"TRY TO STEADY HER!"The weight and awkwardness of the sledge having been taken away, the boat rode much more lightly in the face of the ice-clogged sea, and showed how stanch and trim she really was, though much cold water splashed over her rails."Now," said Aleck, cheerfully, though it was fortunate the darkness could conceal how anxious was the expression of his face, "now we shall get along. Jim, get out your oars (the stroke); and look out for floating ice forward, Tug. Katy, my little steersman, are you very, very cold?""N-n-n-o!" the girl answered, bravely, but her teeth chattered dreadfully."Better say you are, for you can't hide it, poor child. Wait a minute till I get this strap off my roll of bedding, and I will wrap a blanket around you."Doubling a large blanket, he put it carefully over herhead and shoulders like an immense hood. Then he buckled around her the strap which had held the roll together, leaving only a fold out of which she might grasp the tiller, and another crevice through which to peep and breathe."We've got to have that lantern lit, because you must see the compass."Taking some matches from his pocket, he knelt down, placed the lantern under the skirt of Katy's blanket robe, crouched over it as close as he could, and struck a match. It went out. A second fizzed a while, which only warmed the wicking, but at the third the oil in the wick took fire, and the lantern was soon shining gayly into the bright face of the compass at Katy's feet."Now, Youngster, for the oars. Lie low, and let me crawl over you to my seat."Aleck got there and was ready, but Jim was still fumbling about on each side, and feeling under the thwart."What's the matter? Why don't you go to work?""Can't find but one oar.""Only one oar? Sure?"Then the two searched, but to no purpose. It had been dropped overboard, evidently, during the excitement about losing the sledge."Well, Jim, it's your fault, but it can't be helped now. You take this quilt, and cuddle down as close to Katy asyou can get, and try to keep each other warm. I'll row alone. Ready, forward?""Ay, ay, sir."Then they began to move ahead through the water, which came in long rollers, not in breaking waves, because there was so much ice around them that the wind could not get hold of it. It was very cold. Occasionally Tug would fend away a cake of ice, or they would stop and steer clear of a big piece; but pretty soon he called out in a shaky voice that he was too stiff to stand there any longer, where the spray was blowing over him, and that he should be good for nothing in a few minutes unless he could row awhile to get warm. So Aleck took his place, fixing the spare canvas into a kind of shield to keep off the spattering drops. It was very forlorn and miserable, and to say that all wished themselves back on shore would be but the faintest expression of their distress.Little was said. Pushing their way slowly through the cakes of ice, which had grown denser now; changing every little while from oars to boat-hook and back again, while Katy, protected from freezing by her double blanket and Jim's close hugging, kept the yawl's head due north; fighting fatigue, hunger, cold, and a great desire to sleep, these brave boys worked hour after hour for their lives and the lives in their care.When they were beginning to think it almost morning they came squarely against a field of ice which stretched right and left into the darkness farther than it was possible to see. Whether this was the edge of a stationary field or only a large raft they couldn't tell; but they were too exhausted to go farther, and they decided to tie up and wait for daylight. Tug struck his hook into the ice until it held firmly, then lashed it to the bow. Aleck also stepped out and drove one of the short railway spikes into the ice near the stern, around which a rope was hitched. Then both the boys opened a second roll of bedding, and snuggled down as well as they could to get what rest they were able to while waiting for sunrise. Crowded together in the straw (though it was damp with snow), and covered with quilts and blankets, they could keep tolerably warm, and even caught little naps. The snow had stopped now, and the stars began to appear, first in the north, then overhead, then gradually everywhere. The wind still blew, but the boat rose and fell more and more slowly upon the rollers, until at last it stood perfectly still. This happened so suddenly, and was followed by so complete steadiness, that it aroused Tug's curiosity. Poking his head from under the covering, he said, "I think we are frozen in." Nobody answered him, for they were asleep, or too stupid to care; but the gray daylight which came at last showed that he wasright. On their right hand was a great sheet of new, thin ice; on their left a mass of thick old ice, white with snow. Straight ahead, so well had Katy steered, towered the rocks and trees of a high, wooded shore, coming momently into greater and greater distinctness as the red streamers of the morning shot higher and higher into the eastern sky.Tug was the first to catch this sight, and roused his fellows with a shout:"Land!—land! Hurrah!"Chapter XXI.THE ESCAPE TO THE SHORE.To rouse themselves, hastily gather a few eatables, and make their way ashore had been the work of a very short time, though done with great soreness and much hobbling, after their cramped-up night in the boat.They halted on the south side of a sheltering rock, where the sun was beginning to shine against the gray stone. Katy hated to confess it, but really she was very, very tired, and was quite willing to let Aleck wrap her up in a thick blanket, and to lie quietly in a sunny nook of the rock while the boys set a fire crackling as near to her as was safe, and began to heat water for coffee. The mill had been forgotten, but Tug had a piece of buckskin in his overcoat pocket, and folding the grains in this they crushed them between two stones, which did just as well as grinding them.This done, the coffee-pot was filled and set upon the embers, and a moment later four cups were steaming with the hot, reviving liquid, and four tired hands were reaching towards the little heap of slices cut from the boiled ham which had been tossed into the boat the night before, when leaving theice-raft. It had required all of Rex's strength of mind to keep his paws off these tempting pieces for some time past."Poor dog!" cried Jim; "we must give you something, if we are pretty short. Pity there was no fish left for you.""He can have my slice of ham," Katy said, with a faint smile. "I can't eat it, somehow.""Better try to eat a little, sis," Aleck said, "because—""Don't you touch a mouthful!" exclaimed Tug, snatching the shaving from her hand and tossing it to the dog, which swallowed it at a gulp. "Just you wait a minute! I ought to go and kick myself for not thinking of it before!" And with this puzzling remark he rushed off over the ice.They saw him rummage about the cargo, and then start back, bringing his gun and a small package."Thought it would be just as well to make sure of the gun," he remarked, as he rejoined them; "and here's something, Katy, you can eat, I guess!" It was a box containing two dozen preserved figs that he opened, and handed to her. "I bought 'em just before we left Monore," he said, "and clean forgot 'em till now—sure as I'm a Dutchman!""Oh, give me one!" cried Jim."Jim Kincaid," said Tug, sternly, springing between the boy and Katy's hand, outstretched in generosity, "if you touch one of those figs I'll thump you well! I didn't bring them all this way for a lubber like you to eat!" Andin spite of all the girl's protests, Tug would not touch a fig himself nor allow her to give one to anybody else.Aleck grinned, and munched his tough morsel; Jim scowled, and gnawed at his shavings as though he enjoyed viciously tearing them into shreds; Tug thought his beef was juicy and sweet, as he saw with what gusto poor Katy ate her fruit; and as for Rex, he dug his teeth into the tough remnant of the dried shank which had been given to him, as though he never expected to see another meal.Refreshed and strengthened by their breakfast, meagre as it was, the boys prepared to begin the work of bringing the cargo ashore, though the weather was so cold that a thermometer would have marked nearly down to zero.Aleck forbade Katy to help, so she curled up beside the wall of rock, which acted as a sort of oven to hold the warmth, where presently she fell asleep, and the boys, when they returned with their first sled-load of goods, were careful not to awaken her. So much had their stock been reduced that they found a second trip would enable them to bring everything of consequence ashore by carrying pretty large armfuls. They therefore distributed their loads as best they could, and started back from the abandoned boat, slipping and stumbling over the rough ice and through the cutting wind.Chapter XXII.REX FIGHTS UNKNOWN ENEMIES.With aching heads bowed under their burdens, and tired limbs, they had returned to within, perhaps, a hundred yards of the beach, when the barking of dogs, mingled with a girlish scream, caused them all to look up in astonishment. Then, without waiting for any one to give the word, each dropped what he was carrying, and began to run as fast as he was able over the broken ice towards the shore.When the lads had started on the second trip out to the boat, Rex, bidden to watch his mistress, and proud of the duty, had lain down almost on the edge of her blankets. There was no snow upon the sand here, and the warmth of the fire closed the eyes of the fagged-out dog, just as it had those of his mistress. The boys had been gone, perhaps, half an hour, and he had had time to get very soundly asleep, when, suddenly, he was roused by a growl and a rush, and before he could rise to his feet two animals were right upon him, each nearly as big as himself, though short-haired and wofully gaunt. With a yelp of surprise and rage the dog sprang up and tried to defend himself, but theattack of his assailants was so fierce that he was rolled over in an instant, and felt their teeth pressing at his throat.Into Katy's dreams of a May-day picnic under the blossoming apple-trees broke this rude hubbub, and before she could understand its meaning she felt the weight of the struggling animals pressing upon her bed. With the piercing scream of fright that had reached the ears of her brothers out on the ice, she struggled out of her blankets, only to be tripped and fall right upon the tumbling, growling, fighting heap. Afterwards she used to tell the story with merry laughter, but then, scarcely knowing what it all meant, she was too frightened to do anything but scream again, and pick herself up as best she could.Safely on her feet at last, and convinced that this startling adventure was a reality and not some frightful change in her dream, she saw that Rex was being overpowered by two great dogs, lean almost as skeletons, that seemed bent upon killing him without an instant's delay. To see her faithful friend surprised and overcome in this terrible way stirred up all her sympathies and all her wrath. Like a flash she remembered how African travellers had fought lions with firebrands, and, seizing one of the charred sticks from the fire, she began to strike the brute nearest to her.But what followed was most alarming, for the animal, at the very first blow, left Rex and turned towards her, hisjaws wide open, and his haggard eyes glowing with rage. Instinctively she presented the smoking end of her long brand, as a soldier would his bayonet, and was fortunate enough to meet the dog squarely in the face, which staggered him for an instant, and before he could gather himself for a new attack Aleck and Tug and Jim were all beside her, and the two great brutes were in full flight.Then the brave girl dropped her firebrand, and sank down on the nearest seat, where, perhaps, she might have been excused for fainting had the day been warm, instead of freezing cold. The boys gathered anxiously about her, with such questions as, "Where did they come from?" "Why did they attack you?" "Are you hurt?" and so on.The story was soon told, and this was fortunate, for everybody had forgotten poor Rex, who lay panting, and licking one of his feet, from which the blood was oozing."Well, old fellow," exclaimed Tug, as he went and bent over the dog, "did they try to chew you up? Here, give us your paw. Quiet! Let me feel—so—good dog! No bones broken, I guess, and we'll bandage you up O. K. How about this ear? One hole through it, and—Well, 'twas lucky you had a strong collar? Just look at the tooth-marks on that piece of leather! If it hadn't been for that an' his thick hair, they'd been in his throat, and then good-bye, Rex!"Chapter XXIII.EXPLORING THE ISLAND.When all the property of our shipwrecked crew had been brought ashore it made a very small heap, and the biggest part of that seemed to be the bedding. Everybody noticed this, and it added a new gloom to the feeling of discouragement caused by their weariness, by Katy's fright, and, most of all, by the hunger of which their slight breakfast had only taken away the edge."Before we do anything else at all," said Captain Aleck, "we must have something more to eat. Do you feel strong enough to help us, Katy?""Oh, yes, indeed. I've got quite rid of my foolish weakness.""That's good. Let us know if we can help you."Nobody felt in the mood for talking, and Jim really took a nap between the rock and the fire. Though the air was still cold, the sunshine was bright, and under the lee of the little cliff it was very comfortable; but poor Katy had hard work to keep her fingers from almost freezing. What she made was chocolate, fried bacon, and "griddle" cakes, thelast cooked in the skillet, and consuming every bit of buckwheat flour and a good share of the sugar. When the meal had been eaten to the last scrap, and everybody had grown wide awake and cheerful, Aleck rapped on a box, and made a speech:"Attention, ladies and gentlemen! Though none of us have said much about it, you all know well enough that we're in a regular scrape, and the sooner we discover how we're to get out of it the better. Now, I am going to propose a plan, and if any of you don't like it you can say so.""We'll do whatever you say," exclaimed Tug."But I don't want tosaytill we've talked it over. I rather think we're on a small island a good many miles from land. I judge so from what I know of the chart of the lake, and what I can guess of where we drifted on that ice-floe. If so, I do not think anybody lives here, or ever comes here in winter.""Regular desert island!" Jim was heard to mutter, in a tone that showed his mind busy with the romantic memory of Robinson Crusoe."The first thing to do is to find out whether this is so or not. Now I propose that Jim and Katy should stay here—""Oh, no, no," Katy interrupted, in an eager appeal. "Those dreadful dogs might come back, and Jimmy is solittle! I want you to stay with me, or else let me go with you.""That's rather rough on the boy," Aleck laughed. "However, I suppose it won't matter. Well, then, Tug, I think you and Jim had better go back in the country, and see what you can find, while I stay and watch over the goods and the sister. What do you say?""Good plan," Tug replied. "I'm ready. Are you, Youngster?""Yes, siree! But you'll let us take the gun, won't you, Aleck?""Oh, yes, you can have the gun. If the dogs, or wolves, or whatever they are, come at us while you're gone, Katy can fight them with firebrands, and I—""Oh,youcan climb a tree!" said his sister, merrily."Yes, I can climb a tree."While Tug and Jim were gone, Aleck and Katy busied themselves in repacking their goods in snug bundles, and in talking over their strange adventures. They were too anxious to feel very gay, but thought it foolish to give way to fretting until they had lost all hope. Two hours or more elapsed, and the sun had climbed to "high noon" in the sky, before the explorers came back, bringing solemn faces."Island!" both called out as soon as they came near; "and a small one at that.""Any people on it?" asked Katy."Not a soul that I could see," Tug said. "I allow they come here in summer, though, for the trees have been cut down, and there's a rough little shanty on the other side.""Could we live in it?""Didn't go inside; don't know. It's half full of snow. Better than no shelter at all, I suppose. It ain't far off. Suppose you all go over there and look at it—Jim can show you where it is—while I guard the grub against those pesky dogs. I don't wonder the brutes are savage, for I don't see how they could get anything to eat here."When the three had left the rocks at the beach, under Jim's guidance, they found themselves in a brushy wood consisting largely of hemlocks and pines, often closely matted together. A few minutes' walking carried them through this and up to a ridge of jagged limestone rocks, one point of which, a little distance off, stood up like a big monument. This ridge ran about east and west, and they had come up its southern side. Its northern face was very snowy, had few trees, and sloped down an eighth of a mile to the water.At one place on this northern beach several great rocks rose from the water's edge, and among them stood a small grove of hemlocks and other trees. In that thicket, Jimmy told them, the old shanty was placed. They thought it must be very small, or else well stowed away, for theycould see nothing of it. To get down to it was no easy task, for the crevices and holes in the rocky hillside had drifted full of snow, and they were continually sinking in where they had expected to stand firm, or finding a solid rock ahead when they tried to flounder out. It was a chilled and ill-tempered trio that finally reached the beach, and sought the shelter of the thicket.Now it became easier to understand why the hut had been invisible from above, for it was only a shanty propped up between two great rocks that helped to form its walls and support its roof. From the broken oars and many fragments of nets, the old corks and other rubbish lying about, they saw at once that it had been built by fishermen, who probably came there to spend the night now and then, or, perhaps, stayed a week or so at a time in the summer.The door stood half open, and a snowdrift lay heaped upon the threshold. Edging their way in, they found that the roof and walls were tight, the little window unbroken, and several rough articles of furniture lying about. An old, rusty stove, one corner propped up on stones, and the pipe tumbled down, stood against the chimney of mud and sticks that was built up against one of the rocky walls."This is splendid!" Katy cried. "Just look at that dear old stove!""Yes, sis; I think we must move over here. But are yousure, Jim—how did you find out?—that this is an island, and not the mainland?"THE CABIN ON THE ISLAND."From the top of that high point of rocks you can see the whole of it. I don't believe it is more than a mile up to the farther end, and not half that down to the other. The island is shaped something like a dumb-bell, only one end is a good deal bigger than the other. We are on the little end here.""Well, Youngster, you're quite a geographer; but we can't stop to talk about it now. Let's go back as quickly as we can, and bring part of our goods over this afternoon; don't you think that's best?""Oh, yes." And twenty minutes later, rosy and panting, Katy astonished the sleepy Tug by rushing into camp, followed closely, not by wild beasts, as he thought would be the case, but by both the brothers she had outsped."It's so good!" she exclaimed, catching her breath, "to feel something besides slippery ice under your feet! Now, what shall we take first?"By hard work and little resting the coming of twilight found them established in their new home. The last journey had been made after the bedding, by Tug and Aleck, while Jim and Katy cleared the snow all away from the cabin door and off the bending roof, straightened up the rickety old stove, and set a fire going. By the time thelarger boys came back, raising a whoop far up the hillside as they saw the smoke curling up between the hemlocks, the old hut was warm, and the tin cover of the little iron pot was dancing, in its effort to hold back the escaping steam."Ugh!" said Tug, as he pushed the door open and threw down his bundle of blankets; "I'm as hungry as a wolf!""If you think you can wait fifteen minutes, Mr. Montgomery, you'll have a bee-yutiful supper. Can you do it?""I 'low I can. I ain't a epi—epi—What d'ye call it?""Epicure?""That's the chap. I read the other day that the Tartars say he digs his grave with his teeth. I don't want a grave as bad as that yet.""I suppose that means that a man who lives on too rich food will die by it.""Yes, I reckon so. But I 'low there's no danger in our case; eh, Aleck? Do you think dried beef and snow-birds too rich for your delicate stomach, my boy?"That night all bunked down on the floor, for they were too weary to care much for anything but a chance to sleep, and the sun was high before any of them found out, in their shady house, that it was morning. When breakfast was ready, and they had all sat down at the rough shelf-tablewhich the fishermen had fastened at one side of the cabin, Aleck called "Attention!" and said that it was time they were looking the situation squarely in the face."It's all very funny," he said, "to think ourselves Crusoes, and feel that we are all right because we have a roof over us and a stove to keep warm by. But Crusoe didn't need a roof nor a stove, for he was in a warm climate; and he had goats and birds, and shell-fish along the rocks, and cocoanuts, and lots of other things. Crusoe was a king in his palace beside us."The circle of faces grew rather grave."Here we are, in midwinter, on an island in a fresh-water lake—and not even water, but solid ice—where there are no oysters nor clams, no fruit-trees, and no animals—""Except those dogs," Jim interrupted."Eventheyseem to have disappeared," Aleck went on; "and they are starved almost to skin and bone. If a pack of dogs can't get anything to eat, what are we four going to do? I tell you, it's a serious case.""Well," Tug rejoined, stoutly, "I, for one, don't give in yet. Look what we did out on the ice! We can fish, and trap snow-birds—I saw a flock last evening; and maybe we can find some mussels near the beach, and so stick it out till the ice breaks up and the birds begin to come in the spring.""Tug, you're a brick, and I was wrong to feel so lowspirited," said Aleck, heartily. "I think you're a better fellow to be captain here than I am. I resign.""Not by a long chalk!" exclaimed Tug. "Here, I'll put it to vote. Whoever wants Aleck to go out, and me to take my innings as captain, hold up his hand."Chapter XXIV.THE WILD DOGS AGAIN.Aleck's hand alone was shown; and though he held both of his arms as high as he could, the other side had the majority, and would not accept his resignation."Suppose we see just exactly what we have in the way of provisions," Katy suggested. "It won't take long to make out the list," she added, with a grim little smile.They began at once, and the small housewife wrote down the list as fast as the stores were examined, guessing at the weights. There were found about eleven pounds of dried beef; bacon, one "side;" flour, about six pounds; corn-meal, ten pounds; beans, three pounds; coffee, two pounds; tea, a quarter of a pound; chocolate, half a cake; sugar, three pounds; small quantities of salt, pepper, soda, and so on; some crumbs of crackers and cookies in the bottom of a bag; a small piece of dried yeast; and a few swallows of the brandy that had been so useful at the time of Aleck's accident on the drifting ice.They had nearly all the bedding, cooking utensils, and tools with which they had started three weeks before; butthe oil for their lantern and their matches were nearly used up or lost; their powder was low, for part of it had been spoiled by water; their clothes were badly worn; and their only canvas, since the loss of their tent, was the small "spare piece.""It's plain," said Aleck, as this overhauling was finished, "that we must put ourselves upon a regular allowance. The provisions won't last us a week unless we save them carefully.""And it's plain that we must raise some more, so I reckon I'd better get to work at bird-traps.""Yes, the sooner the better. As for me, I want to learn all I can about the island. There may be something of use to us at the other end, so I shall take a long walk, and see what I can find.""Mayn't I go with you?" Jim asked, eagerly."Yes, Youngster, if you think you can stand it.""No trouble about that," replied the little fellow, courageously. He had grown very manly during the past month.The brothers started off, taking the gun with them, and saying that they would be back about three o'clock.As soon as they had gone Tug set about his traps in one corner of the house, behind the stove, while Katy went to work to make the hut a little more homelike.The cabin was about twelve feet square, and one side was the smooth face of a great rock, against which was heaped the rude chimney of mud and stones. In front of this the stove was placed, and behind it, on the side of the room farthest from the door, the fishermen had built a bunk."You must call that your bedroom," Tug said, and he helped Katy to set up in front of it poles sustaining a curtain made of a shawl."Now," said the lad, when this had been arranged, "you must have a mattress."So, taking the axe, he went out, and soon came back with a great armful of hemlock boughs, and then a second one, with which he heaped the bunk, laying them all very smoothly, and making a delightful bed."I'm thinkin' we'll have to fix some more bunks for ourselves," said the boy, as he tried this springy couch. "That's a heap better 'n the soft side of a plank."Then with a hemlock broom Katy swept the floor, and spread down the canvas as a carpet. Finding in her little trunk some clothing wrapped in an oldHarper's Weekly, she cut out the pictures and tacked them up, and finally she washed the grimy window to let more light in, so that the rough little house soon came to look quite warm and cosey.Meanwhile Tug, getting out his few tools, had made thetriggers of half a dozen such box-traps as they had caught snow-birds with when living on the ice, and one other queer little arrangement, of sticks delicately balanced, an upright one in the middle bearing at its top a bit of red rag:"What in the world isthat?" Katy inquired with much curiosity."Oh, it's a bit of a contrivance to stand over a hole in the ice where I propose to place a 'set' line for fish—that is, you know, a line that I bait and leave set for a while, trusting to luck to catch something. The minute a fish gets the hook through his lips and begins to flop around, he will set this flag a-fluttering and so let me know it. I might make him ring a little bell if I had one.""I should say," Katy remarked laughingly, "that to make a captured and dying fish ring his own funeral knell was adding insult to injury."At length Tug pulled on his overcoat and announced that he was going to look for a good fishing-place.He was gone nearly an hour, during which Katy busied herself in mending her sadly torn dress, and in thinking. But the latter was by no means a pleasant occupation, and she was glad to see Tug come back, rubbing his ears, for the day was a cold one."I think I have found a real likely place for fishing," he told her. "There is a little cove the other side of thisthicket, with a marsh around it, and a pretty narrow entrance. I reckon the water's deep enough in there for fish to be skulking, and I dropped my line right in the middle. I set the traps near here, but didn't see any birds.""Do you think—" Katy stopped suddenly, laying one hand on Tug's arm, and holding up the other warningly, while her face grew pale. Rex, who had been lying by the stove quietly licking his injured paw, rose up and growled deeply."There! Did you not hear it?""I did. It's them pesky dogs," cried Tug, and hurried to the window, while Rex began to bark furiously. "There are the boys on the hill backing down, and two—no, three—dogs following them. Where's that axe? I'll fix 'em!"And before Katy could quite understand what was the matter, the boy had burst out, and was tearing up the hill to the support of his friends. Rex wanted to go too, but Katy held him fast, as she stood watching the boys flourishing their weapons, and frightening the dogs back, while they slowly retreated. As they came nearer to the house the animals ceased pursuing, and relieved their disappointment by savage barks and prolonged howls."Well," exclaimed Tug, in the country speech he always used when excited, "I allow them curs are the most or'nary critters I ever see!""They followed us all the way from the other side of the neck," said Jim, dropping limp into a broken-legged chair, which tumbled him over backward."Where did you go, and what did you see?" was Katy's anxious question, choking down her laughter at the plaintive Youngster's accident.Aleck then told them that from the highest point of the hill he could study the whole island, which was everywhere surrounded by ice, and that eastward he could see what he thought was another island several miles away; but that to the southward it was too misty for a long sight. Going on down the hill, they crossed a neck or isthmus of sand and rocks between two marshy bays, and entered some woods, which seemed to cover pretty much all the rest of the island. Pushing through this, and gathering a good many dried grapes, which were worth a hungry man's attention if he had plenty of time, they reached the shore somewhere near the farther end of the island without finding any signs that anybody had ever been there before. On the shore, however, by a cove, they found a tumbled-down shanty, and a little clearing where once had been a camp. They were going on still farther, when suddenly they were attacked by the three dogs, and thought it best to retreat. The dogs followed, and they had to fight them off all the way."One of them was a giant of a mastiff," said Aleck,"and we were more afraid of him than of the smaller ones, which seemed to be two well-grown pups. I think these dogs must have been left here last summer by somebody. There seems to be four of them altogether—two old ones and two young ones—though we have never seen more than three at once. How they have managed to live beats me. I don't see anything for them to eat. I wish you had some bullets, Tug. We never can hurt 'em much with small shot."ATTACKED BY THE DOGS."They'll steal everything from the traps, too," Jim piped in. "By the way, Tug, have you set any yet?"Then Tug told what he had been doing, and said he must go before it became dark and see if anything had been taken. So, wrapping himself up, he took the gun and went off, while Aleck and Jim gathered a supply of wood for the night, and Katy began to get supper. By the time this was ready, and the red glare of a threatening sunset had tinged the snow and suffused the clouds with crimson, Tug came back, bringing nothing at all. It was not a very merry party, therefore, that sat around the table that evening listening to the doleful cries of the outcast dogs, which still kept watch on the hillside.Chapter XXV.THE PERILS OF A MIDNIGHT SEARCH.The next morning snow was falling, and the wind was blowing furiously."This ought to bring us some small birds, and maybe an owl or two," said Tug, as he watched the dense clouds of snow hurled along from the northern waste of ice."Do you think you would dare to go out to the traps, or could find them in this gale?" Aleck asked."I reckon so; and while I'm gone you take the gun and see if you can't find snow-birds among the hemlocks.""What'll you do if those dogs get after you? They're perfectly savage with hunger. It don't take much wildness or long famine to turn a dog back to a wolf, and we've got to look out for these curs as if they were wild beasts.""You're right," Tug assented. "But I hardly think they'll be out on the ice in this storm; you are more likely to meet them in the woods. At any rate, we must have something to eat, and it's my business to tend those traps, wolves or no wolves. If I go under, why, there's one less mouth to feed."So Tug and Aleck went away into the storm, one out upon the wide white desert, the other wading up the drifted slopes to the woods.Katy and Jim stayed at home, sitting comfortably in the house. She was reading aloud from an old newspaper they had found lying in a corner, when there came plainly to her ears the twittering of small birds."Listen, Jimkin. Did you hear that?""Snow-birds!" the boy exclaimed. "Right on the roof, too, and nary a trap!""Let us go out," said Katy, eagerly. "Perhaps we could catch one or two somehow."So they crept out, and saw that the thick hemlock growing beside the big rock was covered with small birds. Some were hiding away from the "cauld blast" in the nooks between the dense branches; some were hanging upon the little cones, swinging and clinging like acrobats; some were taking short flights through the smoke to warm their toes, or sitting on the bare rock near the top of the chimney. They were of two kinds, but all equally happy and unconcerned."If I only had the gun I could knock over about twenty at once," Jim whispered. "I believe I could even kill a lot with my pea-shooter.""Could you? Well, Jimkin, I've got some strong rubbercord in my trunk, and you might make one of those horrid forked-stick things.""That's a splendid idea, Katy. Get your rubber, and I'll cut a stick. Hurry up!"Ten minutes afterwards the weapon was ready. But now it occurred to Jim that he had no "peas" for his "shooter." So he and Katy both hurried down to where they knew there was a bit of beach not covered by ice. They scraped away the new snow, and raked up double handfuls of small pebbles.Jim's hands grew so cold during this operation that he had to go in and warm them before he could handle his "rubber gun." But the birds still stayed in the trees, as is their custom when a heavy snow-storm is raging, and the excited young hunter waited only long enough to get the stiffest of his fingers into decent shape.Creeping around to the rear side of the rock, he climbed slowly up until he could peer over the edge, and found himself not more than a dozen feet away from the little feathered group sitting by the chimney-top. Taking the best of aim, and pulling the rubber as far back as it would go, he let fly, and one of the largest of the birds tumbled over the edge. The boy had hard work to refrain from shouting with pride at this early success, though he wasn't sure he had killed the bird.Chapter XXVI.FINDING SNOW-BIRDS AND LOSING THE CAPTAIN.Jim knew he must keep quiet, so he stood like a statue, trying to forget his stinging ears, until the flock had recovered from its surprise, when he knocked over a second bird.It was slow and very cold work, but the boy stuck to it bravely until his fingers became so stiff that he could not manage his little weapon, and then he crept down to the stove, to dance about and wring his hands with pain as the heat of the room set them aching.As soon as possible he went out again—missed twice and hit once. Just as he was taking aim a fourth time his foot slipped, and he tumbled backwards, followed by a small avalanche, which half buried him at the foot of the rock. When he picked himself up, every feather had disappeared.Running round to the front, he found two dead birds and three wounded ones, whose necks were speedily wrung. Never was a boy prouder than this young sportsman, as he laid his trophies in a row and admired them."What a delicious broth they will make!" cried Katy, who longed to taste something really good."I'm hungry enough to eat 'em raw, like an Indian. Oh, Tug, look what I've shot!" Jim added, as his friend opened the door and stood shaking off the snow."Good for you! I've got nothin' 'cept a mighty good appetite. Why, they're cross-bills and red-polls!""What arethey?""Birds that come down in winter from away up north. This little streaked sparrow-like fellow, with the rosy breast and the red cap, is the red-poll; they say he never breeds south of Greenland. Now look at these larger ones—see how strong the bills are, and how their points cross! That's so they can twist the hard scales off the cones and get at the seeds.""Yes," said Jim; "they were hanging upside down and every way on the cones, and I could hardly see them to take aim.""That's 'cause their plumage is such a vague sort of red and green, so near the color of the leaves and scales on those evergreen trees. The hawks and owls can't see 'em, either, half as well as if they were bright, and that's where the little fellows have the advantage of their big enemies. Did you notice any other kinds?""There was one different one, a little larger than any of these, that I caught a glimpse of—it was green, just like the hemlock leaves, and kept inside out of the storm—""Like a sensible bird, eh? Correct! I guess he was a pine grosbeak.""That means 'pinebigbeak' doesn't it? It ought to, for this fellow had a beak twice as thick as any bird I ever saw, except a cardinal from South Carolina that a man had in a cage last summer. Do you think they'll come back?""I reckon so. None of these winter birds are shy—lucky for us! and I think the shelter of these trees and the warmth of our smoke will fetch 'em, especially if we scatter some crumbs out on the roof.""But we have none to scatter," Katy protested.All three then went to work picking the birds, whose bodies looked surprisingly small after their puffy coats had been taken off. "See what a warm undershirt of down this one wears at the roots of his feathers!" Tug pointed out, holding up a red-poll."Wish I were a bird," said Jimmy; "I'd get out o' this in no time.""Perhaps if you were, this would be the very place you would most want to come to and stay in," Katy remarked, "just as these poor little things did. The 'if' makes a lot of difference, Master Jim."By this time it began to grow dusk, and though the snow was falling as fast as ever, the air had grown much warmer, as though the storm would end in rain. Aleck had notcome yet, and the three, in their snug house, looking out upon the deep drifts and the clouded air, and listening to the melancholy sound of the wind in the trees, became more and more anxious for his appearance.When it had grown quite dark, and the broth Katy had made was ready, together with cakes of corn-meal, and tea, or, rather, hot water flavored with tea and sugar—the best meal they had seen for many a day—Tug said that if the Captain did not come before they got through eating he would go and look for him. So they tried to keep up each other's spirits; but when the meal was done, and still no brother appeared, all their merriment faded."Jim and Rex ought both to go with you, Tug; and you must take along the lantern, and these extra corn cakes I have baked, and some bacon—""The bacon's raw," Jim protested."Well, stupid, you could fry it over some coals on the end of a stick, couldn't you?" exclaimed Tug, impatiently. He was getting very tired of Jim's constant objections."And you must take this little bit of brandy, because you know, he might—might be—""Now, Katy, dear Katy," said Tug, his own eyes moist, as he threw his arm around the shoulders of the girl, who had broken down at last, and was crying bitterly. "Don't cry,Katy. Ifyougive in, what are we goin' to do? You are the life of the party, and there ain't nothin' we wouldn't any of us—and specially me—do for you. Really now, Katy—Here, you young cub, what areyoubellerin' about? If I catch you crying round here again, discouragin' your sister in this style, I'll thrash you well!"
"TRY TO STEADY HER!"
"TRY TO STEADY HER!"
The weight and awkwardness of the sledge having been taken away, the boat rode much more lightly in the face of the ice-clogged sea, and showed how stanch and trim she really was, though much cold water splashed over her rails.
"Now," said Aleck, cheerfully, though it was fortunate the darkness could conceal how anxious was the expression of his face, "now we shall get along. Jim, get out your oars (the stroke); and look out for floating ice forward, Tug. Katy, my little steersman, are you very, very cold?"
"N-n-n-o!" the girl answered, bravely, but her teeth chattered dreadfully.
"Better say you are, for you can't hide it, poor child. Wait a minute till I get this strap off my roll of bedding, and I will wrap a blanket around you."
Doubling a large blanket, he put it carefully over herhead and shoulders like an immense hood. Then he buckled around her the strap which had held the roll together, leaving only a fold out of which she might grasp the tiller, and another crevice through which to peep and breathe.
"We've got to have that lantern lit, because you must see the compass."
Taking some matches from his pocket, he knelt down, placed the lantern under the skirt of Katy's blanket robe, crouched over it as close as he could, and struck a match. It went out. A second fizzed a while, which only warmed the wicking, but at the third the oil in the wick took fire, and the lantern was soon shining gayly into the bright face of the compass at Katy's feet.
"Now, Youngster, for the oars. Lie low, and let me crawl over you to my seat."
Aleck got there and was ready, but Jim was still fumbling about on each side, and feeling under the thwart.
"What's the matter? Why don't you go to work?"
"Can't find but one oar."
"Only one oar? Sure?"
Then the two searched, but to no purpose. It had been dropped overboard, evidently, during the excitement about losing the sledge.
"Well, Jim, it's your fault, but it can't be helped now. You take this quilt, and cuddle down as close to Katy asyou can get, and try to keep each other warm. I'll row alone. Ready, forward?"
"Ay, ay, sir."
Then they began to move ahead through the water, which came in long rollers, not in breaking waves, because there was so much ice around them that the wind could not get hold of it. It was very cold. Occasionally Tug would fend away a cake of ice, or they would stop and steer clear of a big piece; but pretty soon he called out in a shaky voice that he was too stiff to stand there any longer, where the spray was blowing over him, and that he should be good for nothing in a few minutes unless he could row awhile to get warm. So Aleck took his place, fixing the spare canvas into a kind of shield to keep off the spattering drops. It was very forlorn and miserable, and to say that all wished themselves back on shore would be but the faintest expression of their distress.
Little was said. Pushing their way slowly through the cakes of ice, which had grown denser now; changing every little while from oars to boat-hook and back again, while Katy, protected from freezing by her double blanket and Jim's close hugging, kept the yawl's head due north; fighting fatigue, hunger, cold, and a great desire to sleep, these brave boys worked hour after hour for their lives and the lives in their care.
When they were beginning to think it almost morning they came squarely against a field of ice which stretched right and left into the darkness farther than it was possible to see. Whether this was the edge of a stationary field or only a large raft they couldn't tell; but they were too exhausted to go farther, and they decided to tie up and wait for daylight. Tug struck his hook into the ice until it held firmly, then lashed it to the bow. Aleck also stepped out and drove one of the short railway spikes into the ice near the stern, around which a rope was hitched. Then both the boys opened a second roll of bedding, and snuggled down as well as they could to get what rest they were able to while waiting for sunrise. Crowded together in the straw (though it was damp with snow), and covered with quilts and blankets, they could keep tolerably warm, and even caught little naps. The snow had stopped now, and the stars began to appear, first in the north, then overhead, then gradually everywhere. The wind still blew, but the boat rose and fell more and more slowly upon the rollers, until at last it stood perfectly still. This happened so suddenly, and was followed by so complete steadiness, that it aroused Tug's curiosity. Poking his head from under the covering, he said, "I think we are frozen in." Nobody answered him, for they were asleep, or too stupid to care; but the gray daylight which came at last showed that he wasright. On their right hand was a great sheet of new, thin ice; on their left a mass of thick old ice, white with snow. Straight ahead, so well had Katy steered, towered the rocks and trees of a high, wooded shore, coming momently into greater and greater distinctness as the red streamers of the morning shot higher and higher into the eastern sky.
Tug was the first to catch this sight, and roused his fellows with a shout:
"Land!—land! Hurrah!"
THE ESCAPE TO THE SHORE.
To rouse themselves, hastily gather a few eatables, and make their way ashore had been the work of a very short time, though done with great soreness and much hobbling, after their cramped-up night in the boat.
They halted on the south side of a sheltering rock, where the sun was beginning to shine against the gray stone. Katy hated to confess it, but really she was very, very tired, and was quite willing to let Aleck wrap her up in a thick blanket, and to lie quietly in a sunny nook of the rock while the boys set a fire crackling as near to her as was safe, and began to heat water for coffee. The mill had been forgotten, but Tug had a piece of buckskin in his overcoat pocket, and folding the grains in this they crushed them between two stones, which did just as well as grinding them.
This done, the coffee-pot was filled and set upon the embers, and a moment later four cups were steaming with the hot, reviving liquid, and four tired hands were reaching towards the little heap of slices cut from the boiled ham which had been tossed into the boat the night before, when leaving theice-raft. It had required all of Rex's strength of mind to keep his paws off these tempting pieces for some time past.
"Poor dog!" cried Jim; "we must give you something, if we are pretty short. Pity there was no fish left for you."
"He can have my slice of ham," Katy said, with a faint smile. "I can't eat it, somehow."
"Better try to eat a little, sis," Aleck said, "because—"
"Don't you touch a mouthful!" exclaimed Tug, snatching the shaving from her hand and tossing it to the dog, which swallowed it at a gulp. "Just you wait a minute! I ought to go and kick myself for not thinking of it before!" And with this puzzling remark he rushed off over the ice.
They saw him rummage about the cargo, and then start back, bringing his gun and a small package.
"Thought it would be just as well to make sure of the gun," he remarked, as he rejoined them; "and here's something, Katy, you can eat, I guess!" It was a box containing two dozen preserved figs that he opened, and handed to her. "I bought 'em just before we left Monore," he said, "and clean forgot 'em till now—sure as I'm a Dutchman!"
"Oh, give me one!" cried Jim.
"Jim Kincaid," said Tug, sternly, springing between the boy and Katy's hand, outstretched in generosity, "if you touch one of those figs I'll thump you well! I didn't bring them all this way for a lubber like you to eat!" Andin spite of all the girl's protests, Tug would not touch a fig himself nor allow her to give one to anybody else.
Aleck grinned, and munched his tough morsel; Jim scowled, and gnawed at his shavings as though he enjoyed viciously tearing them into shreds; Tug thought his beef was juicy and sweet, as he saw with what gusto poor Katy ate her fruit; and as for Rex, he dug his teeth into the tough remnant of the dried shank which had been given to him, as though he never expected to see another meal.
Refreshed and strengthened by their breakfast, meagre as it was, the boys prepared to begin the work of bringing the cargo ashore, though the weather was so cold that a thermometer would have marked nearly down to zero.
Aleck forbade Katy to help, so she curled up beside the wall of rock, which acted as a sort of oven to hold the warmth, where presently she fell asleep, and the boys, when they returned with their first sled-load of goods, were careful not to awaken her. So much had their stock been reduced that they found a second trip would enable them to bring everything of consequence ashore by carrying pretty large armfuls. They therefore distributed their loads as best they could, and started back from the abandoned boat, slipping and stumbling over the rough ice and through the cutting wind.
REX FIGHTS UNKNOWN ENEMIES.
With aching heads bowed under their burdens, and tired limbs, they had returned to within, perhaps, a hundred yards of the beach, when the barking of dogs, mingled with a girlish scream, caused them all to look up in astonishment. Then, without waiting for any one to give the word, each dropped what he was carrying, and began to run as fast as he was able over the broken ice towards the shore.
When the lads had started on the second trip out to the boat, Rex, bidden to watch his mistress, and proud of the duty, had lain down almost on the edge of her blankets. There was no snow upon the sand here, and the warmth of the fire closed the eyes of the fagged-out dog, just as it had those of his mistress. The boys had been gone, perhaps, half an hour, and he had had time to get very soundly asleep, when, suddenly, he was roused by a growl and a rush, and before he could rise to his feet two animals were right upon him, each nearly as big as himself, though short-haired and wofully gaunt. With a yelp of surprise and rage the dog sprang up and tried to defend himself, but theattack of his assailants was so fierce that he was rolled over in an instant, and felt their teeth pressing at his throat.
Into Katy's dreams of a May-day picnic under the blossoming apple-trees broke this rude hubbub, and before she could understand its meaning she felt the weight of the struggling animals pressing upon her bed. With the piercing scream of fright that had reached the ears of her brothers out on the ice, she struggled out of her blankets, only to be tripped and fall right upon the tumbling, growling, fighting heap. Afterwards she used to tell the story with merry laughter, but then, scarcely knowing what it all meant, she was too frightened to do anything but scream again, and pick herself up as best she could.
Safely on her feet at last, and convinced that this startling adventure was a reality and not some frightful change in her dream, she saw that Rex was being overpowered by two great dogs, lean almost as skeletons, that seemed bent upon killing him without an instant's delay. To see her faithful friend surprised and overcome in this terrible way stirred up all her sympathies and all her wrath. Like a flash she remembered how African travellers had fought lions with firebrands, and, seizing one of the charred sticks from the fire, she began to strike the brute nearest to her.
But what followed was most alarming, for the animal, at the very first blow, left Rex and turned towards her, hisjaws wide open, and his haggard eyes glowing with rage. Instinctively she presented the smoking end of her long brand, as a soldier would his bayonet, and was fortunate enough to meet the dog squarely in the face, which staggered him for an instant, and before he could gather himself for a new attack Aleck and Tug and Jim were all beside her, and the two great brutes were in full flight.
Then the brave girl dropped her firebrand, and sank down on the nearest seat, where, perhaps, she might have been excused for fainting had the day been warm, instead of freezing cold. The boys gathered anxiously about her, with such questions as, "Where did they come from?" "Why did they attack you?" "Are you hurt?" and so on.
The story was soon told, and this was fortunate, for everybody had forgotten poor Rex, who lay panting, and licking one of his feet, from which the blood was oozing.
"Well, old fellow," exclaimed Tug, as he went and bent over the dog, "did they try to chew you up? Here, give us your paw. Quiet! Let me feel—so—good dog! No bones broken, I guess, and we'll bandage you up O. K. How about this ear? One hole through it, and—Well, 'twas lucky you had a strong collar? Just look at the tooth-marks on that piece of leather! If it hadn't been for that an' his thick hair, they'd been in his throat, and then good-bye, Rex!"
EXPLORING THE ISLAND.
When all the property of our shipwrecked crew had been brought ashore it made a very small heap, and the biggest part of that seemed to be the bedding. Everybody noticed this, and it added a new gloom to the feeling of discouragement caused by their weariness, by Katy's fright, and, most of all, by the hunger of which their slight breakfast had only taken away the edge.
"Before we do anything else at all," said Captain Aleck, "we must have something more to eat. Do you feel strong enough to help us, Katy?"
"Oh, yes, indeed. I've got quite rid of my foolish weakness."
"That's good. Let us know if we can help you."
Nobody felt in the mood for talking, and Jim really took a nap between the rock and the fire. Though the air was still cold, the sunshine was bright, and under the lee of the little cliff it was very comfortable; but poor Katy had hard work to keep her fingers from almost freezing. What she made was chocolate, fried bacon, and "griddle" cakes, thelast cooked in the skillet, and consuming every bit of buckwheat flour and a good share of the sugar. When the meal had been eaten to the last scrap, and everybody had grown wide awake and cheerful, Aleck rapped on a box, and made a speech:
"Attention, ladies and gentlemen! Though none of us have said much about it, you all know well enough that we're in a regular scrape, and the sooner we discover how we're to get out of it the better. Now, I am going to propose a plan, and if any of you don't like it you can say so."
"We'll do whatever you say," exclaimed Tug.
"But I don't want tosaytill we've talked it over. I rather think we're on a small island a good many miles from land. I judge so from what I know of the chart of the lake, and what I can guess of where we drifted on that ice-floe. If so, I do not think anybody lives here, or ever comes here in winter."
"Regular desert island!" Jim was heard to mutter, in a tone that showed his mind busy with the romantic memory of Robinson Crusoe.
"The first thing to do is to find out whether this is so or not. Now I propose that Jim and Katy should stay here—"
"Oh, no, no," Katy interrupted, in an eager appeal. "Those dreadful dogs might come back, and Jimmy is solittle! I want you to stay with me, or else let me go with you."
"That's rather rough on the boy," Aleck laughed. "However, I suppose it won't matter. Well, then, Tug, I think you and Jim had better go back in the country, and see what you can find, while I stay and watch over the goods and the sister. What do you say?"
"Good plan," Tug replied. "I'm ready. Are you, Youngster?"
"Yes, siree! But you'll let us take the gun, won't you, Aleck?"
"Oh, yes, you can have the gun. If the dogs, or wolves, or whatever they are, come at us while you're gone, Katy can fight them with firebrands, and I—"
"Oh,youcan climb a tree!" said his sister, merrily.
"Yes, I can climb a tree."
While Tug and Jim were gone, Aleck and Katy busied themselves in repacking their goods in snug bundles, and in talking over their strange adventures. They were too anxious to feel very gay, but thought it foolish to give way to fretting until they had lost all hope. Two hours or more elapsed, and the sun had climbed to "high noon" in the sky, before the explorers came back, bringing solemn faces.
"Island!" both called out as soon as they came near; "and a small one at that."
"Any people on it?" asked Katy.
"Not a soul that I could see," Tug said. "I allow they come here in summer, though, for the trees have been cut down, and there's a rough little shanty on the other side."
"Could we live in it?"
"Didn't go inside; don't know. It's half full of snow. Better than no shelter at all, I suppose. It ain't far off. Suppose you all go over there and look at it—Jim can show you where it is—while I guard the grub against those pesky dogs. I don't wonder the brutes are savage, for I don't see how they could get anything to eat here."
When the three had left the rocks at the beach, under Jim's guidance, they found themselves in a brushy wood consisting largely of hemlocks and pines, often closely matted together. A few minutes' walking carried them through this and up to a ridge of jagged limestone rocks, one point of which, a little distance off, stood up like a big monument. This ridge ran about east and west, and they had come up its southern side. Its northern face was very snowy, had few trees, and sloped down an eighth of a mile to the water.
At one place on this northern beach several great rocks rose from the water's edge, and among them stood a small grove of hemlocks and other trees. In that thicket, Jimmy told them, the old shanty was placed. They thought it must be very small, or else well stowed away, for theycould see nothing of it. To get down to it was no easy task, for the crevices and holes in the rocky hillside had drifted full of snow, and they were continually sinking in where they had expected to stand firm, or finding a solid rock ahead when they tried to flounder out. It was a chilled and ill-tempered trio that finally reached the beach, and sought the shelter of the thicket.
Now it became easier to understand why the hut had been invisible from above, for it was only a shanty propped up between two great rocks that helped to form its walls and support its roof. From the broken oars and many fragments of nets, the old corks and other rubbish lying about, they saw at once that it had been built by fishermen, who probably came there to spend the night now and then, or, perhaps, stayed a week or so at a time in the summer.
The door stood half open, and a snowdrift lay heaped upon the threshold. Edging their way in, they found that the roof and walls were tight, the little window unbroken, and several rough articles of furniture lying about. An old, rusty stove, one corner propped up on stones, and the pipe tumbled down, stood against the chimney of mud and sticks that was built up against one of the rocky walls.
"This is splendid!" Katy cried. "Just look at that dear old stove!"
"Yes, sis; I think we must move over here. But are yousure, Jim—how did you find out?—that this is an island, and not the mainland?"
THE CABIN ON THE ISLAND.
THE CABIN ON THE ISLAND.
"From the top of that high point of rocks you can see the whole of it. I don't believe it is more than a mile up to the farther end, and not half that down to the other. The island is shaped something like a dumb-bell, only one end is a good deal bigger than the other. We are on the little end here."
"Well, Youngster, you're quite a geographer; but we can't stop to talk about it now. Let's go back as quickly as we can, and bring part of our goods over this afternoon; don't you think that's best?"
"Oh, yes." And twenty minutes later, rosy and panting, Katy astonished the sleepy Tug by rushing into camp, followed closely, not by wild beasts, as he thought would be the case, but by both the brothers she had outsped.
"It's so good!" she exclaimed, catching her breath, "to feel something besides slippery ice under your feet! Now, what shall we take first?"
By hard work and little resting the coming of twilight found them established in their new home. The last journey had been made after the bedding, by Tug and Aleck, while Jim and Katy cleared the snow all away from the cabin door and off the bending roof, straightened up the rickety old stove, and set a fire going. By the time thelarger boys came back, raising a whoop far up the hillside as they saw the smoke curling up between the hemlocks, the old hut was warm, and the tin cover of the little iron pot was dancing, in its effort to hold back the escaping steam.
"Ugh!" said Tug, as he pushed the door open and threw down his bundle of blankets; "I'm as hungry as a wolf!"
"If you think you can wait fifteen minutes, Mr. Montgomery, you'll have a bee-yutiful supper. Can you do it?"
"I 'low I can. I ain't a epi—epi—What d'ye call it?"
"Epicure?"
"That's the chap. I read the other day that the Tartars say he digs his grave with his teeth. I don't want a grave as bad as that yet."
"I suppose that means that a man who lives on too rich food will die by it."
"Yes, I reckon so. But I 'low there's no danger in our case; eh, Aleck? Do you think dried beef and snow-birds too rich for your delicate stomach, my boy?"
That night all bunked down on the floor, for they were too weary to care much for anything but a chance to sleep, and the sun was high before any of them found out, in their shady house, that it was morning. When breakfast was ready, and they had all sat down at the rough shelf-tablewhich the fishermen had fastened at one side of the cabin, Aleck called "Attention!" and said that it was time they were looking the situation squarely in the face.
"It's all very funny," he said, "to think ourselves Crusoes, and feel that we are all right because we have a roof over us and a stove to keep warm by. But Crusoe didn't need a roof nor a stove, for he was in a warm climate; and he had goats and birds, and shell-fish along the rocks, and cocoanuts, and lots of other things. Crusoe was a king in his palace beside us."
The circle of faces grew rather grave.
"Here we are, in midwinter, on an island in a fresh-water lake—and not even water, but solid ice—where there are no oysters nor clams, no fruit-trees, and no animals—"
"Except those dogs," Jim interrupted.
"Eventheyseem to have disappeared," Aleck went on; "and they are starved almost to skin and bone. If a pack of dogs can't get anything to eat, what are we four going to do? I tell you, it's a serious case."
"Well," Tug rejoined, stoutly, "I, for one, don't give in yet. Look what we did out on the ice! We can fish, and trap snow-birds—I saw a flock last evening; and maybe we can find some mussels near the beach, and so stick it out till the ice breaks up and the birds begin to come in the spring."
"Tug, you're a brick, and I was wrong to feel so lowspirited," said Aleck, heartily. "I think you're a better fellow to be captain here than I am. I resign."
"Not by a long chalk!" exclaimed Tug. "Here, I'll put it to vote. Whoever wants Aleck to go out, and me to take my innings as captain, hold up his hand."
THE WILD DOGS AGAIN.
Aleck's hand alone was shown; and though he held both of his arms as high as he could, the other side had the majority, and would not accept his resignation.
"Suppose we see just exactly what we have in the way of provisions," Katy suggested. "It won't take long to make out the list," she added, with a grim little smile.
They began at once, and the small housewife wrote down the list as fast as the stores were examined, guessing at the weights. There were found about eleven pounds of dried beef; bacon, one "side;" flour, about six pounds; corn-meal, ten pounds; beans, three pounds; coffee, two pounds; tea, a quarter of a pound; chocolate, half a cake; sugar, three pounds; small quantities of salt, pepper, soda, and so on; some crumbs of crackers and cookies in the bottom of a bag; a small piece of dried yeast; and a few swallows of the brandy that had been so useful at the time of Aleck's accident on the drifting ice.
They had nearly all the bedding, cooking utensils, and tools with which they had started three weeks before; butthe oil for their lantern and their matches were nearly used up or lost; their powder was low, for part of it had been spoiled by water; their clothes were badly worn; and their only canvas, since the loss of their tent, was the small "spare piece."
"It's plain," said Aleck, as this overhauling was finished, "that we must put ourselves upon a regular allowance. The provisions won't last us a week unless we save them carefully."
"And it's plain that we must raise some more, so I reckon I'd better get to work at bird-traps."
"Yes, the sooner the better. As for me, I want to learn all I can about the island. There may be something of use to us at the other end, so I shall take a long walk, and see what I can find."
"Mayn't I go with you?" Jim asked, eagerly.
"Yes, Youngster, if you think you can stand it."
"No trouble about that," replied the little fellow, courageously. He had grown very manly during the past month.
The brothers started off, taking the gun with them, and saying that they would be back about three o'clock.
As soon as they had gone Tug set about his traps in one corner of the house, behind the stove, while Katy went to work to make the hut a little more homelike.
The cabin was about twelve feet square, and one side was the smooth face of a great rock, against which was heaped the rude chimney of mud and stones. In front of this the stove was placed, and behind it, on the side of the room farthest from the door, the fishermen had built a bunk.
"You must call that your bedroom," Tug said, and he helped Katy to set up in front of it poles sustaining a curtain made of a shawl.
"Now," said the lad, when this had been arranged, "you must have a mattress."
So, taking the axe, he went out, and soon came back with a great armful of hemlock boughs, and then a second one, with which he heaped the bunk, laying them all very smoothly, and making a delightful bed.
"I'm thinkin' we'll have to fix some more bunks for ourselves," said the boy, as he tried this springy couch. "That's a heap better 'n the soft side of a plank."
Then with a hemlock broom Katy swept the floor, and spread down the canvas as a carpet. Finding in her little trunk some clothing wrapped in an oldHarper's Weekly, she cut out the pictures and tacked them up, and finally she washed the grimy window to let more light in, so that the rough little house soon came to look quite warm and cosey.
Meanwhile Tug, getting out his few tools, had made thetriggers of half a dozen such box-traps as they had caught snow-birds with when living on the ice, and one other queer little arrangement, of sticks delicately balanced, an upright one in the middle bearing at its top a bit of red rag:
"What in the world isthat?" Katy inquired with much curiosity.
"Oh, it's a bit of a contrivance to stand over a hole in the ice where I propose to place a 'set' line for fish—that is, you know, a line that I bait and leave set for a while, trusting to luck to catch something. The minute a fish gets the hook through his lips and begins to flop around, he will set this flag a-fluttering and so let me know it. I might make him ring a little bell if I had one."
"I should say," Katy remarked laughingly, "that to make a captured and dying fish ring his own funeral knell was adding insult to injury."
At length Tug pulled on his overcoat and announced that he was going to look for a good fishing-place.
He was gone nearly an hour, during which Katy busied herself in mending her sadly torn dress, and in thinking. But the latter was by no means a pleasant occupation, and she was glad to see Tug come back, rubbing his ears, for the day was a cold one.
"I think I have found a real likely place for fishing," he told her. "There is a little cove the other side of thisthicket, with a marsh around it, and a pretty narrow entrance. I reckon the water's deep enough in there for fish to be skulking, and I dropped my line right in the middle. I set the traps near here, but didn't see any birds."
"Do you think—" Katy stopped suddenly, laying one hand on Tug's arm, and holding up the other warningly, while her face grew pale. Rex, who had been lying by the stove quietly licking his injured paw, rose up and growled deeply.
"There! Did you not hear it?"
"I did. It's them pesky dogs," cried Tug, and hurried to the window, while Rex began to bark furiously. "There are the boys on the hill backing down, and two—no, three—dogs following them. Where's that axe? I'll fix 'em!"
And before Katy could quite understand what was the matter, the boy had burst out, and was tearing up the hill to the support of his friends. Rex wanted to go too, but Katy held him fast, as she stood watching the boys flourishing their weapons, and frightening the dogs back, while they slowly retreated. As they came nearer to the house the animals ceased pursuing, and relieved their disappointment by savage barks and prolonged howls.
"Well," exclaimed Tug, in the country speech he always used when excited, "I allow them curs are the most or'nary critters I ever see!"
"They followed us all the way from the other side of the neck," said Jim, dropping limp into a broken-legged chair, which tumbled him over backward.
"Where did you go, and what did you see?" was Katy's anxious question, choking down her laughter at the plaintive Youngster's accident.
Aleck then told them that from the highest point of the hill he could study the whole island, which was everywhere surrounded by ice, and that eastward he could see what he thought was another island several miles away; but that to the southward it was too misty for a long sight. Going on down the hill, they crossed a neck or isthmus of sand and rocks between two marshy bays, and entered some woods, which seemed to cover pretty much all the rest of the island. Pushing through this, and gathering a good many dried grapes, which were worth a hungry man's attention if he had plenty of time, they reached the shore somewhere near the farther end of the island without finding any signs that anybody had ever been there before. On the shore, however, by a cove, they found a tumbled-down shanty, and a little clearing where once had been a camp. They were going on still farther, when suddenly they were attacked by the three dogs, and thought it best to retreat. The dogs followed, and they had to fight them off all the way.
"One of them was a giant of a mastiff," said Aleck,"and we were more afraid of him than of the smaller ones, which seemed to be two well-grown pups. I think these dogs must have been left here last summer by somebody. There seems to be four of them altogether—two old ones and two young ones—though we have never seen more than three at once. How they have managed to live beats me. I don't see anything for them to eat. I wish you had some bullets, Tug. We never can hurt 'em much with small shot."
ATTACKED BY THE DOGS.
ATTACKED BY THE DOGS.
"They'll steal everything from the traps, too," Jim piped in. "By the way, Tug, have you set any yet?"
Then Tug told what he had been doing, and said he must go before it became dark and see if anything had been taken. So, wrapping himself up, he took the gun and went off, while Aleck and Jim gathered a supply of wood for the night, and Katy began to get supper. By the time this was ready, and the red glare of a threatening sunset had tinged the snow and suffused the clouds with crimson, Tug came back, bringing nothing at all. It was not a very merry party, therefore, that sat around the table that evening listening to the doleful cries of the outcast dogs, which still kept watch on the hillside.
THE PERILS OF A MIDNIGHT SEARCH.
The next morning snow was falling, and the wind was blowing furiously.
"This ought to bring us some small birds, and maybe an owl or two," said Tug, as he watched the dense clouds of snow hurled along from the northern waste of ice.
"Do you think you would dare to go out to the traps, or could find them in this gale?" Aleck asked.
"I reckon so; and while I'm gone you take the gun and see if you can't find snow-birds among the hemlocks."
"What'll you do if those dogs get after you? They're perfectly savage with hunger. It don't take much wildness or long famine to turn a dog back to a wolf, and we've got to look out for these curs as if they were wild beasts."
"You're right," Tug assented. "But I hardly think they'll be out on the ice in this storm; you are more likely to meet them in the woods. At any rate, we must have something to eat, and it's my business to tend those traps, wolves or no wolves. If I go under, why, there's one less mouth to feed."
So Tug and Aleck went away into the storm, one out upon the wide white desert, the other wading up the drifted slopes to the woods.
Katy and Jim stayed at home, sitting comfortably in the house. She was reading aloud from an old newspaper they had found lying in a corner, when there came plainly to her ears the twittering of small birds.
"Listen, Jimkin. Did you hear that?"
"Snow-birds!" the boy exclaimed. "Right on the roof, too, and nary a trap!"
"Let us go out," said Katy, eagerly. "Perhaps we could catch one or two somehow."
So they crept out, and saw that the thick hemlock growing beside the big rock was covered with small birds. Some were hiding away from the "cauld blast" in the nooks between the dense branches; some were hanging upon the little cones, swinging and clinging like acrobats; some were taking short flights through the smoke to warm their toes, or sitting on the bare rock near the top of the chimney. They were of two kinds, but all equally happy and unconcerned.
"If I only had the gun I could knock over about twenty at once," Jim whispered. "I believe I could even kill a lot with my pea-shooter."
"Could you? Well, Jimkin, I've got some strong rubbercord in my trunk, and you might make one of those horrid forked-stick things."
"That's a splendid idea, Katy. Get your rubber, and I'll cut a stick. Hurry up!"
Ten minutes afterwards the weapon was ready. But now it occurred to Jim that he had no "peas" for his "shooter." So he and Katy both hurried down to where they knew there was a bit of beach not covered by ice. They scraped away the new snow, and raked up double handfuls of small pebbles.
Jim's hands grew so cold during this operation that he had to go in and warm them before he could handle his "rubber gun." But the birds still stayed in the trees, as is their custom when a heavy snow-storm is raging, and the excited young hunter waited only long enough to get the stiffest of his fingers into decent shape.
Creeping around to the rear side of the rock, he climbed slowly up until he could peer over the edge, and found himself not more than a dozen feet away from the little feathered group sitting by the chimney-top. Taking the best of aim, and pulling the rubber as far back as it would go, he let fly, and one of the largest of the birds tumbled over the edge. The boy had hard work to refrain from shouting with pride at this early success, though he wasn't sure he had killed the bird.
FINDING SNOW-BIRDS AND LOSING THE CAPTAIN.
Jim knew he must keep quiet, so he stood like a statue, trying to forget his stinging ears, until the flock had recovered from its surprise, when he knocked over a second bird.
It was slow and very cold work, but the boy stuck to it bravely until his fingers became so stiff that he could not manage his little weapon, and then he crept down to the stove, to dance about and wring his hands with pain as the heat of the room set them aching.
As soon as possible he went out again—missed twice and hit once. Just as he was taking aim a fourth time his foot slipped, and he tumbled backwards, followed by a small avalanche, which half buried him at the foot of the rock. When he picked himself up, every feather had disappeared.
Running round to the front, he found two dead birds and three wounded ones, whose necks were speedily wrung. Never was a boy prouder than this young sportsman, as he laid his trophies in a row and admired them.
"What a delicious broth they will make!" cried Katy, who longed to taste something really good.
"I'm hungry enough to eat 'em raw, like an Indian. Oh, Tug, look what I've shot!" Jim added, as his friend opened the door and stood shaking off the snow.
"Good for you! I've got nothin' 'cept a mighty good appetite. Why, they're cross-bills and red-polls!"
"What arethey?"
"Birds that come down in winter from away up north. This little streaked sparrow-like fellow, with the rosy breast and the red cap, is the red-poll; they say he never breeds south of Greenland. Now look at these larger ones—see how strong the bills are, and how their points cross! That's so they can twist the hard scales off the cones and get at the seeds."
"Yes," said Jim; "they were hanging upside down and every way on the cones, and I could hardly see them to take aim."
"That's 'cause their plumage is such a vague sort of red and green, so near the color of the leaves and scales on those evergreen trees. The hawks and owls can't see 'em, either, half as well as if they were bright, and that's where the little fellows have the advantage of their big enemies. Did you notice any other kinds?"
"There was one different one, a little larger than any of these, that I caught a glimpse of—it was green, just like the hemlock leaves, and kept inside out of the storm—"
"Like a sensible bird, eh? Correct! I guess he was a pine grosbeak."
"That means 'pinebigbeak' doesn't it? It ought to, for this fellow had a beak twice as thick as any bird I ever saw, except a cardinal from South Carolina that a man had in a cage last summer. Do you think they'll come back?"
"I reckon so. None of these winter birds are shy—lucky for us! and I think the shelter of these trees and the warmth of our smoke will fetch 'em, especially if we scatter some crumbs out on the roof."
"But we have none to scatter," Katy protested.
All three then went to work picking the birds, whose bodies looked surprisingly small after their puffy coats had been taken off. "See what a warm undershirt of down this one wears at the roots of his feathers!" Tug pointed out, holding up a red-poll.
"Wish I were a bird," said Jimmy; "I'd get out o' this in no time."
"Perhaps if you were, this would be the very place you would most want to come to and stay in," Katy remarked, "just as these poor little things did. The 'if' makes a lot of difference, Master Jim."
By this time it began to grow dusk, and though the snow was falling as fast as ever, the air had grown much warmer, as though the storm would end in rain. Aleck had notcome yet, and the three, in their snug house, looking out upon the deep drifts and the clouded air, and listening to the melancholy sound of the wind in the trees, became more and more anxious for his appearance.
When it had grown quite dark, and the broth Katy had made was ready, together with cakes of corn-meal, and tea, or, rather, hot water flavored with tea and sugar—the best meal they had seen for many a day—Tug said that if the Captain did not come before they got through eating he would go and look for him. So they tried to keep up each other's spirits; but when the meal was done, and still no brother appeared, all their merriment faded.
"Jim and Rex ought both to go with you, Tug; and you must take along the lantern, and these extra corn cakes I have baked, and some bacon—"
"The bacon's raw," Jim protested.
"Well, stupid, you could fry it over some coals on the end of a stick, couldn't you?" exclaimed Tug, impatiently. He was getting very tired of Jim's constant objections.
"And you must take this little bit of brandy, because you know, he might—might be—"
"Now, Katy, dear Katy," said Tug, his own eyes moist, as he threw his arm around the shoulders of the girl, who had broken down at last, and was crying bitterly. "Don't cry,Katy. Ifyougive in, what are we goin' to do? You are the life of the party, and there ain't nothin' we wouldn't any of us—and specially me—do for you. Really now, Katy—Here, you young cub, what areyoubellerin' about? If I catch you crying round here again, discouragin' your sister in this style, I'll thrash you well!"