Seven Frozen Sailors Part 25

Marc and Cecile!

In a few seconds I was safe on the deck of the _Lepante_.

M. Andre, the crew, the spectators, were horror-struck.

A man goes mad in an instant. Marc was again raving, as he had raved in the madhouse at Benevent. But the sight of Cecile had given purpose to his language.

"Vengeance--vengeance! Fiend! The time has come! Fate--fate has brought us together! I could not escape you! I must kill you--kill you! We must be d.a.m.ned together! Hark at the roar of the waters! Hark at the wailing of the winds! Our shroud!--our dirge!--our requiem! that tells us of h.e.l.l! for I am a murderer, and you--"

He had the strength of ten strong men.

It took that number to hold him.

The wretched Andre fell p.r.o.ne in a swoon.

Cecile's women called on the Virgin and the saints.

We all held Marc.

Cecile turned upon me.

"You told me he was dead," she said.

Then, to the captain of the _Lepante_--"I am innocent--innocent-- innocent!"

But, in moments of supreme danger, men's ears are deaf to other people's business.

It was save himself who can.

A leak had been sprung in the _Lepante_ by the collision with our yacht.

The pumps could not hold their own with the waters.

There was a panic on board.

The storm had abated. The boats were got ready. All rushed to them.

"_Place aux dames_!" I cried; and, with the spasmodic strength of great crises, I held back the men, and got the women off first. Then men enough to take charge of the boat.

M. Andre was in it; the first that was lowered. Another followed, filled with the crew of the _Lepante_. Her captain was the first to leap into it.

And Marc, freed from the arms that held him, dashed over the side into the foaming waters, to swim after Cecile.

His vengeance was not in this world.

As for me, I was left alone on the _Lepante_--with the rats.

I am a sailor, and have a sailor's prejudices, fears, hopes, beliefs.

I saw the rats. They had not left the s.h.i.+p. I accepted the omen. I knew the _Lepante_ was not doomed, if they stayed.

To take to such a sea in an open boat seemed certain death.

I preferred to stay with my friends, the rats.

Rudderless, dismasted, we still floated.

And drifted--drifted--drifted--

Northward, into the ice.

Into the ice-bound, ice-bearing sea that is round the North Pole.

I know no more.

"Gone again, sir!" I said, for just as the doctor made a lurch at the Frenchman, he melted away like the others.

"I never knew anything so provoking," cried the doctor. "But never mind, we must find another, and keep to my old plan--cut him out in a block, and take him home frozen, like a fly in amber. What a sensation!"

"What! being friz?" said Scudds.

"No, my man. What a sensation it will make at the Royal Society, when I uncover my specimen, pointing to it like a huge fly in amber. It will be the greatest evening ever known."

He gave us no peace till we found another specimen, which we did, and cut out by rule, and at last had it lying there by the tent, as clear as gla.s.s, and the doctor was delighted.

"Not a very handsome specimen, doctor," I said, looking through the ice at a lean, long, ugly Yankee, lying there like a western mummy, with his eyes shut, and an ugly leer upon his face, just as if he heard what we said, and was laughing at us.

"No, not handsome, Captain, but a wonderful specimen. We must give up the North Pole, and go back to-morrow. I wouldn't lose that specimen for worlds."

I gave my shoulders a shrug like the Frenchman did, and said nothing, though I knew we could never get that block over the ice, even if it did not melt.

Just then I saw the doctor examining the gla.s.s, and before long a most rapid thaw set in. The surface ice was covered with slushy snow, and for the first time for days we felt the damp cold horribly, huddling together round the lamp, and longing for the frost to set in once more.

We had not stirred outside for twelve hours, a great part of which had been spent in sleep, when suddenly the doctor exclaimed--

"Why, it will be thawed out!"

"What will?" I said.

"My specimen!" he exclaimed.

"Here it is!" I said; and we all started, in spite of being used to such appearances; for just then the tent opening was dragged aside, and the tall Yankee, that we had left in the ice slab, came discontentedly in, and just giving us a nod, he stood there staring straight before him in a half-angry, spiteful way.

I never could have believed that tobacco would have preserved its virtue so long, till I saw that tall, lean, muscular Yankee begin slowly to wag his jaw in a regular grind, grind, grind; when, evidently seeing their danger, our men backed away. For our friend began coolly enough to spit about him, forming a regular ring, within which no one ventured; and at last, taking up his position opposite the lamp, he would have put it out in about a couple of minutes, had not the doctor slewed him round, when, facing the wind, we all set to wondering at the small brown marbles that began to fall, and roll about on the ice, till we saw that it was freezing so hard again that the tobacco-juice congealed as it left his lips.

"I like grit--I do like a fellow as can show grit!" he kept on muttering in a discontented kind of way, as he took a piece of pine-wood out of his pocket, and then, hoisting a boot like a canoe upon his knee, he sharpened his knife, and began to whittle.

"Where did you get that piece of wood?" said the doctor, then.