The World of Ice Page 7

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  NEW CHARACTERS INTRODUCED--AN OLD GAME UNDER NOVEL CIRCUMSTANCES--REMARKABLE APPEARANCES IN THE SKY--O'RILEY MEETS WITH A MISHAP.

  Dumps was a remarkably grave and sly character, and Poker was a wag--anincorrigible wag--in every sense of the term. Moreover, although theyhad an occasional fight, Dumps and Poker were excellent friends, andgreat favourites with the crew.

  We have not yet introduced these individuals to our reader; but as theywill act a conspicuous part in the history of the _Dolphin's_adventurous career in the Arctic regions, we think it right now topresent them.

  While at Uppernavik, Captain Guy had purchased a team of six good, toughEsquimaux dogs, being desirous of taking them to England, and therepresenting them to several of his friends who were anxious to possessspecimens of those animals. Two of these dogs stood out conspicuousfrom their fellows, not only in regard to personal appearance, but alsoin reference to peculiarities of character. One was pure white, with alively expression of countenance, a large shaggy body, two erect,sharp-pointed ears, and a short projection that once had been a tail.Owing to some cause unknown, however, his tail had been cut or bittenoff, and nothing save the stump remained. But this stump did as muchduty as if it had been fifty tails in one. It was never at rest for amoment, and its owner evidently believed that wagging it was the trueand only way to touch the heart of man; therefore the dog wagged it, soto speak, doggedly. In consequence of this animal's thievingpropensities, which led him to be constantly _poking_ into every holeand corner of the ship in search of something to steal, he was named_Poker_. Poker had three jet-black spots in his white visage--one wasthe point of his nose, the other two were his eyes.

  Poker's bosom friend, Dumps, was so named because he had the sulkiestexpression of countenance that ever fell to the lot of a dog.Hopelessly incurable melancholy seemed to have taken possession of hismind, for he never by any chance smiled--and dogs do smile, you know,just as evidently as human beings do, although not exactly with theirmouths. Dumps never romped either, being old, but he sat and allowedhis friend Poker to romp round him with a sort of sulky satisfaction, asif he experienced the greatest enjoyment his nature was capable of inwitnessing the antics of his youthful companion--for Poker was young.The prevailing colour of Dumps's shaggy hide was a dirty brown, withblack spots, two of which had fixed themselves rather awkwardly roundhis eyes, like a pair of spectacles. Dumps, also, was a thief, and,indeed, so were all his brethren. Dumps and Poker were both of themlarger and stronger, and in every way better, than their comrades; andthey afterwards were the sturdy, steady, unflinching leaders of the teamduring many a toilsome journey over the frozen sea.

  One magnificent afternoon, a few days after the escape of the _Dolphin_just related, Dumps and Poker lay side by side in the lee-scuppers,calmly sleeping off the effects of a surfeit produced by the eating of alarge piece of pork, for which the cook had searched in vain forthree-quarters of an hour, and of which he at last found the bare bonesticking in the hole of the larboard pump.

  "Bad luck to them dogs!" exclaimed David Mizzle, stroking his chin as hesurveyed the bone. "If I could only find out, now, which of ye it was,I'd have ye slaughtered right off, and cooked for the mess, I would."

  "It was Dumps as did it, I'll bet you a month's pay," said Peter Grim,as he sat on the end of the windlass refilling his pipe, which he hadjust smoked out.

  "Not a bit of it," remarked Amos Parr, who was squatted on the deckbusily engaged in constructing a rope mat, while several of the men satround him engaged in mending sails, or stitching canvas slippers,etcetera. "Not a bit of it, Grim; Dumps is too honest by half to dosich a thing. 'Twas Poker as did it, I can see by the roll of his eyebelow the skin. The blackguard's only shammin' sleep."

  On hearing his name mentioned, Poker gently opened his right eye, butdid not move. Dumps, on the contrary, lay as if he heard not the baseaspersion on his character.

  "What'll ye bet it was Dumps as did it?" cried Davie Summers, who passedat the moment with a dish of some sort of edible towards the galley orcooking-house on deck.

  "I'll _bet_ you over the 'ead, I will, if you don't mind your business,"said Mivins.

  "You'd _bet_ter not," retorted Davie with a grin. "It's as much as yoursituation's worth to lay a finger on me."

  "That's it, youngster, give it 'im," cried several of the men, while theboy confronted his superior, taking good care, however, to keep thefore-mast between them.

  "What do you mean, you young rascal?" cried Mivins with a frown.

  "Mean!" said Davie, "why, I mean that if you touch me I'll resignoffice; and if I do that, you'll have to go out, for everyone knows youcan't get on without me."

  "I say, Mivins," cried Tom Green, the carpenter's mate, "if you wereasked to say: `Hold on hard to this handspike here, my hearties,' howwould ye go about it?"

  "He'd 'it you a pretty 'ard crack hover the 'ead with it, 'e would,"remarked one of the men, throwing a ball of yarn at Davie, who stoodlistening to the conversation with a broad grin.

  In stepping back to avoid the blow the lad trod on Dumps's paw, andinstantly there came from the throat of that excellent dog a roar ofanguish that caused Poker to leap, as the cook expressed it, nearly outof his own skin. Dogs are by nature extremely sympathetic andremarkably inquisitive; and no sooner was Dumps's yell heard than it wasvigorously responded to by every dog in the ship, as the whole packrushed each from his respective sleeping-place, and looked round inamazement.

  "Hallo! what's wrong there for'ard?" enquired Saunders, who had beenpacing the quarter-deck with slow giant strides, arguing mentally withhimself in default of a better adversary.

  "Only trod on Dumps's paw, sir," said Mivins as he hurried aft; "the menare sky-larking."

  "Sky-larking, are you?" said Saunders, going forward; "weel, lads,you've had a lot o' hard work of late, ye may go and take a run on theice."

  Instantly the men, like boys set free from school, sprang up, tumbledover the side, and were scampering over the ice like madmen.

  "Pitch over the ball!--the football!" they cried. In a second the ballwas tossed over the ship's side, and a vigorous game was begun.

  For two days past the _Dolphin_ had been sailing with difficulty throughlarge fields of ice, sometimes driving against narrow necks and tonguesthat interrupted her passage from one lead, or canal, to another; atother times boring with difficulty through compact masses of sludge, or,occasionally, when unable to advance farther, making fast to a largeberg or field. They were compelled to proceed north, however, inconsequence of the pack having become fixed towards the south, and thusrendering retreat impossible in that direction until the ice should beagain set in motion. Captain Guy, however, saw, by the steady advanceof the larger bergs, that the current of the ocean in that place flowedsouthward, and trusted that in a short time the ice which had beenforced into the strait by the gales, would be released, and open up apassage. Meanwhile he pushed along the coast, examining every bay andinlet in the hope of discovering some trace of the _Pole Star_ or hercrew.

  On the day about which we are writing, the ship was beset by largefields, the snow-white surfaces of which extended north and south to thehorizon, while on the east the cliffs rose in dark, frowning precipicesfrom the midst of the glaciers that encumber them all the year round.

  It was a lovely Arctic day. The sun shone with unclouded splendour, andthe bright air, which trembled with that liquidity of appearance thatone occasionally sees in very hot weather under peculiar circumstances,was vocal with the wild music of thousands of gulls, and auks, and othersea-birds, which clustered on the neighbouring cliffs, and flew overheadin clouds. All round, the pure surfaces of the ice-fields were brokenby the shadows which the hummocks and bergs cast over them, and by thepools of clear water which shone like crystals in their hollows, whilethe beautiful beryl blue of the larger bergs gave a delicate colouringto the dazzling scene. Words cannot describe the intense _glitter_ thatcharacterised every
thing. Every point seemed a diamond; every edge sentforth a gleam of light, and many of the masses reflected the richprismatic colours of the rainbow. It seemed as if the sun himself hadbeen multiplied in order to add to the excessive brilliancy, for he wassurrounded by _parhelia_, or _sun-dogs_ as the men called them. Thispeculiarity in the sun's appearance was very striking. The great orb ofday was about ten degrees above the horizon, and a horizontal line ofwhite passed completely through it extending to a considerable distanceon either hand, while around it were two distinct halos, or circles oflight. On the inner halo were situated the mock-suns, which were fourin number--one above and one below the sun, and one on each side of him.

  Not a breath of wind stirred the little flag that drooped from themizzen-peak, and the clamorous ceaseless cries of sea-birds, added tothe merry shouts and laughter of the men, as they followed the restlessfootball, rendered the whole a scene of life, as it was emphatically oneof beauty.

  "Ain't it glorious?" panted Davie Summers vehemently, as he stoppedexhausted in a headlong race beside one of his comrades, while the ballwas kicked hopelessly beyond his reach by a comparatively fresh memberof the party.

  "Ah! then, it bates the owld country intirely, it does," repliedO'Riley, wiping the perspiration from his forehead.

  It is needless to say that O'Riley was an Irishman. We have notmentioned him until now, because up to this time he had not doneanything to distinguish himself beyond his messmates; but on thisparticular day O'Riley's star was in the ascendant, and Fortune seemedto have singled him out as an object of her special attention. He was ashort man, and a broad man, and a particularly _rugged_ man--so tospeak. He was all angles and corners. His hair stuck about his head inviolently rigid and entangled tufts, rendering it a matter of wonder howanything in the shape of a hat could stick on. His brow was a countlessmass of ever-varying wrinkles, which gave to his sly visage an aspect ofhumorous anxiety that was highly diverting--and all the more divertingwhen you came to know that the man had not a spark of anxiety in hiscomposition, though he often said he had. His dress, like that of mostJack-tars, was naturally rugged, and he contrived to make it more sothan usual.

  "An' it's hot, too, it is," he continued, applying his kerchief again tohis pate. "If it warn't for the ice we stand on, we'd be melted down, Ido belave, like bits o' whale blubber."

  "Wot a jolly game football is, ain't it?" said Davie, seating himself ona hummock, and still panting hard.

  "Ay, boy, that's jist what it is. The only objiction I have agin it isthat it makes ye a'most kick the left leg clane off yer body."

  "Why don't you kick with your right leg, then, stupid, like otherpeople?" enquired Summers.

  "Why don't I, is it? Troth, then, I don't know for sartin. Me fatherlost his left leg at the great battle o' the Nile, and I've sometimesthought that had somethin' to do wid it; but then me mother was lame o'the _right_ leg intirely, and wint about wid a crutch, so I can't makeout how it was, d'ye see?"

  "Look out, Pat," exclaimed Summers, starting up, "here comes the ball."

  As he spoke, the football came skimming over the ice, towards the spoton which they stood, with about thirty of the men running at full speedand shouting like maniacs after it.

  "That's your sort, my hearties! another like that and it's home! Pitchinto it, Mivins. You're the boy for me. Now, then, Grim, trip him up!Hallo, Buzzby, you bluff-bowed Dutchman, luff! luff! or I'll stave inyour ribs! Mind your eye, Mizzle, there's Green, he'll be into yourlarboard quarter in no time. Hurrah! Mivins, up in the air with it.Kick, boy, kick like a spanker boom in a hurricane!"

  Such were a few of the expressions that showered like hail round the menas they rushed hither and thither after the ball. And here we mayremark that the crew of the _Dolphin_ played football in a somewhatdifferent style, from the way in which that noble game is played by boysin England. Sides, indeed, were chosen, and boundaries were marked out,but very little if any attention was paid to such secondary matters! Tokick the ball, and keep on kicking it in front of his companions, wasthe ambition of each man; and so long as he could get a kick at it thatcaused it to fly from the ground like a cannon-shot, little regard washad by anyone to the direction in which it was propelled. But, ofcourse, in this effort to get a kick, the men soon became scattered overthe field, and ever and anon the ball would fall between two men, whorushed at it simultaneously from opposite directions. The inevitableresult was a collision, by which both men were suddenly and violentlyarrested in their career. But generally the shock resulted in one ofthe men being sent staggering backwards, and the other getting the_kick_. When the two were pretty equally matched, both were usually, asthey expressed it, "brought up all standing", in which case a shortscuffle ensued, as each endeavoured to trip up the heels of hisadversary. To prevent undue violence in such struggles, a rule was laiddown that hands were not to be used on any account. They might usetheir feet, legs, shoulders, and elbows, but not their hands.

  In such rough play the men were more equally matched than might havebeen expected, for the want of weight among the smaller men was oftenmore than counterbalanced by their activity; and frequently a sturdylittle fellow launched himself so vigorously against a heavy tar as tosend him rolling head over heels on the ice. This was not always thecase, however, and few ventured to come into collision with Peter Grim,whose activity was on a par with his immense size. Buzzby contentedhimself with galloping on the outskirts of the fight, and putting in akick when fortune sent the ball in his way. In this species of warfarehe was supported by the fat cook, whose oily carcass could neither standthe shocks nor keep up with the pace of his messmates. Mizzle was aparticularly energetic man in his way, however, and frequently kickedwith such good-will that he missed the ball altogether, and thetremendous swing of his leg lifted him from the ice, and laid himsprawling on his back.

  "Look out ahead!" shouted Green, the carpenter's mate; "there's a sailbearing down on your larboard bow."

  Mivins, who had the ball before him at the moment, saw his ownsatellite, Davie, coming down towards him with vicious intentions. Hequietly pushed the ball before him for a few yards, then kicked it farover the boy's head, and followed it up like an antelope. Mivinsdepended for success on his almost superhuman activity. His tall,slight frame could not stand the shocks of his comrades, but no onecould equal or come near to him in speed, and he was quite an adept atdodging a _charge_, and allowing his opponent to rush far past the ballby the force of his own momentum. Such a charge did Peter Grim make athim at this moment.

  "Starboard hard!" yelled Davie Summers, as he observed his master'sdanger.

  "Starboard it is!" replied Mivins, and, leaping aside to avoid theshock, he allowed Grim to pass. Grim knew his man, however, and hadheld himself in hand, so that in a moment he pulled up and was followingclose on his heels.

  "It's an ill wind that blows no good," cried one of the crew, towardswhose foot the ball rolled, as he quietly kicked it into the centre ofthe mass of men. Grim and Mivins turned back, and for a time looked onat the general make that ensued. It seemed as though the ball mustinevitably be crushed among them as they struggled and kicked hither andthither for five minutes, in their vain efforts to get a kick; andduring those few exciting moments many tremendous kicks, aimed at theball, took effect upon shins, and many shouts of glee terminated inyells of anguish.

  "It can't last much longer!" screamed the cook, his face streaming withperspiration, and beaming with glee, as he danced round the outside ofthe circle. "There it goes!"

  As he spoke, the ball flew out of the circle, like a shell from amortar. Unfortunately it went directly over Mizzle's head. Before hecould wink he went down before them, and the rushing mass of men passedover him like a mountain torrent over a blade of grass.

  Meanwhile Mivins ran ahead of the others, and gave the ball a kick thatnearly burst it and down it came exactly between O'Riley and Grim, whochanced to be far ahead of the others. Grim dashed at it. "Och! ye b
igvillain," muttered the Irishman to himself, as he put down his head andrushed against the carpenter like a battering-ram.

  Big though he was, Grim staggered back from the impetuous shock, andO'Riley, following up his advantage, kicked the ball in a sidedirection, away from everyone except Buzzby, who happened to have beensteering rather wildly over the field of ice. Buzzby, on being broughtthus unexpectedly within reach of the ball, braced up his energies for akick, but seeing O'Riley coming down towards him like a runawaylocomotive, he pulled up, saying quietly to himself: "Ye may take it allyer own way, lad; I'm too old a bird to go for to make my carcass abuffer for a mad-cap like you to run agin."

  Jack Mivins, however, was troubled by no such qualms. He happened to beabout the same distance from the ball as O'Riley, and ran like a deer toreach it first. A pool of water lay in his path, however, and thenecessity of going round it enabled the Irishman to gain on him alittle, so that it became evident that both would come up at the samemoment and a collision be inevitable.

  "Hold yer wind, Paddy," shouted the men, who paused for a moment towatch the result of the race. "Mind your timbers, Mivins! Back yourtop-sails, O'Riley; mind how he yaws!"

  Then there was a momentary silence of breathless expectation. The twomen seemed about to meet with a shock that would annihilate both, whenMivins bounded to one side like an india-rubber ball. O'Riley shot pasthim like a rocket, and the next instant went head-foremost into the poolof water.

  This unexpected termination to the affair converted the intended huzzahof the men into a yell of mingled laughter and consternation as theyhastened in a body to the spot; but before they reached it O'Riley'shead and shoulders reappeared, and when they came up, he was standing onthe margin of the pool blowing like a walrus.

  "Oh, then, but it is cowld!" he exclaimed, wringing the water from hisgarments. "Och, where's the ball? give me a kick or I'll freeze, so Iwill."

  As he spoke, the drenched Irishman seized the ball from Mivins' handsand gave it a kick that sent it high into the air. He was too wet andheavy to follow it up, however, so he ambled off towards the ship asvigorously as his clothes would allow him, followed by the whole crew.