CHAPTER SIX.
FUTURE PLANS DISCUSSED AND DECIDED.
Away to the northward of the spot where the _Whitebear_ had been wreckedthere stretched a point of land far out into the Arctic Ocean. It wasabout thirty miles distant, and loomed hugely bluff and grand againstthe brilliant sky, as if it were the forefront of the northern world.No civilised eyes had ever beheld that land before. Captain Vane knewthat, because it lay in latitude 83 north, which was a little beyond thefurthest point yet reached by Arctic navigators. He therefore named itCape Newhope. Benjy thought that it should have been namedButterface-beak, because the steward had been the first to observe it,but his father thought otherwise.
About three miles to the northward of this point of land the Eskimoswere encamped. According to arrangement with the white men they hadgone there, as we have said, in charge of the dogs brought by CaptainVane from Upernavik, as these animals, it was thought, stood much inneed of exercise.
Here the natives had found and taken possession of a number of desertedEskimo huts.
These rude buildings were the abodes to which the good people migratedwhen summer heat became so great as to render their snow-huts sloppilydisagreeable.
In one of the huts sat Chingatok, his arms resting on his knees, hishuge hands clasped, and his intelligent eyes fixed dreamily on thelamp-flame, over which his culinary mother was bending in busysincerity. There were many points of character in which this remarkablemother and son resembled each other. Both were earnest--intensely so--and each was enthusiastically eager about small matters as well asgreat. In short, they both possessed great though uncultivated minds.
The hut they occupied was in some respects as remarkable as themselves.It measured about six feet in height and ten in diameter. The wallswere made of flattish stones, moss, and the bones of seals, whales,narwhals, and other Arctic creatures. The stones were laid so that eachoverlapped the one below it, a very little inwards, and thus the wallsapproached each other gradually as they rose from the foundation; thetop being finally closed by slabs of slate-stone. Similar stonescovered the floor--one half of which floor was raised a foot or so abovethe other, and this raised half served for a seat by day as well as acouch by night. On it were spread a thick layer of dried moss, andseveral seal, dog, and bear skins. Smaller elevations in the cornersnear the entrance served for seats. The door was a curtain of sealskin.Above it was a small window, glazed, so to speak, with strips ofsemi-transparent dried intestines sewed together.
Toolooha's cooking-lamp was made of soapstone, formed like a clam-shell,and about eight inches in diameter; the fuel was seal-oil, and the wickwas of moss. It smoked considerably, but Eskimos are smoke-proof. Thepot above it, suspended from the roof, was also made of soapstone.Sealskins hung about the walls drying; oily mittens, socks and bootswere suspended about on pegs and racks of rib-bones. Lumps of blubberhung and lay about miscellaneously. Odours, not savoury, were thereforeprevalent--but Eskimos are smell-proof.
"Mother," said the giant, raising his eyes from the flame to hisparent's smoke-encircled visage, "they are a most wonderful people,these Kablunets. Blackbeard is a great man--a grand man--but I think heis--"
Chingatok paused, shook his head, and touched his forehead with a lookof significance worthy of a white man.
"Why think you so, my son?" asked the old woman, sneezing, as a densercloud than usual went up her nose.
"Because he has come here to search for _nothing_."
"Nothing, my son?"
"Yes--at least that is what he tried to explain to me. Perhaps theinterpreter could not explain. He is not a smart man, that interpreter.He resembles a walrus with his brain scooped out. He spoke much, but Icould not understand."
"Could not understand?" repeated Toolooha, with an incredulous look,"let not Chingatok say so. Is there _anything_ that passes the lips ofman which he cannot understand?"
"Truly, mother, I once thought there was not," replied the giant, with amodest look, "but I am mistaken. The Kablunets make me stare and feelfoolish."
"But it is not possible to search for _nothing_," urged Toolooha.
"So I said," replied her son, "but Blackbeard only laughed at me."
"Did he?" cried the mother, with a much relieved expression, "then letyour mind rest, my son, for Blackbeard must be a fool if he laughed at_you_."
"Blackbeard is no fool," replied Chingatok.
"Has he not come to search for new lands _here_, as you went to searchfor them _there_?" asked Toolooha, pointing alternately north and south.
"No--if I have understood him. Perhaps the brainless walrus translatedhis words wrongly."
"Is the thing he searches for something to eat?"
"Something to drink or wear?"
"No, I tell you. It is _nothing_! Yet he gives it a name. He calls it_Nort Pole_!"
Perhaps it is needless to remind the reader that Chingatok and hismother conversed in their native tongue, which we have rendered asliterally as possible, and that the last two words were his brokenEnglish for "North Pole!"
"Nort Pole!" repeated Toolooha once or twice contemplatively. "Well, hemay search for nothing if he will, but that he cannot find."
"Nay, mother," returned the giant with a soft smile, "if he will searchfor nothing he is sure to find it!"
Chingatok sighed, for his mother did not see the joke.
"Blackbeard," he continued with a grave, puzzled manner, "said that thisworld on which we stand floats in the air like a bird, and spins round!"
"Then Blackbeard is a liar," said Toolooha quietly, though without athought of being rude. She merely meant what she said, and said whatshe meant, being a naturally candid woman.
"That may be so, mother, but I think not."
"How can the world float without wings?" demanded the old womanindignantly. "If it spinned should we not feel the spinning, and growgiddy?"
"And Blackbeard says," continued the giant, regardless of the questionspropounded, "that it spins round upon this _Nort Pole_, which he says isnot a real thing, but only nothing. I asked Blackbeard--How can a worldspin upon nothing?"
"And what said he to that?" demanded Toolooha quickly.
"He only laughed. They all laughed when the brainless walrus put myquestion. There is one little boy--the son I think of Blackbeard--wholaughed more than all the rest. He lay down on the ice to laugh, androlled about as if he had the bowel-twist."
"That son of Blackbeard must be a fool more than his father," saidToolooha, casting a look of indignation at her innocent kettle.
"Perhaps; but he is not like his father," returned Chingatok meekly."There are two other chiefs among the Kablunets who seem to me fine men.They are very young and wise. They have learned a little of our tonguefrom the Brainless One, and asked me some questions about the rocks, andthe moss, and the flowers. They are tall and strong. One of them isvery grave and seems to think much, like myself. He also spoke of thisNothing--this Nort Pole. They are all mad, I think, about that thing--that Nothing!"
The conversation was interrupted at this point by the sudden entrance ofthe giant's little sister with the news that the Kablunets were observedcoming round the great cape, dragging a sledge.
"Is not the big oomiak with them?" asked her brother, rising quickly.
"No, we see no oomiak--no wings--no fire," answered Oblooria, "only sixmen dragging a sledge."
Chingatok went out immediately, and Oblooria was about to follow whenher mother recalled her.
"Come here, little one. There is a bit of blubber for you to suck.Tell me, saw you any sign of madness in these white men when they weretalking with your brother about this--this--Nort Pole."
"No, mother, no," answered Oblooria thoughtfully, "I saw not madness.They laughed much, it is true--but not more than Oolichuk laughssometimes. Yes--I think again! There was one who seems mad--the smallboy, whom brother thinks to be the son of Blackbeard--Benjay, they callhim."
"Hah! I thought so," exclaimed
Toolooha, evidently pleased at herpenetration on this point. "Go, child, I cannot quit the lamp. Bringme news of what they say and do."
Oblooria obeyed with alacrity, bolting her strip of half-cooked blubberas she ran; her mother meanwhile gave her undivided attention to theduties of the lamp.
The white men and all the members of the Eskimo band were standing bythe sledge engaged in earnest conversation when the little girl cameforward. Captain Vane was speaking.
"Yes, Chingatok," he said, looking up at the tall savage, who stooderect in frame but with bent head and his hands clasped before him, likea modest chief, which in truth he was. "Yes, if you will guide me toyour home in the northern lands, I will pay you well--for I have muchiron and wood and such things as I think you wish for and value, and youshall also have my best thanks and gratitude. The latter may not indeedbe worth much, but, nevertheless, you could not purchase it with all thewealth of the Polar regions."
Chingatok looked with penetrating gaze at Anders while he translated,and, considering the nature of the communication, the so-calledBrainless One proved himself a better man than the giant gave him creditfor.
"Does Blackbeard," asked Chingatok, after a few seconds' thought,"expect to find this Nothing--this Nort Pole, in my country?"
"Well, I cannot exactly say that I do," replied the Captain; "you see,I'm not quite sure, from what you tell me, where your country is. Itmay not reach to the Pole, but it is enough for me that it lies in thatdirection, and that you tell me there is much open water there. Men ofmy nation have been in these regions before now, and some of them havesaid that the Polar Sea is open, others that it is covered always withice so thick that it never melts. Some have said it is a `sea ofancient ice' so rough that no man can travel over it, and that it is notpossible to reach the North Pole. I don't agree with that. I had beenled to expect to fall in with this sea of ancient ice before I had gotthus far, but it is not to be found. The sea indeed is partly blockedwith ordinary ice, but there is nothing to be seen of this vastcollection of mighty blocks, some of them thirty feet high--this wildchaos of ice which so effectually stopped some of those who went beforeme."
This speech put such brains as the Brainless One possessed to a severetest, and, after all, he failed to convey its full meaning to Chingatok,who, however, promptly replied to such portions as he understood.
"What Blackbeard calls the sea of old ice does exist," he said; "I haveseen it. No man could travel on it, only the birds can cross it. Butice is not land. It changes place. It is here to-day; it is thereto-morrow. Next day it is gone. We cannot tell where it goes to orwhen it will come back. The _very_ old ice comes back again and again.It is slow to become like your Nort Pole--nothing. But it melts at lastand more comes in its place--growing old slowly and vanishing slowly.It is full of wonder--like the stars; like the jumping flames; like thesun and moon, which we cannot understand."
Chingatok paused and looked upwards with a solemn expression. His mindhad wandered into its favourite channels, and for the moment he forgotthe main subject of conversation, while the white men regarded him withsome surprise, his comrades with feelings of interest not unmingled withawe.
"But," he continued, "I know where the sea of ancient ice-blocks is justnow. I came past it in my kayak, and can guide you to it by the sameway."
"That is just what I want, Chingatok," said the Captain with a joyfullook, "only aid me in this matter, and I will reward you well. I'vealready told you that my ship is wrecked, and that the crew, exceptthose you see here, have left me; but I have saved all the cargo andburied it in a place of security with the exception of those thingswhich I need for my expedition. One half of these things are on thissledge,--the other half on a sledge left behind and ready packed nearthe wreck. Now, I want you to send men to fetch that sledge here."
"That shall be done," said Chingatok. "Thanks, thanks, my good fellow,"returned the Captain, "and we must set about it at once, for the summeris advancing, and you know as well as I do that the hot season is but ashort one in these regions."
"A moment more shall not be lost," said the giant.
He turned to Oolichuk, who had been leaning on a short spear, and gazingopen-mouthed, eyed, and eared, during the foregoing conversation, andsaid a few words to him and to the other Eskimos in a low tone.
Oolichuk merely nodded his head, said "Yah!" or something similarlysignificant, shouldered his spear and went off in the direction of theCape of Newhope, followed by nearly all the men of the party.
"Stay, not quite so fast," cried Captain Vane.
"Stop!" shouted Chingatok.
Oolichuk and his men paused.
"One of us had better go with them," said the Captain, "to show theplace where the sledge has been left."
"I will go, uncle, if you'll allow me," said Leo Vandervell.
"Oh! let me go too, father," pleaded Benjy, "I'm not a bit tired; do."
"You may both go. Take a rifle with you, Leo. There's no saying whatyou may meet on the way."
In half-an-hour the party under Oolichuk had reached the extremity ofthe cape, and Captain Vane observed that his volatile son mounted to thetop of an ice-block to wave a farewell. He looked like a black speck,or a crow, in the far distance. Another moment, and the speck haddisappeared among the hummocks of the ice-locked sea.