INVISIBLE COLOR BOOK
NG CAST
"nn uounoine ooy aown. and which he had tried in vain
nu iiu luiiurr u mruiiv. and i mn i k u-.. t . l
-.1 - , "- v K IIIC UIJV IlJIlIlfl III
wain wun one arm (he w, very light even for his yearsl. clambered 0..1 of the
wreck to the ice without getting ; much more water upon me. and. hurrymg off J,d
not stop until I had lam nod with mv l.nrH..r, ,..... ' ... !
CAST AWAY IN THE COLD
By Dr. Isaac . Hayes
' " CHAPTERV '
THE OLD MAN MEETS THE UTTLE PEOPLE I UNDER PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCES. AND RELATES TO THEM HOW THF YOUVC Man: rn
- AWAY IN TI1L COLD. RESCUED A SHIPMATE. AND ALSO OTHER MATTERS .WHICH F pit 7 S tFA
. .. INTO THIS TITLE. WOULD SPOIL THE STORY ALTOGETHER ' VLT .
- HIV fl.tua I I J . . ... .. "
T... v-..-.m iiaruy was not io te caught napping, as on the pre
before the t.me. "If they don't come soon." ..id he to himself. Til n
after them -and they did not come soon, at least the captain thought
,. v. i ll i look "ftr lhem- W hen h had reached the brow of the hill
from which both the captain's and Mr Earnest1, houses could be seen the old
man discovered the children coming down one of the winding path, wh ch led
thru Mr Earnest's grounds. It was some moments before they saw Uw Md-
S'hTXWiitii wu much wonderine wh? had hppened
ing r'peo:'.;; flin
,hm WrLt.hCj,1ldrin C"me theJy heard the old ma" loudly to
k y hrtM! riLVf slow Ltoday- Be ,ivey- or we' lse the chance."
What chance V asked William, when they had come up with him.
The wind, the wind-why. don't you see there's . .pankin' breeze? I was
afraid we'd lose our sail, so I came to hurry you up "
."- l'H1r-ahi hU"5h;v.'h? wfd both the boy, together; and without further ado
the water PeP a'n With him down thru the oods to
The little yacht was lying close beside the little wharf T.nnt
and be l.vely, exclaimed the captain as he helped them one by one aboard- and
then
assistance
he gotin himself, and shoved th, yacht off from the landing and witn the
ance of a smeular- ook ni hov. km h. ,.nf.: m.j A . u .
spread the sails, and the lively craft was soonskfrnm ng ove? the waters carry
mg as lively a party as ever set out n n .ft.m iLii. e walers' carry-
the harbor! Td ' said"" IfW " " C,e" aCr"
oout snip." and put back again.
And thus the captain kept on "tack
ing" across the harbor, going to and fro,
for more than an hour, enjoying every
minute of it just as much us the children
did When at length, however, the ehil
dren began to quiet down a little (the
sharp edge of novelty being worn off),
the captain ran into shoal water, and
brought his boat's head once more up into
the wind; but this time, instead of let
ting her head "pay" off to starboard, he
steered her right into the wind's eye,
with the sails shivering all the time,
until the boat stopped, when he cried out
to Main Brace to "let go the anchor,"
which Main Brace did promptly, with an
"Ay, ay, sir!" and then he "clewed" up
the sails, and spread a white and red
striped and red-fringed awning over the
place where they were seated, and said
he was now going on with the story.
"Isn't this a tip-top place," said he, "for
story telling?
"Now I call this a much better place
than the 'Crow's Nest,'" went on the
captain; "for, don't you see, when we
knocked off yesterday I was standing in
, the middle of the sea, on a great ice raft
"My shipmates were all either drowned
or killed outright by the falling ice, so
far at least as I knew.
"The waves which had been raised
after a while began steadily to subside,
and, as the sea became more calm, I
found that I could approach nearer to
where the wreck had happened by jump
ing over some of the cracks which had
been made in the ice, and walking across
piece after piece of it.
:"Had the iceberg all gone to pieces at
once, the sea would soon have become
q .u I WaS evie?JT, the noise which reached me that a considerable
parttf the berg was still holding together, and was wallowing in the sea in conse
qUence of its equilibrium being disturbed by the first crash, and was still keeping
the.watirs moving. I could indeed vaguely see this remaining fragment, swaying
to right and left, and I could also perceive that, with every . roll, fresh masses
were breaking off, with loud reports, like the crash of artillery. I could, however,
discover nothing of the ship nor either of the boats. I was able to detect, even at
a considerable distance, some fragments of ice floating and rolling about, when
the fog would clear up a little; and, as I peered into the gloom, I thought at one
time that I saw a man standing upon'one of them. It was but a moment, for the '
fog closed upon the object, whatever it may have been, and it vanished as a'
spectral figure.
, "My eyes were strained to'calch a-further glimpse of this object, but nothing
more was to be seen of it From this my attention was soqn -attracted by a dark
mass which had drifted upon the edge of the broken ice.'hot .far to the right of "
the place where I had been standing when the boat left me. I soon made this
out to be some part of the wTeck of the ship. In a few moments I could clearly
Fee that it was a piece of a mast; then I could r-lamlv distinguish the 'fore-top.'
Each succeeding wsve was forcing it h'rher and higher out of the water, and I
discovered, after a few moments, that other timbers were attached to it. and that
beside these were sails and ropes, makine of the whole a considerable mass
. u, oosewpe this fragment of the wreck attentively for some time 1
thought I perceived a man moviner amon th tangled collection of timbers and
ropes and sails, endeavonng to extricate himself.
"It soon became clear to me that my suspicions that this was a man were
correct; and beings more convinced that one of my shipmates at least was yet
. yuty w iratue nun u jwssioie, W1U10UI "I It
unvc oLuping w KVe a tnougnt to trie risks I would en
counter. It was clear that he could not liberate himself.
"Wlvt I had taken for a man proved to be one, or, as
I soon found out, a boy the 'cabin boy of the ship, a light,
pale-faced lad, and only 14 years old. The boy was evi
dently fast in some way among the rigging, and bad been
trying to free himself. As I came closer, 1 observed that
he was entirely quiet, and had sunk out of view Quick
as thought I mounted up into the wreck, and then I saw
the boy with a rope tangled round his leg, and lying quite
insensible. Underneath him another man was lying, much
mutilated, and evidently quite dead. As I was mounting
up, a wave washed in under the wreck., but I esranpd with
only a little spray flying over me, which, however, did not
wet me much. It was but the work of a moment to whip
ut my knife, which I carried In a belt, like every other
ro w-. vii ifif A i y v i
(TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK)
f , - " " " iiavnn, MU T til
1 u aii j j rCmnB p ace oi present safety on the unbroken ,,r fast
ice Here I laid down my insensible burden. .11 dr.pp.ng with the cold wier .nd
in a Ute of great anxiety I bent over the boy At first I thought that he was
dead, but it was .oon cle.r th.t thia w.s not the case, for he w.s breathmc ltho
slowly, yet freely Out from his wet h.ir . I.ttl blood w.s ooimg .nd upon
examining the pot I found that there was . bad bruise there .nd that the 4m
was broken, tho there was not a serious cut This was clearly the cause of hi.
present unconsciousness, as hi. breathing ieemcd conclusively to .how that he
had managed to keep his head above water and had not been brought t.i m pres
ent state by drowning When I rose up. fully impressed with the oocessity of
tecuring for the lad rest nd warmth, and fully realized, for the fust time my
powerless situation (that I. was even apparently unable to inve mvelf still less
the boy), my heart seemed to give way entirely, and I sank down once more
beside him A prayer to heaven for succor which I had no thought could ever
come to me, rose to my lips, and at that very moment a ray of hope dawned upon
me. The great fog was breaking away, the bright un was scattering the mists,
and land was bursting thru It near at hand . Light, fleecv clouds were rolling up
above the sea. and, as they floated ff before I gentle wind . blaze of sunshine
burst thru an opening in them and fell upon myself and the boy whose life I had
at least for the present, saved
"I must here pause to tell you that, altho we were In the Arctic regions and
on the Ice, the weather was not cold, the time being the middle of the summer
"Seeing that there waa now nothing to be gained by longer delay on the ice.
I picked up the boy in my arms and
started for the land. ,
"Altho the bry was not heavy, yet I
found that in the distance I had to carry
him I grew much fatigued; but the ncces-
sity for haste made me strong, and to
save the boy's life seemed now much
more desirable than to save by own, Inas
much as if the boy died, and I survived
him;, and could In any way manage to
live on, I should be In a worse condition
; than if dead, as It appeared to me being
all alone.
"I got 'at last upon the rocks, and then on
a patch of green grass, where I laid down
the Insensible boy in the blazing sun.
"The grass was warm, and the air, as
I have said, was scarcely chilly Under
these improved conditions it was clearly'
better to expose the boys body wholly t
the air than to allow him to remain in n't
wet clothes. The first thing, therefore,
which I did was to divest myself of my
own clothing, in order that I might give
my warm underclothing to the boy
"The scene around me was dreary
enough to 6trike terror Into a stoutef
heart than mine; and, when I had full
viewed It. I had to confess that it did not
seem probable that any living thing, not
to mention human beings, could possibly
be there. The first thought I fiad wai
to shout and halloo again and again at
the very top of my voice; but no answer
reached me except the echo of my own
words in a deep and dark gorge close by.
This echo startled me and made be
afraid, tho I never could tell why My
loud calling had failed to produce any
impression upon the boy whatever, and
I felt sure that he was going to die.
Without exactly knowing what I did, or
, wnai i was doing tt lor, I now ran to th
right over the green grass, and then over rough stones up to a considerable eleva
tion, and commenced hallooing again, when, much to my astonishment, I heard a
great fluttering and loud sounds right below and withln'thirty feet of me. I
sprang back as if some terrible enemy had attacked me; but I receovered myself
1 in an instant, when I observed ifcat the fluttering came from a number of birds
which rose from among the rocks. The birds were brown and quite large, and
I knew at once that they were eider ducks, for I had seen them frequently before,
'. while in the ship, and the sailors had told me their name.
"You must know that the eider duck, in order to protect lis eggs from the air
when it goes off to get for food the little fish that it catches In the sea, plucks
r from its breast the fine featheri called down, in which it buries Its eggs very care-
fully In each of the nests I found there was a good handful of this down, and
the thought at once occurred to' me to gather, a quantity of it, and cover the boy
with it. I went to work immediately and collected a gfeat armful of it, aiid has
. tening to where the boy was, I deposited it, and then hurried back for more Irt
' a very short time I had accumulated a great pile, and, spreading a thick layer of
it out close beside the boy, I drew hjm over unon it, and then covered him com
pletely, and spread my overcoat as 1 had done before.
"The value of putting this discovery to prompt use was soon seen. The boy, '
from being cold almost as a corpse, began to show some symptoms of returning
warmth. His breathing seemed to be more rapid and free, and his eyelids began
to move a little, tho they did not fully open for some time; but it was then only
for an instant, and I was not certain whether he recognized me or not. . I called
to him loudly by. name, I rubbed his forehead, I pounded his hands, but he gave
no further recogntiion, yet he was getting more and more warm, and in this
circumstance I resteJ my hope. ' '
- : "Having accomplished this much, and feeling pretty
'sure that the boy would recover in the end, my mind very
naturally fell back upon the contemplation of my own
unhappy condition I moved a few steps from the boy,
and sat down upon a rock overlooking the sea. There was
nothing there to inspire me with courage, when this ques
tion came uppermost in my mind: 'Suppose the boy docj
recover from his present stupor, how are we going to live r
Could anybody indeed be In a more sorry state?
"When I thought of all this, I buried my face in my
hands, and moaned aloud, and the big tears began to
gather in my eyes " , .
"0, wasn't ft awful!" exclaimed William.
"V don't see what you could do, Captain Hardy," ex
claimed Fred.
"The poor boy," exclaimed Alice, "I hope he di-ln't
die. Did he, Captain Hardy?"
"Well, I'll tell you about tbat some other time,"
swered the captain.