Kitabı oku: «The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras», sayfa 21
CHAPTER XII
THE ICE PRISON
The next day they determined to arrange the hunt, in which Hatteras, Altamont, and the carpenter were to take part; no more tracks were to be seen; the bears had decidedly given up their plan of attack, either from fear of their unknown enemies, or because there had been no sign of living beings beneath the mass of snow. During the absence of the three hunters, the doctor was to push on to Johnson Island to examine the condition of the ice, and to make some hydrographic investigations. The cold was sharp, but they supported it well, having become accustomed to it by this time. The boatswain was to remain at Doctor's House; in a word, to guard the house.
The three hunters made their preparations; each one took a double-barrelled rifled gun, with conical balls; they carried a small quantity of pemmican, in case night should fall before their return; they also were provided with the snow-knife, which is so indispensable in these regions, and a hatchet which they wore in their belts. Thus armed and equipped they could go far; and since they were both skilled and bold, they could count on bringing back a good supply.
At eight in the morning they set out. Duke sprang about ahead of them; they ascended the hill to the east, went about the lighthouse, and disappeared in the plains to the south, which were bounded by Mount Bell. The doctor, having agreed on a danger-signal with Johnson, descended towards the shore so as to reach the ice in Victoria Bay.
The boatswain remained at Fort Providence alone, but not idle. He first set free the Greenland dogs, which were playing about the Dog Palace; they in their joy rolled about in the snow. Johnson then gave his attentions to the cares of housekeeping. He had to renew the fuel and provisions, to set the stores in order, to mend many broken utensils, to patch the coverings, to work over the shoes for the long excursions of the summer. There was no lack of things to do, but the boatswain worked with the ease of a sailor, who has generally a smattering of all trades. While thus employed he began to think of the talk of the evening before; he thought of the captain, and especially of his obstinacy, which, after all, had something very heroic and very honorable about it, in his unwillingness that any American man or boat should reach the Pole before him, or even with him.
"Still, it seems to me," he said to himself, "no easy task to cross the ocean without a boat; and if we have the open sea before us, we should need one. The strongest Englishman in the world couldn't swim three hundred miles. Patriotism has its limits. Well, we shall see. We have still time before us; Dr. Clawbonny has not yet said his last word in the matter; he is wise, and he may persuade the captain to change his mind. I'll bet that in going towards the island he'll glance at the fragments of the Porpoise, and will know exactly what can be made out of them."
Johnson had reached this point in his reflections, and the hunters had been gone an hour, when a loud report was heard two or three miles to windward.
"Good!" said the sailor; "they have come across something, and without going very far, for I heard them distinctly. After all, the air is so clear."
A second and then a third report was heard.
"Hulloa!" continued Johnson, "they've got into a good place."
Three other reports, in quicker succession, were heard.
"Six shots!" said Johnson; "now they've fired off everything. It was a hot time! Is it possible – "
At the thought, Johnson grew pale; he quickly left the snow-house, and in a few moments he had run up to the top of the cone. He saw a sight that made him tremble.
"The bears!" he shouted.
The three hunters, followed by Duke, were running rapidly, followed by five enormous animals; their six bullets had not disabled them; the bears were gaining on them; Hatteras, behind the others, could only keep his distance from the animals by throwing away his cap, hatchet, and even his gun. The bears stopped, according to their habit, to sniff at the different objects, and lost a little on this ground on which they would have outstripped the swiftest horse. It was thus that Hatteras, Altamont, and Bell, all out of breath, came up to Johnson, and they all slid down the slope to the snow-house. The five bears were close behind, and the captain was obliged to ward off the blow of a paw with his knife. In a moment Hatteras and his companions were locked in the house. The animals stopped on the upper plateau of the truncated cone.
"Well," said Hatteras, "we can now defend ourselves better, five to five!"
"Four to five!" shouted Johnson in a terrified voice.
"What?" asked Hatteras.
"The doctor!" answered Johnson, pointing to the empty room.
"Well?"
"He is on the shore of the island!"
"Poor man!" cried Bell.
"We can't abandon him in this way," said Altamont.
"Let us run!" said Hatteras.
He opened the door quickly, but he had hardly time to shut it; a bear nearly crushed his skull with his claw.
"They are there," he cried.
"All?" asked Bell.
"All!" answered Hatteras.
Altamont hastened to the windows, heaping up the bays with pieces of ice torn from the walls of the house. His companions did the same without speaking. Duke's dull snarls alone broke the silence.
But it must be said these men had only a single thought; they forgot their own danger, and only considered the doctor. Poor Clawbonny! so kind, so devoted! the soul of the little colony! for the first time he was missing; extreme peril, a terrible death, awaited him; for when his excursion was over he would return quietly to Fort Providence, and would find these ferocious animals. And there was no way of warning him.
"If I'm not mistaken, he will be on his guard; your shots must have warned him, and he must know something has happened."
"But if he were far off," answered Altamont, "and did not understand? There are eight chances out of ten that he'll come back without suspicion of danger! The bears are hiding behind the scarp of the fort, and he can't see them."
"We shall have to get rid of these dangerous beasts before his return," answered Hatteras.
"But how?" asked Bell.
To answer this question was not easy. A sortie seemed impossible. They took the precaution to barricade the entrance, but the bears could easily have overcome the obstacles if the idea had occurred to them; they knew the number and strength of their adversaries, and they could easily have reached them. The prisoners were posted in each one of the chambers of Doctor's House to watch for every attempt at entrance; when they listened, they heard the bears coming and going, growling, and tearing at the walls with their huge paws. But some action was necessary; time was pressing. Altamont resolved to make a loop-hole to shoot the assailants; in a few minutes he had made a little hole in the ice-wall; he pushed his gun through it; but it had scarcely reached the other side before it was torn from his hands with irresistible force before he could fire.
"The devil!" he cried, "we are too weak."
And he hastened to close the loop-hole. Thus matters went for an hour, without any end appearing probable. The chances of a sortie were discussed; they seemed slight, for the bears could not be fought singly. Nevertheless, Hatteras and his companions, being anxious to finish it, and, it must be said, very much confused at being thus imprisoned by the beasts, were about to try a direct attack, when the captain thought of a new means of defence.
He took the poker and plunged it into the stove; then he made an opening in the wall, but so as to keep a thin coating of ice outside. His companions watched him. When the poker was white hot, Hatteras said, —
"This bar will drive away the bears, for they won't be able to seize it, and through the loop-hole we will be able to fire at them, without their taking our guns away from us."
"A good idea!" cried Bell, going towards Altamont.
Then Hatteras, withdrawing the poker from the stove, pushed it through the wall. The snow, steaming at its touch, hissed sharply. Two bears ran to seize the bar, but they roared fearfully when four shots were fired at once.
"Hit!" shouted the American.
"Hit!" repeated Bell.
"Let us try again," said Hatteras, closing the opening for a moment.
The poker was put again into the fire; in a few minutes it was red hot.
Altamont and Bell returned to their place after loading their guns; Hatteras again pushed the poker through the loop-hole. But this time an impenetrable substance stopped it.
"Curse it!" cried the American.
"What's the matter?" asked Johnson.
"The matter! These cursed animals are heaping up the ice and snow so as to bury us alive!"
"Impossible!"
"See, the poker can't go through! Really, this is absurd!"
It was more than absurd, it was alarming. Matters looked worse. The bears, which are very intelligent beasts, employed this method of suffocating their prey. They heaped the ice in such a way as to render flight impossible.
"This is hard," said Johnson, with a very mortified air. "It's well enough to have men treat you in this way, but bears!"
After this reflection two hours passed by without any material change in their situation; a sortie became impossible; the thickened walls deadened all sound without. Altamont walked to and fro like a bold man in face of a danger greater than his courage. Hatteras thought anxiously of the doctor, and of the great danger awaiting him when he should return.
"Ah," shouted Johnson, "if Dr. Clawbonny were only here!"
"Well, what would he do?" asked Altamont.
"O, he would be able to help us!"
"How?" asked the American, with some asperity.
"If I knew," answered Johnson, "I shouldn't want him here. Still, I can think of a piece of advice he would give us at this moment."
"What is that?"
"To take some food. It can't hurt us. What do you think, Mr. Altamont?"
"Let us eat if you care to," was the answer; "although our condition is stupid, not to say disgraceful."
"I'll bet," said Johnson, "that we'll find some way of driving them off after dinner."
They made no reply, but sat down to dinner. Johnson, as a pupil of the doctor, tried to be a philosopher in the face of danger, but he succeeded ill; his jokes stuck in his throat. Besides, they began to feel uncomfortable; the air was growing bad in this hermetically sealed prison; the stove-pipe drew insufficiently, and it was easy to see that in a short time the fire would go out; the oxygen, consumed by their lungs and the fire, would be replaced by carbonic acid, which would be fatal to them, as they all knew. Hatteras was the first to detect this new danger; he was unwilling to hide it from the others.
"So, at any risk we must get out!" said Altamont.
"Yes," answered Hatteras; "but let us wait till night; we will make a hole in the snow that we may get fresh air; then one shall take his place here and fire at the bears."
"It's the only thing we can do," said the American.
Having agreed on this, they waited for the time of action; and during the following hours, Altamont did not spare imprecations against a state of things in which, as he put it, "there being men and bears concerned, the men were getting the worst of it."
CHAPTER XIII
THE MINE
Night came, and the lamp began to burn dimly in the close air of the room. At eight o'clock they made their final preparations. The guns were carefully loaded, and an opening was begun in the roof of the snow-house. Bell worked cleverly at this for a few minutes, when Johnson, who had left the bedroom, where he was on guard, for a few minutes, returned rapidly to his companions. He seemed disturbed.
"What is the matter?" the captain asked.
"The matter? nothing!" answered the old sailor, hesitatingly, "yet – "
"What is it?" asked Altamont.
"Hush! Don't you hear a strange sound?"
"On which side?"
"There! There is something happening to the wall of that room."
Bell stopped his work; each one listened. A distant noise could be heard, apparently in the side wall; some one was evidently making a passage-way through the ice.
"It's a tearing sound!" said Johnson.
"Without a doubt," answered Altamont.
"The bears?" asked Bell.
"Yes, the bears," said Altamont.
"They have changed their plan," continued the sailor; "they've given up trying to suffocate us."
"Or else they think they've done it," added the American, who was getting very angry.
"We shall be attacked," said Bell.
"Well," remarked Hatteras, "we shall fight against them."
"Confound it!" shouted Altamont; "I prefer that decidedly! I've had enough working in the dark! Now we shall see one another and fight!"
"Yes," answered Johnson; "but with our guns it is impossible in so small a space."
"Well, with a hatchet or a knife!"
The noise increased; the scratching of claws could be heard; the bears had attacked the wall at the angle where it joined the snow fastened to the rock."
"Evidently," said Johnson, "the animal is within six feet of us."
"You are right, Johnson," answered the American, "but we have time to prepare ourselves to receive it!"
The American took the axe in one hand, his knife in the other; resting on his right foot, his body thrown back, he stood ready to attack. Hatteras and Bell did the same. Johnson prepared his gun in case fire-arms should be necessary. The noise grew louder and louder; the ice kept cracking beneath the repeated blows. At last only a thin crust separated the adversaries; suddenly this crust tore asunder like paper through which a clown leaps, and an enormous black body appeared in the gloom of the room. Altamont raised his hand to strike it.
"Stop! for heaven's sake, stop!" said a well-known voice.
"The doctor, the doctor!" shouted Johnson.
It was indeed the doctor, who, carried by the impetus, rolled into the room.
"Good evening, my friends," he said, springing to his feet.
His companions remained stupefied; but joy succeeded their stupefaction; each one wished to embrace the worthy man; Hatteras, who was much moved, clasped him for a long time to his breast. The doctor answered by a warm clasp of the hand.
"What! you, Dr. Clawbonny!" said the boatswain.
"Why, Johnson, I was much more anxious about your fate than you about mine."
"But how did you know that we were attacked by bears?" asked Altamont; "our greatest fear was to see you returning quietly to Fort Providence without thought of danger."
"O, I saw everything!" answered the doctor; "your shots warned me; I happened to be near the fragments of the Porpoise; I climbed up a hummock; I saw five bears chasing you; ah, I feared the worst for you! But the way you slid down the hill, and the hesitation of the animals, reassured me for a time; I knew you'd had time to lock yourselves in. Then I approached gradually, climbing and creeping between cakes of ice; I arrived near the fort, and I saw the huge beasts working like beavers; they were tossing the snow about, heaping up the ice so as to bury you alive. Fortunately, they did not think of hurling the blocks down from the top of the cone, for you would have been crushed without mercy."
"But," said Bell, "you were not safe, Doctor; couldn't they leave their place and attack you?"
"They didn't think of it; the Greenland dogs which Johnson let loose would sniff around at a little distance, but they didn't think of attacking them; no, they were sure of better game."
"Thanks for the compliment," said Altamont, smiling.
"O, you needn't be vain of it! When I saw the tactics of the bears, I resolved to join you; to be prudent, I waited till night; so at twilight I slipped noiselessly towards the slope, on the side of the magazine; I had my own idea in choosing this point; I wanted to make a gallery; so I set to work; I began with my snow-knife, and a capital tool it is! For three hours I dug and dug, and here I am, hungry and tired, but here at last – "
"To share our fate?" asked Altamont.
"To save all of us; but give me a piece of biscuit and some meat; I'm half starved."
Soon the doctor was burying his white teeth in a large slice of salt beef. Although he was eating, he appeared willing to answer the questions they put to him.
"To save us?" Bell began.
"Certainly," answered the doctor, "and to rid us of the malicious pests who will end by finding our stores and devouring them."
"We must stay here," said Hatteras.
"Certainly," answered the doctor, "and yet rid ourselves of these animals."
"There is then a means?" asked Bell.
"A sure means," answered the doctor.
"I said so," cried Johnson, rubbing his hands; "with Dr. Clawbonny, we need not despair; he always has some invention handy."
"Not always handy; but after thinking for a while – "
"Doctor," interrupted Altamont, "can't the bears get through the passage-way you cut?"
"No, I took the precaution of closing it behind me; and now we can go from here to the powder-magazine without their suspecting it."
"Good! Will you tell us what means you intend to employ to rid us of these unpleasant visitors?"
"Something very simple, and which is already half done."
"How so?"
"You'll see. But I forgot I didn't come alone."
"What do you mean?" asked Johnson.
"I have a companion to introduce to you."
And with these words he pulled in from the gallery the newly killed body of a fox.
"A fox!" cried Bell.
"My morning's game," answered the doctor, modestly, "and you'll see no fox was ever wanted more than this one."
"But what is your plan, after all?" asked Altamont.
"I intend to blow the bears up with a hundred pounds of powder."
They all gazed at the doctor with amazement.
"But the powder?" they asked.
"It is in the magazine."
"And the magazine?"
"This passage-way leads to it. I had my own reason for digging this passage sixty feet long; I might have attacked the parapet nearer to the house, but I had my own idea."
"Well, where are you going to put the mine?" asked the American.
"On the slope, as far as possible from the house, the magazine, and the stores."
"But how shall you get all the bears together?"
"I'll take charge of that," answered the doctor; "but we've talked enough, now to work; we have a hundred feet to dig out to-night; it's tiresome work, but we five can do it in relays. Bell shall begin, and meanwhile we can take some rest."
"Really," said Johnson, "the more I think of it, the more I admire Dr. Clawbonny's plan."
"It's sure," answered the doctor.
"O, from the moment you opened your mouth they are dead bears, and I already feel their fur about my shoulders!"
"To work, then!"
The doctor entered the dark gallery, followed by Bell; where the doctor had gone through, his companions were sure to find no difficulty; two reached the magazine and entered among the barrels, which were all arranged in good order. The doctor gave Bell the necessary instructions; the carpenter began work on the wall towards the slope, and his companion returned to the house.
Bell worked for an hour, and dug a passage about ten feet long, through which one might crawl. Then Altamont took his place, and did about as much; the snow which was taken from the gallery was carried into the kitchen, where the doctor melted it at the fire, that it might take up less room. The captain followed the American; then came Johnson. In ten hours, that is to say, at about eight o'clock in the morning, the gallery was finished. At daybreak the doctor peeped at the bears through a loop-hole in the wall of the powder-magazine.
The patient animals had not left their place; there they were, coming and going, growling, but in general patrolling patiently; they kept going around the house, which was gradually disappearing beneath the snow. But at length they seemed to lose patience, for the doctor saw them begin to tear away the ice and snow they had heaped up.
"Good!" he said to the captain, who was standing near him.
"What are they doing?" he asked.
"They seem to be trying to destroy what they have done and to get to us! But they'll be destroyed first! At any rate, there is no time to lose."
The doctor made his way to the place where the mine was to be laid; then he enlarged the chamber all the height and breadth of the slope; a layer of ice, only a foot thick at the outside, remained; it had to be supported lest it should fall in. A stake resting on the granite soil served as a post; the fox's body was fastened to the top, and a long knotted cord ran the whole length of the gallery to the magazine. The doctor's companions followed his orders without clearly understanding his intention.
"This is the bait," he said, pointing to the fox.
At the foot of the post he placed a cask holding about a hundred pounds of powder.
"And here is the charge," he added.
"But," asked Hatteras, "sha'n't we blow ourselves up at the same time?"
"No, we are far enough off from the explosion; besides, our house is solid; and if it is hurt a little we can easily repair it."
"Well," continued Altamont; "but how are you going to set it off?"
"This way. By pulling this cord we pull over the post which holds up the ice above the powder; the fox's body will suddenly be seen on the slope, and you must confess that the starving animals will rush upon this unexpected prey."
"Certainly."
"Well, at that moment I shall explode the mine, and blow up guest and dinner."
"Well, well!" exclaimed Johnson, who was listening eagerly.
Hatteras had perfect confidence in his friend, and asked no question. He waited. But Altamont wanted it made perfectly clear.
"Doctor," he began, "how can you calculate the length of the fuse so exactly that the explosion will take place at the right moment?"
"It's very simple," answered the doctor; "I don't make any calculation."
"But you have a fuse a hundred feet long?"
"No."
"Shall you set a train of powder simply?"
"No! that might fail."
"Will some one have to volunteer and light the powder?"
"If you want any one," said Johnson, eagerly, "I'm your man."
"It's not necessary, my friend," answered the doctor, grasping the boatswain's hand; "our five lives are precious, and they will be spared, thank God!"
"Then," said the American, "I can't guess."
"Well," answered the doctor, smiling, "if we couldn't get out of this little affair, what would be the use of physics?"
"Ah!" said Johnson, brightening up, "physics!"
"Yes! Haven't we here an electric pile and wires long enough, – those, you know, which connected with the lighthouse?"
"Well?"
"Well, we shall explode the powder when we please, instantly, and without danger."
"Hurrah!" shouted Johnson.
"Hurrah!" repeated his companions, not caring whether the enemy heard them or not. Soon the electric wires were run through the gallery from the house to the chamber of the mine. One of the extremities remained at the pile, the other was plunged into the centre of the cask, the two ends being placed at but a little distance from one another. At nine of the morning all was finished, and it was time; the bears were tearing the snow away furiously. The doctor thought the proper time had come. Johnson was sent to the magazine and charged with pulling the cord fastened to the post. He took his place.
"Now," said the doctor to his companions, "load your guns in case they should not be all killed at once, and take your place near Johnson; as soon as you hear the explosion, run out."
"All right!" said the American.
"And now we have done all that men can do! We have helped ourselves; may God help us!"
Hatteras, Altamont, and Bell went to the magazine. The doctor remained alone at the pile. Soon he heard Johnson's voice crying, —
"Ready?"
"All right!" he answered.
Johnson gave a strong pull at the rope; it pulled over the stake; then he ran to the loop-hole and looked out. The surface of the slope had sunk in. The fox's body was visible upon the shattered ice. The bears, at first surprised, crowded about this new prey.
"Fire!" shouted Johnson.
The doctor at once established the electric current between the threads; a loud explosion followed; the house shook as if in an earthquake; the walls fell in. Hatteras, Altamont, and Bell hastened out of the magazine, ready to fire. But their guns were not needed; four of the five bears fell about them in fragments, while the fifth, badly burned, ran away as fast as he could.
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the doctor's companions, while they crowded about him and embraced him.
