American boys in the Arctics; a trip to the far north by a new path

Chapter I. A Strange Discovery

"^^7"ELL, what do you make out?" Captain Downing called V V impatiently, to a man with a glass, clinging to the weather rigging, a little below the masthead, on the brig Louise.

" It's a steamer's boat, sir," the man replied. " I can't get the name. There's the likes of an oar run up for'ard, with a bit of a rag on the end of it. It's a signal of distress, sure, sir ; but I can't make out any sign of life aboard."

"All right; that'll do," called the captain. To himself he muttered, " I suppose we'll have to overhaul her " — much as if it were a duty he would shirk at that moment if he could. Then aloud, he added, " Port your helm; put about and run her down."

The stanch fishing brig Louise, lying off the Newfoundland Banks during a gale of wind, hove to, came about, took the wind, and dashed away toward the flag of distress that was drifting in the heavy sea.

As the sailors were prepared to lower a boat the captain called for a volunteer crew to man it, and Scott Campbell and Royal Sargent, two stalwart boys of seventeen, were the first to fall into line.

They came from the same town as Captain Israel Downing. He had known them from the cradle. They had sailed with him since they first trod the deck, and he was ready to trust them anywhere

J

IO A STRANGE DISCOVERY.

They were orphan boys whose fathers had died at sea, and were only related by ties of the warmest, life-long friendship, but hand in hand they had gone to school, and now they were fighting their way together, into that same field of hardship and adventure where their fathers and their grandfathers had lived and fought and died.

The boat was lowered. Four sailors pulled the oars, another stood in the prow, and the second mate held the tiller rope. They had hardly touched the water when the word was given and they pulled away for the drifting boat tossing to and fro in its mute appeal for sympathy.

It was a fair-sized row boat. They could easily make out an oar, thrust into the mast-hole forward, made fast with an end of rope, bearing some poor fellow's shirt, swinging as the boat swung on the heavy sea, waving, still, the flag of distress, for some unfortunate human being.

Loose ends of rope hung over the side, lapping the water as the boat tossed about, but even now there was no sign of life.

" Stand by with the boat-hook, Mike," the mate said solemnly.

" Aye, aye, sir," replied the man in the prow, in the same low voice, for distress at sea touches every sailor's heart.

It was a moment of intense excitement for Scott and Roy. They had never before been so near to the reality of suffering, though from their earliest cradle songs to the latest sailor's yarn, their lives had been filled with the romance of distress.

Sitting with their backs to the boat they could not see it, and they were too well drilled to look over their shoulders while pulling an oar. They heard Mike's boat-hook as it caught the drifting boat, however, and a moment later it came alongside. They rested on their oars and all eyes were fixed upon the boat, but no one spoke, for there in the bottom lay three dead bodies, and stretched across them the body of a man who evidently was still alive, though entirely unconscious. The mate leaned over him for a moment; then taking the boat in tow they returned as quickly as possible to the brig.

The Louise returned to the Banks and the fishing continued. One gang would fish all day with lines or seines and another, on board the brig, was kept busy cleaning the fish ; dumping the livers into great tanks prepared for the purpose on the deck, scraping the bodies and throwing them down into the hold, where they were packed in salt to keep them till they came to port, where they could be dried.

m.

ki it 1 i \

A STRANGE DISCOVERY.

Down in the cabin the rescued man lay between life and death. He had recovered consciousness, but there was little hope that he could live.

One afternoon Scott was on duty watching the gauge. It was in a sort of bulkhead, directly under the cabin where the sick man lay, and in fair weather, for light and ventilation a hatch was removed, under the bunk, leaving only a wooden grating in the floor.

From his position just under this grating Scott could not avoid hearing every word that was spoken in the cabin, and while he watched the

CLEANING THE COD.

gauge the poor fellow above him told a story to the captain thac at once became so intensely interesting to Scott that he could not have forced himself to lose a single word, even if he had realized that he was overhearing what was not intended for him.

The man said he was an officer sent from Russia to find a family named Lester. Seventeen years before a man, James Lester, officer on an American vessel, while at Sebastopol married the daughter of a

A STRANGE DISCOVERY.

wealthy Russian, against her father's will. He disowned her, and she sailed for America with her husband. A year later a daughter was born and the husband died. Nothing further was known. In the meantime the Russian father's remaining child had died, and recently upon

CODFISHING.

his own deathbed he willed his immense fortune to this sranddauo-hter. Supplied with the necessary papers, the officer had come to find the girl, to take her to Russia to prove her identity and receive her property. The steamer upon which he sailed was burned at sea, and with the other unfortunates in the rescued boat he had made a struggle for life.

Captain Downing took the papers, promising to keep them safely, and carry him at once to the person whom he sought.

Then all was still in the cabin and Scott sat watching the srauo-e and thinking;. It was one of those strange coincidences where the driftwood on Life's ocean is driven right where it is required. Not far from the house which sheltered Scott when he was on shore, in the bleak little sea-beaten village, there lived a widow, Mrs. James Lester, with an only daughter, Vera, sixteen years old. Scott well remembered being told that she was named for her grandmother, who was a Russian. And

A STRANGE DISCOVERY.

now, unless he was dreaming — and he was as sure as sure could be that he was not — Vera Lester was to receive an immense fortune.

In the timid, modest fashion of the wild coast Scott thought of Vera as the prettiest, the sweetest, the dearest girl in all the world, and Vera as she wandered among the pines and white birches growing on the bluff, accompanied by an old and almost blind Siberian hound, would stand looking away over the water, surging in angry waves, or glistening and flashing in the sun, thinking of that same strong, handsome sailor-boy.

Now it suddenly occurred to him that if Vera should go to Russia, to be a great lady, she would never care what might become of him.

PACKING THE CODFISH.

Scott was glad for Vera, however, and the moment he was relieved he hastened to tell Roy all that he had overheard.

Captain Downing's wife was dead and his only child, Louise, for whom the brig was named, lived with her grandmother, in one of

4 STRANGE DISCOVERY.

the largest houses in the village. Roy thought as much of her as Scott thought of Vera, and the four had always been the best of friends.

Captain Downing was a stern officer, and the boys did not venture to tell him what they knew; but Roy as he sat by his bunk mending

a torn chaser, and Scott as he clung to his favorite retreat in the rigging, when off duty, sure that he was studying navigation with all his might, kept constantly revolving the matter in their minds, feeling as happy, for Vera, as though the immense fortune were falling to themselves.

A few days later the stranger died, and with the limited possibilities of the brig was buried off the coast of Newfoundland.

The event cast a sfloom over the superstitious sailors. Bad weather set in and luck seemed entirely to have left them, so that every one was glad when the captain set sail for home, saying that he would sell out the catch as it was and return in time for another haul, if fortune favored him.

Vera and Louise were glad to have the boys at home again, even for a few days, for it is dull enough in such a village when all the men are on the sea. They put on their best clothes, and Scott and Roy dressed as though they never had been sailors, and with games and picnics the days flew swiftly that had dragged so slowly before. But the boys had a burden upon their minds that, from being a pleasure at first, became a tormenting pain with long keeping.

Day after day they waited and wondered why Captain Downing did not tell the good news to Mrs. Lester, when they would tell the girls how they had known it all the time.

One afternoon Roy borrowed a boat of one of the neighbors, and while the skipper lay smoking in the prow, he and Louise sailed up and down the bay.

ROYAL SAR

VKRA LOOKING OUT TO SEA.

A STRANG E DISCOVERY.

Had it not been for the presence of the skipper, Roy thought what a glorious opportunity to have whispered the secret to Louise ; and he lived to regret very bitterly that he let the opportunity slip away. He even opened his mouth to speak, but noticing that the skipper was watching him he said nothing.

"To-morrow I will tell her," he thought, forgetting that "to-morrow" is a day that never comes ; and many a thrilling adventure and thousands of miles of space intervened between that hour and the next time when he was able to speak to the little girl beside him.

Not long after daylight the next morning, while Roy was still dreaming of floating about somewhere, with Louise, Scott burst into his room and catching him up by the shoulder, cried:

" Roy ! Roy ! wake up ! Captain Downing has sailed with a cargo of salt and provisions and taken Louise with him ! "

" Great Scott !" exclaimed Roy, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. " Scott Campbell, if you're yarning" —

" I'm not yarning, this weather, Roy. There's too big a sea on for me to set that sail. I tell you the brig has been gone three hours and more. Louise's grandmother came over to see if I was aboard. She's scared to death. She says Captain Downing came home about midnight last night, and said he was going to start for the Banks on the night-tide and take Louise with him, and he did, in spite of the old lady."

" Have they really gone? " asked Roy.

" What in the world have I been telling you ? " cried Scott.

" Gone without telling Mrs. Lester? "

" Yes ; and it looks to me like ugly business."

SCOTT CAMPBELL.

A STRANGE DISCOVERY.

" How?"

"Why, it's this way. You know he didn't dream that any one knew of it but himself and that dead man. He has been at home ten days without saying a word to a living soul about it. Now he's off again between two days, and nobody knew he was going. It's the first time since we could haul a rope that he hasn't taken us with him. He's taken a crew of only eight men and all strangers from the craft that came in with a leak last night. He took Louise out of bed, without her knowing any-

THE DAYS ON SHORE.

thing about it, and carried her down to the brig. That's a queer kind of crew and cargo for codfishinp- on the Banks."

" If he hasn't gone daft, what in the name of wonder is he up to ? " Roy asked deliberately.

" Do you want me to tell you what I think ? " said Scott, stuffing his hands hard into his pockets and leaning back against the wall.

A STRANGE DISCOVERY.

" 'Course I do, Scott. Fire away. I guess I'm wide enough awake to understand."

" Do you suppose he could take Louise over there to Russia and make folks think she was Vera, and get that money ? "

" I more think he's gone stark mad," said Roy, deliberately clasping his hands about one bare knee, for he was much calmer by nature than

THE SKIPPER WAS WATCHING HIM.

Scott. " In the first place, salt would be a mighty poor cargo to take to Russia, unless he did it for a blind. I reckon he's very short for ready money, too, and I don't believe he could go far away from his brig if he had to pay his own expenses ; and when all's said and done he's not in Russia yet, by a very large majority, even if he's headed that way, and it's Louise he's got with him and not Vera. If he does go there, and tries to make that girl pretend she's some one else, and cheat another girl, he'll find he's everlastingly out of his reckoning, every day of the week, or I don't know Louise Downing." Then, very deliberately, Roy began to dress.

There was evidently something wrong, however, and the boys at once consulted Mrs. Lester.

Chapter II. Remarkable Developments

THE result of the interview was perplexing. Mrs. Lester admitted the truth of the story of her life, which no one in America knew, as her husband died shortly after Vera was born, leaving her only the low-roofed cottage which she had never seen, the Siberian hound which she had taken with her, a little puppy from her home, and the baby Vera. In circumstances so changed she had preferred to remain unknown. She could not find a box of jewels which she had always carefully treasured, which she brought from home, nor could she find her marriage certificate, but she refused to believe anything wrong of her neighbor Captain Downing, and requested the boys to let the matter drop. She even made them promise not to speak of it to any one, but they went away more convinced than ever that they were right, and that Captain Downing was wrong.

" Scott," said Roy, " we haven't much to work with, but we've got our hands and feet and heads, and maybe we can accomplish something by ourselves. If he's gone mad, Louise is in bad weather and ought to have help. If he's cheating, Vera will suffer if we don't lend a hand. But we want to get our bearings before we set our helm. Suppose you cruise round town and find out all you can, and I'll borrow Dick Rhodes' fishing boat, stock her for two or three days, and see if I can overhaul anything coming from toward the Banks that may have sighted the Lottise."

REMARKABLE DE VEL OPMENTS.

" I'll do it," said Scott, and grasping Roy's hand for a moment, turned to his new work as a sort of detective, with a success that thoroughly alarmed him, while Roy went out to sea.

He found that the moment the brig reached the wharf, Captain Downing disposed of his cargo for cash ; that he purchased a cargo of salt and large stock of provisions on credit, saying he had promised to carry supplies to several of the bankers that were running short ; that he had mortgaged his house and farm for all that he could raise, and had even mortgaged the brig. By accident, Scott also learned that he had procured many sworn statements concerning Vera and her mother, and other incidents which left no doubt as to what his intentions were.

The barometer had been steadily falling while he worked, and the wind and sea were rising. Scott sleDt but little the second night. He was too anxious about Roy. He wished him safe on shore again.

The third morning the barometer was lower than ever, and such a tempest was howling along the coast as had never been known by the oldest dwellers by the sea.

Dense fog was hurled in heavy clouds from the ocean, completely engulfing the little town. The wind roared in a furious hurricane and

the wild waves dashed over the stone pier, hurled themselves fiercely among the ragged ledges on either side and even flung their salt spray defiantly against the doors and windows of the nearest cottages.

Scott was out with the earliest daylight, clad in his oil coat and hat, looking for Roy. Laboriously he made his way along the pier where a few of the villagers kept him company ; such as had a father, husband, brother or son on some of the nearer fishing grounds. It was a sad and anxious company, and Scott was sad and anxious, too.' He knew that Roy could handle a boat as well as any one on the coast, but he had gone into deep water with a frail craft. Scott shuddered as he looked out over the foaming sea and muttered between his teeth : " No yacht

THE LITTLE HARBOR LEDGE IN FAIR WEATHER.

that floats, with the best sailor who ever hauled a rope, could weather this gale an hour. If Rov has not found shelter he is lost."

As the day wore on the storm increased, and a larger company of anxious watchers gathered on the pier. Few words were spoken, and the answers were few and short. It was impossible to hear above the roar of the tempest unless one shouted, and there was little to say that was important enough for that. When a wave rose fiercer and higher than the rest and dashed itself over the pier and about their feet, and the wind hurled its burden of blinding spray into their faces and lashed the protruding abutments of the wharf, a groan rose from that solemn company, coming from the depths of every heart that was beating there.

Suddenly that silent crowd was roused to the most intense excitement, and the cold blood was sent throbbing through their veins. The boom of a cannon sounded. The last cry for help, from some ship in distress. It was close at hand ! It shook the pier! The people, all life and earnestness now, pressed out to the end of the wharf, regardless of the breakers dashing toward them and often gurgling about their feet.

The rain was falling in torrents now, cutting away the fog, and a moment later, as another peal thundered its call for help, a huge black outline could be faintly seen, floundering and rolling helplessly among

RUSHING TO THE WEATHER RIGGING.

REMARKABLE DE VEL OPMENTS.

2 7 the waves, plunging onward before the gale toward a ragged ledge, upon the other side of the wharf, which in fair weather formed a breakwater to protect the little harbor, but to-day meant inevitable death to anything approaching it.

In fifteen minutes that vessel would be drifting past the wharf, not five hundred feet away. In half an hour it would be dashed to pieces upon that ledge.

Could nothing be done to save it? Brave men looked helplessly at each other.

Lives! human lives! Fathers! brothers! sons! Women and chil-

A HUGE, BLACK OUTLINE.

dren, too, perhaps, were there. Should they stand still and see them drift to destruction before their very eyes ?

One boat was on the pier. It could not live a moment in that sea, but in the agony of their desire the men and women seized it, and pushed it into the water. The first wave dashed it against the stonework, the next splintered it from stem to stern, and the third, with a mocking roar, threw the pieces back again upon the pier.

REMARKABL E DE VEL OPMENTS.

Once more the men looked at each other, and the women clung to their helpless arms as another boom came from the drifting wreck.

Only one mortal moved upon the pier. He came running from the storehouse with a huge coil of small rope slung over his shoulder. He threw it down, quick as thought tore off his clothes, thrust his arms through 'a loop in the rope so that the end was held fast behind his head, and stood, for one instant, looking calmly down into a great gully, glistening and black, between two monstrous waves, upon the lee side of the

stone pier. Then he turned to an old sailor who stood nearest him and shouted :

" Pay her out, steady and free! Have a cable ready for the end if I get there, and tell Roy Sargent where I went if I don't come back."

The sailor's hand was stretched out to restrain him from such madness, but he saw it coming-, and with one bound sprang into the angry breakers, as far as possible from the pier.

The old sailor caught up the rope and paid it out, inch by inch, but his bronzed face was white and his strong hands trembled. Wave after wave mounted the wharf and curled about his feet, but he did not notice them. The wind shrieked and the rain poured in torrents in his face, but his eyes never left the rope for one instant. Now it drifted back a little on an incoming wave, and with a shudder he drew it in. Then it would glide out again, and with a sigh he aided it to slip freely through his fingers.

" Has some one gone ? "

' Is some one swimming for the wreck ? "

"PAY HER OUT, STKADY AND FREE!'

REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS.

" Swimming in that sea ? "

" Who is it ? "

" Who has dared ? " came in gasps from pale lips, as trembling figures crowded again to the end of the pier, or stood shuddering and shaking their heads about the old sailor, whose only reply was :

" Scott Campbell is swimming to the wreck," and one and another, as the word passed from lip to lip, muttered :

"God help him!"

For an instant some one would catch a glimpse of brown hair or a white arm as the boy rose on a smaller wave, and eagerly pointing it out the crowd would try to cheer; but the cheer died in a groan as the next great wave swept over it, and their hearts stood still lest the boy should never live to come out on the other side.

Thus eleven minutes passed that seemed like a lifetime, and the old sailor still paid out. The black hulk, rolling, floundering, plunging on, was almost abreast the wharf. Those who had brought glasses with them would hastily wipe the salt spray from the lens and for a moment catch a glimpse of sailors clutching the weather rigging, clinging to rope ladders, climbing higher and higher in a desperate struggle to get away from the surging breakers which swept the deck below.

They had fired their last signal. They had given themselves up.

Twelve minutes ! Where was that atom of white among the breakers? Trembling hands passed glasses from one to another. No one could find it. It seemed an hour since they had seen it last. Had Scott Campbell given up? Was he gone! gone ! gone! Or if he were still struggling, might they not drift past him without seeing the boy who was fighting with those angry waves to save them ?

Thirteen minutes ! The old sailor was upon his knees, on the very edge of the pier, bending anxiously forward, regardless of the tempest, of the excitement about him, of the waves that sometimes half-covered him. He held the rope between his thumb and finger as though it were a thread of glass. His breath came short and sharp. His eyes were riveted upon that line as it rose and fell, floating upon each incoming

THE ULI) SAILOR-

REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS.

wave. It faltered. His brow contracted. It fell back with the next wave. With a sharp cringe he drew it in a little that it might not be fouled upon the pier. It rested there a moment. The old sailor did not breathe. It fell back again. With a groan he let his hands drop and the rope drift.

What was that ? It made a sharp dart forward ! It slipped from his fingers ! He started, caught it in his hand, stared for an instant, then sprang to his feet, and in a voice that sounded clear and shrill above the tempest, he shouted :

" Glory to God ! Stand by with the cable ! Scott Campbell has reached the wreck ! "

Chapter III. A Will And A Way

WHEN the sun rose the next morning, the stormy clouds were drifting away from it and the waves were wearing themselves out. The great hull, black and bare, swept clean above the deck, from stem to stern had been hauled up as far as possible, stranded and made fast by strong cables, with the cargo still intact, and every soul on board safely transported to the shore ; while boisterous sea-gulls, hundreds of them, filled the air, diving and splashing in the water about the wreck, having a grand and noisy feast to welcome the returning sunshine.

The family of the owner of the vessel and cargo, a wealthy shipowner, were on board the wreck. He had been telegraphed for and arrived in the afternoon. He sent at once for Scott, who found him sitting upon an iron bench by the door of the house where his family had taken refuge.

" Young man," he exclaimed, grasping Scott's hand — then he stopped and for a moment was unable to speak. At last he continued: " I have a very valuable cargo down in that hold, and my wife and children were on board for a summer holiday. I watched them sailing away, little thinking of this end. You saved me a great deal of money, but infinitely more you saved to me the lives of my wife and children. I can never repay you, but I beg you to let me hand you this. It is nothing. I shall try and do something more for you if I can find the opportunity." He put an envelope into Scott's hand and added, with tears in his eyes, " Be

3'

3 2

A WILL AND A WAY.

as generous as you were brave, my boy. Do not think it is given you as pay for your noble deed and scorn it as such, but for my sake make use of it, and let me know whenever I can be of service to you."

At that moment Roy came running down the road. He cleared the

' I WATCHED THEM SAILING AWAY.'

fence at a bound. Scott stuffed the envelope into his pocket and in a moment forgot all about it as he clasped Roy in his arms.

The shipowner looked on in kindly admiration as Roy exclaimed:

" I've just heard all about it, Scott. What a hero you are ! I always knew you were just the fellow who could do it ; but there's not another man upon the coast who could."

" Or who would have dared to try," added the shipowner, eagerly.

" Let up on that, now, Roy," Scott exclaimed impatiently, and very much embarrassed. '' You have doubtless heard a great deal too much about me, but I've had no chance to hear a word about you. You'd have done better than I in the same place. You always do ; but go ahead now, and tell me where you've kept yourself "

THE STRANDED HULL.

A WILL AND A WAY.

" There's an account in print that blows my horn for me," said Roy, laughing and handing Scott a newspaper. " Of course it's much better than I deserve, but I never thought of being ashamed. In fact, I was rather proud of it. I was going to show it to you with a tremendous nourish, till I got in on the afternoon stage, and heard how far ahead of me you were, and that kind of took the wind out of my sails, I tell you."

" Let up, I say ! " Scott exclaimed sharply, glancing from the newspaper. " Now go ahead and tell me where you have been."

Roy threw himself carelessly upon the bench and replied, in his old, deliberate way :

" Well, I was aboard Dick's boat till she was stove to smithereens. Then I was on a steamer. Can you believe it, I've walked the bridge as pilot and been paid for it, too, so I have.

I was off Eagle Ledge when the storm struck in — by the way, the Louise

" WHEN THE STORM STRUCK IN.

did go to the Banks, but I'm pretty sure she didn't stop there. It's my opinion sbx 5 i:eok her cargo of salt to St. John's for a blind; but I'll tell you : I ran into the cove and pulled up on the rocks to wait till I could run home. You know there's a steam foe horn on the ledge and a bell buoy off the point. The fog shut down with a steamer in sight and a sail near to. Well, the bell buoy broke