Steve Young Part 11

And then, as if it were a magical change, the mist overhead grew opalescent, then lighter still, as there was a warm breath of air sweeping over the dingy, murky sea. At that moment the dull, distant murmur of water beating against an obstacle grew louder, as the fog rolled away from the s.h.i.+p off to the north, and five minutes later the crew burst into a loud cheer; for, flas.h.i.+ng from the waters and dazzling their eyes, the sun burst through the now iridescent mist, and so quickly that it was hard to realise the truth that astern, and to southward, the sea was sparkling like some wondrous stretch of sapphire blue, while the yards, stays, and ropes of the s.h.i.+p, which were hung with great mist-drops, glittered like diamonds in the glorious light.

The change was indeed wonderful, and, feeling as if he must climb up somewhere and shout, and then that he should like to run to the door of the galley and shake hands with Watty Links, Steve drew in long, deep breaths of soft, warm air. But he neither shouted nor shook hands with the cook's boy, for he stood with Captain Marsham and the doctor, waiting for the explanation of the heavy, increasing roar which came from somewhere behind the vast curtain of mist which lay drifting to the north-west, a couple of hundred yards on the starboard bow, and rising up to the skies, now one glorious span of silver and gold.

They had not long to wait, for the fog was gliding away fast before the soft, summer wind.

All at once the blue water stretching from them to the foot of the mist began to look white, a minute later it could be seen to be in wild commotion, and in another minute to north and south there lay, not more than a mile away, a wave-beaten beach, upon which the blue waves beat and fell back in dazzling silver and diamond spray with a tremendous roar.

But there was plenty yet to see; for, as the mist reached the sh.o.r.e, it seemed to grow more dense, and began to roll in great clouds up some vast slope, and then higher and higher, revealing a long, narrow beach; then a line of chaotic rocks, which had fallen from above; then higher and higher, cliff upon cliff, weather-beaten to a hundred hues; and up above these again, towering mountains; lastly, as if to give the culminating beauty to the scene, the clouds rolled away from one tremendous peak, attended by a score of minor heights, crowned with dazzling ice and snow, vivid and beautiful in the glorious summer sun.

"That's worth some trouble to come and see!" said Captain Marsham.

"Worth trouble?" cried Steve, whose heart was swelling with delight and the words he wanted to say. "Oh!"

That e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n contained all. It was very short, but it meant everything; and it was some time before he woke up to the knowledge of what he was gazing at and what was being done.

It was with quite a start that he turned on being touched upon the shoulder, and found Dr Hands...o...b.. at his side.

"Well, Steve boy," said the doctor, "what do you think of Jan Mayen?"

"Is this Jan Mayen--the island?"

"Yes."

"Beautiful! lovely! What a place to live in!"

"Delightful!" said the doctor drily. "Not a tree hardly a green thing, eternal ice and snow!"

"Oh, but it's dazzling, lovely!"

"Yes, when the mist's off it," said the doctor.

"And it is not quite off that mountain."

"Yes, quite off. That smoke you are looking at is from a volcano."

"And shall we land and explore it?"

"I hope so."

"When?"

"That depends on the captain. I hope to spend a few good days there."

"And do you think _they_ are here?"

"Impossible to say yet," said the doctor. "If our friends have taken refuge here, it will be on this southern sh.o.r.e, where they could get most suns.h.i.+ne; but I can see no signal flying, no sign of a wreck. But there, I daresay Captain Marsham will run close in for us to explore."

By this time the mist had been driven back so far that they saw, opening before them, white and glistening in the suns.h.i.+ne like a band of silver stretching beyond the floe, the ice of the polar ocean. It was miles away to north, to east, and west, and apparently only a few feet above the sea, that, strain their eyes as they would, there was always the floe offering itself as a barrier to stay further progress in that direction.

To their left, and extending toward the north, there was the island; but apparently, too, it did not go very far in the latter direction, but trended round, as if that were the termination of the island. Southward they could not make out its extent.

"Well, Hands...o...b.., what do you say to landing and examining the wreck?"

It was the captain who spoke, and the doctor and Steve both echoed his last word.

"Wreck?"

"Yes; didn't you see it. There, high up yonder, this side of the sharp point which runs out to the east. I daresay that was the cause of the wreck. Here, take the gla.s.s."

He handed his telescope to the doctor, who made a long inspection, and then pa.s.sed it to Steve, who took it with hands trembling from eagerness to view what was in all probability the remains of his uncle's vessel, whose return had been so anxiously awaited all through the past winter, but in the spring given up as being ice-bound somewhere in the north.

Yes, there was the hull of a good-sized s.h.i.+p fast on the rocks, and with decks ripped up by the waves, so that, as the vessel lay over on its port side, Steve could peer with the gla.s.s right into the hold between the deck beams. There was the stump of the bowsprit pointing upward toward the stony cliffs, but the masts were completely gone, and an ugly gap in the port side suggested that it would not be long before the timbers quite disappeared.

Steve handed the gla.s.s back with a sigh, and his face contracted.

"No, no; don't look like that," said the captain gently; "we don't know that this is the _Ice Blink_."

"You are saying that to comfort me," replied the boy sadly. "It must be."

"Why?"

"You said it was possible that they might have made for Jan Mayen and been frozen up there."

"I did."

"Well, there is the vessel," said Steve piteously.

"How do you know?"

The boy looked at him almost angrily, and pointed to the wreck, as if there was the answer to the question.

"That is not satisfactory proof. I have been looking hard, but the stern is battered away, and there is no name. It may be any one of the hundreds of boats that sailed north during the past ten years, or a derelict brought up by the current and washed ash.o.r.e."

But Steve shook his head.

"Ah! you are determined to take the worst view of it, my lad," said the captain kindly. "Even if it is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_, Steve, my boy, they must have had plenty of stores and timber, and we may find them with a snug cabin built up, and all well and hearty."

"You think so?" cried Steve eagerly.

"I do not say I think so, my boy. I say it is possible, if--mind _if_-- that is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_."

"Of course," said the doctor encouragingly, as he used his gla.s.s. "They may be up one of those gullies in some sheltered spot inland."

"No," said the captain decisively; "I doubt very much whether there are any sheltered spots inland. To me it seems as if the whole of the interior is one icy desert. Look at that gully, Hands...o...b.., there to the right. A regular alpine glacier running nearly down to the sh.o.r.e."

"Yes; but still there may be sheltered valleys."

"Of course; but it strikes me that if we find our friends it will be somewhere along the narrow stretch of sh.o.r.e. But we'll see."