the edge this could not be done, and perhaps it was impossible, anyway. Yet to stay where they were meant destruction. Katy and Jim climbed into the boat, and crouched down out of the snow, while the larger lads stood outside trying to find some way out of their desperate situation. They must think fast; minutes were precious; but, cudgel their brains as they might, only darkness, a howling snow-squall, and crashing blocks of ice greeted their eyes or thoughts. One minute passed, two minutes passed, yet they could see no way to help themselves. The third minute was slipping by, when a huge ice-cake crowded its resistless way underneath the rear edge of their own raft, towards which the stern of the boat was pointing, and slowly lifted it above the level of the water.
At once the sledge began to feel this inclination, and started to move forward.
"Jump in!" shouted Aleck, and leaped aboard, with Tug beside him. "Try to steady her!" they heard him cry, and each seized an oar, or a boat-hook, or whatever was nearest. But it was of little use. Slowly but gently the hinder part of the ice-cake rose, and the front part tipped down. As the slant deepened, the speed of the sliding boat increased, until it went with a rush, and struck the water with a plunging splash that would surely have swamped them had it not been for the tight half-deck forward; this shed the water, and caused the little craft to rise upon an even keel as soon as she had fairly left the surface of the ice. It was evident in an instant, however, that she would sink in a very short time unless freed of the great sledge that was dragging upon her bottom. Already the water was pouring over her sides, and Aleck knew that they were in imminent danger of sinking or capsizing, or both. Tug had leaped in forward, and to him Aleck shouted, "Cut those bands!"
"Haven't any knife."
"Here's the hatchet. Hurry up!"
One stroke of Tug's arm parted one of the bands, and he raised his hatchet for the second one, for there were two straps forward. As it descended, Aleck drew his pocket-knife across the strained band astern, which parted with a loud ripping noise. The idea was that both straps should be severed at the same instant; but in the darkness Tugpartly missed his aim, and the poor boat, held to the sledge by a single strap, began to yaw and jerk and ship water in a most alarming manner—a strain she could not have borne one moment had not the half-cut band of canvas broken, setting the boat free. Aleck had intended to hold to the strap and take the sledge aboard; but this struggle, which came so near wrecking them all, wrenched it out of his hand, and the first wave washed the bobs beyond recovery—a loss whose full force did not strike them at once, for they had too much else to think of.