"All right, then," continued Mr Meldrum, "so far, so good! Now, to- day, I went prospecting up to the top of the cliff here, and I see that the waters of the swollen tarn are united in the extreme distance--to the left there on the map--with a river, or some other lake, which comes round that further hill. Hence, this very width of fifteen miles which we have to cross may be but half of it land and half water, so that, really, in that case, we should have only to haul the boat, or boats, over the intervening bits of _terra firma_ in passing from sea to sea."
"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope, "you mean what the lumber men on the Susquehanna and Red River call 'making a portage,' hey?"
"I don't quite follow you," observed Mr Meldrum.
"Why, when they come across a rapid in the river, they jest tote up their canoes and carry 'em along the bank, or through the forest sometimes, till they gits to whar the stream runs free agin, when they floats 'em and sails along as slick as you please!"
"Exactly," said Mr Meldrum, "you have just hit what I wished to describe. Well, friends, whether we have to carry the boat a short distance or a long one, we shall have to cross this isthmus; and, the sooner we commence making our preparations, the better."
"You sid only a boat, sorr; aren't ye going to take the pair ov 'em?"
asked Mr McCarthy.
"No," replied the other, "one will be about as much as we shall be able to manage, and the smaller of the two at that."
"Be jabers!" exclaimed the first-mate in surprise; "and how, thin, will you carry the lot ov us?"
"When we have to cross land," said Mr Meldrum, "of course we'll have to walk, and can go in a body or not, just as we please; but when we have to take to the water again, why the boat will have to do it in so many trips--taking over a certain number first and returning for a fresh load, until all shall be taken over; and repeating the process from stage to stage."
"It kinder strikes me, mister," said Mr Lathrope, reflectively, "that you'll find that thar jolly-boat a heap bigger and a pile heavier than them birch-bark canoes of the lumber men and Injuns I was a talkin'
about; and yet, they're heavy enough to cart along fur any raal sort o'
distance, you bet, fur I've tried 'em!"
"I've already thought of that," said Mr Meldrum, "and to-morrow the carpenter and I will have a talk about a little job which will, perhaps, relieve your mind in the matter; but, take the boat we must, by hook or by crook! Do you know that, after crossing the isthmus and getting into the open sea on the other side, we shall have to coast along for another fifty or sixty miles before we can expect to reach Betsy Cove, the little harbour out of Hillsborough Bay or sound, which--you can see it here on the chart--is the rendezvous of the whalers. Thither, I tell you, we must go if we hope to meet any of these in order to be taken off the island. Now, if we can't get there by water we should have to go by land; and the distance, by the circuitous route we should have to adopt, would exceed two hundred miles, the way, too, taking us across mountains which the ladies at least would find impassable!"
"And when are you thinking of starting?" asked Captain Dinks, speaking for the first time.
"As soon as possible. The whalers are said generally to arrive at Betsy Cove about the beginning of the summer, that is in November; and, what with the difficulties we may meet in traversing the isthmus here, and the subsequent long distance we should have to go by water--for we may have to make repeated trips in order to transport all the members of our party to the point I am aiming at--it will take us all our time to reach there in a month."
"All right!" responded the captain, who looked for the moment more cheerful at the idea of moving away, "make all the arrangements you like, Mr Meldrum; I'm only a useless old hulk now, and can do nothing to help you."
"Bedad you'll be all right agin, cap'en," said Mr McCarthy. "That is, faix, when you say the say on t'other side, sure. Cheer up, my hearty, and niver say die!"
"Thank you, Tim," said Captain Dinks, actually smiling, which was the best sign he had shown for weeks; "your face is as good as a tonic any day, old friend, and you make me feel better already!"
The very next day all began to prepare for the contemplated shifting of their quarters, Mr Meldrum so contriving that each had his quota of work to perform in making ready for the start.
Ben Boltrope was commissioned to manufacture as speedily as he could, out of what spare timber he could get hold of--and, if necessary, he was empowered to break up the longboat in default of finding any elsewhere, for they would not want to use it again--a small light carriage with large broad wheels similar to those commonly used in transporting life- boats from place to place along the coast, when their services are suddenly required at some spot remote from their station and it would take too long to send them round by sea.
This carriage, of course, was for the accommodation of the jolly-boat, whenever it should be found necessary for it to abandon its more congenial element the water, for the land; and as the wheels required some delicacy of manipulation, it was a lucky thing that the mutineers had forgotten to take Ben's tool-chest out of the longboat, and that it had been restored to his possession. Otherwise, the old man-o'-war's man would have been unable to have completed satisfactorily the difficult task set him with only an old axe and a hammer for his available tools, as had been the case when the house was being built.
Such of the party as were not assisting the carpenter were set to work collecting and curing everything in the shape of food, or provisions of any sort that came to hand--the rabbit warren being depopulated and wild ducks slaughtered to such an extent that the latter abandoned the valley; while, the last remaining birds in the penguin colony, old and young alike, were sacrificed to appease the craving gods of the common larder.
Neither were the ladies idle; for, Kate Meldrum and Mrs Major Negus were employed making canvas bags for the stowage of all these good things in proper ship-shape fashion. Even Master Maurice--the whilom "Imp," who had almost been reformed by his experience amongst the penguins--and Miss Florry, had their services requisitioned in one way or other.
One and all, without exception, had each something to do!
"I guess, mister," said Mr Lathrope a week later on, when he and Mr Meldrum were returning from an unsuccessful foray on the adjacent marshes that had been the haunt of the wild fowl--without once getting a shot, much less bagging a duck to reward their trouble,--"this'll be a tall moving; and the sooner we make tracks the better now, since all the game's skeart. I don't see nary a grasshopper to aim at!"
"The arrangements are all completed," replied the other, "and I have determined to start to-morrow. As you say, there's nothing to be gained by our waiting any longer; so, as we've now as much provision collected as we shall either want or can carry, and as Ben has finished the boat- carriage, I don't see any reason for delaying our departure a single day!"
Mr Meldrum was as good as his word. He gave out an intimation of the projected start on the morrow to the household the same evening, as soon as the two reached the little dwelling by the creek which they were about to abandon so remorselessly after the long shelter it had given them in their adversity!
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
ACROSS COUNTRY.
It was a lovely morning, the loveliest that the shipwrecked people had seen since their landing on Kerguelen Land, when the little party started away from Penguin Castle, bidding adieu to the spot which for so many long months had given them a shelter and a home.
The sun was shining out brightly, the sky without a cloud, and the air felt quite warm, although with a freshness in it that just gave zest to movement; while the atmosphere had that peculiar opalescent translucency about it and an almost imperceptible colouring--in the faintest tints of light mauve and amber, with a shade of tender apple-green--which is rarely seen in more northern latitudes, excepting in those regions that are well within the borders of the Arctic circle.
Out in the bay opposite the creek, the water was as smooth as glass, undisturbed by the slightest breath of wind so as to cause a ripple; and numbers of baby puffins and young penguins, their spruce little downy bodies clad in bright new coats of silky feathers, were scattered in groups over the mirror-like expanse, diving and coming up again in a moment in the centre of a series of expanding circles that gradually grew wider and wider in diameter, as when a stone is flung into a still pond, only to disappear the next minute. Others were flitting along over the surface with the pinions of their little wings just dipped in the water, so that they flicked it up, in the short flights they took now and then in play and mimic pursuit of each other, like as rowing men do when they "feather" their oars too soon in lumpy water. Sometimes, the generally restless birdlets would rest tranquilly for a brief while on the bosom of the sea, chattering away like so many aquatic magpies in miniature mottled flocks; but this was only for a very short spell.
To the right of the creek, rising abruptly out of the sea, the black basaltic cliffs which formed such a bold headland to the bay stretched far out to where the extreme point of Cape Saint Louis could be seen, embracing within the compass of its arm the reef on which the _Nancy Bell_ had been lost; and to the left, beyond the ridge at the back of the castaways' dwelling, the higher ranges of the inland mountains, which seemed to run down to the southwards and eastwards as far as the eye could reach, stood up--towering in the distance above the hills immediately near in the foreground and lifting their snow-clad summits into the blue vault of the heavens.
The "travelling caravan," as Mr Lathrope had styled the jolly-boat when he saw it first mounted on its broad-flanged, awkward-looking carriage, had been packed the night before with all the impedimenta of the pilgrims. Their few "goods and chattels and household effects" were stowed in and about below the thwarts, with the canvas bags containing the dried birds and Kerguelen cabbage which formed their stock of provisions ranged round the gunwales and crammed in anywhere; while a special place was kept clear and reserved in the stern-sheets for the accommodation of poor Captain Dinks, who was deposited here in his cot.
Pussy, who had been so happily saved from the wreck at the last moment and had since done such good service in demolishing the mice which infested the house, was placed alongside of the captain to keep him company, and he had also in charge a tame, or rather an educated penguin, that Master Maurice Negus had displayed considerable ability in training and which Mr Meldrum had allowed to be taken along with the other things as a reward for the "imp's" services of late in assisting at the preparations of the expedition.
For some days prior to this, Mr Meldrum had been very busy taking short excursions in various directions, but all tending to the same point of the compass. He was endeavouring to find out which route would be the most practicable for reaching the eastern seaboard; and, after collecting all his observations into one harmonised whole and deliberating over the matter with Mr Lathrope and the first-mate, who had severally accompanied him in his various prospecting tours, the final course of the party was at length agreed on.
The bright morning appeared to all as an augury of success; so it was with light hearts that they set out.
They abandoned Penguin Castle in all its entirety, Mr Meldrum saying that possibly they might have to seek its shelter again; but, if happily there should arise no occasion for that eventuality, the building might still be of service to other shipwrecked men in a like extremity to themselves. Thus it came to pass that the place was left "all standing," with rooms, furniture--such as it was--Snowball's copper and the cooking range all intact. Even the flagstaff with Kate's ensign at the peak was left hoisted, as if to show, that if deserted now, the spot had once been inhabited!
They were thirty-two souls in all now, reckoning the steward and the other four men of the mutineers who had come back in the longboat--which had to be broken up, by the way, after all, to form the jolly-boat's carriage; and it was just "six bells in the forenoon watch" when they started, a team of the sailors, tethered in traces like a pack of Esquimaux dogs, hauling away at the boat-carriage and running it along merrily with a chorus of "cheerily men, cheerily ho!" The others tramped behind the queer vehicular conveyance, without respect of persons; only poor Captain Dinks being allowed a seat in the boat, while it travelled on land, and that only by reason of his helplessness and inability to move without assistance. When they had to take to the water, of course, the jolly-boat would have to carry more passengers.
On the way, sometimes, they had serious difficulties to encounter, for the ground in many places was moist and spongy, causing the feet of the men hauling to sink deeply into the soil as they tugged at the towing- rope of the jolly-boat's carriage; but, as frequently Mr Meldrum remarked, to rouse the seamen's energies, "difficulties were only made for brave men to conquer," so at it they went with a will which soon overcame the dead weight of the load they had to drag behind them--a fresh towing team relieving the first at the expiration of every half hour, so as not to weary the men out by a too prolonged strain at such unusual exertion.
Bye and bye, they arrived at the end of their first "portage," the shores of the little lake which Mr Meldrum had noticed trending in an eastward direction. This water would now considerably aid their passage across the isthmus by allowing the jolly-boat to take to its native element, on whose bosom it would be borne some miles on the onward way.
Here a halt was called and a short luncheon taken, after which the jolly-boat was safely launched on the water by backing it down on its carriage. This plan was easy as well as expeditious; for, as soon as the boat had reached its proper point of immersion, it floated off the wheels.
The ladies then got into the stern-sheets, alongside of the captain, accompanied by Mr Meldrum, while four of the seamen took their places on the thwarts in order to row them across--the remainder of the party stopping where they were, along with a portion of the packages that had been removed from the boat so as to make room for Mrs Major Negus and the others who went with her. The carriage belonging to the boat was also left behind until the latter should have deposited its first cargo on the other side of the lake and return to fetch a fresh load.
Three trips were taken before the whole party were thus transported over the lake, the boat's carriage being then towed over at the last crossing.
It would be needless repetition to recount in detail all the different portages of the jolly-boat over the strips of land which lay between the chain of lakes that were spread over the line of their route; or, to tell the number of the trips by water that had to be made.
There were many unloadings of the little craft, and many packings-up again.
Many weary miles the poor unaccustomed pedestrians had to tramp, sometimes up-hill, sometimes down dale, through marshy lands and over stony boulders that blistered their feet; and all the while they had to drag after them that terrible Frankenstein-like monster, the jolly-boat mounted on its carriage, which seemed to the worn-out men sometimes a species of Juggernaut car, crushing out their spirits and sapping their every energy.
Suffice it to say, that, at the end of a fortnight's time, they at length reached a magnificent stretch of blue water, which Mr Meldrum said was Hillsborough Bay, on the eastern side of Kerguelen Land.
Hurrah--they had crossed the isthmus, and arrived so far towards the end of their destination!