the next morning, the boats, which were all provided with runners, were drawn1 to the bar, and Carlo's sled carried, besides the lunch and ammunition2 of the party, a dozen wooden duck decoys, weighted and roped, for open water.
Davies and Creamer gave up their box and outfit3 to one-armed Peter, as they were about to try their new paddle-boat. She was duly launched, and Ben placed himself forward, between the paddle-boxes, ready to do the steering5 and shooting, while Creamer acted as the motive6 power, transmitted by a belt and pulleys. Although somewhat high out of water, she moved off easily, and made little noise when running slowly; and taking the first of the ebb7, the pair moved eastward8 into the opening ice.
George and Ben Lund, in their new-fashioned centre-wheel, made poorer progress, but hurried out "to get ahead of the skimmin'-dish," as they styled La Salle's light, shallow craft. He let them go, and[Pg 149] stationing George and Regnar in the ice-boat, put out his floating decoys in the nearest waters, and, cutting slabs9 of ice, built a high wall around his own boat, which he drew up on the ice. Carlo incontinently plunged10 into the straw under the half-deck of the larger boat, and soon all was ready for the expected birds.
Meanwhile, upon the stranded11 berg which lay immovable off the southern face of the island, gathered the new comers, whose Bacchanal approach has of late been chronicled. Had they had any outfit of decoys, and known how to use them, they could not but have had good sport; and even as it was, so many birds passed and repassed them, that a good shot could not have failed to secure at least a few ducks. But, however unfortunate in securing any trophies12, they failed not in the weight or constancy of their fire.
Not a flock passed within a quarter of a mile but received a volley; not a loon13 that showed his distant head above water but went down under the fire of a platoon; and not a frightened duck darted14 overhead but heard the air behind him torn with whistling shot enough to have exterminated15 his whole tribe.
From time to time a lull16 in the storm would occur, and then peals17 of laughter would come across the intervening waters; and looking up, the irritated sportsmen generally beheld18 a tableau19 of inverted20 pocket-flasks, and feats21 of strength with a rapidly lightening ale-keg. But, although our friends bore the proximity[Pg 150] of these city gunners with great patience for a while, an event soon occurred which brought matters to a focus.
A flock of geese were seen approaching from the eastward, and La Salle, cautioning the boys, crouched22 down in his boat and "called." Peter followed suit, and so did the party on the bergs. The flock swung within a hundred yards of Peter, who held his fire, and then, seeing the floating decoys, swung round to leeward23 of them, and setting their wings, scaled slowly in, passing within about two hundred and fifty yards of the party on the berg.
Of course they opened fire at once, with shot of all sorts and sizes, doing no execution but sending a bullet from one of their guns straight over the heads of La Salle and his friends. A flock or two of ducks and brent made similar attempts to alight, but every shot was spoiled in the same way.
La Salle was indignant, and the boys were at a white heat, when, without any birds being between them, the report of a heavily charged gun was heard, and a few heavy shot struck the ice near the boats, while the drunken crowd yelled in triumph as the water, by its ripples24, showed the great distance attained25 by the shot.
"I'll shoot, too, the next chance, and so may you, boys. Elevate well, and fire when the birds are between us and the berg," said La Salle.
It was not long before three geese attempted to[Pg 151] scale in as the others had done, and were fired at as before, the bullet this time striking the water in line of the boat, and whistling a few feet above it. The birds, somewhat frightened, got within a hundred yards before swinging off, and all three discharged their large shot simultaneously26. A single goose fell with a broken wing, and Carlo, springing out of the boat, plunged into the water. Charley watched the effect of his shot on the party on the berg. One stood just then in bold relief against the distant horizon, displaying the broader part of his physique to view while taking an observation with a brandy-bottle. Suddenly a faint yell was heard, the bottle dropped on the berg, the hands that had held it frantically27 clutched at the coat-tails of the victim, and an agonized28 pas seul told that the "Baby" had well avenged29 the wrongs of her owner.
Half an hour later, the party had evacuated30 their position, bag and baggage, "carrying their wounded," who, from the stern-sheets of their boat, shook his fist in savage31 pantomime at the innocent La Salle and his amused companions. Some weeks later he learned that a single large shot had, without piercing the cloth, raised a contusion about the size of a pigeon's egg, on muscles whose comfort, for a fortnight after, emphatically tabooed the use of chairs, and made a feather bed an indispensable adjunct to repose32.
After a long chase Carlo secured his bird, and swimming to the nearest shore, ran around the edge[Pg 152] of the ice, in a way which showed his appreciation33 of the difference between running, and swimming against a five-knot tide. Securing the bird, he was allowed to shake himself, and was then called into the boat, from which a good lookout34 was kept, as there now existed some chance for good management and skilful35 shooting.
The first victims were a flock of black ducks, which with the usual readiness to decoy of these birds, had flown in and lit among the decoys before La Salle could warn his boys, who had their backs turned at the time. They managed, however, to hear him, and poured in a sharp volley, killing36 four in the water, while La Salle picked a brace37 out on the wing.
Regnar, who had a breech-loader, got ready in time to kill a brace of Moniac duck out of a flock which swept past uttering their singularly desolate38 call of "Ouac-a-wee, ouac-a-wee!" and by the time these birds were retrieved39, several faint reports to the eastward were heard, and a vast cloud of geese of both kinds rose just above the floating ice, and swept up towards the bar. Most of these settled down among the floes; but one large flock of brent swept over Peter, in answer to his almost perfect calling. The leaders of the flock were in the very act of alighting when he fired, and a dozen, at least, lay dead when the white smoke of his volley cleared away.
"I must have one turn with my float," said La Salle, after the three had taken lunch and had their share of[Pg 153] a pint41 of hot, strong coffee prepared in the Crimean lantern. "The tide will soon turn, and I shall work out into the ice and come up with it. You, boys, must look out for the flying birds, and take in the floating decoys before they are crushed or lost."
Launching the light boat, he fitted his rowlocks, and with a light pair of sculls rowed for an hour out into the Gulf42, taking care to keep well to the eastward. At the end of that time he unshipped his sculls, took in his rowlocks, fitted his sculling-oar43 into its muffled44 aperture45, and getting himself comfortably settled, grasped his oar with his left hand, and with his eyes just peering over the gunwale, let the light boat drift with the returning tide, and its fantastic burden of water-worn congelations.
He had not floated two hundred yards, before a change of the ice revealed a small flock of seven geese, quietly feeding along the border of a low piece of field ice. Cocking his gun and laying it ready to hand, La Salle drifted nearer and nearer, keeping barely enough headway to steer4 her, bow on. The gander, a noble bird, suddenly raised his head to gaze at the advancing boat. All the rest instantly raised theirs ready for immediate46 flight. The anxious sportsman lay motionless, ceasing the play of his scull, and the birds, gradually relaxing their necks, turned and swam rapidly away.
Still, La Salle tried not to pursue, and the gander, finding that the boat did not get any nearer, stopped,[Pg 154] looked, started, stopped, and went to feeding again, followed in all things, of course, by his companions. Then the delicate oar began its noiseless sweep, and gradually the sharp prow47 crept nearer, passing, one by one, sluggish48 floes and fantastic pinnacles49, until again the wary50 leader raised his head as if in perplexity and doubt. There, to be sure, was the bit of ice he had taken fright at before, nearer than ever; but it floated as harmlessly as the cake just beside it, from whose edges he had gleaned51 rootlets of young and tender eel-grass not half an hour ago. So the poor overmatched bird doubtless argued; and ashamed of his fears, which were but too well founded, and doubtful of his instincts, which he should have trusted, the gander turned again to the little eddy52 of sea-wrack amid which, with soft guttural love-calls, he summoned his harem to many a dainty morsel53.
Triumphantly54 shone the deadly eye which glittered beneath the snowy cap; noiselessly swung the ashen55 oar, and as unerringly set as Destiny, and remorseless as Death, the knife-like bow slid through the black waters. One hundred, ninety, eighty, seventy, fifty, forty yards only, divide the doomed56 birds from the boat, and the white gunwale is hidden from their view by the interposition of the very floe40 along whose edge they are feeding. Steadily57 La Salle drives the prow gently against the ice, then drops his oar, and grasps his heavy gun. He hazards a glance: the birds, scarce thirty yards away, are unsuspectingly feeding in a[Pg 155] close body; he rises to a sitting posture58, raises his gun, and whistles shrilly59 and long. Instantly the birds raise their heads, gathering60 around their leader. Bang! The thunder-roll of the report, reverberating61 amid the ice, is the death-sentence of the flock. Not one escaped; the distance was too short, the aim too sure, the charge of mitraille too close and heavy.
A flying shot at a flock of eider duck added a male, with snowy crest62, and three plump, brown females; and a successful approach to a small flock of brent made up fifteen birds under the half-deck of the little craft. It was almost dark when, with little time to spare, La Salle came flying through the fast-coming ice, and dashed across the narrow lane of water, between the immovable covering of the bar, and the advancing, tide-borne ice-islands.[Pg 156]
The boys had just drawn in their decoys, and loaded their sled with the birds taken from the boat, besides three geese and a brent, which they had shot during his absence. The other boats had already landed, and been drawn in far up on the ice. Regnar did not know if the centre-wheel had got anything, but Davies and Creamer had four geese, five brent, and a black duck. Peter had gone home with a sled-load of fowl63, and, in short, the day had been generally satisfactory all round.
That night, however, all were tired, wet, and half blind with the ceaseless glare of the each-day-warmer sun; nor did any care to spend in listening to idle tales, the hours which might better be given to sleep. Such, for more than a week longer, was their experience, varied64 only by a few brief frosts, during which, however, the hot coffee made in their lantern-stove was unanimously voted "just the thing."
"Snow-blindness" set in, and Ben had once or twice to leave the ice; while George Waring experienced several attacks, and had a linen65 cloth full of pulverized66 clay—the best application known—kept in the boat for emergencies.
By the middle of the next week, a narrow channel had opened up to the city; and Creamer and Davies, piling their decoys beside their deserted67 box, and leaving Lund to haul them to the shelter of his woods, took the first flood, and paddled briskly homeward, leaving Indian Peter and La Salle in the latter's[Pg 157] stand; while Regnar, who had become a proficient68 with the small boat, struck out for the broken ice lying to the east.
"Good by, Charley; when shall I tell them to expect you?" said Ben, as he started his wheels, and the boat, heavily laden69 with fowl, moved northward70.
"O, at the end of the week, at farthest. Much obliged to you for taking those birds. I'll have a load Saturday. Good by."
"Good by," said Hughie and Ben, once more; and then they bent71 to their task, churning into foam72 the rippleless surface, which bore them on its swift but unnoticeable tide towards home, leaving behind their comrade, his savage companion, and their boyish associates, to experience adventures without parallel in all the strange hunting-lore of those northern seas.
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1
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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8
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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13
loon
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| n.狂人 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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15
exterminated
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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peals
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| n.（声音大而持续或重复的）洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 )；隆隆声；洪亮的钟声；钟乐v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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19
tableau
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| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
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inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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24
ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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25
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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28
agonized
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| v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦 | |
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29
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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30
evacuated
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| 撤退者的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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32
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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34
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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35
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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36
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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37
brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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38
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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39
retrieved
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| v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息） | |
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40
floe
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| n.大片浮冰 | |
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41
pint
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| n.品脱 | |
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42
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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43
oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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44
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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45
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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46
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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47
prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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48
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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49
pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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50
wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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51
gleaned
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| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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52
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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53
morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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54
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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55
ashen
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| adj.灰的 | |
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56
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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57
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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58
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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59
shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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60
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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61
reverberating
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的现在分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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62
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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63
fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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64
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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65
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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66
pulverized
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| adj.[医]雾化的，粉末状的v.将…弄碎( pulverize的过去式和过去分词 )；将…弄成粉末或尘埃；摧毁；粉碎 | |
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67
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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68
proficient
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| adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家 | |
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69
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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70
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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71
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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72
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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