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'^^ *.,>>^ .0- ^- V^ 5.s^-./' .^ .js«!L'"-5a. •- -f. ■> i '/. c>,_ ov ' hrttp ://www. arch i ve .o rg/details/th rou^ iiarticst roOOf re n ,0 ' "-^^ '»-»••. /'■ . ,, „ . "^^--.^ * . . ^""'!/ ,0 c. s^^ '%.. ^•'^- -> ■,^- % ^rr,»^■.^o•' ^o. -,:■■:, .^^- ^-^ ' '/ c- V » ^ " 'V > c;TAMn RY WITH THF RHAT H^nK U\i 72 36 " They're Greenland's Icy Mountains ! " * 37 First glimpse of Greenland 74 39 " That is Fiskenaes " 75 40 " Waiting to welcome them " 1 A trader's wife ( 76 43 44 Starting on the picnic 77 45 " Scott borrowed the whip " 78 46 Starting the baggage 79 47 The winter settlement 81 48 They entered the largest 82 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The walrus hunt A seal-catcher Koko and the wolves Shooting the musk-ox A sleeping bag The bear crouched upon the sledge On the Snmubird' s deck Unloading stores Landing the stores The captain almost left Chattering a farewell " Land ahead ! " " North Cape, sir " The head of the fjord Hammerfest harbor Up the fjord to Tromso " Where you find moss you find reindeer" The Tromso cathedral " The Lapps all grinned " The storhatten i The torghatten ) The Lapps at home " That fellow in snowshoes " A portable cradle Svolvaer on the Loffodens Scott and Puck fishing " That's Torghatten " " No bottom " Torghatten from the bay Hestmand The fortress of Monkholmon Storehouses of Trondhjem In the cathedral porch Trondhjem The Trondhjem cathedral "Where it is not uphill in Norway, it is sure to be downhill " In the pulpit Norwegian peasant A glimpse of Norway " What a funny contrivance " Nature about Trondhjem " The home of Ole Bull " Eergen " Christiansand, a tempting resting place " Christiansand Street of Christiania ) The summer palace, Christiania ) Parliament House, Christiania Stockholm A glimpse of Sweden " Fisherwomen coming down the wharf " Oscar ir.. King of Norway and Sweden " Just look at that village" " She was so much like Vera" 83 Under the guns of Kronstadt 152 85 Alexander's Column 153 86 The bridge over the Neva '55 87 Statue of the Tzar Nicholas 156 S9 " They turned another corner " 158 90 The Winter Palace '59 9' " The Tzar gave them a sleighride " 161 92 The streets transformed 162 93 An open fire at the station 163 94 " Accommodating themselves to the railroad " 164 95 Late for the midnight express 165 99 " I am the Tzar " 166 [00 A Russian mail sledge ) Russian mail wagon ( lOI 167 '03 Jewel vault 168 104 The Kremlin, Moscow 169 05 The Great Bell 171 107 St. Nicholas Gate 172 108 Cathedral of Basil the Blessed 173 Approaching the cathedral 175 109 The Russian children's song 177 no Jews 17S III Holding back the starving peasants 179 "3 Waiting for rations 181 114 " A burly Russian" 1S2 "5 The fortune teller ■83 117 " Gee up, there I " 186 118 Balaklava 187 119 Outside the fjord 189 121 Constantinople 191 The Snowbird in the harbor 192 122 " Jehu ! what a face " 193 123 " Isn't he a beauty ! " 194 125 In the Mosque of St. Sophia 195 126 " See that woman ! " 197 " The ace of spades " 198 127 In the Algerian quarter 199 129 A Spaniard 201 130 " A character " 202 131 In the bazaar 203 133 Through the open door 205 134 " Those eyes are sad " 206 135 "Take your last peep at Constantinople " 207 137 The beautiful bay 20S 138 Smyrna 210 139 Loading the cattle 211 F.phesus =■3 141 Bevroot and the ships of the desert 214 142 Jaffa 215 143 The captain ) The inevitable ) 145 217 146 "At the inn door " 21S 147 Jerusalem from Mount of Olives 219 149 The tower of Ramleh 221 151 The old gray walls of Jerusalem 222 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Waiting at the Jaffa Gate 223 Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher 225 The Mosque of Omar 226 The Church of the Holy Sepulcher 227 Women at the fountain of Bethesda 229 Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane 230 " And this is Bethany ! " 231 Gate of Bethlehem 232 " Jehu ! he's a study I " 233 The last glimpse of Jerusalem 235 The ford of the Jordan 23S The Dead Sea ' 239 " City by the way " 241 The Sea of Galilee 242 " The oldest city in the world " 243 Public Garden, Damascus 245 One of her public places 246 " They were always crowded " 247 Wealthy citizens 249 Call to prayer 250 " In the old temple court " ' 251 The caravan at the khan 255 Caravan on the march 257 A camel fastened 258 After the birds 259 Sand storm in the desert 260 Raschid Airikat 261 The wanderer 263 " The caravan started again " 264 " Gloomy, dingy, dirty " 265 " An old friend " 268 " Another familiar thing " ' 269 Interior of khan 270 At the letter-writer's booth 271 In the mosque 273 Bagdad from the river 274 The coffee house 275 A Mohammedan mosque 276 " A marvelous craft " 277 'Dark objects on the bank 278 " A grand convention " 279 Raschid's countrymen 280 "They're locusts, eating the grain" 281 " I'll bet on the kytes" 282 Games on deck 283 The beautiful coast 285 The Parsee overseer 286 The deck was crowded with natives 287 " A pirate " 289 " Broken from its moorings" 290 The crown prince's palace 291 It was the king 292 Through the jungle 293 Crossing the stream 294 " Down breaks ! Jehu ! what's that ? " 295 " I wouldn't disturb them " 297 " Their first elephants " 298 " Two gleaming tusks transfixed him " 299 The captain meets Louise 300 Back to the bungalow 301 " He was my father " 302 The albatross 305 Cape Horn 306 The jangada race 307 A glimpse of the Gulf of Mexico 309 A gray stone light-house 311 " For fourteen hours Scott held the helm " 314 " We've fifteen hours to spare " 317 THROUGH ARCTICS AND TROPICS c/}ivuiid the IVorki by a New Path, for a New Purpose CHAPTER I. A STRANGE DISCOVERY. •*TT fELL, what do you make out?" Captain Downing called V V impatientl}', 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 Lotiise, 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. 9 lO .-i 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. A STRANGE DJSCOVERY. 13 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 hear- ing 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 that 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 over- hearins: 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 14 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 mean- time the Russian father's remaining child had died, and recently upon CODFISHING. his own deathbed he willed his immense fortune to this o-randdaugfhter. Supplied with the necessary papers, the oflficer 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 gauge and thinkinor. it was one of those strangre 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. 15 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 i6 A 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 ofificer, 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 revolv- ing 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 pos- sibilities of the brig was buried off the coast of Newfoundland. The event cast a gloom over the superstitious sailors. Bad weather set in and luck seemed entirely to have left them, so that every one was glad when the cap- tain set sail for home, saying that he would sell out the catch as it was and return in time for another haul, if fort- une 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. VERA LOOKING OUT TO SEA. A STRANGE DISCOVERY. 19 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 inter- vened 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 floatins," about some- where, with Louise, Scott burst into his room and catching him up by the shoulder, cried : " Roy ! Roy ! wake up ! Cap- tain Downinsf 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 " — " Lm 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. 20 A STJiANGE DISCOVERY. " How?" *'\\'hy, 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 be- tween 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- IHK l)A\S ON SHOLiE. thing about it, and carried her down to the brig. That's a queer kind of crew and cargo for codfishing 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. 21 " '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 brouoht from home, nor could she find her marriage certifi- cate, 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 Down- mg was wrong. " Scott," said Roy, " we haven't much to w'ork 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 Louise!' REMARKABLE DE VEL OPMENTS. 23 " 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 slept but little the second night. He was too anxious about Roy. He wished him safe on shore again. barometer was lower than ever, and such a the coast as had never been known by the The third morning the tempest was howling along 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 ROY BEGINS HIS SEARCH. 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, 24 REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 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 o-one into deep water with a frail craft. Scott shuddered as he looked out over the foaming sea and muttered between his teeth: " No yacht THK LITTLE HARBOR LEDGIi IN FAIR WEATHIiR. that floats, with the best sailor who ever hauled a rope, could weather this gale an hour. If Roy 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 com- pany, coming from the depths of every heart that was beating there. Suddenly that silent crowd was roused to the most intense excite- ment, and the cold blood was sent throbbing throuo;h 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 RUSH N(, lo IHC \\EA1HER RIGGING REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 27 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 arainst 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. 28 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, glisten- ing 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 'PAY HER OUT, STEADY AND FREE!" 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 lit- tle 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 } " REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS. 29 " Swimming in that sea ? " "Wlioisit?" " 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 point- ing 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 .i* 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 I 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 I'HE OLD SAILOR. 30 REMARKABLE DE VELOPMENTS. 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 sou! 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 ship- owner, were on board the wreck. He had been telegraphed for and arrived in the afternoon. He sent at once for Scott, who found him sit- ting 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 32 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. \\'hat a hero 3-ou are ! I always knew vou 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. 35 " 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 flourish, 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 news- paper. " 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. ^.s,,,.,^..,,^^:,,^,,.^..^.-,,^^.-^.,,,,,.,,^ I was off Eagle Ledge when the storm struck in — by the way, the Louise f EaE3l.^kt!-i7E%.^ WHEN THE STORM STRUCK IN. did go to the Banks, but I'm pretty sure she didn't stop there. It's my opinion she took 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 36 A WILL A-\D A WAY. loose the first thing and drifted on to the rocks, half a mile above me. Then something silenced the fog horn. In the very worst of the storm it stopped working. All of a sudden I heard the steam- er's fog whistle, off to windward; it was blowing and slashing like mad, and I thought if that steamer was hunting for the buoy and fog horn she was more than likely to run her nose right into the rocks. By good luck I got my boat into the water, between two waves, flung out sail enough to catch a hatful of the gale, and let her go for the steamer's whistle. In ten minutes I was in sight of her. Jehu ! but she was an ocean steamer, drifting like mad dead on to the ledge. I yelled, but they couldn't hear me. They saw something was wrong, however, and lay to, and stopped her. They threw me a line, but it was no use. I saw I'd o'Ot to 2:et on board, some way, to make them understand, for the wind alone was carrying them THE BELL BUOY. ^^^^^ ^^ l^^,g Vx^ot?, au ' hour, so I worked round to windward, went broadside on, and when a wave slung me up against her I jumped for all I was worth. I went clean over and. landed, sprawled out at full length on the deck, in a foot or more of salt water. It didn't take me long to give the captain his points, you bet. " ' Do you know this coast ? ' he shouted. " ' Every inch of it, sir,' I yelled. '"Where's Sheep Island?' he asked, and a half-dozen other points in the same way, and I gave them to him quick as I could breathe. " ' Come upon the bridge,' he said, by way of winding up, and there was nothing for me but to obey, for you see Dick's boat was smashed and gone adrift. All my stores were at the bottom of the sea, and I had no money to pay my fare, so 'twas either work my passage or be put ashore to walk home. I worked it, I tell you. Oh ! but it's fun being pilot, if you only had time enough to appreciate it. Coffee, soup, every A WILL AND A WAY. 39 thing, all served on the bridge, and everybody, from the captain down, dancing about to make you comfortable. The trouble is, that the thought that you've got a big steamer on your hands in a roaring hurri- cane, is worse than the gale in your face for taking your wind away, and I didn't think of anvthins but rocks until I was on shore ao-ain. It was a little after dark when we sighted the island light, just as I said we should, and as the steamer was leaking badly, the captain ran into port. He wanted me to stay aboard till he heard from the Company, but I told him if he'd give me enough to pay Dick for his boat and buy a ticket home on the cars, I'd like to be off on the night train. He said I'd surely earned a pilot's fee be- side, and insisted on my taking a roll of bills, and before I got away the passengers crowded round and stuffed another roll into my pocket. I was so confused I didn't know what to do, and when I was safely on board the cars, and counted it up, what do you think t There was over seven hun- dred dollars ! How's that for a starter toward following the brig Louise? It was a great deal more than I deserved, of course, but as we passed "1 JUMPED FOR ALL I WAS WORTH." 4° A WILL AND A WAY. the light, there lay a big ship, with sails still set, high and dry upon the rocks, and I suppose the steamer folks thought they were better off out of such a predicament, even if it did cost them something." The shipowner said good-by as he was leaving with his family, earnestly thanking Scott again, and urging him to call upon him when- ever he could be of service, and the boys wandered down to the coast, still talking over their adventures, when Scott suddenly thought of the ' WE SIGHTED THE LIGHT. envelope in his pocket. He broke the seal, and the two bovs sat in blank astonishment, staring at the contents. It was a check, payable to Scott Campbell, for ten thousand dollars. Scott's first thought was to return it, but he remembered the tears in the donor's eyes when he asked him to be as generous as he had been brave, and turning to Roy he said earnestly : " It is a gift from God, to use in securing Vera Lester's rights. If you are with me, Roy, we'll fit out the best boat we can oret, and the largest A WILL AND A WAY. 41 we can handle, and we'll follow Captain Downing to the end of the world." "Over land and sea!" said R03', grasping Scott's hand; "through Arctics and Tropics, I'm with you, Scott, till we find that Captain Downing is innocent, or force him to walk the deck as he should." So they pledged themselves for a longer, more formidable, more exciting chase than either of them dreamed, and set themselves at once to make their preparations. ROY S STORY IN PRINT. CHAPTER IV. CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. NO time was to be lost. The boys borrowed a yacht, and, putting on their fishing clothes, that they might look precisely what they were, ran down the coast to the city, keeping a sharp lookout among the shipping as they entered the harbor, to see if such a craft as they wanted was there. " Do you see that steamer over there, Scott } " Roy asked. " That's the one I brought in, night before last. They've unloaded her, and are working her over to those docks there, for repairs, I guess. She was leaking pretty bad, they said." Coming up to the wharf, Scott sat in the boat while Roy, as the acknowledged " business man " of the little corporation, went up to make incjuiries concerning several sloops and yachts which lay at anchor. Almost the first man he met was the captain of the steamer, who grasped his hand, and at once introduced him to the manager of the line, who had come on to attend to the disabled steamer. " I was going to hunt you up, Mr. Sargent," he said, "just as soon as I got the repairs under way. The Company is greatly indebted to you for the service you rendered. Now you have saved me wandering about in search of you, and I am greatly obliged to you for that, too," he added, with a pleasant smile. - Rov was so embarrassed at hearinaf himself called " Mr. Sargent " for the first time in his life, that he hardly knew what he said. He tried 42 CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 43 to explain how he came there. The two men became interested, and before Roy realized it, by a few well-directed questions they had come at the whole stor)-. "You think he's gone into the Arctic Ocean, do you, and that he is likely to cross to Norway, and you propose to follow him up ? Well, I sailed in ice-water three seasons when I was young, and I can tell you that a craft which you two could manage could not weather four-and-twenty hours, nor could you run any- thing but square-rigged, with safety, where ice is thick. I happen to know of a tough little duck of less than a hun- dred tons, that took a relief party to Melville Bay, on the northwest coast, last summer. She has two masts, square- rigged, is triple sheathed with wood and iron at the bows for ice. She's a little beauty. Five men can handle her in the worst weather. Two can sail her in a fair sea. She has her old ice-tackle still intact, and three days can see her ready to leave the dock. You would need four good seamen, who understand ice- water, and a cook who understands hot water. You and your friend could divide the honors of captain and mate, if you understand ''' navigation ; do you } " " Aye, aye, sir, from A to Z ! " Roy exclaimed, glad of an opportunity to put in a word. " Though it is pretty much all we do understand, except codfishing. But such a vessel as you speak of, sir, is " — " I know what you would say, Mr. Sargent — Captain, I suppose I should call you now — but allow me to say: Our company has instructed me to find you, and to do for you anything that, in my judgment, will be KEEPING A ,sil.\RP LOuKOUT. 44 CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. most acceptable. If this bark— I think she is registered as a bark, though a queer one — if she meets 3'our approval, I propose to charter and provision her for a year, fit her out, and put on board for that time four seamen and a cook, at the expense of the S. S. Company. If you are through with her before, send her home. If you want her longer, let me know. Our company has never yet lost a passenger, but if it had not been for you, very few of the lives on that steamer could have been saved. ' DO YOU SEE THAT STEAMER ? " Now I beg of you. Captain Sargent, do not say a word. This is a purely business transaction on our part, and we request you so to consider it. Get your friend and come aboard our tender. We will run right down and look at the bark." There was nothing to say, and Roy really did a very sensible thing when he simply touched his hat, sailor fashion, and disappeared for Scott. Three days later they returnd to the city by rail, accompanied by CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 45 Mrs. Lester and Vera. The bark was hauled into open water by a tender, and as Roy and Scott rowed out in the gig to meet her and take command, Mrs. Lester waved them a God-speed from the wharf, and Vera watched until her blue eyes were so full of tears that she could see noth- ing but one great gleam of light. The boys had an animated controversy as to which should command. Scott declared that the vessel was Roy's and that Roy was captain, and finally carried the day, with the agreement that Scott, as the one who was really the prime mover, should be first mate on deck, but admiral in the cabin, and should have the general direction of the voyage. The bark was named Snowbird. Two of the seamen and the MRS. LESTER AND VERA. cook had sailed in her before, while the other two were old whalers. Their first point was the Newfoundland Banks, and the run was all that could have been wished. As they came among the codfishers, Scott took his position at the masthead to look out for the brig Louise, but, though they spoke several bankers, no tidings were heard from her till 46 CAPTAIN SARGENT, SJK. they came to port at St. John's, at the southeastern extremity of the island 'J'hey had both of them been on shore at St. John's before^ so that their eyes and thoughts were bent wholly upon business. First, they made sure that the Louise was not at an- chor in the almost land-locked bay. 'I hen they crossed the bay and dropped anchor, and Scott and Roy, having made the first step in safety, took the gig and rowed ashore, to the quiet, quaint, steep- roofed old town lying opposite the narrow entrance. "St. John's looks very unlike an American city, but its hard}', hospitable people would make any one feel at home," Scott observed, as they were warmly welcomed by one and another who only knew of them that they were sailor boys. They did not have to apply to the American consul, as they ex- pected, for every one was ready to answer questions, and every one at St. John's seemed to know about every one else there, and every one who had ever been there. " Yes ! The brig Louise ran in here some two weeks ao-o," said one of the wharf officers. " She had a cargo of salt which she sold for cash at a low price, and took in a cargo of grain, flour and mixed stuff for two or three of the southern ports of Greenland. Captain said he had ao-reed to go up there and fetch back overstock from some whalers." The boys looked at each other, but said nothing. There were a few ^stores which were lacking in their outfit, which must be purchased at St. John's, and while they were wandering about the quaint old streets, Scott slipped into a jewelry store, closely followed bv Roy. " What did you run into this port for.?" Roy asked, and Scott, with a decided blush, replied: " I thought we'd be writing to Mrs. Lester, from here, to tell her of our success so far, and maybe 'twouldn't be a bad idea to slip SCOTT AT THE MASTHEAD. CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 47 in some little trinket for Vera, just to show her that we haven't forgot- ten her." " We ! " said Roy, with a merry laugh. " Bet yer best anchor, Scott, Vera isn't worrying for fear that I've forgotten her. She'd know I hadn't forgotten my old playfellow." Scott laughed too ; but he very carefully selected a little chain, with a cross attached, had it safely packed in a box and addressed. Then they took it to the post-office, registered it, and returned to the Snowbird. IN THE HARBOR AT ST. JOHN S. They wrote a letter to Mrs. Lester and sent it on shore by two of the sailors, who were to bring back the stores they had purchased, including a lot of fresh meat. Then they sat alone in the cabin ready to lay the course to Greenland. " I tell you what it is, Scott," said Roy, " I never dreamed what a terrible strain I was under, running up here, till the anchor dropped and we were in the gig. When I looked back and saw the Snowbird lying 48 CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. there, all in regulation ship-shape, and realized that j'ou and I had brought her here, my knees began to shake, and 1 wondered how in the world we ever dared to do it." " It took me the other way," said Scott. '• I knew the ground so far, A LITTLE TRINKET FOR VERA. and had faith in the captain, but when I saw that big lump of ice we passed just outside, and realized that when we went out through those narrows again it would be by a new path, for a new purpose that would lead us no one knows where or for how long, my knees began to shake and, to tell the tyuth, they are shaking still. Roy, I wonder if I'm a coward." Roy laughed heartily and exclaimed, " Scott Campbell, if your knees were shaking till you could not stand, I'd give more for the courage you had left than for the whole stock of any two fellows on the coast." " Royal Sargent, let up ! " said Scott decidedly, ■' and when you come down again, let it be to business. So Captain Downing has gone to Greenland." " Well, what in the name of common sense has he done that for } " CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 49 " How should I know ? You know how often he remarked that ' Doubtful things is mighty onsartin.' " " I don't believe he's gone there at all," said Roy. " I believe he's simply gone daft." " Yes, he has," Scott replied, who was studying a large chart spread out upon the table. " It's hardly out of his way at all, if he's doing what I think and going to Russia, for he'd have to go north of Scotland, any way, and by lugging freight he is sort of paying his way, «ind throwing any one off the track at the same time. He's got a lot of money with him, you know, and he's working fair and foul for more, because he'll need it." " To say nothing of buying everything on credit and selling it for cash. It looks as though there was method in his madness, any way." " Why not go straight to Russia and head him off.? " Scott exclaimed. " I don't believe he's going there. I believe he's parted a cable in his upper story, and I want to overtake him and save Louise," Roy replied. And Scott agreed, feeling ashamed that he had forgotten his friend's anxiety in his own. " Two points east of north and a straiorht course will fetch it," he said. At that moment there was a commo- tion on deck, and the boys rushed up. It was after nine o'clock at night, but the sun was still shining brightl}'. A hawk, chasing a small bird, had flown against the rigging and dropped dead upon the deck — at the feet of one of the sailors, forward. " Good enough for him ! " Scott exclaimed, but Roy, noticing the solemn faces of the two seamen and the cook, replied in a low voice : " But not for these superstitious sailors. They'll have it, every false wind that blows, that this was a warning." THE CAblN UK THE SNOWBIRD. 50 CAFTAJX SARGENT, SIR. And Scott and Roy were quite sailors enough themselves to wish that it had not happened. "We are ten days behind the Louise^' Scott said, as the men hauled up the anchor, and they all worked together setting sail. " It may be twenty, or it may be more, by the time we reach Green- A HAWK DROPPED DEAD UPON THE DECK. land," Roy replied ; and Scott, as he caught his eye, turned instinctively to the spot where the hawk fell. A light breeze set in from the sea as they worked their w^ay out of the narrow inlet, and the great cliffs, the wave-washed ledges and the moss-green coves of Newfoundland quickly sank into a dense fog behind them, while the moonlight still lay, white and beautiful, over the sea. Both of the boys were serious and thoughtful that night. They had left behind them the last point of land with which they had ever been familiar. They were strangers now, in a world full of uncertainty. The sea breeze continued and increased. Morning dawned at two o'clock, and Scott's first work on coming on deck for his watch, was to CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 51 take in sail. At night a little more sail was taken in, and the third night they were scudding along, careened almost to the water with only a single sail and jib. They had passed several " lumps of ice " of varying size, which, to Scott and Roy, ap- peared to be very fair icebergs, and proved intensely fascinating, but the old sailors paid them very little atten- tion till the third night, when one of them asked to be allowed to keep lookout watch forward. " Why, we are bowlino- alons; beauti- fully," Roy remarked ; " and there's not a rock between us and Cape Farewell." The old fellow touched his hat re- spectfully, and said: " We may be at a standstill, sir, before to-morrow night." " Ice ? " said Roy. " Ice, sir," replied the sailor. The possibility served to give the young captain a very wakeful night, but twenty-four hours later found them still close hauled and still plunging forward, making nearly eight knots an hour, with the ice constantly increasing about them, and stormy petrels, with their warning cries, hovering near them. THE SNOWBIRD, THE MOONLIGHT AND THE SEA. CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. Here and there real Arctic monsters now came bearing down upon them, rising- far above the tops of their masts, and ten or twelve times longer than the Snowbird. They were often surrounded on the lee by a cluster of smaller bergs, while a cold gray mist settled down on the water, more treacherous than a fog, sometimes freezing as it fell, for an hour or more, making it almost impossible to stand upon the deck or handle the ropes and sails. After an unusually long ice-rain, early on the fifth morning, it began to snow. The wind blew a gale, and the snow was so thick that it was hard to see the length of the Sitowbird. Scott and a sailor held the helm. One sailor stood in the prow, and another sat at the masthead. Roy, one sailor and the cook, having been up all night, were sleeping, when the two lookouts, at the same instant, shouted : " Ship ahoy ! Dead ahead ! " Scott could see nothino-, but at a vent- ure put his helm hard down to port. In- stantly the Snowbird took the hint, came into the wind, and lay rolling upon the great waves, as a steamer, sheathed in ice and snow from trucks to water-line, passed so close that the spray from her prow was dashed in Scott's face as he stood at the helm. They found it impossible to hold the course to the north, and fell off to the west, passing several large icebergs, glistening and gray, like frosted silver, and the air seemed as cold as at midwinter. It had become a common incident now, to bump into great lumps of ice, shaking the little Suoiobird from stem to stern, but, thanks to the sheathing'of the bows, doing no other damage. Before the snowstorm ceased Roy came on deck, and he and Scott held a consultation with the sailor whom they had appointed second mate, that he might act as a sort of Arctic guide. Ice anchors, cables and setting-gear were got in readiness, and none too soon, for above the roar of the. tempest the ominous grinding and creaking of pack-ice could be distinctly heard, and now and then a crash like thunder announced that two great icebergs had come together at no ereat distance. THE STORMY PETREL. !;^;;'-T»^^55^p5^^^^^^ r '.i-^y^\ I 1 •/ I' SHE WAS TCF TO THK TT!UCKS. CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 55 An hour before sunset the alternating snow and sleet ceased alto- gether, as suddenly as it began. But what a scene met their eyes ! A solid mass of pack-ice, far as the eye could reach, was bearing down upon them from the open sea, while upon the port huge icebergs, surrounded by their guards of broken ice, were moving with the tide in the very eye of the wind. Behind them there seemed nothing but ice. How they had ever come through it was a mystery. Scott was at the helm. Roy stood braced against the mast. The Snowbird tossed like a cork upon the waves ; bumping, bumping, bump- ing against the floating ice. Here and there a rift appeared with open water, but the position of the ice changed so rapidly that it was impossible to take advantage of it. Upon the port bow a steamer was pushing her way through the ice. A thousand feet away one of the THEY HEADED FOR THIS ICEBERG." largest icebergs was lying, motionless, apparently, in all the tumult. Roy talked for a moment with Scott, and they headed for this iceberg. Fortunately the veteran seamen needed only general directions to make fast upon the lee side of the iceberg, for the young commander. 56 CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. Who had never seen the operation, would have made poor work directing He kept his eyes wide open, however, and the next time could comman'd or take a handbmself. The berg was in the shape of an enormous mound on one side, ending in an abrupt ledge of gleaming ice on the " ROY, AXE IN HAND, Other, while the gradually sloping side was surrounded at the base by a platform of smooth, flat ice. No sooner had the Snowbird tonz\i^^ the berg than the men were out on the ice with ice-anchors, forward and aft, and in fifteen minutes the httle bark was held so fast that she scarcely moved with the waves. " We are surely safer here than dodging about in this gale," said Roy and, anxious to make the most of every opportunity, the boys were soon out upon the ice. Their first discovery was a ship's anchor, caught in the ice. " It is the relic of some one in trouble," said Roy, "but it is heavier than ours and we may need it." CAPTAIN SARGENT, SIR. 57 He went for an axe to cut it free, when Scott discovered a brig in the distance, dodging and tacking in the gale, trying to find a way out from among large icebergs closing in upon her. " I'm going to take.a look at her in the gig," Scott exclaimed, and be- fore Roy could remonstrate he was pulling away over the waves, and Roy, axe in hand, stood watching the brig in its struggle and the little boat midway. It might be the Louise. - Scott was half-way across the open water which divided the two masses of ice when she made a desperate dash to cut her way through, failed, fell away with the ice packing behind her, careened almost to cap- sizing, caught the wind again and made a dash for a narrow rift between two icebergs. Even Roy, from the distance, knew better than that. " Fools ! " he muttered in his excitement. " Port your helm ! Lie to and let her come." They did not hear him, however, more than a mile away. They entered the rift between two huge icebergs that were. ap- proaching each other, because they saw clear water beyond, and it was a last extremity. The moment they were under the lee of one they lost their wind and headway. It was too late for the boats ; too late for any- thing. With a crash which shook the ice where Roy was standing, and echoed like the roar of cannon along the sea, the two crystal mountains plunged against each other and became one pyramid of ice, with the brig and every one on board buried in its silent heart. The yawl was lowered from the Snowbird, and Roy with two seamen followed Scott, but two hours later returned without a trace of the wreck, except a deck water-cask which must have gone overboard when she careened. The cask was marked " Chieftain, New York." " So it was not the Louise, at any rate," said Roy, with a deep sigh. " No, thank God," Scott added fervently. " But it has taught me a good lesson — to respect these monsters. And it makes me much more thankful than proud, to know that the Snowbird is still safe." CHAPTER V. FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. THE sea calmed clown ver}' quickly, and the boys slept soundly, leav- ing the Snowbird in charge of the second mate, who was naturally better than either of them to watch the progress of the ice. It seemed only a moment, and, indeed, it was less than three hours when he called them again to see the sun rise. It was a wonderful sisfht. A silver-gray haze hung over everything. The water was still full of ice, but it was no longer boisterous or dangerous, while the sun, piercing the frosty mist, transformed each iceberg, large and small, to a mass of tangled rainbows. The very air was full of beautiful rainbows. The larger bergs were marvelous in their gorgeous coloring. The boys left the bark, and taking several instruments and a s^lass with them, made their way to the top of the iceberg. A steamer was slowly moving southward about a mile away. Scott wanted to hail her, but there was a great deal of floating ice between them, and Roy was afraid that if they made her come so far out of her way just to tell two boys if she had seen the Louise, the captain would be so angry he would not answer, and they let her go. There is always a powerful fascination to the stranger in the grand sights of the Arctic Ocean, and the boys turned reluctantly to their in- struments to locate their position, as this was the first time they had seen the sun for nearly four days. 5S FROM LABRADOR 10 GREENLAND. 6i They heard the sailors down below, filling the water tanks from the streams of fresh water trickling down the side of the iceberg, and were busily engaged upon their calculations, when the berg beneath them be- gan to swing very slowly. They started to their feet. There was a shout from below, and catch- ing up their instruments they hurried down. As they ran toward the bark, two of the sailors were pulling on the forward anchor and one working frantically at the rope from the stern, while the poor little Suo-cubird was pulled way over and almost capsized. " Cut loose that aft anchor, sir ! " yelled the second mate, from the deck. " Get on board, cjuick, Roy, with this thing," Scott exclaimed, handing "IT WAS A WONDERFUL SIGHT." Roy the instrument he was carrying and pulling his sailor's knife from his belt. Roy sprang on to the deck with his precious burden just as Scott cut the cable. It snapped with a sharp twang like the breaking of some huge violin string. The Snowbird, suddenly set free, slid off the ice, dove into the water, taking a great gulp of it over her bows, and shot away, out upon the waves. 62 FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAXD. Scott had no time to speculate upon his position, lor the iceberg swung back once more, hesitated an instant, then with a resounding crash gave a great knxh, and ice-water of the coldest and sharpest wa^ gurgling in his ears, blinding his eyes and rushing past him like a furious _ river. He realized that a '<•» i P'^i't of the iceberg at least, , must be on top of him bear- \ ing him down, and had just presence of mind left to put one hand over his mouth and hold his nose with the other. When he became con- scious again he was still un- der water, sliding rapidly in some direction the SCOTT'S URST VIEW. smooth ice. He thouQ-ht he was drowning, but just as he was about to give up he saw a gleam of light above him, struck out with micjht and main, and an instant later shot out of the water as far as his waist, with the bright sun full in his face. The iceberg was behind him. He was so benumbed by cold that he was hardly more than conscious, but while he struggled to keep his head above and catch his breath, he heard Roy calling: " All right, Scott. Hold there a second. Are you hurt .'" " Guess not," he gasped, " but cold. Colder'n Greenland ! " A moment later Roy was beside him. He was too cold to help him- self, and the gig was too light to pull him in, so Roy could simply hold on to him till another boat with two sailors came up. " Jehu ! " said Roy, when they had Scott at last safe in the cabin. " I wouldn't go through that for a farm Down East. I thought you were never coming up, but when you did come you popped out just like a seal. You missed a wonderful sight, I tell you. That whole iceberg, bigger FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 63 than a dozen churches, just rolled right over like a lump of ice in a glass pitcher. It went right over on top of you, and I believe every particular hair on my head stood on end. I don't remember anything about start- ing, but the first I knew I was in the gig pulling like mad. It's lucky we left it in the water last night." " Well, we're learning something about ice navigation, at any rate," Scott said, as he pushed his feet closer to the stove and drank a cup of hot coffee. Just then a sailor lifted the skylight and observed : " There's a sail away to the starboard, sir, and land three or four miles to port." " Land ! " Roy gasped, springing to his feet and rushing on deck. " Land ! " Scott exclaimed, jumping into a pair of dry boots and a thick jacket and following him. They were spinning along almost due north, in water that was com- paratively clear of ice when Scott emerged. Roy was at his old position, braced against the mast inspecting a dark horizon on the port-bow, that was land and high land, too, without a doubt. " That's Labrador, and no mistake," he observed ; " and that's why we couldn't m a k e our calculations -"'' r----aps^^:^*s?r5=^^ come out any where this morn- ing. The fact is, Scott, we've been driven more than a hundred miles off our course." "Let's run in," said Scott, still shivering from his cold bath. "If that's Labrador it means rocks and birds. I wouldn't mind climbing over rocks for an hour after some of them, to warm up a bit." " Nor a game dinner after it, either," Roy replied, and turning to the man at the helm he gave the order to make for the land. " Glory ! " Scott cried, as they neared the wild and savage rocks at the boldest point of Labrador, just south of the confluence of Davis and " LAND ! " ROY GASPED. 64 FROM LABMADOR TO GREENLAND. Hudson Straits. " What if we'd been a little closer in when the storm took us ! " He shuddered. " Don't you almost wish yourself off Cape Race again, catching cod .? " Roy asked, and smiled, though his face was rather pale and solemn as he watched the o'reat waves baneine against that grim ledge and toss- ing their spray nearly a hundred feet high. They left it to the second mate to select a safe fjord where they could come to anchor. Then, as thev were leavinsr in the s;is;, Scott asked, " These rocks will not come loose and drop us, will they } " at which the sailors laughed heartily. They gathered two large bask- ets full of eggs, and had no need of FAT AND LAZY PUFFINS. fircamis in securing all that the gig could carry of the fat and lazy puf- fins, the penguins of Labrador. As they were returning they shot two eider ducks and half a dozen of Mother Carey's chickens. " Those eider ducks are the handsomest birds I ever saw," said Scott, holding one in his hands as Roy pulled back to the bark. " Look at the head and back, it is white as snow. Then that crimson neck, and breast as black as coal. And there is gray, green, black and yellow, white and brown all mino'led there." Once more they set their course, this time due northeast, wishing to make the southern ports of Greenland, which were very nearly east; but to do it they must allow for the strong course of the arctic current, noted on the chart. ■ "V As they were moving out of th . fjord, one of the -sailors spied a huge whale lying dead upon the rocks, where he had drifted at high water, wounded by a harpoon, no doubt, from which he had temporarily escaped. They were close upon some of the fishing grounds, and as they rounded a high promontory, late in the afternoon, with the shore still close upon the port beam, they sighted a stanch, weather-beaten whaler lying at anchor in the straits, while her boats were grappling with an " IT MliANS ROCKb AND BIEDb. FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 67 enormous whale. The Snowbird passed within five hundred feet of them. The sailors' eyes danced, as they hung in the rigging and watched the excitement of their old trade, and Scott and Roy would willingly have taken a hand. " 'Tisn't much like landing cod, is it ? " said Roy, as they turned away. Scott was watching an iceberg. There was, however, very little ice 'W^ IM^^ ~J STRANDED. in the water now, but a few large icebergs were constantly in sight. " They taught us in school that there was seven times more ice under the water than out of it," he said, pointing to a monster slowly moving across their bows. " That's two hundred feet high at least, isn't it ? Do you believe there's fourteen hundred feet of water under us .?" 6S FROM LABRADOJi TO GREENLAAD. " No, nor half that," Roy repHed. " Let's throw the lead and see. We haven't tried taking soundings yet." " I told you so!" said Roy triumphantly, as they marked just eighty fathoms or four hundred and eighty feet, on a hundred fathom line. 'GRAPPLING WITH AN ENORMOUS WHALE." " There's seven times more ice — only it's spread out more and solid, sir," said a sailor, and the boys looked at each other and resolved not to be quite so quick in coming to conclusions, in the face of science, in the future. They passed a few more whalers and one or two Danish brigs, and a chunky little steamer working through the ice, but did not come in sight of land. Three times a day they took the most careful observa- tions, and each time seemed to be farther and farther north, while by dead reckoning, by log and compass, they should be almost in the middle of Greenland. Again the old sailor was of value in calling to mind what they already knew but had forgotten to apply, that there was always a great variation of the compass in the far north, when the north pole and the magnetic pole li'T-l^fiSi"' i FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. 71 were in two distinctly different directions. Again the boys looked at each other in a way to indicate that they realized they had yet much to learn, and, by the sun, set their course due east. Ten hours later the lookout reported land ahead. It was a little island with drifting ice for half a mile clinging to the lee shore. Upon this ice were seals without number, and five or six walrus. The huge fellows looked very tempting, and Scott was so anxious to have a shot at them that the Snowbird hove to, and he and Roy landed on the ice. There WORKING THROUGH THE ICE. was a grand adjournment of the meeting as the boys approached, but finally, creeping on his hands and knees, Scott came near enough to have .a fine shot at one dignified old walrus, with tusks nearly a foot long. He took a careful aim and fired. He evidently hit, for he was a good shot, and the walrus gave a little jump. Roy said he looked as if an idea had struck him. He quietly lifted his head, looked back over his shoulder at the boys, nodded and gave a little snort, as much as to say, " You'll 72 FROM LABRADOR TO GREENLAND. learn better than to waste powder on a tough-skinned fellow like me, if you try it often enough," and then quietly rolled over into the water,. leaving a good laugh behind him at Scott's expense. They still bore away to the east. Night came on, at least by the chro- nometer, but with the sun still shinina: through a brilliant haze, like a beautiful sunset, and against the bright color they distinguished sharp snow-crowned peaks, rising out of the horizon and cutting; into the sky. "They're ' Greenland's Icy Mountains ! ' " Scott shouted, as Roy came up from below to take his watch on deck. The two boys stood at the helm togethei for a few moments, before Scott went below. " Aren't you rather proud. Captain Sargent .? " Scott said, laying his hand affectionately upon Roy's shoulder. " I'm very thankful," Roy replied earnestly. "Scott, what should you and I have done all alone here in a craft we two could have managed at home .'' " 'a dignified old walrus." A SEA-LION. / — ^-^^ .•w^,„ &., £=«^ ■ :- -_^^=^^ " -^■^-- ^ ^ -=; ^^—^^ \ 'TdEYRE GREENLAND S ICY MOUNTAINS! CHAPTER VI. GREENLAND S SELF. AFTER sleeping soundly for several hours, with his jumper hung over the port to keep out the sunlight, Scott was called by a sailor, who notified him that it was a half-hour before his watch on deck began. He pulled the jumper from the port, and peering through the thick green glass obtained his first glimpse of real Greenland. At a little dis- tance was a man in a tight-fitting skin shirt, bareheaded, with a face almost the color of coffee, sitting in a canoe completely covered in with skins, sewed together and stretched over a light wood frame. He had thrust himself through a small hole in the top, up to his waist, and drawn the sides of the opening so tight about him that not a drop of water could get in. The waves dashed over him, but he did not mind them. He might have capsized and righted a dozen times without difficulty. Before him was a small skin-covered barrel, to help him right the canoe, and behind him a reel, upon which a strong cord of seal or walrus skin was coiled, the end of which was made fast to a harpoon which he held in one hand, while with the other he used a double-bladed paddle, darting about over the waves and through them, like a fish. Just as they were passing out of sight a huge sword-fish rose. The canoe leaped forward till its bow almost touched the shining back. The harpoon flew through the air, sank into the side of the fish and disappeared with him as he dove. 74 GREENLAND' S SELF. The cord spun from the reel, and the fisherman sat watchino- it with a placid smile as he passed beyond the range of the port. Before long Scott became better acquainted with the kayak — the skin canoe in which the Esquimau hunts, lishes and travels — and with ^''l jfe^ FIRST ni.IMPSE OF CRFENLAND. the oomiak, or woman's boat, completing Greenland's naval architecture. When Scott reached the deck, the Snowbird was beating her w^ay up a strange, wild bay, or fjord, toward what appeared to be a little cluster of the plainest wood and stone huts imaginable, in a sheltered nook at the head of the fjord. "That is Fiskenaes," said Roy, bobbing his head in the direction of the settlement. " It is a Danish trading-post. We are only a few miles GREENLAND'S SELF. 75 farther north than we thought for. I shouldn't have come in here, however ; but look at that ice ! " Scott looked behind them. The wind had evidently changed outside, for a great mass of huge icebergs and pack-ice and floe was following close upon their track. " Just think if we were twenty miles farther back, or if we had not happened to be abreast this fjord when the ice struck in," said Roy. The water about them was covered with kayaks and oomiaks now. There were Esquimaux, Danes and half-breeds, shouting a welcome to the strangers in words they could not understand, and evidently congrat- ulating them upon having escaped the ice ; while others upon the shore were waiting to welcome them when they landed. The air grew foul with the vile odors of drying codfish, for Fiskenaes is the best place on all the coast for catching and drying cod. There was an exaggerated suggestion of home in that odor, and it might have " THAT IS FISKENAES. " been rather agreeable to the boys had it not been saturated, through and through, with the viler smells of last year's whale fat, and seal and shark and walrus blubber, trying itself out into oil by natural processes, in great vats, in the open air. 76 GREENLAND'S SELF. They were glad enough, however, to find a temporary haven, and received a hearty welcome from the sturdy little Danish superintendent of the tradmg.post, who spoke English better than some Englishmen. ^\-\Q. Snowbird -^-3.% warped into a sheltered cove, and in the afternoon the boys sat in the superintendent's office before a smoking oil-fire, watching the trades going on, as Esquimaux came from up and down the coast, and far in the interior, with their wives, all in their Sunday clothes with skins and furs and wal- " WAITING TO WELCOME THEM." rus ivory, frozen deer meat, cod, and all kinds of blubber, to exchange for tobacco and coffee. " How in the world do they catch cod and seal in the interior.?" Scott asked. The superintendent smiled as he replied : " Greenland is full of fjords. Many of them you would hardly no- tice from the sea, but the fish find them, and the seal follow the fish for miles among the mountains." " Are there any Esquimau villages in this neighborhood 1 - Roy asked. A trader's wife. GREENLAND'S SELF. 77 "There are several small settlements that don't amount to much, but there's one quite extensive winter city a few miles inland, with summer quarters not far off upon a fjord. It will only require three days to go and come. I'll take you out there to-morrow, and you shall see the Esquimau in all his pristine glory," said the superintendent. " Three days ! " Scott exclaimed. " To-morrow ! " said Roy. " Why, we must try to get out of here this afternoon." Again the superintendent smiled. " It will be more than three days, good friends, be- fore you can escape us. That ice will not break up before a week." They slept in the superinten- dent's house that night, in a room with solid wooden shutters to keep out the light, and when it was early morning by the clock they started for the Esquimaux. Each one was armed, and each one carried a stock of provisions and seal-skin clothes upon his back, while a half-dozen dogs, loaded like so many miniature pack-mules, carried the tent and robes. In the summer the ground was bare about Fiskenaes, and they were obliged to walk a little way to meet the sledges. The superintendent added his little daughter to the pack upon his back. The boys thought she was a boy, for she was dressed in her Esquimau seal-skin clothes, which made her decidedly indignant, till her father explained to her how hard it was to tell men from women, when people first came to Greenland. STARTING ON THE PICNIC. 78 GREENLAND'S SELF. When they reached the sledges it was snowing, and they were all of them glad enough to put on the seal-skin clothes. The rest of the burdens were securely packed upon the heaviest 'SCOTT BORROWED THE WHIT." sledge and started off, with six dogs and two Esquimaux harnessed in front and another pushing the sledge, while the fourth drove the dogs. Two persons and a driver occupied each of the smaller sledges, and a moment later were fl3nng like the wind over the white drifts. The boys practiced with an instrument which the trader loaned them, to test their speed, on much the same principle of throwing the log at sea, and watched the driver handle his whip with unbounded admiration. The dogs were attached to the sledge by long cords of rolled hide, of different lengths, and that whip was the only argument which the driver could use with them. The handle was only two feet long, but the lash was nearly eighteen feet. When one dog lagged, or snapped at another, he called his name, in I rT;^'J«(;!!6;i\, STARTING THE BAGGAGE. GREENLAND'S SELF. 8l a shrill, sharp voice, shouted something like: " Tu-lee-hee-hee-hee ! '' and at the same instant lifted that short handle. The lash was always dragging behind, but the driver gave a sudden jerk and it flew through the air. The next instant there was a crack like the report of a pistol, and a yelp and a bound from the offending dog showed how correct the aim had been. Scott borrowed the whip to try his hand. No one at Little Harbor could crack a whip like him, and after a few experiments he could make a report that sent the Esquimau driver into ecstasies. Then he watched for an offending dog, and had not long to wait. He gave an excellent imitation of " Tu-lee-hee-hee-hce ! " and sent the lash flying; but it cracked upon the nose of the dog behind. He yelped, fell back, stumbled and rolled over and over. In the meantime the lash became entangled in the tow-lines. The dogs discovered the fact in an THE WINTER SETTLEMENT. instant, and as that lash was the only thing they were afraid of, they stopped work forthwith, and began a grand free fight till everything was tangled. It delayed them nearly half an hour, but fortunately there was no 82 GREENLAND'S SELF. clanger of approaching night to hasten them, and in time they reached the winter settlement. It was a cluster of hemispheres, made of cakes of ice, with a hole in one side for the people and dogs to creep in and out, and a hole near the top where the smoke could escape if it was in danger of dying for want of exercise. The city was nearly deserted, as most of the families were at the fjord THEY ENTERED THE LARGEST. for the summer, and the boys crept into the largest hut. They were glad enough to get back into the open air again, however. " Jehu ! " said Scott, as he gulped a breath. " Fiskenaes is bad enough," Roy gasped, coming out close behind him. " It's only our regulation polar perfume," said the trader; "and that house has been unoccupied for some time. It must be pretty well aired out by this. You should try it in the winter, when three generations with a lot of untanned skins and blubber, live dogs and a whale oil fire THE WALRUS HUNT. GREENLAND'S SELF. 85 get in there all together, and plug up the door and chimney hole in a cold snap. That's the real article." " I should think the dogs would die, any way," Scott muttered. "Die! why they like it. And so do the people. It is a very good thing for the traveling public, too. In the winter you could not distin- guish one of these settlements at a little distance, and there are no roads or signboards, but you can smell an Esquimau village two or three miles away." " I believe it," said Scott, as they took the sledges again and went on to the summer settlement at the head of the fjord, where the people were hunting and fishing, chattering like sea gulls round a wreck. " The lazy fellows make their dogs do everything," Scott muttered, as they saw an Esquimau fix his harpoon in a large walrus basking on a piece of floating ice, and the n leave his dog to land the creature by fastening the coil attached to the harpoon to the dog's harness. "Just see • those flowers ! " : Roy cried a mo- ment later, as they came upon _ a cluster of bright native blossoms nestling- on the A SEAL-CATCHER. southern side of a ledge of rocks, while ten feet away lay solid ice and snow. " For the next month," said the trader, " wherever a bit of soil shows itself, they will make the most of it. Watercresses grow in a marsh behind my house; and around Julianshaab, at the south, a little grain grows in sheltered places, and coarse grass is a foot high, watered by the 86 GREENLAND' S SELF. melting snow. Fortunately, however, we don't eat what grows in the ground." The boys looked at each other in astonishment. It was something they had always known, but never stopped to appreciate. " A whole nation," said Roy, " living without fruit or corn, wheat or KOKO AND THE WOLVES. vegetables, except as a few have learned and bought of foreigners ! But there's plenty of game, I suppose t "" "In the winter a musk-ox sometimes finds himself driven down to us. I was out with a party last winter and took a huge fellow. We have made two beds out of his hide. That's his head up in the office. Wolves are plenty, but they are more bother than they are worth. Koko, tell them about the time you had with wolves last winter." _ A sleepy Esquimau, sitting on the ice eating a piece of raw meat, grmned from ear to ear, and in broken English told how he left the settlement for the post with two barrels of fish oil on a sledo-e when the wolves came at him. Dogs will fight a white bear wherever they a o o 5 o H GREENLAi^D'S SELF. 89 find him, but they will always run from a hungry wolf. The first thing the wolves killed one dog, and the rest all slunk away at the end of their ropes. Then the wolves came at him. He jumped into the largest barrel of oil, and with his harpoon kept the pack at a distance for a time. Then it occurred to him to upset the other barrel of oil, which he did, and while the wolves were going for that he started the dogs and left them. " There are deer, too, but not many, ' added the trader. " And how about polar bears 1 " asked Roy. " I judged from pictures in my geography that they were floating on every iceberg, but I have not seen any." " Strangers always think that way," said the trader, " but really white bears are very scarce. I never saw but three alive, but if the talk is true you may be fortunate. They tell me tracks have been seen around the camp for several days, and you might go and look them up to-morrow. If you can find the fel- low we'll muster a crowd and go hunt him." "I'll do it!" cried Scott. " Me, too ! " echoed Roy ; " and now let's turn in, so's to start as soon as possible." " It is literally turn in," Scott exclaimed, as the sleeping arrangement was explained to him. " Look at this, will you, Roy? A sleeping bag, they call it. It's seven feet long, at least; that's good. All skin, with the fur inside, and this slit is the only opening. We must crawl into it feet first, and then, if it's a cold night, I suppose we pull the hole in after us. It's a nightgown and a half, I tell you." Their beds were robes thrown on the snow, and they found the sleeping bags none too warm ; while the trader told them of times when the mer- cury was 75 below freezing, when in his warmest clothing, covered with his sealskins, he had got bodily into the sleeping bag and pulled two heavy robes over that, and still found his feet frozen on waking. With the pack-sled, a fresh lot of dogs and the best bear-hunter in the settlement, they started out to track the bear. They soon struck fresh prints in the soft snow. The driver stood up to obtain a better view. Things were very quickly becoming interesting. The dogs were rushing at a furious rate when, with a peculiar yelp, the whole pack made a sharp turn to the right, landing the driver on his head in a snowdrift. A SLEEPING BAG. 9.0 GREENLAND'S SELF. Instantly the boys discovered a great, dingy-looking creature crouch- ins in the snow ahead of them. He was much larger and not at all like the graceful, snow-white animal that rolls about in the Zoological Garden, but they knew that it must be the bear, and grasped their rifles. Fortunately the sledge, unguided, struck an ice hummock and left both of the boys sitting in the snow ; for a moment later the huge bear was crouching upon the sledge and snapping vigorously at the dogs. Had they come near enough to his head he would have caught them in his teeth, given them one twist, and hurled them so far away that they would not care to come back again ; but they had seen white bears before, and stood in a circle just out of reach, barking furiously, to take THE BEAR CROUCHED UPON THE SLEDGE. up his attention, while two behind him bit and bit and bit, whichever way he turned. The hunter came running up from behind. They could not under- stand a word he said, but it was evident that he was anxious to have them follow him back to the settlement as quickly as possible. GREENLAND'S SELF. 91 " Well, I guess not! " said Scott. " Not if we know ourselves," Roy added. " Pray, Mr. Esquimau, what do you suppose we are here for .? " Scott asked. The poor fellow looked so earnest and bewildered that Roy took pity ON THE snowbird's DECK. on him, shook his head, pointed to his gun, then at the bear, and motioned him to stand back and see the fun. The stupid fellow shook his head, but obeyed. Presently the bear noticed them, deliberately turned about, and, with the dogs still hectoring him, came slowly toward them, snapping and snarling. " Wonder what he eats ? " Scott muttered, with a suggestive look down at himself. " Not fruit or vegetables, any way," said Roy. " Nor me, either, this morning," Scott added. 92 GREENLAND'S SELF. " H(.\y are you going to help it if lie only bobs his head when you hit hini, like your walrus, and comes right on ? " " Do you s'pose he's bullet proof? " " We'll soon find out." " What if he is ? " " We'll have to run." " Can't, in this snow." " Let's try a shot. Are you ready .? " "Aye! aye!" " You aim for his eye. That's soft, any way, and you're the best shot. I'll take him in the mouth, if he opens it. If not, I spot his nose ! One ! " UNLOADING STORES. All the time the bear came nearer and nearer, his great claws glistenino- as he lifted them out of the snow. "^ " Two ! " The bear snarled, sat up on his haunches, threw his head back and showed a glistening row of teeth, precisely as though he were saying Come on, now. See if you can hurt me." GREENLAND'S SELF. 93 " Three ! " Both rifles banged. The bear did not move except to close his eyes, shut his jaws with a resounding click, and draw his lips still farther back. " Load again ! " whispered Scott. " Did we miss him } " Roy muttered. " Not to-day ! " Scott cried, as the bear began to sink slowly, and finally rolled over, dead, upon the snow. He was given the place of honor on the sledge, while the boys walked and waded back to the settlement. He measured nearly nine feet, and LANDING THE STORES. weighed six hundred and eighty pounds as his body lay, the next day, stretched in triumph on the deck of the Snowbird. ' During their absence the supply steamer from Denmark had come in, wedged her way into the outer ice, was made fast there with ice anchors, and such stores as were to be left at the post had been unloaded upon the ice. When the party returned the queer, sturdy, dumpy little Danish sailors were working the stores up to shore, with sledges and boats. The captain had stopped at all of the ports of Greenland to the south, and the trader offered to find out if he knew anything of the Louise. 94 GREENLAND'S SELF. They were all sitting about the moss and oil fire in the office, waiting for the men to finish bringing up the stores, when they would begin the work of cutting the steamer out again. Yes- he had seen the Louise,' ^.hout three weeks before, and had THE CAPTAIN ALMOST LEFT. taken some freight from her hold for several of the Northern ports, as her captain was in haste to get away. She had loaded with saddle-back seal furs and oil, and had taken on about a dozen passengers for — for — for some port on the northern coast of Norway. He would think in a moment. But before he had thousiht there was a crv from the shore. The ice was breaking up ! He caught up his hood, pulled on his fur jumper and ran. The great iceberg on the outer edge had suddenly started out to sea, and the whole floe was following it. The steamer, of course, was set free, and must be got out of the dangerous position at once. Two of the steamer's boats were still on the ice, nine of the sailors, and some of the stores. The captain ran till he was met by a broad rift of open water, then yelled frantically for the men with one of the boats to come for him, IIATTERING A FAREWELL. GREENLAND'S SELE. o- while the people of the post rushed down to save the stores that were drifting away. It was such a scene of confusion as Fiskenaes had never witnessed, and Scott and Roy, with the sailors of the Snowbird who were on shore, gave willing hands to help them out. When the excitement was over, and they were getting the Snowbird into the fjord, it occurred to them that all they knew of the Louise was that three weeks before she had sailed for some northern port of Norway. "Well, we're better off than if we knew nothing," said Roy. "I reckon there are precious few ports in Northern Norway, anyhow. The chart only gives five or six, and I move we run for the upper one as fast as wind will carry us, and then work down." " I wish we had time to see more of Greenland," said Scott; "but I'm going to come again some day." " Greenland is all pretty much alike, only in some places a little more so," said the trader. " A little colder north, a little warmer south. All you'd learn in twenty years would be to talk Esquimau, drink oil, and eat blubber and raw meat." " I've read of wonderful old relics and ruins at the south," said Roy. " I should like to see them, but I'd rather be after the Louise." So they sailed away. They were sorry to leave the hospitable superintendent at Fiskenaes, in spite of all the vile smells that surrounded him, and he was sorrv to have them go. They even looked fondly back at the great waves dash- ing upon the base of a huge cliff jutting into the water, with the birds clinging to its ragged sides, chattering a farewell to them, and Puck, a handsome Spitz pup which the trader had given to Scott, barked in return. " We shall be back here some day," said Roy, as he watched Cape Farewell sinking into the sea, and turning to the man at the helm, he set the course of the Snowbird toward Norway, the Land of the Midnight Sun. CHAPTER VII. THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. DAY after day they held their course east by north ; sometimes in sunshine, sometimes under clouds, always in broad daylight or a ijlowins: sunrise and sunset. With a great deal of pride they sighted the headlands of Iceland at the very day and hour they planned when off Cape Farewell, eight hundred miles away. They never dreamed that winds and tides and currents had been counteracting the deviation of their compass, and setting them right all by chance. It gave them too much confidence in their ability. They set the course again for Torghatten, about midway between the Naze and North Cape, some twelve hundred miles away, sure that they should hit it. But now the tides and currents and two sharp storms aided the deviations, and Arctic fogs prevented their taking the sun for seven full days. They knew they had crossed the Arctic circle, for there was no per- ceptible change in the light through all the twenty-four hours. They were sure they had run over thirteen hundred miles, but a lookout had been kept at the masthead for two days before he reported: " Ship ahoy! A small steamer on the starboard bow ! " and a half-hour later, " Land ahead ! on the port bow." They wondered at the absolute lack of vessels or any sign of life. The sun shone out clear and bright as they neared the defiant ledge, and they saw a dozen men pulling upon some sort of a cat-boat. 9S THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 99 The Snowbird lay to, and Roy and Scott pulled ashore. " Do any of you speak English'? " Roy asked, and a curious shock it gave the boys when pretty much all of them replied with a chorus of, " Yes, sir ! " " Oh ! yes, indeed ! " " Certainly ! " and the like. Roy was so taken by surprise that he forgot what he wanted to ask, and Scott put the question for him : " What do you call this place ? " " North Cape, sir." " North Cape ! " Scott exclaimed. " North Cape ! " Roy gasped. "We're seven hundred miles farther north than we thought for," said Scott in a low tone. " We have sailed the Snowbird farther north than Europe or America, my boy," Roy returned triumphantly, striking a tragic attitude. LAND AHEAD 1 ' " But don't you ever let on how we came to do it, Roy," Scott added. Among the men was a bright young Norwegian sailor who spoke excellent English, and knew the coast of Norway from cape to cape. He lOO THE LAND OF THE MIDMGHT SUN. had been spending the season helping visitors to land and climb to the summit of the cape, but was anxious to get back to his home at Chris- tiansand. He offered to pay his passage, but the boys contracted with him to act as their pilot instead. Running to a hut he returned with his limited chest, and soon the Snowbird was under sail again ; for the boys cared nothing about the Midnight Sun, for which so many pilgrims make the journey and climb that precipitous ledge. " I've seen quite enough of this twenty-four hours of daylight business," said Scott; "and it's my humble opinion that when the proper time comes the sun ought to blow out his light and go to bed, and not be in any hurry about lighting up again too early in the morning, either." Hammerfest was their first stopping- place. " It is the nearest city on earth to the North Pole," said the pilot, and the boys expected something worse than little Fiskenaes. When they entered the fjord, however^ they found it literally crowded with shipping. Quaint vessels of sturdy model lined the busy wharves. Steep-roofed houses of ample dimensions stretched back as far as the eye could reach. There were smoking fac- tories near the shore, and along the wharves were great store-houses, with open fronts, two stories up, for drying fish and skins, while church spires rose in the distance, and green grass and ffowers appeared on the hillsides. "Just think of it!" said Roy. " \Ve>e five or six hundred miles farther north than little Fiskenaes." " They fish here every day of the year, and they have a great trade around North Cape with the northern part of Russia," said the pilot. "Well, charity ought to begin at home," Scott replied. " We furnish THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 103 the hot water for the Gulf Stream that makes all the difference between this and Greenland, and then we go freeze to death ourselves, nearly two thousand miles south of here." " It is quite true," said the pilot. " I am told that the winter at New England is often colder than at Hammerfest." There was no Louise to be seen or heard from at Hammerfest, and after filling the water tanks, and stocking up with fresh fish and reindeer meat, they entered another fjord, long and winding, between rocky ledges, making their way toward Tromso. " I suppose you do have ice and snow somewhere in these parts .? " Scott observed. " Most certainly ! " exclaimed the pilot. " Tromso is so far back from the sea that it loses some of the effect, and there will be snow and ice now in the gorges. But Tromso even is still really only an island, though so far inland, and if you will give the time to working a little farther up the fjord and visit a Lapp settlement on the mainland, I'll show you snow ~ <-r?I^2rr:^- and ice as old as any they've got in Greenland, and just as much of it." " Well, I've seen snow and ice enough to keep me cool till next summer," said Scott. " But I'd like a peep at some Lapps, all the same." " Me, too ! " Roy exclaimed. " I have some very queer notions about I04 THE LAND OF THE Ai ID NIGHT SUN. Lapps. I don't know where I got them, but I'd like to see if they are true." So the Snowbird kept on and on, through passages so narrow that it seemed almost impossible to pass, and over beautiful broad bays, always 4- " =-''y:~~-s^}-r':..^^ '' with a o'ood sailins; breeze, but never with a single wave more than a ripple, and bleak, bare, black mountains always rising precipi- tately out of the water. Half-way up the fjord they had an opportunity to take on board three Lapps, and carry them to their destination. They were a man and two women, the pilot said, but Scott declared that until they were sortel out for him he could not for his life tell t'other from which. " They keep grinning like Esquimaux, but what squatty little things they are!" Roy obser\ L "See, this fellow doesn't come up to my shoulder." " Thev're as broad as they are long. What makes them so big about the waist ? " Scott asked. Here the Lapps all grinned again. They could not understand Eng- lish, but they saw there was some joke, and laughed, never dreaming it was about themselves. It was so ludicrous that the boys roared as the pilot explained that in THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 107 their primitive existence they had no Saratoga trunk or crocodile skin portmanteau, and when they were on the move, which was nearly all the time, they packed the contents of the pantry, the wardrobe, and all their household furniture in the bosoms of their loose blouse waists. "Great Scott! Considering all the incidents, it strikes me those people must really be rather slim," Roy remarked, and the Lapps all laughed again. Very soon they had an opportunity of seeing Lapps in abundance ; some of them decided improvements upon the first samples. Some wore the storhatten, or " large hat," and some the torghatten, or " little hat," THE TROMSO CATHEDRAL. which was really larger than the large hat. Aside from these, however, there seemed no system or fashion in their dress, but to get on as many pieces as they could. " What perplexing work they must have dressing and undressing," said Roy. " They do very little of that," replied the pilot, laughing scornfully, for the Norwegians all look down upon the Lapps. " They simply put on one piece after another as it grows colder, and take off one after another as summer comes on. They eat and work and sleep just as you see them." loS THE LAXD OF THE MJDXJGHT SUN. " That's all right," said Scott. "What could you expect, Roy ? Where Nature sets the example, by only one day and night a year, of course the people don't dress and undress but once. ''Twould be ag'in Natur,' as Aunt Sally used to say." Clambering over rocks and moss they reached the valley where there was a summer set- tlement of Lapps, who followed the reindeer when they came down for six months of feeding on the moss. " They live on reindeer," said the pilot. " They drink reindeer milk, eat reindeer meat, and wear reindeer skins. They make all their implements from reindeer bone and horn, and use the rein- deer as their only means of trav- eling. The reindeer live on moss, so where you find moss you find reindeer, and where you find rein- deer you find Lapps." " I want a ride after a rein- deer, if there is snow enough," said Scott. " There's plenty of snow a mile from here," replied the pilot, " and if there were not, it would not matter, for they use the sledges on the bare ground just the same as on the snow." And while he went to make arrangements, the boys watched the daily operation of milking. A Lapp would lasso the nearest doe and throw her down. Then some boy who was helping him would hold her by the great antlers till he had tied her feet, and he would proceed to milk. " Jehu!" said Roy. " Isn't that just a straight tip for Aunt Sally and her frisky, one-horned cow.'' When we get home let's give it to her. It would save her and her milk-pail many a whack." " I'll tell you what let's do," said Scott. " Let's go round and ask her if we can't show her on her one-horned cow, how they milk their kicking reindeer up in Lapland." " THE LAPPS ALL GRINNED.' 7 HE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 109 THE STORHATTEN. " Do you suppose she'd catch on ? " Roy asked thoughtfully. " Well, no; but I reckon the cow would before we had done with her," Scott replied. The pilot called them, having made the arrangenrents. They walked a half-mile over some low hills. There was snow enough in the next valley, and there were three reindeer harnessed like the dogs in Greenland, by a single cord, to three small sledges, looking almost like Indians' canoes. " You don't expect us each to drive, do you .i^ " Scott asked, as he was told to seat himself in the first sledge and given the single rein and short-handed whip. " I don't see how you steer with this one rope." " There's little need to steer," replied the pilot. " There are never but two places on a road in Norway. One is the place you came from, the other is the place you are going to. All you have to do is to prevent a reindeer from stopping to eat, and he will go straight to the nearest settlement. He can smell it, even if there is no road. Only be sure you hold on to that rein when you upset, or the deer will go on with- out you." " Well, I guess not," said Scott, and he took a double twist in the leather thona; and causfht it about his wrist. It was a wise precaution, for both of the boys, as well as the pilot, capsized several times before they reached the village, nine miles away. " Their houses are for all the world like the Esquimau huts," Roy exclaimed, " only these are made of mud and moss, and those were ice and snow." Scott gathered courage to crawl into one, but Roy waited outside. "You ought' to go in, Roy," he gasped, as he emerged again. " It's a fine place; twice the size of a Greenland mansion, and on top of all the other smells they've carpeted and bedded the thing with undressed skins." THE TORGHATTEN. I lO THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. " I've had fun enough out here, killing mosquitoes," said Roy. "The place is thick with them. Let's get out. And by the way, did you see that fellow in snowshoes ten feet long, as we came up, with a back full of ducks and a long pole with a slicer on the end of it } " " They were ice-shoes, not snowshoes," said the pilot. " With them he can follow duck over ice not more than a quarter of an inch thick. But they are best of all for coming down hill. He climbs all day up and up after game, then he puts on those shoes, and guiding himself with that slicer, will come down the mountains twenty miles an hour." "Well, I didn't see him at all," said Scott, "for looking at the baby. You know the woman who stood smoking a pipe and talking with him t I tell you she knew a thins or two. „„'•"•.,. ""^^^^^^ _... I^ut the baby! Jehu! the baby! Did you ever see a baby like that in all your life 1 " " Never saw a baby at all but you, Scott, and I was too young then to appreciate the privilege." " Come off, Roy ! " cried Scott, laughing. " Didn't I rock the cradle and keep the flies off you, so that you could go right on teething with- out tacking } " " I wish you would practice a little now, and keep these mosquitoes off," said Roy. On their return they were offered the cordial and dirty hospitality of the Lapps, in the shape of a greasy bowl of warm reindeer milk. Roy tried, but could not get the bowl to his lips. Scott profited by the hint, and caught up a spoon made of reindeer horn. " A real horn spoon," he muttered, wiping off a quantity of grease from the edge with an old piece of newspaper from his pocket, but one swallow was enough. " It's fine and sweet," he said, " but either from its surroundings or from what those creatures eat, it carries with it a strong impression of tired codfish." Their last view of the Lapps was a smiling mother, shaking her baby to sleep in a portable cradle. A little later the Snowbird-wSiS working her way through the circuitous THE LAPPS AT HOME. "THAT FELLOW IN SNOWSHOES." THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 1 1 fjords off the Loffoden Islands, a short sail to the south. They are as much a part of Norway as Norway herself; only great, ragged, precipi- tous mountains cut entirely away from each other, by those beautiful black arms of waveless water. They were bound for the little town of Svolvaer, located there simply because people had found a little strip of earth large enough to build upon. It was only another possible port for the Louise, and they proposed to test them all. The pilot was in charge. Roy was watching the cliffs, and Scott, with Puck beside him keeping a sharp lookout, was indulging in his old trade of fishing. He had had excellent luck, when it suddenly occurred to him that the Snowbird was running within twenty feet of those brist- ling ledges, and he began to won- der if it was safe. " Do you know how much water we have under us.?" he called to the pilot. The pilot shook his head. " Hadn't we better take sound- ings ? " Scott asked as Roy came up. " I think we had, or else slack up a bit," said Roy ; for they were spinning along before a rousing breeze. They threw the lead. They threw it twice. One hundred fathoms of line went out. It was all the line there was, but it did not touch bottom. " There's nearer twice that, sir," said the pilot, a little hurt that they had doubted his ability. " How in the world is that possible } " Roy exclaimed, looking at the ledge rising out of the water so near to them. The pilot shrugged his shoulders and simply answered : " This is Norway, sir." " I knew 'twas the Land of the Midnight Sun," said Scott, " but A PORTABLE CRADLE. 114 THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN.^ it strikes me it's all sun and bare rocks, with no land and no bottom." " I'll tell you how Norway came to be," said the pilot, "and you shall judge for yourself." " It was this way," said the pilot, as they were running southward. " When God created the world, he looked at it, saw that it was good, and SVOLVAER ON THE LOFFODENS. rested. While he slept Satan came out to look. It was too beautiful for him, and he tore a great rock from the bed of hell and threw it at the earth. It fell near the North Pole, flattening down the perfect sphere, shaking the pole out of the perpendicular, and splitting into a thousand pieces. God woke and put his hand upon the earth and kept it from tip- ping any farther. He scraped up from the Sahara a little soil. It wasn't much, but he threw it over the bare black rocks. You will still find it down in the valleys. That is why the axis of the earth is not perpendic- ular; why the earth is flattened at the pole; why the Sahara is nothing but sand, and why Norway is. Poor Norway ! God has sent her fish in recompense. It was all he could do." The pilot really sighed, and Scott and Roy learned afterward that he had told them a legend actually accepted by many as the only way of accounting for such a place as Norway. KCOTT AND PUCK FISHING. THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 117 " That is Torghatten on the port bow, sir," said the pilot. " It is named ' little hat,' after the things the Lapps wore, you remember. See how much it is like them? Soon we shall be round on the other side, and you will see a hole completely through the mountain, like a tunnel. Long ago, you know, there were giants in Norway, and one, Hestmand, fell in love with Leko. She would not have him, and on horseback he chased her. She had a brother who was a giant. He picked her up and carried her out into the sea. Hestmand rode out into the water a few ' THAT S TORGHATTEN. miles below. When the brother was so far out that only his torghatten showed above the water, Hestmand fired an arrow at him. It went right through his hat. One of the gods was looking on. He didn't like Leko for running away from a man who loved her. He didn't like her brother for helping her. He didn't like Hestmand for firing at them, so he turned the whole of them to stone, just where they were." " Where is Hestmand .? " asked Scott. " Just below, sir. You'll soon see how like a man on horseback it looks, to this day." " And you believe it all } " Roy asked in astonishment. "Why not, sir.?" replied the pilot solemnly. "If I doubted it I iiS THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. could climb right up and walk through that hole in Torghatten to con- vince myself." But there was a peculiar twinkle in his eye as he walked away. It was by no means difficult navigating. They could have managed without a pilot, by careful watching, but, as Scott ex- pi-essed it: "It is an ine.x- pressible convenience to have some one on board to answer questions," and Rov put his sentiment more char- acteristically for him : " It is no end of relief to feel that there's some one to take off the edge of responsibility." There were numberless islands, but always the deep- est of deep water between them, and it was only when running up the fjords that the pilot stood constantly at the prow to point ut the way. W'ith this soft air and all, it would be hard tn lealize that we were still north of the Arctic Cncle," said Roy, "if it were not for the sun. I'm thnikmg that after this lot of e.xtra daylight we've had we shall hardly know how to manage in the daik " "Well, I'm thinking," Scott replied, "that I'd like to square up the account by seeing this coast during the night. It didn't seem so out of place in Greenland. I could as easily imagine those fellows enveloped in a six months' night as I could a blueberrv bear ooins; into a hollow tree for the winter. Thev're a stupid, sleepy set, any way, and I fancy they enjoy it. But think of a busy town like Hammerfest with no sunlight; I can't." "I never thought of it that way," said Roy, "but it is funny, isn't it.? I wonder how they manage." " They must sail by chronometer, of course," Scott replied ; " but I tell you what it is, these twenty-four hour clocks would be a great game in 'NO BOTTOM. THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 119 this climate, wouldn't they ? I should think they'd be in danger of getting all twisted up and coming out in the spring counting the wrong twelve hours for day." " Precious little harm it would do, Scott," said Roy; "for after they o-ot over the first spasm of changing it would be daylight all the time, and they could keep right on with it just as before." " The principal change they make is in their homes," the pilot re- l\i, 'lORGHATI KN KKOM THE BAY. marked. "The houses usually face east and west, and are often divided by a straight hall, with a whole house on each side. Many families who can afford it live entirely upon the south side of the house during the winter, and upon the north side during the summer months." Thus with clear weather and a fair wind they ran southward till they crossed the Arctic Circle, over seas so smooth that one could hardly be- lieve them a part of the thundering ocean, and were headed for the fjord of Trondhjem. CHAPTER VIII, A LONG CHASE. ROY and Scott turned in, leaving the pilot to work the Snowbird up the long fjord of Trondhjem. Roy was asleep almost as soon as he touched the bunk ; for while there could be no waves to rock the sailor boy's cradle, there was a strong breeze blowing in a fog, which kept the Snowbird in constant motion. Scott was almost asleep, too, when he heard the pilot call : " Captain Sargent ! "Aye, aye!" Scott replied, seeing that Roy did not answer. " There's a two-master, square-rigged, American-built brig, mainsails and jib set, two miles from the ofifing on the starboard bow, sir." Scott leaped from his bunk, up the companion-way, grasped the pilot's glass, and was looking at the point indicated, in the twinkling of an eye. He was none too soon, for the fog was rapidly closing in, and in a moment she was lost to sight. The effect of that momentary glimpse, however, was remarkable. Scott sprang to the helm, and noted on the compass the point where the brig had disappeared. He caught the helm, put the Snowbird's beak in that direction, ordered the sailor whose place he had taken to go below and call the captain, telling him to dress and come on deck; then, turning to the pilot, said : " Go forward and keep a sharp lookout. Mind you don't let me waste time in turning out too far for rocks. I'm going to overhaul that craft if it takes the Snowbird's keel." A LOKG CHASE. 121 Two more sailors were called to work the sails, and when Roy came up the companion-way, had he not been impressed with the fact that something of grave importance had occurred, he would surely have burst into an uproarious laugh. There stood Scott at the helm, with every IlfSIMANb, nerve and muscle strained, his long brown hair that had not seen a barber for three months at least, drifting where it would, his bare feet firmly planted on the cold, wet deck, his teeth set, and his nightgown whipping about him in the wind like a torn sail. Regardless of everything, he was keeping the Snowbird bowling along as close to the wind as he could hold her. Scott simply said, " ZoMzV^'/ " and motioned forward with his hand. Roy made for the prow. But it was starboard and port ; it was twist and turn, in and out among rocks and islands, through the heavy, drifting fog, till they were almost back again to Hestmand, and after twelve hours of dodging, tacking, careening, bumping more than once and straining their eyes in vain, they gave up in despair and headed again for the Trondhjem fjord. " That was the Louise, or I'm an Esquimau ! " Scott muttered. "Well, she'd not be round here now, any way," Roy replied. " She was going south when I called you, sir," said the pilot. 122 A LONG CHASE. THE FORTRESS OF MONKHOLMON. If she's waitine " She was headed due west when I saw her," Scott added. " From wliich she was just as likely to be going northeast in reality, as any other way," Roy put in ; " for a snake wouldn't twist any more than we have to, to get around these rocks." " I think she was either going in or coming out from Trondh- jem, sir," said the pilot. " That's explicit," Scott growled, for he was not at all satisfied with their night's work. " It means that either we shall find her or we sha'n't. I like to work on a sure thing, like that." " Well, it's all that's left us," said Roy. " And it's a good deal to know that she's in these waters. If she's been in here we shall hear from her, for the fog to lift she'll follow us. If she's gone in already we shall find her. You've caught cold, Scott, running through the fog in your nightgown. Take some quinine and a good sleep, and I'll stay on deck. If we sight the north- east shadow of her ghost, I'll call you." Scott was not called. They entered the fjord, passing the little fortress of Monkholmon, and for the first time ran the little Snowbird under the can- non's mouth. It was a very quiet cannon, however, and so was the famous fjord up which they wound their way. Here and there they passed enormous storehouses, where fish were drying and dried, and through a rift in the hills they could occasionally catch glimpses of the spires and towers of Trondhjem's cathedral, while the pilot repeated some of the SrOREHOUSES OF TRONDUJI.. I.N THE CATHEDRAL PORCH. A LONG CHASE. 125 grand old stories of Norwegian lore ; of King Olaf who founded Trondh- jem almost a thousand years ago; how his mother fied with him from Norway, when he was a baby prince, to save his life from a usurper; how he was captured by pirates, sold as a slave, escaped, married an Irish maid, was converted to her religion, returned to Norway, became king and at once christianized the whole of Norway at the point of the sword. Another turn in the fjord brought the city of Trondhjem into full view as it lay upon a low hill, completely surrounded by the great mount- ains of Norway. " It was in yonder cathedral," said the pilot, " that our good King Oscar II., and his queen Sophia, were crowned, in the summer of 1873." TRONDHJEM. The Snowbird dropped anchor where she could quickly be got under way, in case the Louise appeared. The pilot was to keep a lookout and run up a signal in case she was seen, while the boys took the gig and went on shore to learn what they could from the wharves. Everything seemed solemn and still. Nothing was going on any where; but they were assured that no brig named Lotiise, no vessel at all from America, had been in port there for months. They must wait at least a day to see if she was coming; and to make the best of it they wandered about the quaint and quiet old city. They climbed the hill to the cathedral, fantastically decorated with men and animals in every conceivable shape and size. Cautiously they 126 A LONG CHASE. entered the open door, where several women in bright and very pretty costumes sat in a sort of vestibule, with two or three uneasy children. "I'll bet it's a christening!" Roy whispered. "They're waiting out here till the sermon's done." " Sermon ! " Scott muttered with a short gasp. " It is Sunday, isn't it? and that is why everything's so still.'' " " I believe it must be, Scott. I say, we haven't had much opportunity for preaching lately. Let's go in." They pulled of¥ their hats, and very gravely and solemnly crept through the open door. They were more thoroughly frightened than when they faced the polar bear or knew that the Snowbird was sailing directly over the famous Maelstrom, south of the Loffoden Islands. They seated themselves on the very first bench they could reach, and sat with folded hands, reverently looking up at the tall man in a long black gown and a great white ruff, who was standing in a high pulpit evidently preaching a sermon. In their embarrassment they sat in this way for nearly ten minutes before they realized that he was preaching in Nor- wegian, and they could not under- stand a word he said. In time they be- came uneasy, and nudging Roy with his foot, Scott whispered : " Let's cast off. Do you suppose there's any law against going out ?" "What's the matter with staying? We don't get any too much church nowadays," Roy whispered back. " I know it," said Scott, " but I can't help it. I'll be asleep in one minute more." Roy looked cautiously over his shoulder, and seeing a clear coast, crept quickly and silently out again, followed by Scott. THE TRONDHJEM CATHEDRAL. IpJF'llWi" ■lllififHfl m &m:^\rJ:^l iN'i'ij. A LONG CHASE. 129 The Snowbird lay below without a signal, so they went on over the hill, past pretty little cottages and queer-looking peasants in thick wooden shoes, pausing to examine several specimens of ancient Nor- wegian architecture, and coming to a full stop before a vehicle at which they stared in blank astonishment. There were two wheels and two strong- thills. They protruded behind the axle, where they were united by a curved arm, and they evidently protruded in front of the horse when he was harnessed into them. Between the horse and axle a curious contrivance rose above the thills, very much like the bowl of a spoon, form- ing a seat just large enough for one. There was no floor under it, but two large iron loops at- tached to the thills seemed intended for foot- rests. " What a funny contrivance," said Roy, with a laugh. " Wonder if that fair-faced fossil standing beside it belongs to it," Scott remarked. " He wouldn't know enough to tell you if you asked him," Roy replied. " It's a Nor- wegian sulky of ancient date, I reckon. Let's go on." " Wait till you see me scrape acquain-tance with him, through the great volapuk of signs," said Scott, stepping toward the man. He paused for a moment, with his hands in his pockets, wondering how to begin, when the fellow turned half-about, and with a pleasant smile remarked : "That, gentlemen, is a carjol " (he pronounced it car-y-ole), " the only native carriage of Norway. It holds but one, beside a possible driver seated there behind, for where it is not downhill in Norway, it is sure to be uphill, and our little ponies have all they can do to manage one passenger apiece. I worked in a mill at Hartford, on the Connecticut River, for ten years, and saw a good deal of your country. If you will accept my carjols and ponies for an hour or two I should like to show you some of mine." IN THE PULPIT. n,o A LOXG CHASE. Without waiting for a reply, whicli it might have been embarrassing to prepare, he trudged leisurely away and soon appeared leading two stubbed little ponies which he harnessed into two carjols. Each boy had to drive for himself, while the host seated himself be- hind the first carjol, where he could walk up and down the steepest hills and converse with both the boys. Huge rocks, and mountains bleak and bare and black swept up in great precipitous ledges. Waterfalls were everywhere ; rising in the clouds and plunging down, varnishing the rocks with purple as they passed — leaping, roaring, thundering till in clouds of spray and tangled rainbows they plunged into some dark fjord down below. Such was the glimpse of Norway which Roy and Scott obtained in a drive of two hours, bumping along in the only wheeled vehicle which can accommodate itself to that grand and wonderful country. They stopped to rest and lunch with a friend of their host, living upon another fjord. He could not speak a word of English, but the boys were astonished to find NORWEGIAN PEASANT. that thcv undcrstood a sjood deal of what he said. " Why," said the miller, " before I could speak any English I was in the Scotch Highlands, and could easily understand the peasants there, and they could understand me ; but in London I could not understand a thing. Now it is quite changed since I have learned English. I can understand Enq-lishmen, but can make nothing out of the Scotch dialect." On their return they saw a fellow sitting alone upon a green bank, so engrossed in playing a violin that he did not look up as they passed. »€>«- / t: A GLTMFSE OF NORWAY. A LONG CHASE. 133 ".You have fiddles here, at any rate," said Scott. ." Fiddles ? " replied the miller. " Have you forgotten that this was the home of Ole Bull ? " The first glimpse of the Snowbird's mast showed them that the Lotcise had not appeared. They arranged with the miller to telegraph them at Bergen if she came in and sailed away to that ancient little city, brim- ming- full of rare old stories of Norwegian 'WHAT A FUNNY CONTRIVANCE. lore of the days when theVikings roamed the sea, and when the kings of Norway were crowned at Bergen ; but it had not a word for them of the Louise, and again they arranged to be notified at Christiansand, the most south- ern city of Norway, and the little Snowbird rounded the Naze, and among beautiful islands, huge rocks and wild mountain fjords, came out upon the broad, smooth bay which lies before Christiansand ; one of the most picturesque and tempting resting places to be found in the wide, wide world. Their only glimpse of the city, however, was that one view from the bay; for as soon as the Snowbird appeared a boat put out from the shore to meet her, with a telegram for Captain Royal Sargent, American bark Snowbird, from the port of Bergen : " The brig Louise is anchored here." Even before the Snowbird lost her headway she was put about. A double watch was kept all the way back, but in the dozen different passages among the islands there was every chance to pass within a mile or two and never see her. At Bergen a message from the miller awaited them : " The brig Louise is at the wharf." They sailed again to that distant fjord, only to find that she had loaded for Christiania, and sailed a week before. 134 A LONG CHASE. "Captain Downing has gone mad!" said Roy decidedly; but they sailed back again over the same path — half of the entire length of Nor- way, for the third time, to Christiansand, and almost as much farther up the Skager-Rack and Christianian fjord to the modern capital of Norway. At first they thought of going across Norway, by almost the only railroad in the country, from Trondhjem to Christiania, but decided on the chances of overtaking the Louise, and crowding on all the sail which the Snowbird could carry they urged her on till the summer palace of the king appeared before them overlooking the fjord from a beautiful knoll, rising above the capital. There was little about this city that was suggestive of the wild, grand •country to which it belonged. They walked for an hour down the broad clean streets, bordered with low, substantial, tile-roofed houses. They paused for a moment before the stern and solid Parliament buildings, but 3^; il^W'W&^^M^^-^' NATURE ABOUT TRONDHJEM. it was simply while they waited, nervously enough, for the water-tanks to be filled, and a fresh stock of provisions to be taken on board ; for, to their utter chagrin, they heard onl}' the same old story: the Louise had been there, and only four-and-twenty hours before had sailed for Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. ■I'HE HOME OF OLE BULL. A LONG CHASE. 137 " Roy Sargent!" Scott exclaimed, " I wish you'd kick me from here to North Cape and back again, overland all the way. It would do me good. It took us two months to reach Trondhjem from home, and before we see Stockholm we shall have thrown away almost two months- more knocking up and down this coast. Why in the world didn't I agree with you to come here by rail ? " " I thought just as you did," Roy replied. " And I'll kick you up to North Cape if you'll kick me back here again. But we'd better put it off, just now, and make for Stockholm." Changing pilots, as their Norwegian friend was not acquainted with the coast beyond, they sailed up the Cattegat, only catching a glimpse,, here and there, of the coast towns of Sweden ; enough to realize that in surrounding foliage, as well as mountains and architecture, they were very different from treeless, rocky Norway, and at last, with winter close upon them, entered the great harbor of Stockholm. Two pairs of sharp eyes bent to one end, were not long in penetrating the forest of masts lying along the wharves, and discovering the familiar outline of the brig Louise, upon whose deck they had been cleaning cod- fish in the early springtime, a few months before, little dreaming of what lay in the near future. 138 A ZOA'G CHASE. The Snowbird came to anchor in the bay, and with pale faces and trembling hands Roy and Scott pulled away in the gig, straight for where the Lo7iise was lying. What did they care for the great city, that beautiful Venice of the North, with all its canals, its huge steamers, its great ships from all over the world, its royal palace rising above the city like some monster comino- up out of the sea, its great warehouses, its tall and graceful church spires, its statues and monuments everywhere, its long line of " CHRISTIANSAND, A TEMPTING RESTING PLACE." fisher women coming down the wharf? Their eyes and thoughts were bent upon the brig Louise. Flags of all nations were flying about them, but they did not even notice that the red, yellow and blue of Sweden floated from the masthead '>f the brig. They were watching her deck, and, making the gig fast, they gained that point without delay. A Swedish sailor sat smoking upon a coil of rope. He answered Scott's inquiry for Captain Downing with a shrug of his shoulders, a shake of his head and a long-drawn " Y-a-a-s." " Is he on board ? " said Roy. A LONG CHASE. 141 " Y-a-a-s," replied the sailor. " Tell him that we want to see him at once," said Scott. " Y-a-a-s," drawled the sailor, with a pleasant grin, still solemnly ■shaking his head. "Well, why don't you start.?" Roy exclaimed, impatiently stamping his foot. Seeing that something" must be done, the sailor withdrew his pipe, shrugged his shoul- ders again, grinned from ear to ear, and still shaking his head, remarked apologetically : " Me no sabe, sir, me no sabe." STREET OF CHRISTIANIA. " Well, is there any one on board who does.?" Roy cried, while Scott, too impatient to stand still longer, started for the cabin by the path he knew so well. As he reached the foot of the companion-way, he discovered a burly, red-nosed, weather- beaten fellow, sprawled out there at his ease, smoking a huge pipe and drinkino- from an enormous mug of beer. " I want to see the captain," Scott began without ceremony. "Y-a-a-s," replied the stalwart seaman, without lifting his eyes. THE SUMMER PALACE, CHRISTIANIA. 142 A LOXG CHASE. "Well, I want to see him now," said Scott. " Y-a-a-s," replied the giant, taking a leisurely whiff from his pipe. Very slowly, very loud, and somewhat savagely from his curbed excite- ment, Scott repeated : " I want to see the captain of this brig Louise^ " Y-a-a-s," drawled the other, watching the smoke as it curled away. Fortunately, Roy appeared at this moment, and Scott turned to him in utter disgust. " I say, Roy, here's another of these ' no sabe ' chaps, making himself at home as though he belonged here, and agreeing with everything I say." " What in the name of wonder is Captain Downing doing with such- a crowd? " Roy replied, and turning to the big fellow he tried his hand, shouting in his plainest English: " The captain ! captain ! Want to see the captain ! Come, Dutchie, you can surely understand that much." Very slowly the fellow took his pipe from his mouth, lifted his sleepy PAKLIAMENT HOUSE, CHRISTIANIA. eyes till they rested upon the two excited boys, and very deliberately he •replied : " O, y-a-a-s ! I onderstant dot mouch blenty veil py dis dime. No A LONG CHASE. 145 need to spile your voice. Five dimes you dells me you vants de captain of dis prig Louise, and five dimes I dells you y-a-a-s, I. vas at your service. Ven you don't got satisfied mit dot, I dells you y-a-a-s again." " Are you the captain of this brig Louise ? " Scott gasped The fellow brought his big fist down on the table, exclaiming: A GLIMPSE OF SWEDEN. " Mein Gott ! I give it to shoust vonce more : y-a-a-s ! Now s'pose you got any pees- ness, better drop dot mouch und sbeak him oud, ain't it ? " Scott and Roy looked at each other for a moment in utter bewilder- ment, and Roy was actually upon the point of repeating that same old -question, when the fellow pushed back his mug of beer, laid down his pipe and, with a facial contortion which was evidently intended for a genial smile, remarked : " Kome, now, young fellars, vat you vants mit de captain of dis prig .Louise ? " " We don't want anything of you," said Scott. " We want Captain Downing." " Veil, you komes good vays afterwards for dot," he replied slowly, 'drumming on the table. " Dree monds ago I sinks my sheep in a pig 146 .-/ LO^^G CHASE. storm, py St. John's, Nevvfoundlant, und me und mine sailors is shoust vaiting dere for somedings, ven oup komes dis Captain Downing und de prig Louise. Veil, he vants to seel, und I vants to puy. So." " Well, where is he and his daughter now } " Roy asked. "Vere's a flee vat pites me last somer.-*" he replied with a hoarse laugh. " I done know. He sheats me like everydings on dis prig, und he don't sheat me no more, nor no odder Yankee." "Can't you tell us which way he went.''" Scott asked. " O, y-a-a-s ! " he drawled, returning to his pipe. " He dakes dot 'FISHER WOMEN CO.MING DOWN THE WHARF. gall, und goes on poard a sdeamer pound for Denmarks, mit my pies- sing und my monish ; y a-a-s." Scott and Roy returned to the Snowbird and set her beak across the water westward, over the Baltic Sea and into the Gulf of Finland. /I LONG CHASE. 147 Their last glimpse of Stockholm was a merry crowd of fisherwomen, barefooted, or in thick wooden shoes, coming singing down the wharves, with their day's catch in baskets made of coarse grass. " I'll tell you, Roy, Captain Downing has got a head on him," said Scott. " He was too big a man for codfishing. Here he has been in Russia for three full months at least, while we have been waltzing through the Arc- tics after the shadow of his old reefer." " I wonder what he's been doing with himself," said Roy. " He must have got pretty well settled by this time. I thought all the time that he was mad, but I guess you were right. Who'd have thought of his sell- ins: the Louise and makino- a short cut, that way." " I reckon fact's stranger than fiction, every time," Scott replied. " And when you're done, if we get him in the end, and it all comes out right, I'm not sorry that even a fool's errand took us through the Arctics." " Nor I ! " said Roy, decidedly. OSCAR n., KING OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. CHAPTER IX. PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. THE Snozvbird entered the Gulf of Finland, bounding on with a northwest wind that was sharp and keen like Greenland. Winter was coming down upon them in earnest. At mid-day it was still warm, however, and then the fishing smacks were still abundant, dodging about, pointed at stem and stern alike. One, that shot close under the stern of the Snowbird, made Scott's heart beat fast and his cheeks grow red, all because beside the angular old fisherman holding his craft to the wind, sat his daughter, with flaxen hair and clear blue eyes, and a sober, earnest face. She was so much like Vera — more like Vera. than any one he had ever seen before; yes. Vera, too, was a Russian. It was only the great family resemblance of nations, no doubt, and Scott, ashamed of himself, tried to remember that all that he was doing, trying to do, and determined to do, was to the end that Vera should go back to Russia and be beyond all thought of him forever, and still his heart beat fast in spite of him, all because a girl who reminded him of Vera, in a rude fishing smack, shot under the lee of the Snowbird. "Just look at that village up the river yonder," Roy exclaimed. " Bother the village ! " Scott replied. " I want St. Petersburg." It was not much of a village ; only a half-dozen fantastic houses, a few fantastic people, two windmills for grain and lumber, and a wonder- fully fantastic church. It was a real little exponent of Russia, however, 148 fififi'rrr-i'iv(ii»"';iffi)(i i"nt""^pni[iiii(jnnj|'i|i|i|[|ififnpii"ii I $. ■ PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 151 just as Fiskenaes was of Greenland, St. John's of Newfoundland, Trondh- jem of Norway; just as the fisherman's daughter was like Vera, because they were both Russians — the little village was very like its country. The Sitowbird tiew onward till met by a harbor police-boat, and an officer who ordered them to drop anchor off Kronstadt, at the entrance to the bay of Peterhof, twenty miles below St. Petersburg, and right •SHE WAS SO MUCH LIKE VERA." under the mouth of a dozen yawning cannon, in the little round forts protecting the entrance. The official could speak French, but no English, and the pilot acted as interpreter. A strange feeling of dread crept over the boys. A ponderous official in a. gorgeous uniform, had deliberately taken command of their little Snowbird, and now he proceeded to take command of them. He demanded their papers. ^52 P/aSONE/iS OF THE TZAR. Papers? The), had none. Then their commissions? They never had an)'. Then- passports ? They had never obtained any. Hadthev anyth.ng, reasonable or unreasonable, to justify their coming deliberately into the harbor of Kronstadt ? ^ " We own the Snowbird, for the time being, at least. W^e carrv no passengers. We carry no freight. We ask no favors of anv one," Scott declared. "Precisely," replied the official; " which n.akes it the more incumbent upon me to ask what you are here for." " On business," Roy replied. " Evidently," said the official, with an insinuating smile. " Will you tell me what business? It will be quite necessary before you advance." UNDER THE Gl'NS OK KR ONSTADT. Idont tlynk I hardly could," Roy responded, 'looking at Scott AMv'iclf . °"'^"'/.^ '"' °"^ ^°^- "^^'^^^'^'" -'d^'- official.- At uhich Scott s nature, wh.ch many a time had got the better of his ALHXANDKR S COLUMN'. FRISONEIiS OF THE TZAR. 155 judgment, sprang to the front, and with his hands well down in his pockets, and his head a little on one side he replied: " I'll bet this bark that you don't find out what our business is unless we decide to tell you." The officer made no reply, but quietly invited the boys to enter his steam launch. They realized that it was really a command, and with the strong THE BUIDGE OVER THE NEVA. argument of a dozen well-armed marines just below, and half of the cannon of Kronstadt within range, they decided to accept. They were placed in comfortable quarters, but kept constantly under guard. At the end of three days they were brought before a magistrate, and told their story. Then for a week more they were kept in close con- finement, unable to obtain one word of information about anything. A change came, however. They were taken on board a police-boat, sent down into a dingy cabin where they could see nothing but water, and carried for twenty miles up the bay. Then they were taken on shore. 156 PR/SONEJiS OF THE TZAR. A magnificent city burst suddenl)' upon their view as they emero-ed from the dark cabin. The police-boat lay on the bosom of a broad river High walls of rose-granite on either side, held it witliin bounds Thev knew that it must be the Neva. A massive stone bridge was before S=^=^g^^ft=ff J£ ^\ CriAW'**'^ STATUE OF THE TZAR NICHOLAS. -them. Broad avenues extended in different directions, and massive buildings rose on every hand. One glimpse of St.Vetersburg ! then they were hurried into a carriao-e hat was evidently waiting for them. With a coachman and footman in livery, and with mounted soldiers in front and behind, they started at a breakneck pace, through the broad streets of Russia's capital "1 call this rather fine in its way," said Scott, leaning back in the upholstered carnage. " How old-fashioned everybody looks I " "I believe they run on the old calendar in Russia, with Christmas and New Years twelve days behind ours, and perhaps they have never ■caught up in anything else either," said Rov. FRISONEJiS OF THE TZAR. 157 " Do you suppose that we are prisoners, Roy ? " " Looks like it, doesn't it ? I never was a prisoner before, and I don't know how it feels, but I rather guess that we are prisoners of the Tzar." " I don't mind it much, do you ? " said Scott. " I'd rather be in open water on the deck of the Snowbirdr "I wouldn't, until I'd seen St. Petersburg; and as far as the coach goes this isn't a bad way to see it, for a change. Look there, now, isn't that a fine old arch t See those bronze horses. Do you suppose real horses ever pranced like that.? Glory I how we spun under it ! " " Jehu ! " Roy exclaimed, as they drew near a great square, with a graceful pillar, one round shaft of highly polished rose-granite, eighty feet high, upon an enormous pedestal, towering nearly thirty feet in the air. " I wish they'd drive slower, for with no chart of the city, and no pilot aboard, a fellow wants to have a good long look at things to remember them and find out afterwards what they are." " Bother what they are ! " said Scott, laughing. " They're every bit as fine to me as though I knew a dozen names for them. Look at that statue, now, and — oh ! just look at the pedestal. Whew! that was fine. I suppose it was some Tzar, or saint, or something or other; but what difference does it make 1 " " I do wish he'd drive slower," Roy repeated, as they turned swiftly round another corner, changing the scene entirely to a series of public buildings of some sort, decorated with massive columns on every hand, and statues everywhere, with a beautiful garden upon their right. " Do you mind the style of the one-horse teams, Roy .? For all the world they're like pictures I've seen of Irish jaunting-cars, only they are lower, and have four wheels instead of two." " Didn't have time to notice the vehicles," Roy replied. " I was look- ing at the drivers' hats and at those big loops from the ends of the thills going over the horses' heads. I wonder what earthly use they are ! " " If everything you see has got to have its use explained to you, you'd best ask the Government to send a guide along, next time it transfers us," Scott answered, laughing heartily. " The fact is, I don't care a straw whether a statue is used to hold down a pedestal, or the pedestal to hold up the statue." " At any rate, I'll bet that the next time you come to Russia you'll bring your business card with you, and present it before it is called for," said Roy. I5S riiJSOA'F.JiS OF THE TZAR. " P'raps I shall and p'r'aps I sha'n't," said Scott, reflecting for a mo- ment. "I'll tell you what it is, Roy ; I reckon that Russia is a pretty touo-h place to get into successfully, and I shouldn't wonder if, in the end, we found that we had got into it just as successfully, if not quite so gracefully, as if we had worked it all up in advance." " I wish I had your hopeful heart, Scott. It's a grand thing when one gets into trouble." " Well, I wish I had your level head, Roy. It's a regular field- marshal for keeping one out of trouble." Here their carriage dashed toward an enormous building, stretchino- THEY TURNED ANOTHER CORNER." for nearly a quarter of a mile upon the broad street and as far back upon a side street. It was three stories high, magnificently decorated, and guarded at every entrance by armed soldiers, while over the principal entrance floated the flag of Russia. " It don't look much like a prison," said Scott. " I believe, upon my word, that it's a palace," Roy added. " Do you suppose these dummies are taking us to call upon the Tzar ? " " I believe they are," Roy replied, as the door was opened by a fellow all gold and lace, and they were evidently invited to follow him. ""■^-^n^vmrm^ xra t ii •*•. '■ 4 1 ■■.^'><.. ■ FJi/SONEJ^S OF THE TZAR. l6l Through the massive portal they entered a grand corridor, glistening with marble and agate and gold ; then up two flights of marble stairs and along another corridor, adorned with statues and bright with blue 'THE TZAR fl.WIC J'lIKM A SI.EIUHUIDE. " enamel ; turning to the right, then turning to the left, til! the}' were utterly bewildered. "They can't seem to find the Tzar," Scott whispered ; " but it must be awkward to have to trot visitors all over the house to hunt him up." " I believe it would have been cheaper to have walked up from the wharf and taken a carriage after we got here," Roy remarked as they still kept on and on. " Don't you trouble yourself about economy, Roy," Scott whispered back. "The Tzar will be glad enough to pay the bills when he finds out who has come to see him." At that moment they were ushered into a fine large room, with a grate fire roaring a welcome, with two little beds, several easy chairs, a l62 J'A'/SO.VJU^S OF THE TZAR. table, a toilet room at one side and two long windows, so curiously- guarded by awnings that they could see nothing but the sky. As the door closed behind them and they were left alone, Scott turned to Roy. He could not help laughing at the solemn, anxious face he saw, and waving his hand exclaimed : " Sit down. Captain Sargent, and make yourself at home. The Tzar has stepped out for a moment. I reckon he's gone to the barn, for I see he's taken the milk pail along with him; but he'll be in directly. There ! " There was a tap on the door. "For mercy's sake, keep still, Scott!" Roy whispered hurriedly, as the door opened and another individual all gold lace appeared, followed by two more who deposited a smoking breakfast upon the table. " I don't see how they kept it so hot ■ if they came up the way we did," Scott observed as they sat down and began to eat with excellent appetites. On the second day after their arri- val they were vis- ited by three grand officials with clerks and papers and pens as well as an interpreter. They were questioned carefully con- cerning themselves, from the cradle to Kronstadt, and everything was scrupu- lously committed to writing. It took so long that a great samova — a Russian contrivance for keeping tea at a boiling point — was brought in, and a tray of dried salt fish and crackers, and the offi- cials ate and sipped and talked. When everything was settled as far as Kronstadt, Scott thought his turn had come to ask some questions concerning themselves from Kron- stadt on. His questions were all recorded, but not an answer could he THE STREETS TRANSFORMED. FRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 163 obtain. Then Roy tried his hand, and said he supposed they had a right to communicate with some official of the American Legation. That too, was recorded, and the whole party bowed very politely and left them alone again. " What's the use of talking to men like that, any way," Roy muttered. " I expect we shall find out when they are ready to let us know, and I don't think we shall before," said Scott, looking up at the sky. " It's AN OPEN FIRE AT THE STATION. snowing like mad, Roy. Winter's set in, and no mistake. Wonder if the Tzar wouldn't accommodate us with a sleighride if we put it right. The streets are transformed. Hark ! hear the sleighbells." " I wish we had the Snowbird out of the Gulf of Finland," Roy muttered ; but a week went by, and they had neither left their quarters nor heard a single word which they could understand. At last, however, something happened. A man without any attend- ing clerks or pens or ink came in alone, and seated himself beside the table. He was a plain, common-sense looking fellow, with silver strands 164 PR/SONE/iS OF THE TZAR. in his hair and beard, but he seemed to be thoroughly accustomed to himself, and he spoke excellent English. The boys took a fancy to him at once. "Young gentlemen," he said, " by a little accident some high officials "ACCOMMODATING THliMSKLVKS TO llUC RAILROAD.' of the Russian Government became acquainted with the curious story ■which you told the magistrate at Kronstadt. They were interested, and resolved to investigate the matter. They have done so and are satisfied that you are right. Now they propose to aid you, if they can." " Roy ! didn't I tel! you so } " burst unexpectedly from Scott's lips, and made him blush to the very roots of his hair. FRISOiYEES OF THE TZAR. 165 " You were quite right, if you did," the visitor replied vvitli a friendly- smile. " Now they have learned this much : the man whom you repre- sent as Captain Downing, reached Sebastopol, at the extreme south of Russia, about three months ago. The estates in question are chiefly located there. He had with him a young girl whom you represent as his daughter, whom he represents as a child adopted in infancy and heir to the estates. He presented as proof the family jewels belonging to her Tiiother, the marriage certificate, birth record and sufficient other matter to convince the courts, and all the law allowed, in the time that has elapsed, of the property has been turned over to her. It will be necessary for us to take you, under a nominal guard, to Moscow, then to the estates to identify the two and have them summoned to an investi- V LATE FOR THE MIDNIGHT EXl'RESS. gation. If there are any questions which you wish to ask before I o-q T shall be glad to answer them." " I'd like to know about the Snowbird, our vessel," said Roy. " She'lll be frozen in before we can get back again if we leave her at Kronstadt. "For that reason," replied the stranger, "she was dismantled four days ago, and is now being transported to Taganrog, on the Sea of 1 66 PRJSONIiRS OF THE TZAR. Azof. By the time you reacli Sebastopol she will be floating in the fjord of Balaklava, a few miles away, precisely as you left her at Kronstadt, restocked with the best that Russia can supply, with your crew on board in charge of an officer who will remain with her till, at your pleasure, he has piloted you safely through the Bosporus, the Dardanelles and Sea of Marmora, when he will furnish you with proper papers to avoid any future contingency." Scott was doubtful. He stood with his hands in his pockets, leaning ao-ainst the wall. His head was a little on one side as he remarked: " If you are making fun of us it is a mean thing to do." The Russian simply smiled in the same friendly way, and replied : " Necessity is the mother of in- vention. We have transported larger vessels than yours, bodily, from Kron- stadt to Taganrog. If you have nothing else to ask I must bid you sood-morninsf." " I should like to know, sir, the name of this building where we have been so kindly cared for," Roy said as he took the strangers proffered hand in parting. " It is called ' The Winter Pal- ace,' " he replied. '• And I," said Scott, " if it is not impertinent — I should like to know your name. To you, sir, or to some one, we owe a great deal." "My name.?" replied the stranger as he opened the door. " Really, I can hardly remember it myself. I am a most unenviable man, my friend — I am the Tzar. Good-morning, and God speed you." The boys stood looking at each other. They were still standing and looking, and neither had spoken a word, when a man in gold lace appeared and conducted them to a coach, this time on runners, with four horses and outriders; and after all, the Tzar gave them a sleighride. The horses flew over the frozen ground to the merry jangle of the bells, and as they drew up at the railway station they noticed a great fire ■ I AM THE TZAR." PRISONERS OF THE TZAR. 167 Tjlazing in the open square, fed by Government servants, about which a crowd was gathered, driving out the chills of early winter. An engine and one car stood ready in the station, and the moment A RUSSIAN MAIL SLEDGE. Ihey stepped on board with the official who was to accompany them, it started away like the wind for a run of four hundred miles to Moscow, straight as the crow flies, over a road laid out by the Emperor Nicholas. He came into the room when his engineers were quarreling and disput- ing over the twists and turns of a road between the two capitals which .should accommodate itself to all the towns upon the way. Nicholas listened to their arguments for a moment, then caught up a ruler. Witli one end at St. Petersburg and the other at Moscow, as they appeared upon the map, he drew his pen along the edge. " There," said he, " lay out your rail- road along that line." And now the towns by the way accommodate them- selves to the railroad instead. All along the way, for the first hun- dred miles and more, the snow lay deep upon the ground. The stations were lo- cated as near the towns as the straight line allowed, but there were alwavs Ions lines of sledges coming and going, con- necting them with the towns. Near midnight, as they were approaching a station they passed a Tvealthy farmer or nobleman lying upon a sledge drawn by three horses RUSSIAN MAIL WAGON. i6S /'A'/SOJV£J?S OF THE TZAR. abreast, while the driver stood up lashing the horses and shouting, evi- dently mistaking the special for the midnight express and fearing that his master would be left. The mail was brought to the stations upon curious sledges, which sometimes made a journey of nearly a hundred miles. Once, coming from a little village not more than a mile away, they passed a woman, bringing the mail upon a miniature coach, drawn by a joair of huge mastiffs, wallowing through the snow. " Scott Campbell," said Roy, " do you realize that we have been to St. Petersburor and Sfone away without setting foot upon a single street, or knowing the name of a single building, church, gallery, museum or college, except the Winter Palace.?" " Who cares .'' " said Scott. "Ten thousand Yankees have known them all ; but I am an Esquimau if I don't believe that they would swap the whole, twice over, to spend a week in the Winter Palace, and chat and shake hands with that unenviable man the Tzar." As they rolled along there were many ques- tions to ask, but the ofificial refused to pay the slightest heed to anything but their require- ments of rest and refreshment. Thev crossed the four hundred miles of forests and marshes, left the winter far behind them and entered the almost Oriental city of Moscow. There a carriage was again in waiting, and again, like Jehu the driver drove furiously; but two pairs of bright, sharp eyes saw a great deal of the famous old capital of Russia in a short, quick drive. First, they crossed a great stone bridge, upon a series of graceful arches, with the Kremlin in full view ; a walled city, in itself two miles in circumfer- ence, in the very heart of the great city of Moscow. Within that inner wall rose churches, palaces, monasteries, arsenals, art galleries and museums with grandly decorated walls and towers, domes and spires, flashing with gold, glistening in enamel. JEWIiL VAULT. FRISOA'ERS OF l^HE TZAR. 171 As they crossed the bridge, and the carriage rolled under a magnifi- cent arched gateway to enter this inner city, the driver removed his hat, the officer followed his example, and indicated to the boys that they must do the same. They obeyed, without knowing that above their heads, jaro- THE GKtAT IJELL. tected by the overhanging of the arch, was a picture of the Saviour, and that they were entering the Kremlin by the Redeemer's Gate. The Tzars are crowned within the Kremlin, and from the emperor to the meanest peasant every one removes his hat, and with uncovered head passes through that Redeemer's Gate. Upon their left rose the narrow but substantial tower, marking the Ro3^al Jewel Vault. They were scarcely beyond it when something met their eyes which gave them a peculiar shock — like suddenly coming upon an old friend in the midst of the Sahara Desert. They had tra- versed one quarter of Russia without knowing the name of a single object which met their gaze, when suddenly they came upon something 172 Fli/SOXEJiS OF THE TZAR. in bewildering Moscow, whicli they knew as well as the boy born and bred within sight of it. It was the Tzar Kolokol, the Great Bell of Mos- cow. They had seen it in their geographies and illustrated readers. They had looked at it a hundred times. They knew all about it; that it was more than twenty feet high ; that it weighed four hundred thousand pounds ; that its metal alone was worth over two million dol- lars. And here it was, just like its pictures, looming up for an instant to greet them as they dashed past it. They only drove through the Kremlin, leaving it again by the St. Nicholas Gate, and out upon a broad road and a great square, with the wall of the Kremlin upon their right. There was a bronze group upon a rose-granite pedestal in the center of the street, with public buildinas ST. NICHOLAS GATE. in every direction, and other streets as broad leading away in the most fantastic irregularity imaginable. They crossed the square, toward perhaps the most remarkable church on earth. It was, in reality, the Cathedral of Basil the Blessed, but in utter ignorance the boys watched it till the carriage stopped. CATHEDRAL OF BASIL THE LLESSED. PJilSONEJiS OF THE TZAR. 175 It was one grand chaos of angles, towers and domes ; no two alike in shape or size or color; of all kinds of material and all styles of archi- tecture ; a marvel, however one looked at it. The boys had only to go through a peculiar legal ceremony, and place their signatures upon papers already prepared, when they were APPROACHING THE CATHEDRAL. hurried back to their car again, which started at once for the south. Like a meteor, Moscow, the wealthiest of Russian cities, flashed before them, and in the flame expired, but they were too anxious to reach the distant Crimea to care how brief their stay had been. CHAPTER X. ON TO BALAKLAVA AS their car waited at a little station south of Tula for a train to the north to pass, they saw the mounted Cossacks forcing back the starving peasants who were making a weak effort to leave the village, in the vague hope of finding something somewhere, while in curious con- trast, on a bench upon the sunny side of the station, a group of children had gathered, and were singing away as though their lives depended on the amount of noise they made. One fellow was beating time, and another was playing on two fifes at once. At another station, while they were taking wood and water, they watched a group of peasants waiting for their share of a car-load of coarse flour and meal that was standing upon a side track, being dispensed by Government officials. They had little opportunity to know of the internal disturbances of which the world at large was constantly supplied with graphically distorted and vi^ondrously exaggerated details. A group of ragged and disconsolate Jews, sitting on the ground to rest while they waited for the train to pass, recalled the unfortunate lot of the children of Israel in the empire, and more than once the destitute condition of some famine-stricken district appeared for an instant and was gone. That was all that they knew either of the persecution of the Jews or the terrors of the famine. Perhaps it was really all there was to know, or perhaps it was simply intended that they should not know. 176 ON TO BALAKLAVA! 177 They were only catching ghmpses of a great reahty in Russia, much as they had caught glimpses of those other realities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and in time the car crossed the narrow isthmus, entered the peninsular of Crimea and stood in the station of Sebastopol. Here, to their surprise, they discovered that the officer who had accompanied them could speak very fair English. "The old reprobate!" Scott muttered. "He didn't mean that we should bother him with questions. That's what's the matter." "And upon my word, I think he was rather bright," Roy repliedv thinking hovi^ he would have plied the poor official, and kept him talking. " Wonder if we said much that was out of order.? " Scott queried. " Presume so," Roy replied. " We generally do under such circum- stances. But he has himself to blame if he didn't like to hear us call him ' Rushy.' " The officer had explained to them that there was a large house THE RUSSIAN CHILDREN S SONG. belonging to the estates in Sebastopol, and a large farm and country- house some two miles back upon the hills toward Balaklava, and had left them to wait while he made inquiries to learn where the supposed Captain Downing could be found. " Toward Balaklava ! " said Scott. " That's where the Snowbird was to wait for us." 1^3 OA^ TO BALAKLAVA! "Whatever have we heard at home about Balaklava?" Roy asked, scratcliing his head, in the sailor's inevitable gesture of thought. He was still thinking when Scott suddenly struck a tragic attitude, and throwing out one hand exclaimed : " ' Forward, the light brigade! Charge for the guns ! ' he said. That's Balaklava, Roy. Hope we shall get a good peep at it." jm J A pretty Circassian girl, with a long, slender rod in her hand and a bas- ket on her arm, came up and, smiling, opened the basket, out of which hopped several little birds. Looking up she said, in English : HOLDING BACK TH1£ STARVING PEASANTS. ON TO BALAKLAVA! iSl " Fine gentlemen, fine fortune. Me little birds tells fortunes true." There is always a peculiar fascination about gypsies, and a peculiar fascination to the sailor about having his fortune told. There is always an irresistible charm in one's own language, when one meets it unex- pectedly, and Scott, in his impulsive jorodi- gality, put a gold piece in her hand. It was a Swedish coin, but it was all he had, and sold is gold the wide world over. She smiled, held out the rod, and two of the birds lit upon one end of it. She stood silently watching them. One began to hop away, and the other followed. The last one almost caught up and gave the first a peck, but he jumped away, and the last lost his balance, and would have fallen off the rod, but for the help of his wings. They kept it up till they reached the end of the rod ; then the first, grasping it in his feet, hung down, head-first, as though he were dead. A third bird flew up from the basket, lit on the end of the rod, and looked for a mo- ment at the bird which had been following. The two exchanged a lit- tie bird's kiss, and all three flew back to the basket. " So it is," said the pretty fortune teller. " One runs away, another follows. Sometimes he come near enough to peck, but almost fall, and only white wings save him. He come to sad end. He can't help. But one sweet kiss and all is bright. God bless young gentlemen," and she walked away. " You remember the hawk that fell dead upon the deck, at the very moment when we were laying our course to Greenland } " said Roy. " Well .? " said Scott. " Well, that was a fool's errand. Captain Downing hadn't gone that way." " Oh ! fudge, Roy. It was a queer coincidence, but " — " And when the end comes this gypsy's birds may be another," Roy interrupted. Scott was about to laugh at Roy's superstition when the officer drove up in a post-troika, with a burly Russian seated behind the horses. VvAITlNG FOR RATIONS. l82 ON TO BALAKLAVA! wrapped in a thick coat, though it was very warm, and wearing a hat which Scott declared beat all creation. They drove out two miles toward Balaklava, six miles beyond. The country seat was certainly magnificent, but the great gate upon the street was locked, and no porter was in the lodge. Thev were obliged to leave the troika and walk nearly a quarter of a mile through the park to the stately mansion. The servant who came to the door assured them that the master and lady had driven to Sebastopol, to return the evening of the next day. It was dark when they reached Sebastopol again, but the same story was repeated at the city mansion : they were not there. " It may be they have gone to Odessa," said the servant. " I do not think the yacht Vera is in the bay." " So the estate possesses a yacht, too," Roy muttered, " and her name is Vera. I wonder what has come over Louise that she is taking part in this t " " In some way she doesn't know what she's doinsf, I'll bet on that," said Scott, and he felt Roy give his hand a squeeze. They held a council and de- cided 'o again to the country seat, ^ in the morning, and wait * jrn of the ca^'ta-i-b' A .n they were oblig- d o leave .tlie troika at the gate, but this tkne they were invited in and told to entertain themselves in a large drawing-room, where a sam- ova of steaming tea was placed for them. " If lie had been in the house and seen us cominor, do vou think he would make himself scarce ? " Roy asked ; and as Scott was about to answer his ear caught the sound of distant wheels. It was difficult to see through the dense foliage of the park, but straining his eyes, between the branches he was sure that he saw their troika, with a man and woman seated in it, moving away behind an- " A BURLY RUSStAN." IHE FORTUNE TELLEK. ON TO BALAKLAVA! 185 other loaded with something like trunks. " Come quick ! "he exclaimed, and sprang to the door followed by Roy and the fat official. They ran down the road to the gate. Their troika was gone ! " This way I " cried Scott, starting toward Balaklava. Roy and Scott ran side by side, and soon left the puffing officer lag- ging behind. The boys were strong and determined, but a sailor's life pays little attention to the legs, and theirs were ready to give out when they came upon a three-horse hay cart, into which a peasant, at some dis- tance, was laboriously gathering a little crop of grain, grown in famine year. " It's our only chance ! " Scott exclaimed. " We can make it right afterward. Jump in, Roy, and jump quick." Like a flash the boys were in the hay cart. Scott caught the whip and gave the horses a cut. They started at a furious rate, for they were Russians, while the poor peasant stared in blank astonishment. " Glory hallelujah ! " Scott gasped. " See there ! On the next hill ! There's the troika ! Who knows but we can overhaul it ! " " If they know whose aboard this crib they'll hurry, and if they do they can outrun these lean things two to one," said Roy. " Good idea 1 " Scott replied, catching up the peasant's coat and hat lying in the cart, and putting them on. " There ! If I'm not a Russian, what am I t Gee up, there ! " he shouted. " Now, Captain Sargent, just you lie low. Stow yourself away among that straw. Keep clean out of sight. I've got three sails to their two. any way. Gee up, there ! and if I don't overhaul that brig it's 'cause there ain't wind enough in the sails, or 'cause I don't understand this steering gear. Gee up ! " " I'd give more for two jibs like the cobs that brought us up, than for ten acres of these condemned old war-horses," Roy replied from down among the straw. " Never you mind ! " Scott cried. " We're gaining on her ! Gee up ! This lash seems to speak first-class Russian, and I reckon the handle understands English, for it translates what I'm after. Gee up! " " For mercy's sake," groaned Roy, as they splashed through a lot of water and banged over a wooden bridge, " you'll smash everything to pieces, Scott." "I reckon I may, Captain," Scott replied. " To tell the truth — gee up, there ! — I'm not just sure of the hull of this craft, nor of the tackle either — gee up! — and the rigging is the doubtfullest stuff I ever handled. Gee up! But I — whew! We near went to pieces on that rock." 1 86 ON TO BALAKLAVA. " So we did," groaned Roy. "Guess she's got a stronger bottom than I thought for — gee up! gee up ! " " Are you in the road at all ? " Roy asked. " Don't know, Captain," Scott replied. " I've got my eye on the craft ahead, and can't keep it in two places at once. Gee up! We're gaining — gee up! — or I'm an Esquimau — gee up! And I don't be- lieve I'd know the road if I watched for it. There don't seem to be any ' GTE Ur, THKRK ! ' unless it's all in Russian and I can't make it out. Gee up, there! And I couldn't tell how to keep in it, if I could see it plain as my nose — gee up! — for there's only one line apiece running out to the prow of each of these animals, like the reindeer in Lapland. Gee up, there ! When I pull they slow up so I let 'em lie loose and use the whip. Gee up ! If the lash don't come off I'll keep 'em going till something splits. Gee up ! Cracky ! but that w?as a bad bump. Is there any water in the hold } Seem's though we must have sprung aleak that time. Gee up ! gee up ! gee up ! Jehu ! They've struck a new tack and bust my best cable, but they're gaining! Gee up! " ON TO BALAKLAVA! 187 " How are they now ? " Roy asked a moment later. "Can't just say; they're round a curve. Gee up! I believe these things are getting used to the whip, or else the wind's giving out. Gee up ! Never mind, we'll be going down hill again in a minute. BALAKLAVA. That's our best tack, for there don't seem to be any hold-backs about the rigging, and they have to run like mad to keep the crib off their heels. There ! Didn't I tell you .? Gee up ! or we'll run over you ! " " I say, Scott, this thing is listing to port like everything. Do you know where you're going?" " Going to Balaklava, Captain. May be we're listing, but I don't see why. Everything's level on ahead. The horses know the road better than I do. Guess they smell the town. At any rate, they act as though they thought they were going somewhere and one of them — gee up, there! — seems to think he's almost there — gee up! — but we are listing, no mistake. I believe — G. Whittaker ! — There ! I told you so. Any 1 88 ON TO BALAKLAVAI bones broken? No? Glad of that. It wasn't my fault," Scott said,. as he pulled Roy out of a mass of straw and dirt and fragments of a Russian hay cart. " 1 had my mouth open to say that I believed a wheel was comins: off." " Well, you would have been mighty near right, Scott," said Roy, rubbing several bruises, while Scott brushed off the dirt and straw as they stood beside the dilapidated wreck. " I wish that gypsy and her birds had kept away." " Bother the gypsy ! " Scott exclaimed. " It was the wheel came off, and if the birds did have anything to do with it, why, the white wino-s of the Snowbird may save us yet. Don't forget that she's at Balaklava if we need her. Come on ! ' Forward, the light brigade !' Bother the gypsy maid! " And setting the example, he began to run again. They reached the summit of the next hill. The troikas were out of sight, but there, in the valley before them, lay the town of Balaklava, the oldest city in Russia — old as the days of Ulysses; governed in turn by Italians, Greeks, Turks and Russians; with its dilapidated fortresses and ruined breastworks; its ragged mountains and deep and silent fjord. And there they saw the white-winged Snowbird. " Come on," cried Scott. Roy tried to, but fell back again. "Scott, I can't!" he muttered. " I'm dizzy. I can't stand up. My heart is beating terribly." " Well, you just stop and rest and come on easy," said Scott. " I'll bet I have strength enou2;h left to reach that wharf, and I want to make sure what Captain Downing's up to. Good-by ! Come on easy." Late that afternoon the Russian officer and Roy rescued Scott from the filth of the Balaklava jail. His story was quickly told. He had met Captain Downing upon the wharf, after one boat loaded with boxes and carrying Louise, had reached the yacht which lay at anchor there. The captain attempted to escape him, but Scott, too much exhausted to speak, caught him by the coat. " Scott Campbell ! " he exclaimed, " you will touch me at your own peril. You know who you are dealing with. I advise you to go back to ON TO BALAKLAVA! 189 America and hold your tongue. I am going to Constantinople for a while, where I shall be out of reach of you, of Russia or America. If you keep still I'll make it for your interest. I'll make you rich. If you don't 111 be the death of you. There ! Let go ! " " I never would have let go," said Scott, " though I couldn't speak a word to save my life, but who should come up but the everlasting fossil OUTSIDE THE FJORD. who belonged to that hay cart. He'd come over the hills by a short cut. He accused me of I don't know what. Then he pointed to his coat and hat. I had forg-otten that I had them on. I declare, I don't know what did happen, after that. I don't believe I fainted, but I didn't know much till I found myself in here. Now the quicker we get to Constantinople the better." T CHAPTER XI. THE GLIST OF THE GOLDEN HORN. 'HE officer telegraphed for instructions and received reply; " Follow to Constantinople. Report and await orders." So the Snoivbird sailed away, bounding over the waves of the Black Sea as gracefully as upon the Arctic Ocean. The boys found the Russian who had brought her from Kronstadt as jovial a fellow as he was a good sailor, and they very willingly gave the command of the Snoivbird into his hands, finding that they enjoyed themselves infinitely more when relieved of the keen edge of anxious responsibility. They had need of the free and independent use of all their eyes and all their wits, for there is no point from which the magnificent city of the Mussulmans appears to such glorious advantage as when from the Black Sea one enters the Bosporus and approaches the Golden Horn. On one hand Scutari rose, backed by Asiatic hills, on the other Galata and Pera the Prankish cities, and Slamboul the great Turkish citv in the center, all doins; their utmost to make one oreat, 2;lorious Constantinople. No one ever had a better opportunitj^ to see the Moslem city from the bay, for the captain and the officer who had accompanied the boys, keeping a sharp lookout, ran the Snowbird the entire length of the harbor. At last they sighted the Vera, with all sail set, moving out of 190 THE GLIST OF THE GOLDEN HORN. 191 the bay. They overhauled her, and in the name of the Tzar boarded and searched her. All they learned was that the Vera was ordered to return to Russia and go into winter quarters at Balaklava. The captain found that he was in danger of arrest and punishment, however, and confessed that he had placed a large amount of luggage and his two passengers upon a steamer bound for Alexandria and the way ports on the coast of Syria. After that he was allowed to sail away. " We must so on at once ! " Scott exclaimed. " If you wish," replied the captain. " The vessel is yours, and my orders are to see you safely as far as the Mediterranean. Then I must leave you. The officer's orders are to go to Constantinople, report and wait commands. He must stay here. If you will allow me to suggest, however, when Russia becomes interested in discovering and checking CONSTANTINOPLE. crime she stops at nothing. If you are willing to wait for orders, here, I think they will be such as will assist you." " I think we'd better wait, then," Scott replied, and Roy, as ever a little more deliberate, brought up the rear with his usual, " Me, too." It was early in the morning. They were relieved of responsibility on ig: THE GLIST OF THE GOLDEN HORN. land as well as sea, and while the officer was telegraphing, Roy and Scott went on shore to see what they could of Constantinople. A sio-nal was to be run up on the Snowbird when orders were received, and till then they were free to wander where they would. For two hours they wandered aimlessly about the great Mohammedan THE SNOWBIRD IN THE HARBOR. capital, satisfied only to see and see and see the ever-changing panorama- domes and minarets, mosques and palaces; narrow streets and grand boulevards ; markets and bazaars where people of all nations were clamoring in a babel of voices; costumes and faces from every clime and country on the earth, except the fur clothing of the North ; churches, hospitals, colleges, factories, all crowding upon the shores of the Bosporus. " I never dreamed of anything like this in all my life," said Roy. " Why ! there are no two minutes alike. We are going downhill, then up- THE GLIST OF THE GOLDEN HORN. 193 hill. We are on a level road, then we are climbing a long flight of stone steps with front doors opening upon either side all the way. Now the street is so wide a dozen carriages could go abreast ; a moment ago we could touch the houses on both sides at once. We have walked through mud and dust and sand, and now look at this fine pavement. We have had to walk in the middle of the street because there was nothing but middle ; not a sign of a sidewalk, and there is a street, upon my word, 1 ., t ' ' that is nothing but sidewalk, with just a little gutter in the center. You Q-o throuo-h a street so crowded that you have to shoulder your way, and the next you know you are out in the suburbs, catchins; on bushes growing in the path, with a lot more city just beyond. You hold your nose to save it from smells viler than Lapland and Fiskenaes com- bined, and the first you know the air is like the attar of roses from sardens on either side." " Hold up a minute, Roy, and look at that fellow cominsf alono- with a jug. Jehu ! what a face. If he had milk in there I'll bet it would sour before it grew cold. See him orivins: that fellow a drink walking Oh! pay for soda 'jEHU! WHAT A FACE.' it's water; and he's taking it. He's a sort of fountain." " There's another fellow round the corner at the same trade. Now I think of it we've seen lots of them. It must be a good business or there'd not be so many ; but for my part I'd rather go dry." " What's the matter with the fellow's eye } Do you suppose he's had a crack, or is it only a fashionable tip he has on his turban." " O, Scott ! look at that little chappie riding horseback ! My ! isn't he a beauty ! " 194 INK GLJST OF ThE GOLDEN HORN. Mind the tassel on his fez though ! and his little pug nose. He's a swell of some sort. Wish I knew his name." " Look here, Scott. Here we are out on the brow of a hill, looking down on the harbor. However did we come here? In five minutes more — there! what did I tell you — quicker, even, we are in this nar- row, dirty alley, full of vile smells, filthy beggars" — " Look at the baby roosting on that fellow's shoulder ! You'd think he was wanting to shake hands, but I suppose it's money he's after." " What a Babylon Constantinople is ! " said Roy. " But it's beautiful ! wonderfully beautiful ! " Scoit exclaimed. "And ugly I ugh! horribly ugly!" Roy added. " You don't like it," Scott said. " Indeed I do, madly ! And you } " Scott shook his head. They were each radically inconsistent, of course ; but every one is in- consistent in Constantinople, and all together are not half so inconsistent as Constanti- nople's self. They were half-sliding down a steep hill, along the slimy pavement of a narrow alley, at the end of which the)' came out upon a broader street and a floating bridge stretching across the narrow- est part of the Golden Horn. " For mercy's sake, Roy, stop a bit ! " Scott exclaimed, catching his arm. " Just look at this crowd ! What in the name of wonder are they all and where are they going } " " From Europe to Asia or coming back," I^oy replied deliberately, as he watched that intermin- able throng of human beings, that for ages has made the floating bridee of the Golden Horn one of the wonders of the world. " It's a pretty big thing to do on one small bridge," Scott mused. 'isn't he a beauty. s o a THE GLIST OF THE GOLDEN HORN. 197 " See that woman with only two eyes sticking through her veil ? " " How many eyes would you expect to find sticking through one woman's veil ? " Roy asked. " See those porters trotting along with big '■ SEt THAT WOMAN ! " bales upon their backs, and there are four fellows carrying a monster on a pole between them. They don't seem to have any drays or truck-teams here." " Well, they surely have surplus backs enough to carry everything, and there are precious few streets where a truck-team could navigate." igS THE GLIST OF THE GOLDEN HORN. " Great Scott ! " Roy gasped, catching Scott by the arm, " is that a storm cloud or the ace of spades ? " " I reckon it's the Moor of Venice, lost his way home. He 'pears to be looking for something," Scott replied, as a huge fellow from Zanzibar lounged leisurely through the crowd. He was black as black could be, and in the curious characteristic of extremes which marks humanity the wide world over, where it follows natural inclinations and not the artifice of fashion, he was wrap- ped from head to foot in a robe of muslin as white as the driven snow. Then they wandered away and into the Mosque of St. Sophia. Here and there among its massive pillars, people were kneel- ing on little mats, bare- footed, always facing in one direction, bowing, bending forward, touching their foreheads to the ground. In another part of the mosque white-haired and long-bearded fellows sat upon the floor, with open books on little desks before them, shouting and gesticulating to curiously dressed men lying on the floor about them. " Maybe this is a Mohammedan Sundajr-school," Scott suggested. There was no way for them to find out that really they had come very near the truth. The Mohammedan holy day is Friday, but without re- gard to that teachers always sit at those little desks, expounding the Koran to anv who will come and listen. Then they wandered on again, and in ten minutes were in an entirely different quarter from anything which they had seen before. Houses, dress, faces, language — everything seemed changed. 'h\z. '^^-i.-Vv.^ ^^P ^^^-<^ _:>*. " TAKE YOUR LAST PEEP AT CONSTANTINOPLE. sentence, at which Roy shrugged his shoulders, for he was not so fond as Scott, of that vernacular which so often distinguishes his countrymen abroad. When the Russians returned to the Snowbird the boys learned that everything was arranged to their best advantage. Captain Downing had 20S THE GLJST OF THE GOLDEN HORN. taken everything available in plate, jewels and money from the estate. The Government was convinced that he was a fraud, and directed the two officers to continue with the boys, and render every possible assist- ance in arresting and returning the fugitives, or securing the wealth they had carried away. " I'd like to see the fellow who dares say anything to me against the Tzar of Russia," Scott exclaimed, tossing his head under his new fez, and pulling up one sleeve a little as he stood bv the helm ready to turn the Snowbird to the wind when the anchor floated. " You're right," said Roy; " but while you're about it, take your last peep at Constantinople. Who knows when or how we shall ever see it again ? " So they saw their first and last of Constantinople, and turned their faces again toward the dancing waves of the beautiful bay beyond, where sails were darting to and fro. They were already anxious to be with them. THE BEAUTIFUL BAY. CHAPTER XII. SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. THE anchor rose, the sails filled, the Snowbird passed through the Hellespont where Leander swam, and out of the Dardanelles, with her white wings spread to their utmost capacity. The sheathing had been taken off her bows, and all the marks of ice obliterated by a coat of paint, while crossing Russia. Her broken gear had all been re- placed with new, and a prettier little vessel never sailed the waters of the Levant. " I suppose we should follow the steamer into every port where she stopped," said the captain ; and Roy and Scott agreeing, he made the first landing at Smyrna. At the head of a long bay the little city of Smyrna lies nestling at the base of a mountain. Its white walls and flat roofs shone in the sun- light as they approached, in sharp contrast with the dense green about them and the black water at their base, making a picture so attractive that the boys longed to go on shore, and even suggested going on to the ruins of the great city of Ephesus, beyond the hills, where the gorgeous temple of Diana stood, a little inland from Smyrna. But distance gave enchantment to the view, and nearness took it away again. By the time they reached the stone pier the beauty was all gone. Narrow streets and filthy alleys, half of them arched over the top, where the houses met for mutual support, were the reality of the pretty picture they had been watching. 209 2IO SE.4I'!C//JNG THE HOL Y LAND. F'rom the deck they saw enough of Smyrna, and fortunately did not penetrate those damp alleys, where half-naked natives, men, women and children, sit, with their backs against the walls, kneading and rolling figs all day long. The figs have been picked and dried, and must be rolled and crushed and softened j,*?-^^?-^ _s,__ again to be packed for ,|V-" :"&?_ Western markets. Among -'""^' ' 1^, the stores taken on at Smyr- ,. V :. _ . " "% na were several boxes of . " :. those famous figs, and as the ^s> ' -" ' \. -. boys did not see the process of preparing them for box- ing, they enjoyed the fruit. Beyroot was their next stopping place. And that, too, was beautiful from the bay. It lay in a half-circle under the shelter of mount- ains, and with the glass the boys obtained their first glimpse of the great ships of the desert, as a caravan came over the hills toward the city from Damascus. It was a fascinating picture, and as the boys stood watching it through the telescope, Scott exclaimed : " I'm going to have a camel ride before I leave this part of the world, see if I d'on't ! " " You may have more than you bargain for, I'm thinking," Roy re- plied. " What if Captain Downing strikes for the interior .? " " \\'e strike after him, I suppose. It's through Arctics and Tropics, isn't it.? " said Scott. " Of course it is," Roy answered ; " but how little we knew of what was before us when we made that compact." " We don't know much of what's before us now," Scott suggested. " But we know an everlasting lot about what's behind us that was be- fore us then, and somehow I'm not half so nervous now as I was before we rooted him out of his hole." " That's so," said Scott decidedly. " He's running away now, and LOADING THE CATTLE. SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. 21 it's not half so uncertain following a fellow who's running from you as it is coming up to a fellow hidden somewhere behind a wall." At their next stopping place, while the officer made his inquiries the- boys watched a scow filled with Syrian cattle, run alongside of a steamer bound to Constantinople. The deck was nearly twelve feet above the scow. " I wonder how they'll manage to ship those creatures," Roy re- marked ; but his curiosity was soon satisfied by a scene of fiendish cruelty which is practiced every day along that coast, to supply the markets of Turkey from the green pastures of Syria. The steamer's derrick chain was lowered, the hook was fastened in a strong rope tied round the animal's horns, and the steam turned on. The cow was caught up from the scow by her head, swunij out in mid air, pulled over the deck and lowered into the cattle pen, between decks. As the poor creatures banged against the side of the steamer sometimes a horn would break and they would drop back again, when the rope would be put around their necks, and once more the engine would pull them up. In the peculiar fascination of anything horrible, the boys stood watching, till Scott, pale and excited, muttered : " If I only had the power, I'd hang every brute on that deck to the yard arm and see how he liked it," and with that he turned and went into the cabin. EPHESUS. " Jaffa is our next stop, and there we shall land," said the officer, as they set sail again. " The steamer we passed is the one they took. She's made a quick passage. They went to Alexandria and returned to Jaffa, where they left the steamer; but they landed only two boxes with them, and have none on board. They must have disposed of the rest in some way at Alexandria." 214 SEARCHJNG THE HOLY LAND. Jaffa is the old Bible town of Joppa. It has always been one of the most important ports of Syria, but has the poorest harbor in the world. Two miles from the landing they were obliged to drop anchor; but necessity is the mother of invention, and a large navy of flat-bottomed boats lay about the walls of Jaffa, ready to dodge among the rocks, over the breakwater on the top of a wave, and place themselves at the service of every visitor. The boys with the two Russians took the first boat to reach them. The captain of the surf boat was a wild, cadaverous-looking Arab, but r.EVKOOT AND THE SHIPS OK THE DESERT. making a frantic struggle to smile he said to Roy, who was nearest him : " Musstakee guide. Fuss-class guide, me. Speakee fuss-class Eng- lish. Here, you! Uppee dere Simmontannerous. Bottom side, big one rock, Jonah sittee down when whale spittee out. Fuss-class guide, me." Scott caught the side of the boat and laughed till the tears rolled down his face. Roy turned to him, remarking: " I say, Scott, if there's a joke in sight half-big enough for that I wish you'd explain it. I couldn't make out a word." SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. 217 THE CAPTAIN. ^^^^S^^ " Why, Roy, where s all your Sunday-school training? Our friend here declared that he was a first-class guide and spoke first-class English, and to prove it he stated that one of the buildings on yonder height was Simon the Tanner's house, and that the big rock out there was where Jonah landed when the whale spit him out. I've half a mind to hire him." " If you want to act as interpreter, go ahead," Roy replied, as the boat drew up at a flight of slimy and green stone steps, leading up to the custom house. While the Russians were making the necessary inquiries, Scott and Roy stood side by side as usual, looking in every direction. Almost the first object to attract their attention was another water- carrier, shouting at the top of his lungs, but never looking up to see whether any one heard him or not. " I wonder what he is say- ing," Roy remarked, when a young Jew standing near them replied : " He is only repeat- ing the usual water-carrier's cry: ' Ho ! ye who are thirsty ! Here is wine and milk all for nothing ! ' " " He got that out of the Bible ! " Scott exclaimed. " On the contrary," replied the Jew, " the Prophet Isaiah borrowed the water-carrier's cry to begin, his grandest ap- peal to the people." " Does he expect people to believe that he has wine and milk .? " Roy asked. • " Oh ! by no means," said the Jew. '• It is onlv a cus- THE INEVITABLE. 2lS SEARCHIXG THE HOL Y LAXD. torn. If he had dates to sell he would C17 figs, because they are better." " That is a curious custom," said Scoct. " It seems to be old as the hills, but I reckon it's about the way people advertise in our papers at home," Roy suggested. By this time the Russians came up, and they adjourned to a room in the inn of Jaffa, to consult. A besaar sat at the inn door to welcome them. He received their coins without a sign of thanks, but they were too much in haste to care. ■ AT THE INN DOOR." Captain Downing and his daughter had arrived, and had gone to Jerusalem, three days before. They had evidently gone to Alexandria, as a blind, in case they were followed. They had left most of their lug- gage there, and the ofificer suspected they had shipped it upon some steamer through the Red Sea, to India, Ceylon or Australia, intending to follow it by some other route, and go on in that way to America. " We can follow the luggage or follow them," he said. "Where the treasure is there will the heart be," Roy repeated. " They will certainly come to their trunks and boxes some time." SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. Scott sug^siested. 221 " Why not follow both ? " How ? " Roy asked. " Why, we can go to Jerusalem and find out how they head, if we can't find them, and the Snoivbird can take the captain and officer to THE TOWER OF RAMLEH. Alexandria and see where the luo;oracre went If it turns out as we sus- pect we can go overland and the captain by the Red Sea." " Good idea! " Roy exclaimed, slapping Scott on the shoulder. The Russians also approved, and the boys started at once for Jerusalem, leav- ing the Snowbird to wait their arrival there before sailing. The moon was rising as they passed the famous old tower of Ramleh, where so many crusaders lie buried. They could not sleep. Who could, •during his first journey in the Holy Land ? The serious element was yet 222 SEARCJIIXG THE HOLY LAA'D. lacking, for the various places of historic interest failed to possess more than a semblance of reality ; still it was all wonderful, to be passing through the plain of Sharon, the valley where Samson set the three hundred foxes free in the ripening grain, with fire brands on their tails, the huts of Kirjath-jearim where the Ark of the Covenant rested, the village where the penitent thief was born, the birthplace of John the Baptist, the hills where Saul fought the Philistines, the valley of Ajalon where Joshua told the moon to stand, and the brook Kedron where David found the five smooth stones to fit his sling. When they reached the brow of the last hill, however, and looked down upon Jerusalem, the past all vanished in a moment and the impor- THE OLD GRAY WALLS OF JEKUSALE.NL tant business of the hour replaced it. Again they must rely entirely upon their own resources, and there is nothing that will bring out the infinite resources of an intelligent boy like being obliged to rely upon them. They approached the solid gray walls as few pilgrims ever came to tot "■^fti-^' ' ft jm liSm l^l^l^l^l^^^^^^ I If I iiajiitaiiiiiiaaMfftll SEARCHING THE HOL V LAND. 225 the Holy City. They saw the Tower of David, with the Turkish flag fly- ino- above it, but it meant only business to them at that moment. It was in the gray light of early morning. There was a grand hub- bub about the Jaffa gate of Jerusalem. There always is at daylight, for the caravans of merchan- dise constantly arriving at this commercial center of Southern Syria, usually reach their destination during the night or early in the morning, and must wait outside the gate till sunrise, when Turkish sol- diers swing back the great doors. Caravans were ap- proaching from as far away as the eye could reach, but the boys only waited a moment to in- spect the strange picture, then they entered through the needle's eye — a small door swinging in the great orate. " 'Twould be rather hard for one of those camels to get through there," Roy said as he stepped over the high sill. " A camel without a saddle or burden of any kind can do it by trying hard," said an old man, standine inside the gate, who overheard the remark. " And so can a rich man squeeze into heaven." It was a bit of unexpected philosophy to find at the gate of Jerusalem, but it was philosophy, nevertheless ; a profound, philosophical adjustment ENTRANCE TO THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY 5EPULCHER. 226 SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. of analogy, at least, and Roy and Scott both turned back and looked at the needle's eye and thought it over. After an early breakfast at the hotel, and assuring themselves that at least the captain and Louise were not stopping there, the boys started out with a guide to wander about the city. They had only their eyes and wits to serve them, and they proposed to make the most of them. " They reached here at least two days ago," said Roy. " If they are still here we ought to be able to find out where. They will probably go about to see something and we may meet them. If they are not here we must find out how they went away and where." " That is the long and short of it," Scott replied. " This is the Via Dolorosa, down which Christ carried the cross," the guide remarked in his professional monotone. The boys glanced rever- ently at the Way of Pain for a moment. A city wall rose on one side and a house wall of solid stone upon the other, while far ahead a building completely arched the way. Then they continued their con- versation. The fellow went on talking as he was accus- tomed to. He pointed out the place where the Ecce Homo stairs had stood, and showed them the Judgment Hall, the semblance of lips in a block of granite laid in the wall, where he said one of the rocks had cried out against the injustice of the persecutors. At last they approached a small square, at the end of which stood a massive building, without form or S3'Stem, rising in eccentric towers and shapeless domes. There were two great doors opening upon the court, but one of them was closed with masonry. THli MOSQUE OF OMAR. SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. 229 Here the guide grasped Scott's arm. " The Church of the Holy Sepulcher ! " he cried. " The Church of the Holy Sepulcher," Scott repeated, rousing him- self. " Let's go in." " What a pandemonium they do keep up in there. I don't wonder WOMEN AT THE FOUNTAIN OF BETHESDA, the Turkish Government stations a guard of Mohammedan soldiers inside the door to prevent the Christians from fighting. The different creeds worshiping in those chapels, looked as though they would fly at one another upon the slightest provocation," Scott remarked as they came out. " But it made a fellow feel pretty solemn going down into that vault in the natural rock, through one little chamber and into another with only those sputtering tapers for light, and to hear that priest, with his deep voice, say : ' Here sat the angels, one at the head, the other at the feet, and here the Good Lord lay.' Do you suppose it can be true?" " This is the Mosque of Omar," said the guide, later, " erected by Omar, the second Caliph after the Prophet. It covers Mt. Moriah, and one wall rests upon one of the foundation walls of Solomon's Temple." 2^0 SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. " Take us to the hotels and boarding houses," said Roy. And with- out a word the guide led the wa}'. He could not understand them. " Have you noticed, Roy, that there's not a wheeled vehicle in the city, nor any street wide enough for one t " Scott remarked as they con- tinued the search; but the day ended with as little information as it began. In the morning they heard of a veteran Jew who controlled the materials and fitted out most of the parties leaving Jerusalem for the in- terior. They went in search of him. He had fitted out a wealthy patron the night before, for a long journey, and had made the start with him. He would not be back till the following morning;. No one else could give them any information. " Twenty-four hours. Now's your time," Scott exclaimed, turning to OLIVES IN THE GAKDliN OF GIiTHSEiMANE. the guide. " What have you got that you can show us in twenty-four hours ? " "There is Bethesda, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, Bethany and Bethlehem," the fellow replied. SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. 231 They left the dragoman's office mounted upon tliree good Arab horses. They rode out of St. Stephen's Gate, passing the Pool of Bethesda, and the fountain, with the proverbial company of women about it filling earthen jugs and carrying them away balanced upon their heads. They rode down the valley of Jehoshaphat, over the brook Kedron "and this is BETHANY I ' and up the way that leads over the Mount of Olives, till they came to the iron gate, guarded by a Latin monk, as the entrance to the Garden of Gethsemane. "Some of these olive-trees are more than two thousand years old, at any rate," said Roy; ''and the Mount of Olives is the same, whether the garden is in the right place or not." Then crossing the lower mound of the Mount of Olives, they rode on to Bethany. " Do you know, Scott?" said Roy, "these things seem to grow con- stantly more sacred and interesting." " I suppose the trouble is we didn't know enough to pick out what was true from all the rest at Jerusalem ; but such things as Bethany are real facts," Scott replied. " Look at that old ruined tower. What a beautiful 2 32 SEARCHING THE HOLY LAND. situation. For an Oriental city, I think Bethanv is the most invitino- we have seen." "And this is Bethlehem ! '" Roy said, sometime later, as they cantered up a broad road toward an arched gate in tlie massive but crumblino- wall of that most favored city of all Judea. " How closely all the houses are packed together in the Eastern towns,"' he continued. " The more vacant land there is in the neio-hbor- hood the tighter they crowd their houses together, and the narrower they make their streets." '' I know it; and up there in the North, where it is one perpetual shiver all the year round, they seem to think that the farther they can get away GATE OF EF.THLEHEM. from their neighbors the better. I should think these folks would smother packed in so tight," said Scott. " And it's just as curious about the food," Roy added. "You know how they wanted everything cold up there, till they'd eat raw meat and eat it frozen, without salt or pepper, and like it best that way. Here they cook everything to death. They want it hot enough to scald a J "JEHU ! llli's A STUDY ! ' SEARCHING '•^HE HOLY LAND. 235 fellow, and make it so fiery with red pepper and such stuff, that I am fairly raw inside." The next morning the boys found the venerable ]qw on hand. THE T.AST GT.IMPSE OF JERUSALEM. "Jehu! but he's a study!" Scott whispered as they waited for an interview. " He's got rather a fine look about him," Roy replied. " Of course he's dirty, but we've found precious few who were not since we left home." A moment later he approached them, and before they could speak, he inquired in very good English : " Have I the honor of addressing Mr. Royal Sargent and Mr. Scott Campbell ? " Their cheeks grew pale. The old dragoman must have noticed it, for without waiting for an answer, he continued : " I have a letter here for 3'ou, written by a young lady who, with her father, left for Damascus the night before last. She described you so perfectly that I knew you at once." " To Damascus ! and where from there ? " Scott gasped, as Roy took the letter. " I do not know. The gentleman purchased his outfit outright, of 236 SEARCHIXG THE HOLY LAND. me, and I asked no questions. He took my best white camel ; I sold the animal too cheap. I am sorry." Without a word, Roy broke the seal and read : I saw you tliis moiiiing fiuin my window. I tried to call, but father caught me back, and we start for Damascus to-niglit. Something is terribly wrong. What is it .> Are you here looking for me .> Is something wrong about father? If you are coming to find us, come to Dam.iscus. I cannot escape, for father watches nie all the time; but I will find some way to let you know, at Damascus, if we are there. If we go away before vou come I will be sure you know where we go. Oh ! I wish I knew what was the matter. Louise. Scott took the letter and read it. " Can you fit us out for Damascus? " he asked. " Certainly," replied the dragoman. " Horses or camels .'' " " Horses, I think," said Scott, looking at Roy. " We understand them better, and this is important." " Three horses, a dragoman, three packmules, two Arab servants. They shall be ready at sundown." " And the price .•* " Scott asked. " To hire or to purchase.? " inquired the Jew. " To purchase," Scott replied. The bargain was made. The horses were selected. They tele- graphed the Snowbird to go to Alexandria and return to Beyroot, as the nearest port to Damascus, and there wait for word from them. " So," said Scott, with a deep sigh, when they sat alone in their room at the hotel, after lunch, " all is ready. It is five hours- more to dinner, and an hour for that before we start. Let's turn in and have a nap." CHAPTER XIII. FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. IT was two o'clock in the morning when they reached the brook Cherith, where the ravens fed EHjah, and where there still are a number of caves. A short distance beyond they passed the ruins of old Jericho, whose great walls fell to the trumpets of the hosts of Israel, and new Jericho, whose miserable mud wallshave been rising and falling ever since. The dragoman whom the Jew engaged for them was a Bedouin of the Bedouins — Raschid Airikat — a sheik of a family of sheiks dating back to the conquest. He made a very good dragoman, nevertheless, and spoke ver}' good English. He suggested that by a slight detour from Jericho, they could go to the Dead Sea and ride up the banks of the Jordan to the ford, where the mules and servants could go by a straight road and have everything" ready for them when they arrived. The full moon was. shining as they rode down the steep hill from the plateau of Jericho and started over the desert sand for the Dead Sea, twelve miles awa}'. " I thought a desert was nothing but sand, but look at the clumps of low bushes every now and then. They look like sage," Roy remarked. " They are ; desert sage shrubs," said the sheik. " In the wet season there are heavy dews upon the deserts, and the shrubs grow a little. Then they dry up and wait, as your trees do in winter." 237 238 FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. " I thought a desert was flat," said Scott, " and here this is a perfect series of low hills, like great ocean waves." " We are four thousand feet lower than Jerusalem and a thousand feet lower than the Mediterranean Sea," said the sheik. "Jehu!" Scott exclaimed, "I don't wonder there's a pond at the bottom. But how does the water a:et out .? " " There is no outlet," replied the guide. " The Jordan pours into it, but the sun alone has to take the water out." " I've heard that there's no living thing in those waters," Scott said, as they came to the silent sea, flashing in the moonlight. " The fish that THE FORD OF THK JORDAN. come down the Jordan die when they strike the sea, and some one at the hotel said that birds flying over it would drop dead." " I reckon that's a yarn," Roy remarked ; " but just look there." All about them were fantastic forms caused by incrustations .from spray blown over the rocks, with its deposit of salt and other substances. The sheik was pointing to one of them, strongly resembling a woman, and remarked, " It is said that this is Lot's wife." " There are lots more of them," Scott remarked. " I wonder who the rest are." A moment more and the two boys were plunging in the dense water, tjlili ill* 111 I in I il| I Mil n II iliiiaiiiiSBiiiyi iii('(|iT/:ii;:!iiiii;v;iN|.iMiiffliiii'a!Fd^^-i:-iW(;ii;. ilm tiiilli'' liiiiifii I 1lilH:|i|ii|n,,.,fj'i';'' "'" ''fir FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. 241 trying to sink, trying to make a hand or foot stay down, while they kept bobbing up and rolling about like corks. " A farm Down East wouldn't hire me to go into that water again," Roy exclaimed as they rode away, smarting and burning from head to foot from the effect of the Dead Sea water. At the ford of the Jordan Roy and Scott stripped again and plunged in. There was a caravan crossing at the time, carrying their clothes in bundles on their heads. "We are as well dressed as they are," said Scott, "and it's simply a military necessity. In five minutes more I believe my skin would burn off." " CITY BY THE WAY." Their tents were pitched upon the further side, and breakfast was prepared by the tim.e they were ready. " This is the only possible ford for miles," remarked the sheik. " Then of course it's where the Children of Israel crossed," said Roy, "for the Bible says it was over against Jericho." pjiOM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. M wonder if this is where - what was his name, now, the general who cHpped in the Jordan and cured himself of leprosy ? - I never thought of that while 1 was in bathing. It kind of makes me crawl, sa>d Scott '' Well, I washed the Dead Sea away by dipping in the Jordan, and THF. SEA. OF GALILEE. now I'n. o-oin. to turn in and sleep for ten solid houij," Roy replied. "Howioe^ it feel, Roy, waking up on the other side of Jordan? Scott asked, as they were roused an hour before sunset. "Feels to me as though I'd like to take another nap Roy leplied. He .arleadv on time, however, and they continued ^l-u- purney no^^^ ward, taking advantage of occasional cities -;d ^owns by the way for e^t and food, or tenting when there was no other shelter ^ ^and pass n the Sea of Galilee ]ust as the sun was nsing -^-:;^IJ'^^^ ^ climbino- the hills toward "that opal set in emerald the "^^^^^;°"^/;^^y of Damascus, Wing in the incomparable valley at the confluence of the ^'t:::!:' :^XS:S:^'adventures, with easily frightened robbers, anc^:;iJd m^y caJ^ns coming and goin^ ^ tribes of Arabs moving FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. 245 over the plains of Syria, but the way was too much frequented to give freedom to the wild life which the Bedouin fancies, and several times Raschid took a longer way, to avoid certain dangerous localities, though he prudently refrained from telling the boys what he was doing. The moon was almost setting behind them as they crossed a low PUBLIC GARDEN, DAMASCUS. line of hills and a great gleam of white flashed in the valley before them. " Frost ! " Scott exclaimed. " Snow ! deep snow ! " cried Roy. The sheik, with a grim facial contortion, which was meant for a smile, replied : " It is the white roofs of Damascus." " Damascus ! " said Scott. " Damascus ! " Roy repeated. " It is the oldest city in the world," the sheik continued, "and the most magnificent. When Mohammed was a young man, with his uncle's caravan he came across these hills, but here, upon the heights of Silihneh >46 FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. he stopped. ' Man can have but one paradise. Mine is above,' he said, and refused to go nearer to Damascus." From the hills the white walls seemed to rise in the midst of beautiful oardens. These gardens, however, were often in inner courts completely surrounded by the homes of the wealthy, whose outer walls were as gray and dilapidated as those of Jerusalem or any other Oriental city they had visited. It has been the prevailing custom of ages gone, and is throughout ONE OF HER PUBLIC PLACES. that Eastern world to-day, to beautify the interior and let the passer by see only dust and dirt and somber walls. In her public places, however, Damascus exposes even to the stranger rare glimpses of her beauty, and for ao-es has been known to the Persian, the Turk and the Arab as the ■' THEY WERE ALWAYS CROWDED.' FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. 249 Pearl of the Orient. Fountains still play, and hanging gardens fill the air with perfume as they did before the time of Christ. The streets were narrow and irregular, but the boys were becoming used to that ; while the bazaars of Damascus surpassed even those of Constantinople. Men appeared upon the streets, and merchants sat among their goods, WEALTHY CITIZENS. dressed in magnificent costumes, and all the rare products of the Orient appeared in the little stalls that lined the streets. There were fruits and perfumes from Arabia, spices and brilliant dyes from Babylonia; Nubia and Greece contributed their dates and grapes, Egypt and the valley of the Euphrates decorated those stalls with ostrich plumes. Darfour and the heart of the Dark Continent sent their skins and ivory. From Aleppo and India came laces, satins and muslins in wonderful handiwork. Cey- lon and Linga sent from their treasures of pearls. China contributed her silks and porcelains. Turkish rugs and marvelous Bagdad carpets struggled in vain to outrival the home productions of Damascus. The Levant sent her choicest tobacco, the Moors their long-barreled match- 250 FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. locks, all inlaid with mother-of-pearl, to aid the curving Damascus blade. All the wide world seemed to contribute to that bewildering bazaar. Everything useful and ornamental, that could relieve a necessity or supply a luxury to one of her citizens, could be found upon those streets. And they were always crowded. Even from sunset to sunrise people were constantly moving in the brilliant illumination of swinging lamps and burning torches. They entered the court of an ancient temple in a secluded place CALL TO PRAYER. where they could yet be near the center of the city, and while preparing for a short sleep before starting upon their search through Damascus, an Arab who had followed them from outside the city, came slowly up to Scott. At first Scott thought him a beggar or a thief, and was on the _as ' IN th:2 old temple court." FROM THE DEAD SEA TO DAMASCUS. 25" point of driving him away, when he noticed that he was trying to attract his attention to a piece of brown paper which he held in his hand. At last he thrust it before his face, inquiring : " Dis here b'long you ? " Scott shook his head, but out of curiosity opened the paper, started, stared at it in the dim light of their camp fire, called to Roy, and the two boys, kneeling beside the fire in the old temple court, read together the brief message : "To Bagdad, then somewhere south. Don't come. It is too far. If you do come, you shall hear from me at Bagdad, but better go home. When my father stops I will send you word. O, dear ! what is the matter.' " They sent the message to the captain of the S^iowbird at Beyroot, the seaport of Damascus, with orders to meet them or communicate at Bushire, on the Persian Gulf at the mouth of the Euphrates. They would have started on at once, but the sheik stubbornly refused. The animals were too tired, their stores needed replenishing, and above all, the way to Bagdad was dangerous. They must wait till a caravan was starting, and join it for their own safety. " If a caravan starts within twelve hours we will join it. If not, we shall go on alone, if we have to fight our way through the whole popula- tion of Asia," Scott exclaimed, " and you can go with us if you like, or you can go back to Jerusalem. Twelve hours from this minute, you hear me, we shall be on the road. There's the call to prayer; you can mark the time." From a minaret not far away that musical call rang over the white walls of Damascus: " La Illaha il Allah Mahamoud Rousol il Allah ! " Raschid bowed, turned his face toward Mecca and becjan his morninsf prayer, while Scott and Roy went into the tent and threw themselves down to sleep. CHAPTER XIV. OVER SAND AND SEA, 'HATEVER an Arab must do that he does, and when the first mugreet sounded from tlie minaret Raschid was ready to start for Bagdad. There were no others going that way, but a large caravan, with an ample escort, had left Damascus the night before. They could easily overtake it, and thus insure their safety upon the long and dangerous journey over the silver-gray sand. They rode steadily onward all night, making what was reckoned a two nights' journey as marked by caravan stages, and came upon the company early in the morning, just as it was preparing to rest for its second day. Long journeys are usually made at night, not so much be- cause it is cooler, as because a camel will only eat by daylight. He uses his eyes to select his food instead of guiding his lips with his nose, like occidental animals, and must see what he eats or refuse it. The caravan had spread itself over a large mountain khan, a walled inclosure about a well. They are to be found at regular intervals all of the way from Damascus to Teheran. As the boys came down the hill toward the khan the animated picture appeared in all its inevitable fascination. There was shouting and w^rangling among at least a hundred men, of many Eastern nations. Camels and dromedaries were grunting" and groaning as they dropped upon their knees, then upon their haunches, in the warmest spot which =54 OVER SAND AND SEA. 257 they could finu. Some were still at the well, and some, not ready to lie down, were quietly gazing about them, with their great, soft, dreamy eyes, twisting their frowzy heads about on their long, curving necks. A vulture started from the crags above, with a wild scream of dissatis- CARAVAN ON Tilt MARCH. faction. There was too much life in the picture to please his fancy, and he fiew away over the distant trail to see if any of the camels or mules had fallen by the way. He is the great desert scavenger, and remnants of his feasts, divided with jackals, mark every caravan trail that crosses a desert, in skeletons growing whiter and whiter in the sun. When a camel lay down the owner fastened him by tying a cord about his folded leg, so that he could not straighten it, and when the day's rest was over he brought the creature slowly to his feet again by a series of jerks upon the halter and punches on the shoulder. During each operation the camel grunted and groaned as though his very life was departing. The path followed the general course of the Euphrates River for a time, and here and there between them and the river stretched broad 258 OVER SAND AND SEA. plains covered with grain. It was planted by Bedouin tribes where pos- sibilities of irrigation gave them an opportunity to subdue the desert sand. All through the grain fields perches were erected upon four poles thrust into the ground. On each of these perches sat two or three naked little Arabs, with piles of stones beside them and slings in their hands, to keep the birds away. " Good shot ! " cried Scott, as they watched a little fellow use his sling. " He killed that bird on the wing, more than fifty feet away." " I shouldn't wonder if King David got his skill in practicing at some such business as this," said Roy. " I've seen ever so many things in the last two weeks that are just like Bible stories. I don't believe these parts have changed very much in the last two thousand years." For their own convenience and to avoid the attention they would otherwise attract, the boys had purchased native clothes and pronounced them vastly more comfortable than American costumes. The abbe, a large white cloak, hung so loose about them that the sunlight had little effect. There was nothing to cramp them during a long night in the saddle, and the effie, like a huge napkin bound upon their heads, was very much more convenient than a hat. It was a curious sensation, however, ''^^- A CAMEL FASTENED. and Scott declared that he became accustomed to seeing Roy dressed like a heathen much quicker than he did to finding himself sailing under the same rigoins;. " It isn't much like walking the deck, and I don't think I should like OVER SAND AND SEA. ^59 to do it for a living," Roy said one day as they rode along a little in ad- vance of the caravan, to escape the dust ; for they were again upon the unbroken sand and " out of sight of land," as they termed the green fields and an occasional oasis. " Well, it's better than catching cod, any way," Scott replied. " But what's that — a thunder storm coming up? " " Rain on a desert ! " Roy exclaimed, " rain on a desert ! whoever AFTER THE BIRDS. heard of such a thing? They didn't tell us to bring umbrellas." " But it is a thunder cloud, and a big one," Scott insisted. Just then Raschid came riding up. " Looks like rain," Scott remarked. " It will rain, and in five minutes," replied the sheik in great excite- ment. " It wall rain sand ! Cover your faces, and don't for anything get it in your eyes or throats." 26o OVER SAND AND SEA. He set the example, but Scott opened his mouth for one more inquiry^ when a sharp gust of wind struck him and instantly his mouth was tilled with gritty sand as fine as emery. He decided not to ask the question. The horses began to shiver and tremble, and huddle together. Ras- SAND STOKM IN THE IjEstRT. chid took the front, with another Arab who had accompanied him. Scott dismounted and crouched behind his horse, while Roy turned his back upon the hurricane as far as he could, by bending down over his horse's neck. In the caravan just behind them, the camels all lay down, twisting their heads round between their leo-s and shutting;: their nostrils so tight that one could hardly have found them. The men too lay down under shelter of the camels. The storm was not long, though severe, but as they rode on, with cracked lips and bloodshot eyes, Raschid told them of sand storms through which he had passed when men and camels were completely buried before the sand ceased drifting. RASCHID AlRIKAr AT REST. OVER SAND AND SEA. 263 At last they camped in a beautiful oasis only one night's journey from Bagdad. . Toward the end of a long journey camels move very slowly. They did not reach this oasis till nearly noon. The next stage also was a long one, and the leader of the caravan announced that they should not leave the place till the afternoon of the following day. The boys were deter- mined to go on, but Raschid explained to them that the last stage before Bag- dad was particularly dangerous from robbers, and that beside the trouble they would surely receive if they met with wandering tribes, there was an unwritten chivalry of the desert which t^p wanderkr. compelled one who had enjoyed the protection of a caravan to render service in return and remain under command of the leader to the end. Reluctantly, they remained. They were not sorry, however, for during the early evening they made their first attempt at camel riding. Raschid borrowed three camels from a friend whose acquaintance he had made, and he and the boys started round the oasis, much to the amusement of the Arabs. A camel steps forward with both feet on one side, then with both feet on the other side, swinging back and forth like a ship at sea, and as he moves forward with each step the fellow seated upon the hump con- tinually describes a complete circle. Raschid Airikat sat upon his camel, leisurely smoking while it ran, as much at rest as though he had been rocking in a cradle, but Scott and Roy, the moment they found themselves whirling, sure that they were about to fly off in one direction or another, clutched the saddle as they would a life rope in a storm. " That's the worst ship I've been aboard of yet," Scott gasped, as the camels returned and with many a grunt and groan lay down, for the riders to dismount. " It's funny how they steer with just one rein, like the Lapps," said Roy. "And have you noticed that many of the Arabs have only one rein for their horses, too ? " " They guide the horses with their knees," remarked the sheik. *' Press upon one side and an Arab horse will always turn to the other. We use our hands for fighting, not for holding reins." 264 OVER SAND AND SEA. As Scott and Roy sat upon the edge of the oasis that night, looking at a camel that had wandered off over the sand, an Arab approached, watching them closely and looking cautiously about in every direction. Seeming" satisfied at last, and sitting down close to them, he said : "THE CARAVAN STARTED AGAIN." "Two people from far across sea, in great danger, but not know." "Danger!" Scott repeated, lifting his eyebrows a little, for he was too bold and inexperienced to realize the full import of the word. "Sand storms are tough, but not dangerous." " I speak of storm that sweeps the breath away," replied the Arab. "Out of Damascus there passed a wind one da\% with a sunbeam in its breast. The wind is sharp and keen. The sunbeam soft and beautiful. ,^Xf^/^.6(. " GLOOMY, DINGY, DIRTY. OVER SAND AND SEA. 267 Into the Arab's ear the wind whisper: 'In the Khan by ruined temple are two from far over sea. If they follow where I go Arab follow too. Send them away upon the long journey. Bring me word at Bagdad, with good proof, and have a piece of gold for every finger on Arab's, hands.' Then into Arab's eyes the sunbeam shone and shook her head. Day and night I follow, from Damascus to Bagdad. I think of ten gold pieces and lift the knife. I think of the sunbeam and it falls again. Now I tell for strangers go Bagdad and wind may whisper in another ear when Sunbeam cannot shake her head. God is God. There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet. Whatever of good betideth cometh from Him. Whatever of evil is thine own doing. God go with you." With that blessins; from the Koran the Mohammedan rose to leave. " Stop a bit," said Scott. " He wanted you to kill us, did he } " The Arab bowed his head. " You would be willing to do it for ten gold pieces .''" Again he bowed. " It's quite a loss to you, then, to give it up, isn't it.? " " The smile of the sunbeam is greater gain," replied the Arab. " There's your money," said Scott, handing him ten English sovereigns, " and the sun will shine for you beside. Now will you answer a question, honestly } " " By the beard of the Prophet, if I lie may my bones whiten in this sand," he replied. " Are you going to meet them in Bagdad 1 " The Arab shook his head. " Why not ? " " I could not prove that I had sent the strangers upon the long jour- ney. I should receive no money, but a curse." "You know where to find them 1 " The Arab bowed. " Well, here's an idea for you, you old rascal. Here's my watch. He'll know it, for he gave it to me for pulling him out of the water once. Roy, give him that handkerchief with your name on it. There ! kill a cat if you can find one, and sprinkle them with blood. Let him think our bones are bleaching on the sand if it will please him ; I don't care ; and if he pays you ten gold pieces more, why, so much the better for you. Only carry a letter for us to the 'sunbeam and bring us an answer, and you shall have still another reward ; see ? " 268 OVER SAND AND SEA. The Arab bowed his head, and Scott and Roy, with a black crayon, on a strip of white cloth, wrote to Louise that they were still alive, were following close behind and should keep on following; that there was something very wrong, but nothing they could do to set it right except to follow on wherever her father went; that they proposed to follow him to the end of the world, but that no harm should come to any one ; and that sometime they should find an opportunity to see her and tell her all about it. The Arab took the cloth, folded it carefully and put it in his turban, saying: " I will bring answer to the coffee house just outside the river gate of Old Bagdad, upon the other bank of the Tigris." With that he disappeared. The caravan started again late the ne.xt day, and in the gray light of early morning entered the Damascus gate of the gloomy, dingy, dirty city of Bagdad. From the dis- tance it had seemed one vast jungle of beauti- ful o-reen, but all the foliaoe was in the hidden courts. The streets were narrower than the narrowest the boys had seen. The walls were crloomier than the or]oomiest. Not a sino;le window was visible anywhere. Even the doors were narrow and low. No sun ever touched the pavement anywhere. As they entered the gate a man took his place in front and walked before the lead camel, shouting : ''Am Amahl Rhue!'' at the top of his lungs, warning people to turn down some side street, out of the way of the caravan, for it was impossible for two camels to pass in many of those narrow streets. " Only look at those creatures," Scott exclaimed as they passed a little open square, less than fifteen feet in width. "Poor wretches!" Roy replied, " living human beings, mortals! im- mortals, I suppose ; why, they are hardly brutes, wallowing in that filth." 'AN OLD FRIKND. OVER SAND AND SEA. 269 " There's an old friend, any way," Scott added as they passed a side street at the corner of which stood a beggar, extending a lank and dirty hand in a mute appeal for charity. " They seem to know how to beg most everywliere. Upon my word, I thought at first the fellow wanted to shake hands with us," Roy replied. " Did you mind the baby, though ! " cried Scott, " the little youngster clinging to his head, with his eyes all covered with flies } He didn't seem to mind 'em much, but if I'd had a bottle of Col. Sellers' Ointment I'd given him a dose. Bet he'd felt better after- ward, even if he didn't know enough to be bothered by them before." " And there's another familiar thino; I see," said Roy. "Jehu! a water-carrier!" Scott exclaimed. " Jerusalem ! but what a face. Roy Sargent, did you ever see the like? Just think of that fellow rigged up in fur and set down among the grinning Lapps. I should think he'd turn the water in that jug into lemonade without sugar! " " Lemonade ! " Roy gasped. " O, Scott! why did you mention that.'' Ld almost walk from here to Damascus for a glass of Aunt Betsey's lemonade." Here and there a mosque, with its slender minaret, claimed a little open space, and at last the caravan entered the great Khan, and the clamor and hubbub of unpacking began. The boys were not anxious to remain longer with the caravan. They had seen enough of camels and Arabs, and were anxious to reach the coffee shop. They simply crossed the Khan, with its open mosque, among vi'hose • ANOTHER FAMILIAR THING. i-JO OVER SAND AND SEA. pillars some people from the caravan were already offering thanks for their safe journey, and beggars were in appropriate positions to receive tliank offerings from such as felt disposed. " Bagdad is the home of the great caliphs, full of all the mysteries of the East," remarked Raschid as they emerged from the narrow streets upon the broad Tigris, rushing between the two cities. Old and New Bag- dad, and rode out upon a bridge of boats, rising and falling and trembling upon the waves rushing under it. " The embankment upon that side of the river was laid by Nebuchad- INTERIOR OF KHAN. nezzar, King of Babylon," Raschid continued, " and the new city upon this side, was built by my great ancestor Haroun el Raschid and his beautiful .queen Zobeide." "And it was here that the foundation for the Arabian Nights was borrowed, I believe," Roy remarked as they entered Old Bagdad, not so old or dilapidated or gloomy, after all, as New Bagdad, many centuries younger. " You should see the interiors of some of the sforcjeous homes behind these walls if you would behold in reality even greater magnificence than is pictured in those tales," Raschid remarked. OVER SAND AND SEA. 273 It seemed so impossible to believe that Roy and Scott set it down as simply a patriotic romance on the part of their guide, glorifying the relic of his ancestors. Indeed, there may have been a little exaggeration in the sheik's estimate, yet it is quite true that the homes of Bagdad are as IN THE MOSQUE. Tnarvelously beautiful and mysterious in their interiors as they are gloomy and plain externally. Old Bagdad, however, was more open, and booths appeared in the broader streets where, in New Bagdad, they were all crowded into narrow market places. In a little ornamented stall a foreign letter-writer sat at work, with his brush and ink-pot, writing a letter. Before him on his gorgeous rug sat one of the pretty belles of Bagdad, looking as though she had come, bodily, from the famous old romance. Beside her sat a black slave, her nurse; and in the momentary glimpse which the boys ob- tained, it was quite evident that the nurse was dictating the letter while the pretty, pale-faced belle sat smiling and nodding her approval to the foreign scribe. " Wonder how our girls at home would like it if that was the only way that they could read and write," said Scott. 74 Ol'ER SAND AND SEA. " I don't know how they would like it," Roy replied, " but I know that I shouldn't like it much." " Look at their shoes standing there on the sill," Scott exclaimed. " They're almost as bad as stilts. I don't wonder they take them off be- fore they try to sit down." " Well, I don't wonder they put them on when they go to walk," Roy replied. " For my part, I should want stilts in good earnest if I was to go far on foot in these filthy streets." Then they passed through the river gate and out upon the broad valley stretching down the banks of the Tigris, through a vast collection of ruins — mosques, palaces and tombs — each with its story of the o-rand days of centuries ago ; but the most attractive sight to them was the coffee house, where they secured a room, with Bagdad rugs for beds, and BAGDAD FROM THE RIVER. Bagdad rugs for chairs, and one little window looking out over the Tigris. " I tell you, I should like to strike a sofa somewhere, or a lounge, and I should like to sleep again in a Christian bed, if it was no better than a bunk on the Snowbird',' said Roy. OVER SAND AND SEA. 75 "Well, so should I, when the time comes," Scott replied; "but under the circumstances, this is good enough for me;" and like an Oriental born and bred he stretched himself upon the mat, with his arm for a. THE COFFEE HOUSE. pillow, and with the effie pulled down over his face was fast asleep in five minutes. As the sun was sinking toward the west the boys sat watching the brilliant glow upon the river and the lights and shadows over the curi- ously tinted bricks of which the walls of New Bagdad are built, when the 276 0]'ER SAND AND SEA. Arab of the oasis suddenly appeared and handed them a letter. It was- hastily written. It simply said : " Father saw you, this morning, at the Khan. We are going by steamer today — South somewhere;. Ceylon, I think. Take care. My lather wants to kill you. Go home, and when he stops wandcripg I will tell you where we are." Scott asked. This morning I go for answer. It was not even signed. " Did you get your money from him ? "Yes; last night, and gave the letter. He try kill me. He see you live. I run. I wait. I watch. Sunbeam drop the letter out of palanquin when it pass me by the wharf." " Has the steamer gone .? " Roy gasped. "An hour ago," replied the Arab. "What does it matter, Roy .^ " Scott asked. "We could not touch him here, and he would have us killed in spite of all that we could do to keep track of ourselves. He's desperate. For my part, I'd much rather he'd show the coward that's in Uf him by running in this way. ^ By and by we shall corner liim somewhere where his wind will fail, and he'll have to lay to. I'm glad he's left this country, any way." " When does the next steamer sail } " asked Roy. " One week," replied the Arab. Roy and Scott looked at each other aghast. " That's more than I bar- gained for," said Scott. " Me, too," said Roy, " and b}' a very large majority." They paid the Arab and sent him away. Then they summoned Raschid and directed him to pro- cure for them the fastest craft of any kind to be found upon the river. He had already sold their horses and mules in the market place for almost as much as they had paid for them in Jerusalem. A MOHAMMED.\N MOSQUE. OVER SAND AND SEA. 277 Raschid had learned to obey, and obey quickly; a difficult lesson for an Arab; and in less than an hour there lay in the river just below the coffee house, as marvelous a craft as ever Yankee sailor stepped upon. It was the orthodox Euphrates boat, however, and no better, no worse — except in age — could have been procured for them. " How did you get it ? " Scott asked. " I bought it for the price of the two mules," said Raschid. " And there was enough besides to pay for fruit and food, which you will find in the cabin." "Where are the men to run her.?" Roy inquired. " There are none," said Raschid. " The boatmen of Bagdad will not move upon the river after dark." " We'll run her ourselves, then ! " Scott exclaimed. " Will you and the mule drivers go with us to help out .? " " We have contracted to follow you, young gentlemen, till you send us back," the sheik replied good-naturedly. " Then hurry the luggage aboard, just as it came from the mules, and push off. We'll find out how to ir.-nage her when we're afloat," said Roy, and in ten minutes they were moving with the current away from Bagdad, toward the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf. What little wind there was blew well for them, and as the sun touched the horizon they succeeded in lifting the second sail. "You can't just call it hoisting," Scott remarked; ''but they're there, all the same." " And likely to stay there," Roy added ; "for I believe it would beat an admiral to get them down again. Hope we don't have any squalls." " By the way. Captain," Scott exclaimed, " how do you like going to sea again.? I can't touch my hat to you, now, but I'll pull down the point of my effie, if that will do 3'ou any good." " What a world of wonders ! " Roy replied. " Suppose, when we were hauling codlines on the ISanks last spring, some one had told us that in less than eight months we should be rigged out like born Arabs, sole owners and officers of a scow like this on the Tigris River? " 'A MARVELOUS CRAFT." 278 OVER SAAD Ai\D SEA. " Look at liow dark it is! " Scott exclaimed, suddenly turning about as he held the bar which moved the rudder. " Five minutes asjo the sun was shining, and now I can hardly see the prow. The sun makes dread- ful easy work of going down in these parts." For their first night "at sea" the boys were afraid to trust either lookout or helm out of their own hands, and they took turns, relieving each other by changing places occasionally as they moved swiftly down the river, with a strong current and a good breeze. " I'ioy," Scott called, "starboard a little and run in toward shore. What are those dark objects moving round there on the bank.? " " Don't know," I'loy replied. " If they're natives we don't want to get too close to them at this time of night." "Wish I had the Snowbird's night glass," Scott muttered. " They're Im 1 M^Effi*-- ''^- - 1 HI ^^^mB l^^^jS;^^^^^ -^=- DARK OBJECTS ON THE BANK. doing something, whoever they are, and there's lots of them. I'm going to call Raschid." The sheik was quickly on his feet. They were near the shore now, and looking for a moment, he muttered : " Crocodiles," and shrugged his shoulders. " Guess we'd better keep in deep water," Roy remarked, putting back the helm. .As morning dawned they passed a small stream flowing into the Tigris. " Look up there, will you, Scott.? " Roy cried, as he stood in his turn in the prow. " For mercy's sake ! It's a grand convention of long- legged storks, flamingoes or something." "That must be where they all come from," Scott replied. " Or where they all go to," Roy added. " I wonder the crocodiles don't go up there hunting." OVER SAND AND SEA. 279 " I should desperately like to take a bath," Scott remarked as Raschid took his position at the prow, and one of the mule drivers, who had been a boatman in his day, relieved Roy at the helm, while the other was cook- ing their breakfast. "Me, too," Roy replied, "but I'm not over anxious to find myself in- side the shell of one of those crocodiles, so I guess I'll eat something and take a nap." The sheik called them before their sleep had half-satisfied them, to; •see two large ostriches that were close upon the river bank. " They are some of my people," said Raschid. "Egypt claims them as her own, and has many more of them than Arabia; but the finest birds in the world and the most beautiful plumage can be found upon the borders of our desert." " I didn't know that we were near Arabia," Scott exclaimed. " Why, we seem to have traveled ten thousand miles in the last three weeks, but we were close to Arabia when we started." " We have been skirting the borders of Arabia ever since we left: Jerusalem," replied Raschid. " And sometimes we have been quite near. Now we are not far from the ancient city of Bashra, upon the great •caravan trail from Mecca to Babylon and Persia." The boys drew a long breath. They could not even yet realize that it was not at least partly a dream. It did not seem possible that they _^ a?'* >ai ^ .,f-^ "A^ ^^^ ^^ ^»^^-£, ^ 1 Rr '"- - A GRAND CONVENTION. were really in the midst of these landmarks of the very oldest civiliza- tion known to history. " What are those people doing over there .? " Scott called, from the prow to Roy, who held the helm, the following day. Roy looked across the plain through which they were passing. ?So OVER SAND AND SEA. There were low, flat huts in sight, as white as the driven snow, and through fields of grain natives were running, franticall)- waving some- thins;, while all about them clouds of dust seemed driftina: in the air. " I know," Scott exclaimed a moment later. " They're locusts, eat- ino; the s:rain, and those folks are after them. See ! the air is full of them, all about us. O, Roy! just look at that cloud of them." A moment later they had no need to look far, for the deck, the masts, the sails, were covered with them, and every one had to lend a hand to drive them off, before they found the food and got into the cabin. Then birds came sailing through the cloud enjoying a grand feast. " I say, Scott," Roy remarked, " between those kytes and crows I'll bet on the kytes. Do you see, a kyte catches a locust in his claw and goes right on flying while he eats, so as to be on hand for another bite the minute one is down, while the crows catch them in their beaks and have to go sit down on a branch to eat." They were anxious to see the ancient city of Bassorah, but there was a oood breeze and a strong current behind them and they decided not to stop. Raschid told them many wonderful tales of the old days of the conquest, when Kahled the Invincible led his victorious Mohammedan armies into Persia from this point, and of that Bedouin boy, Kanana, who, mounted upon a black dromedary, brought a message from the . Caliph Omar at Mecca to Kahled at Bashra, in thirteen days, when no one had ever made the journey before in less than three weeks. All they saw of Bashra, however, was a Bedouin boy sitting cross- legGfed on a stone abutment upon the river bank. They sailed from the Tigris into the Euphrates and then over the Persian Gulf, dodging among the pearl dhows filling the beautiful Bay of Linga. One after another the divers would draw up a heavy block of herma- RASCHIDS COUNTRYMEN. OVER SAND AND SEA. 2S1 tite, attached to a rope, and catching it in their hands let themselves rapidly down to the famous oyster beds where they would quickly till the small wire baskets which hung at their waists. They remained under water not over one minute, when they were pulled up, emptied the con- tents of their baskets upon the deck, for others to sort and open, and threw themselves down to lie in the sun and pant. The water was so clear that they could easily see them working, twenty feet below. Beyond them lay the town of Bushire, with its almond orchards and orange groves. They found the Parsee overseer of the pearl fisheries at Bushire al- ready expecting- them. He had received communications from the 1^ t- t ' \ IV In, t( , '} , ) "^m^^^ THJiY RE Locusts, eating the grain. S7iou>bird concerning them, and a message for them from the captain, which said : " The treasure is all at Ceylon. We shall reach there as soon as possible, and remain unless the lug- gage is removed. If so we shall leave word for you. Send any orders there." To this they rej^lied : " We shall reach Ceylon by steamer from Bushire in ten days or less. Capt. U. is one week ahead. Follow luggage." 2S2 OVER SAND AKD SEA. They found the Parsee a most amiable man, very proud of a few European notions he had introduced into his home chairs and tables among the rest — and very ready to aid them in disposing of their lumber- ing craft and Oriental belongings which were of no further use to them, ■IX ^ . ILL HET ON THE KYTES. as well as providing themselves with necessities for a steamer trip. " Will those oyster fields never fail ? " Roy asked, as they sat on the veranda that evening, fanned by a punka and looking over the bay. " I think not," replied their host. " Century after century has seen the divers working in the Gulf of Linga. Babylon and Nineveh were supplied by them. Solomon and the Queen of Sheba counted their wealth in these products. Pompeii and Herculaneum were rich with them. Damascus and Egypt gloried in them. Persia and Greece adorned themselves with countless wealth and beauty from beneath these waves, and the greater the world became the greater demand only re- sulted in more dhows, more divers and more pearls. Last year the first cost of the pearls, exported, amounted to more than three million dollars. This year they have taken more than last, and a thousand years to come I fancy it will be just the same." A steamer stopped at Bushire early in the morning, and the boys were once more under way, having arranged for their escort to return to GAMES ON DECK. OVER SAND AND SEA. 28s Jerusalem. The hours passed rapidly enough with a merry company and nev/ mode of travel. There were always games going on among the passengers on deck, and almost before they knew it they were dropping anchor in the beautiful, landlocked harbor of Point de Galle, at the southern extremity of the large island of Ceylon. The little town at the head of the harbor was almost buried in foliage. Palms of all sorts crowded each other to the very water's edge wherever one might turn. A dense tropical jungle rose like a beautiful wall about them, brilliant with enormous flowers, laden with fruit and knitted to- gether with trailing vines, twisting and twining and hanging in deep festoons over the water. It was so different from anything they had seen before that the boys stood watching and admiring, almost foro-ettino' to look for the Snowbird. " Look at those sail-boats ! " Scott exclaimed. " The boat is only an immense canoe, too narrow for two to sit down side by side, and it rises three feet out of the water." " Look at the amount of sail they carry ! " Roy added. " That's an idea, now. See those two horns curving way out over the water on the port side .'' See that sharpened log at the end ? That's what does the business. They can sit on the rail and be high out of the water, and a hurricane couldn't capsize them." Before the boys realized it the deck was crowded with natives ; guides, servants and hotel clerks, clamoring for patrons, and salesmen with everything Ceylon produced, so eager to sell that they bid against them- selves, lower and lower, coming down from their first price till one would think they must surely offer to give away their goods before they had done with a customer, if he refused to purchase. There was fruit — no end of it — and precious stones without limit. There were brilliant birds in bamboo cages, eating green sugar cane, and everything imaginable made of shell and fancy woods. THE BEAUTIFUL COAST. 286 OVER SAXD AND SEA. The boys were much more interested, however, in a letter from tlie captain of the Snowbird, saying: " We lay at aiiclior two clays at Point tie Galle. Received your message. Capt. IJ. and daiigliier arrived. 'I'hey took the treasure on board same steamer and sailed at once for .Singapore. We follow. Shall wait vou there or leave word." Point de Galle is the great transfer center for all Oriental steamers. Roy and Scott left the steamer at once, without even o-oing; on shore, and were taken on board an- other sailino- at once for China, by way of the Malay Pen- insula. Early one morn- ing they were roused by the stopping of the steamer's wheels, and a moment later were summoned on deck. There they found the Snowbird lying at close quar- ters, and were not lono- in transferring; themselves and their luggage to her deck, where a hearty wel- come awaited them. " We didn't want you to land from the steamer," said the captain, "for our man has spies at Singapore and Penang, on the lookout for you. He has gone into the interior as the guest of an ivory trader who has a large bungalow there. He shipped the treasure to Australia, but met the trader on the steamer, and is to stay a month or two with him, hunting elephants. He is in the kingdom THE PAKSEE OVERSEER. OVER SAND AND SEA. 287 of Siam, and the king is a very sensible sovereign. We sliall have no trouble in securing his permission to arrest Captain Downing, but to obtain it we must run to Bangkok, the capital. Then we can make short work by crossing the peninsula from the other side, where he is not expecting us." So they rounded the southern point of Malacca, with Sumatra, then THE DECK WAS CROWDED WITH NATIVES. Borneo, upon the starboard, and sailed up the China Sea and into the Gulf of Siam. " All I ever heard about Siam was Siamese twins," said Scott. " I don't suppose they're all twins there, are they? " The captain laughed heartily and assured the boys that they would be surprised in more ways than one when they reached the capi- tal of Siam. CHAPTER XV. AT THE END OF THE POLE. T^O you notice that we cast no shadow," Roy said, as Scott stood 1 } beside him at the hehii. " Look! when I stand up straight the shadow of my cap just covers my feet." " It's not much like the first of our running the Snowbird^' Scott re- plied, ''where our shadows were half a mile long most of the time. And what a blessing it is to have regular winds that you can depend upon, blowing steadily in one direction for six solid months, instead of those eales and hurricanes from all directions at once, and without enouoh of warnine to take in sail. But what in the name of wonder is that thiuQ- coming between those islands. I say, Captain," he called, " what sort of a craft is that .^ " "She's a Chinese trading junk when she's at a good distance," the captain muttered, " but give her a wide berth. She'll be a pirate if she comes too close." " A pirate ! " Roy exclaimed. "Who cares?" said Scott. " W'e could outrun her three miles to two." " Don't be too sure," replied the captain. " Those sails are more scientific than ours, even if they don't look so well. They can make the most of every breath of wind, and that junk will stand a deal of straining. Better keep well to port." He was frowning as he stood watching the craft coming between the islands. AT THE END OF THE POLE. 589 " We've an old rusty cannon in the fo'castle," Roy remarked, intend- ing it for a joke, but at that moment the junk put her nose several points about and, turning sharply, the captain ordered in quick succession : "Heave out that cannon, boys, quicker than lightning! All hands to it ! Run her for'ard on the port bow ! Swing open the water-gate. Quick ! Run her nose through as far as you can. Open the aft water-gate. Swing round enough to show 'em a full broadside," he added, turning to Roy, then, back again to the crew, where Scott and the Rus- sian official were working with the cook and the seamen. " Run up the colors! Be lively ! Now "a pirate." stand by, every man of you to the port rail," and m the twinkling of an eye every order was obeyed. If the boys had doubted the necessity at first they saw the value of experience and energy before they came to the end. The junk had headed for them and was bearing down, with at least fifty ugly-looking, half-naked seamen huddled in the prow. As the water gate swung open, disclosing the cannon's mouth, the flag shot up and unfurled, and eight stalwart fellows appeared along the port rail ; there was a yell from the junk, and over the water came a distant cry : " No shootee ! No shootee ! Mellikan man all litee ! " and the junk put about again and went on her way. The boys laughed heartily when all was over, and Scott exclaimed, " We haven't a single shot in the locker to fit that gun." " That is of no consequence," replied the captain. " It is eternal vigilance, and not a locker full of cannon balls, that is the price of safety." Their first surprise upon entering the harbor of Bangkok, was to pass a. well-built hut drifting slowly down the bay. 290 AT THE ENT OF THE POLE. " It has only broken from its moorings," said tlie captain, and a little later they discovered whole streets laid out in the water, as regularly as upon the shore, with shops and booths and markets. Behind them rose the city itself, sheltered by mountains, with beautiful porcelain towers and a modern fort, above which floated a red flag with a white elephant.* This was Bangkok, the capital of Siam. The first sight to greet them as they w-ent on shore was a company of Malay sailors sitting upon the ground, eating an open-air lunch with chopsticks. "And look at that barber!" Roy exclaimed. " He's everlastingly like a Chinaman, and dressing a lady's hair, right out in the street." " A horse car, or I'm an Esquimau ! " Scott cried a moment later, as a jingling bell attracted their attention. " And electric lights ! " Roy added. " Scott, is this Siam or civilization? " " I reckon it's a little of both," Scott replied. " The fact is, Roy, I'm " BKOKEN FROM ITS MOORINGS." getting so used to being surprised that I wonder how I ever got on at the humdrum of codfishing." Through the American minister the boys easily obtained a permit to AT THE END IF THE FOLE. 291 place their request before the Siamese authorities and were summoned to the palace, for that purpose. They were ushered into a room where a young man in half-European dress sat upon a sofa surrounded by three little Siamese bo3's. He was evidently some secretary of the court, for he at once began to THE CROWN PRINCE S PALACE. talk to them about their business. They were reluctant, at first, to tell him their story, as they hoped for an interview with some high official; but he spoTce excellent English, and as no one else appeared they gradu- ally told him all, showing him their papers from the Russian Government. When they had finished he said that the crown prince was to hold a reception that night, in the course of his majority festival, and that if they would leave the papers with him till then, and would honor the crown prince by attending, with the two Russians, he would see that they then received their answer. " Do you suppose the fellow had any right to ask us .?" Scott inquired when they returned to the Snowbird. " Doubtless he had," replied the captain, " and I am very sure that we had better accept. Until a boy is fourteen, in Siam, his hair, on the top of his head, is kept carefully done up in a little pug. Then it is cut off and he becomes a man. With the crown prince there is always a great festival at the same time, and you will see a deal that you'll never have a chance to see again." 292 AT THE END OF THE POLE. Much against their inclinations the sailor boys made the most of their wardrobes to fit themselves for the occasion and joined the bewildering throng of magnificently dressed nobles, doing honor to the little fourteen- year-old crown prince of Siam, who sat in an upholstered and richly IT WAS THE KING. ornamented throne, and surrounded by an array of marvelous gifts. " Jehu ! Roy, just look at that fellow over on the right, all silk and lace and diamonds," Scott whispered. " He wears the signet," said the Russian officer. He is the king." AT THE END OF THE POLE. 293 Scott turned upon him with a face full of blank astonishment and replied : " He's the very fellow we talked with this morning." A few minutes later he came to welcome them. He said that he had directed that the papers be returned to the Snoivbird, with proper authority from Siam to make the arrest desired. "You say that you propose to cross the mountains from Rajok," he added. " I am sorry that I can not offer you elephants for the journey, but my elephants are never at Rajok till the hunt- ing season. There is a good, smooth road, however. Do you ride the bicycle } " Scott managed to shake himself out of his astonish- ment enough to reply: " Of course we do, sir." The king only smiled at the absence of court etiquette in the bewildered sailor-boy, and continued : " The wheel is my favorite. From Rajok you can reach the trader's bungalow in one day. I have done it myself. It is a fine place. He is a friend of mine. I will have four wheels sent to your vessel to-night. When you have done with them you can leave them with the Governor of Rajok. I wish you success." "Of all things under heaven!" Scott exclaimed, as they began the journey a few days later, leaving the Snowbird anchored in the harbor of Rajok. "We have driven the dogs in their sledges in Greenland, the reindeer in their poulkas in Lapland, the cobs in carjols in Norway, three horses abreast in a hayrick in Russia, and THROUGH THE JUNGLE. 294 AT THE END OF THE POLE. camels on the Syrian desert, but whoever thought of riding in a horse car in Bangkok or crossing Siam on a bicycle. Down breaks! Jehu! what's that ? " " It's nothing much, and yet it may be serious," replied the captain as _ herodeinadvance. " Come on ! There's noth- ing for it but to bolt," and swinging one hand he made a dash, followed by the ofificer and Scott and Ro}' in line. A black-buck bull had taken possession of the path, where a steep hill rose on one side and a steeper precipice fell away on the other. For a moment there was a decided uncertainty, but the black-buck was the most bewildered of the whole. He bellowed and lashed the rock with his tail till the last mo- ment, then he whirled about and ran. At the bungalow they learned that the trader and his oruest, with the vouna: lady and most of the ser- vants, were off upon an elephant hunt, and leav- ing their wheels they started on foot, guided by a Malay, for a walk of ten miles and more, through the dense tropical jungles to where the tents of the party were pitched. They were all well armed, but the. ofificer, who now took command of the party, warned them not to use a weapon unless in self-defense, until he gave the order. CROSSING THE STREAM. o >-'Vi M. .|Vj._A,...>. - tL.HMI.H Ill 11 LlllUh Ml M^ l] AT THE END OF THE POLE. 297 "What a wonderful place a tropical jungle is," Roy exclaimed. " Scott, could you ever tell anybody about this place so that they could understand ? " Chattering monkeys, screaming birds and animals were everywhere. ' I wouI-Dn't disturb them." and the jungle grew denser and denser till, at times, it was almost impos- sible for them to make their way, even under the skillful guidance of the stalwart Malay. " Look at those hanging vines !" said Roy, " and at those enormous 298 AT THE END OF THE POLE. ferns. Glory ! see those flowers. They are almost large enough for easy-chairs." " What.'* " cried Scott. " Are we expected to undress to wade across ihat little stream.? Bet a cent I can jump it. It's not up to my knees." " The guide is taking oi¥ his clothes," replied the captain, " and he knows the place better than we do." Scott said no more, for a moment later the Malay was up to his neck in water that was so clear that the bottom did not seem twelve inches from the surface. " What's that ? " Roy gasped, as they started on again. " A man, crouchinq; alonsf the ground ! " "And another swinging from the trees! " Scott added, clutching his rifle. " Jehu ! look at his eyes ! " " I wouldn't disturb them if I were you," said the captain. " I have met those fellows before. They are orang-outangs. The Malay word for man is orang, and outang means ' of the woods.' That thing crouching along is a mother. See her little one clinging to her, between her arms. They're timid creatures, and they'll not disturb us if we let them rest, AT IHE END OF THE POLE. 299 but that father, swinging there, has more strengtli in one of his arms- than twenty men." " As we're on other business I suppose we'll have to touch our caps to him," Scott replied, dropping his rifle, " but upon my word I hate to see a fellow make up a face like that at me and not assert my dignity." Now the forest grew more open again. The trees were larger and taller, and soon they heard a boisterous splashing and shrill screaming,, as they came out upon the bank of a river of considerable size, where they discovered elephants bathing and dashing water over each other, while one, upon the bank, was tearing a vine from a tree and eating it. The guide shook his head, to indicate that the hunting party was not there, and made a wide detour about the elephants. Presently, however, another sound caught his watchful ear. He "TWO GLEAMING TUSKS TRANSFIXED HIM. made a sharp exclamation, pointed to a tree and set the example by climbing it. The four readily took the hint, but were hardly among the branches when a huge dusky figure came plunging into view, following close upon several human beings who were running for their lives. ;oo Ar IHE E^^D OF 'JHK POLE. It was an enormous tusker elephant, and from those whom he pursued he seemed to single out two white men, running side by side. " Captain Downing! " Scott exclaimed. " Captain Downing ! " Roy repeated. They were coming nearer. They were making for a large tree, with its gnarled roots thrust into the air about its base, not twenty feet from where the boys had taken refuge. The angry elephant was close upon them. At the last moment the trader, skilled in hunting the ele- phant, made a dart to one side and sprang behind the tree. It was an old trick. The elephant could not get about that huo-e trunk so rapidly as the man, and while he was trying to reach him the Malay servants would find their chance to attack him. Captain Downing, less expert, attempted to do the same thing, tripped up on one of the roots, fell upon his face, his rifle flying from his grasp, and before he c" ' ' move two oleaming tusks trani ,^ im. The infuriated animal, on his bended knees, pushed ha 'er and harder, throwing th^^ w ' f his enormous head upon the body of his victim. In one moment the life would be crushed out of him. Scott dropped from the branch upon which he was sitting. Roy, the Russians and the Malay shouted to him to come back, but he did not heed them. He cauoht the rifle from where it fell, threw it to his shoulder, aimed for the elephant's eye and in an instant sent a ball crashing into the creature's brain. The rest gathered courage from the example, and before the elephant could extricate himself three more bullets pierced him and he fell dead. THE CAPTAIN MEETS LOUISE. AT THE END OF THE POLE. \o\ They dragged the mangled body of Captain Downing to one side. He was still living. His eyes rested on Scott and Roy and he recognized them instantly. The sight seemed to trouble him, and hav- ino- no desire to make his dying moments bitter they walked away, leav- ing him with the Russians, to whom he made a clean confession, saying that he had also deceived his daughter, tellins: her that she was not his child, but that he had adopted her in infancy and that she was the real heir- ess. His last words were thanks that he had lived lonsf enough to make the confession, and there, in the Malay forest, Captain Down- ing died, and his poor mangled body was buried under the same tree where the accident occurred. Guided by two Malays the "" an officer went alone to the camp to break the sad news to Louise. Thf i-had set and the moon >vct& oniniiig. over the jungle as he approached the tent. BACK Tu THE BUNGALOW. He paused outside and spoke her name. Trembling with fear she sprang from her bed and came out to meet him. The moonlight made her pale face so white that it seemed almost like a ghost, and he could hardly speak. He tried to tell her gently, but before he had half-finished she fell fainting at his feet. A native servant took her in his stalwart arms, and by torchlight carried her the ten miles back to the trader's bungalow, while Roy and Scott and the Russians followed close behind. ;o2 AT THE END OF THE POLE. " Those little birds were not so far from right, Scott," Roy said as they walked along. "Well, at any rate, I'm glad we didn't have anything to do with his "HE WAS MY FATHEli.' death. I hope there was nothing about it for which we can be respon- sible," Scott replied. " Responsible .'' " said Roy, " why, Scott ! Did you not risk your life to save him } " AT THE END OF THE POLE. 303 " I wish that I had saved him," Scott answered. Neither of the boys saw Louise that night. She was taken into the bunsalow at once and o'iven in charsre of one of the women servants. In the morning the Russians went to her and told her the whole story. Then she asked for Roy and Scott, and they were conducted to her room. For a moment no one spoke. She was trembling still, and her cheeks were flushed with crying. She looked from one to the other with plead- ing eyes, then bursting into tears fell upon her knees beside a little bench before the window, sobbina; : " He was my father! yes, he was my father ! " They lost no time in reaching the coast, and setting sail for Australia, where the treasure which Captain Downing had taken from Sebastopol had been forwarded. Louise accompanied them, under the care of an American lady whose husband had recently died at Rajok, and who was very anxious to secure a passage home again for herself and a little daughter. The Russian ofificer suggested that at Australia he and the ladies should take a steamer for quicker passage, if they desired, but Louise stubbornly declared that she wanted no steamer and wanted no strangers. " I want to stay on the Snowbird,'' she said, "and go at once to Vera. I want to tell her how I have wronged her; and take her at once to that beautiful home in Sebastopol." So it was decided that they should all go together. CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST VOYAGE, THROUGH storm and sunshine, in fair weather and foul, the white wings of the Snowbird caught the breeze, leaping, flying over the waves. They stopped at Sydney, Australia, only long enough to refit and restock for the voyage home, as the Russians at once received orders to secure the treasure and return to Russia, by way of America, with the rio"htful heir. Steadily onward she kept her course, whatever the weather till thehuo-e albatross swept through the air about her and they sighted the solitary cone rising out of the waves, south of the southern point of South America. Rounding Cape Horn, they turned northward from the cold south seas, where winter was beginning to show itself while summer was upon the threshold at the North. " Scott," said Roy, " do you realize that we are as near the south pole as we were to the north pole when we were half-way between Newfound- land and Greenland .-' " " Well, does it seem to you as though we were the same two individ- uals who guided this craft through those ice-fields? " Scott replied. Thus far they had enjoyed a delightful voyage, with very little monotony, though it had already been over six weeks in length. The three passengers were a wonderful addition, and with so many hands to help in running the Snowbird there was very little work for any one to do. After they passed the snow-covered mountains of Tierra del 304 THE LAST VOYAGE. 305 Fuego, and, through the glass, took a good look at the town that lies nearest the south pole, recalling their visit to Hammerfest, lying nearest the north pole, Roy and Scott became more serious, and spent more time in elaborate calculations and estimates over the charts. " We've been within twenty degrees of the north pole and within thirty-five of the south pole," said Roy ; " almost round the world from THE ALBATROSS. north to south, and quite round it from west to east. But I tell you we've got a blessed doubtful job ahead of us." " O, Roy ! you're always looking on the dark side," Scott exclaimed. " Say we fall off to six knots and stop a day at Rio Janeiro, we shall still have four days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and fifty seconds grace, allowing for three days before sailing." " Well, that's coming pretty close on a nine thousand mile home run," said Roy. " We are likely to lie in a dead calm for a month or be blown back a thousand miles in a gale, so we'd better not set our hopes too hio-h." " I'll bet you we can do it, unless we split a rock somewhere on the way," said Scott, banging the table. The captain had been a silent listener. Now he said : " It takes the man who has confidence to accomplish anything. I ;oo THE LAST VOYAGE. confess I'm doubtful about it, as Roy is, and if he'll consent I think the best thing is to give Scott command for the rest of the voyage." " That's a good idea," Roy exclaimed. " I'll do the best I can," said Scott, " if you two will be an advising committee and speak up, right honest, all the time." " You bet we will," said Roy. " We're quite as anxious as you are to see you win." So it was arransied. The first drawback appeared almost instantly, in the force against them of the Brazilian current. The next followed close upon it in a steady head wind, and they were forced to tack and make only five knots an hour at that. The mountain peaks of Rio Janeiro appeared, at last, with clouds circling their summits, but they had lost three days of their surplus when they entered the harbor and waited only long enough to fill the water- tanks and lay in a supply of fruit, fresh meat and vegetables. Rio was a beautiful city, and they had been on board the Snowbird for sixty-nine days, but all were in haste to be onward bound, and they would not have stopped at all had it not been that their fresh water gave out three days before. They had bathed in salt water, and for cooking and drinking the cook had " boiled the ocean and landed the steam," as Scott expressed it. " We've only one day of grace left, have we, over a six knots an hour average 1 " Roy asked as they left Rio behind them. " One day, five hours, forty-eight minutes and fifty seconds, Roy," Scott replied. " And one day more, for the dates on those Rio papers re- minded me that in going round the world to the east we had gained a day. It's really yesterday. See } " Slowly they worked their way up to Cape St. Roque, losing three davs more. CAPE HORN. THE JANGADA RACE. THE LAST VOYAGE. 309 Just before the}' reached the cape they passed three jangadas in an exciting race. They were native rafts, of the most clumsy construction, into which enormous sails had been rigged, with two Indians upon each jangada, to pull upon a rope attached to a post, and act as ballast, while A GLIMPSE OF THE GULF OF MEXICO. 4^ ■^■"^"ivs.v a party of gentlemen manned the rafts and enjoyed themselves hugely. " If we were onl}' going their way we could make ten knots an hour," Roy muttered. " When we round the cape it will be better," Scott replied, and it cer- tainly was better. They ran at once into the equatorial current, which was in their favor, and a good breeze from the starboard beam. All the spirits on board rose with the good fortune, and there was merriment enough till they plunged into the yellow water which is thrown far into the ocean by the great Amazon. There the wind died out and they began to drift, with the sails flapping against the mast. ,jO ^-^^ LAST VOYAGE. " We'd made a whole day back again," Scott remarked reproachfully. " Which leaves us again five hours and forty-eight minutes " — "And fifty seconds, Roy. For mercy's sake, give us all that belongs to us," Scott interrupted with a laugh. They made slow progress through the islands guarding the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes drifting along within a hundred feet of them. It o-ave them many a glimpse of the most picturesque of tropical scenery, and oToups of natives, half-Spanish, half-Indian, gathered upon the shore, but nothing aroused Scott's enthusiasm so thoroughly as a murky, 3fellow cloud which lay one night along the western horizon. " That means wind, or I'm an Esquimau," he exclaimed. " The glass has been falling all day. I'm afraid it means too much wind," replied the Russian captain. He was risht. A tornado struck them about midnight. One sail was torn to shreds and a jib carried away before a hand could be lifted. The Snowbird reeled, careened and for a moment seemed slowly bend- ing to the furious gale and doomed to capsize. Scott was on deck in an instant. She was slowly pulling herself out of the water. It was a moment of intense excitement, but she righted at last. " Shall we take in sail ? " Roy asked. " Not a stitch ! " Scott replied, as he grasped the helm and brought her back to due north. " The wind will do it if we don't," said the Russian. "Well, I'm going to make the most of them till it does, if she can keep her nose out of water," Scott muttered. " Call up all hands and set two lookouts. We're just bowling." A sailor lashed himself to the masthead. The Russian cluns; to life ropes in the prow and Roy stood braced against the mast, while Scott with a sailor to help him clutched the helm which was sometimes more than both of them could manage. Thus the Snowbird held her course steadily northward, while she drifted broadside to the west, under pressure of the heavy seas, through the most terrible night which the boys had ever witnessed. More than once Scott was swept from his feet and hung at arms-length from the helm as the Snowbird laj- over almost to the rail and tlie big chasers made a clean dash over the deck ; but she was litrht and stronsf and fought her way almost like something that was alive. " A GRAY STONE UGHT-HOUSE. THE LAST VOYAGE. 313 " If I only knew where we were ! " Scott said to himself as the morn- ing broke in a dull, heavy gray, and the wind seemed almost to increase. " But we've covered ten or eleven knots, any way." "Land ahoy ! Dead ahead! " rang from the lookout. With a savage grunt, Scott bent to the helm and shut his eyes for an instant. It had been almost impossible to handle the Snowbird through the nia:ht, but with somethino; almost like human instinct she felt the helm the moment it was put down, swerved into the wind and plunged past a huge rock over which the surf was madly breaking, and a gray stone light-house with great white waves climbing twenty feet up its rocky sides. In the blinding spray it was hardly visible five hundred feet away. With a crash and snap the mainsail broke loose as the Snozvbird took the wind from a new quarter, but a single glance showed Scott that nothing but the ropes had parted, and he shouted to Roy : " Locate that light ! " and to the two remaining sailors to catch the flying ropes till Roy came up and helped them to repair the damage. " It's Florida! " Roy yelled, above the shrieking of the wind and the snapping of the sail, returning from the chart-room. " Thank God ! " Scott repeated fervently, and after laying to a moment to let the mainsail halyards drop, he put her north by east and muttered : " Let her go ! The nearest Bahama is more than fifty miles away at any rate, and it's clear water to that point." For fourteen hours Scott held the helm, then, utterly exhausted, he gave it up to Roy who had taken three hours of sleep. Between a succession of tempests, followed by dense fogs without a breath of wind, they drifted and dashed, once coming within twenty feet of a grim ledge of rock, but never able to locate their position again, as day and night followed each other in the same dark gray or pitchy black. There was little chance for dead reckoning. They might have made ten knots an hour for half a day and then fallen back even, the next half- day. They might have drifted seaward a hundred or two miles and not have known it, or they might be close upon the shore. ■' The Snowbird h'a.'s, stood it well, at any rate," said the Russian cap- tain, as he came on deck from a careful investio-ation, durino- one of the calms when the fog lay so heavy and dense about them that they could - ;i4 THE LAST VOYAGE. not even see across the deck. " There's not a drop of water in the well, and not a seam has started. Ha ! there comes a wind again." Above her decks, the poor little Snowbird looked forlorn enough, with loose ropes flying and torn sails. There was canvas enough to catch the new breeze, however, and she started forward with a bound. " Land aho)', sir! On the port bow," called the lookout. They sprang to their glasses. Only for a moment at a time could they catch a glimpse of it, but the fog was shifting rapidly before the stiff breeze that had suddenly sprung up and was tugging at the sails. 'FOR FOURTEEN HOURS SCOTT HELD THE HELM.' At last the Russian dropped his glass and said : " It must be Hatteras." Roy, who had come up to relieve Scott, looked still longer and re- peated : " Yes ; that is Hatteras." " We've only sixteen hours left," said Scott, in a strange, weak voice. " Couldn't she stand more sail 1 " THE LAST VOYAGE. 315 " Unless this wind increases she can carry a little more," replied tlie Russian, " but there's no power under heaven can push her from Hatteras to Sandy Hook in sixteen hours." Roy started forward with a cry, and caught Scott in his arms as he fell, unconscious, from the helm. They carried him to his bunk and left him there in care of Louise and her companion, while they hurried on deck again to set the course farther to the west, as would be necessary after passing Hatteras. " Oh ! if we'd only left Sydney one half-day earlier," Scott moaned unconsciously, as he tossed about in his bunk. " One half-da}^ more, on three months and a half. It isn't much — it isn't much." The women bathed his head and tried to soothe the poor, tired-out, bitterly disappointed sailor-boy, but to no avail, when Roy came rushing down the companion-way. Without ceremony he pushed them one side and caught Scott by the shoulder, giving him a good shake, exclaiming : "Scott! Scott! wake up! It wasn't Hatteras at all! We're way beyond it! We've just come within an ace of running our nose into the sand at Long Branch ! We're within thirty miles of the pier." "Jehu! Jerusalem! Say that again," Scott gasped, springing out of his bunk. " What time is it ? " He looked about him in a bewildered way. " Seven in the evening," Roy replied. " We're making eight knots, with a steady breeze aft. In four hours we shall be in port. We've fifteen hours to spare." " And forty-eight minutes and fifty seconds, Roy," Scott added, smil- ing faintl}', as he began to gather his senses. CHAPTER XVII. CAPTAIN SARGENT REPORTS. THEY were obliged to anchor outside, but when all was made fast they went to bed and slept as they had not slept since they rounded Cape Horn. Early in the morning the two bronzed, weather-beaten sailor-boys, appeared at the door of a large office in New York City. They were obliged to wait till nine o'clock before it was opened. Then they were obliged to wait an hour for the man they wanted to see. " I hope he'll be on time," said Scott, looking at the clock as it crept ominously near ten. " He is always on time," replied the clerk. He was on time. At precisely ten o'clock he entered the office. He glanced at the boys and was about to pass them when Roy stepped forward. " Guess you don't remember us, sir," he said, and as the gentleman shook his head he continued: "In forty-eight minutes" — "And fifty seconds," Scott added — " it will be just one year since you chartered the S^zowbird iox us and ordered us to report in that time." "You don't mean it! " he exclaimed, grasping their hands. "Why, I hadn't heard a word from you, and I thought you were wrecked, long ago. Where have }'ou been } " "We've been to Greenland, sir. We've been off the North Cape. We've been to St. Petersburg, Constantinople and Syria. We've been CAPTAIN SARGENT REPORTS. to Persia, Ceylon and Siam ; to Australia, around Cape^ to Brazil. We've been forty-one thousand, two hupdi-ed\ miles, not counting deviations, in three hundred and sixty-five five hours ; through Arctics and Tropics, by a new path, but our way, and for a new purpose, but we accomplished it. Sc only to thank you, sir, with all our hearts and return the Stiowbiru, and sound but for some of her rigging torn in the last gale, with forty x eight minutes to spare " — And again Scott interrupted to add : " And •■ Wt'Vii FIFTEEN HUUKi TO STAKE." fifty seconds, Roy," and the three joined in a hearty laugh as Roy con- cluded his sentence — " before the end of the year." "Well, you've done a big thing, and I'm proud of you! " replied the representative of the Steamship Company. " But as for the Snowbird, there's no returning her. There's a large shipowner, a friend of mine, living in the city, who knew of you boys. I told him what we were doino- and he insisted on going halves with us, purchasing the bark outright and making her over to you two jointly. He had her papers all made out and a captain's commission for each of you. We ran down the li arbor CAPTAIN SARGENT REPORTS. to you, but you got away too soon for us. They are in my get them. Here they are. Send the sailors to the oiifice ill pay them off; then you can hire them again if you wish. I better step in and see the shipper before you sail — you met him .e at Little Harbor, you remember — and if either of you ever want .ommand of one of his ships you will have it." So the boys returned to the Snowbird her sole owners and commis- sioned ofificers. They sailed to Little Harbor, where she was completely overhauled and set right in every particular, and just before sunset, last night, I watched her sail away again, with the same old crew, bound for Sebasto- pol, with Mrs. Lester, Vera and Louise seated upon the deck, and an old Siberian hound lying at their feet. ■^^ 7j;8 'CO'- ,0 ' ,^' -x %-*' ' -^r. .-o- ,0 o^ .0 0^ o ^'•^. ■•'^ ,<\- .-^> ,0o. \0o. .->■ ,-^^ ,0 o^ .0 ..^^^^■ .^'^' -.- v^^ oo v"\-' ,v>' •/>- ■^y.. .-^' -'. .,X^^ -s..^^ .^^■% ■•^. ,^ ,•0 ■is xO°^. 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