The Golden Harpoon — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE DISAPPEARANCE, 25 This cireumstance made him feel uneasy, for if Harry had succeeded in reaching the boat, it would not now be receding instead of advane- ing. He hurried on, however, until a sloping iceberg, about ten feet high and fifteen feet in length, barred his further progress. This he would be obliged to scale before he couid pro- ceed, for he could not go round it on account of a channel of water, too wide to cross, that bounded it on each side. He looked ap dubi- ously at the top of tne frozen pile, and, while still hesitating at its base, he fancied he heard a shout close to his ear. He looked round in amazement, and as he did so, the cry was repeated, this time louder than before, and seeming to emerge from the very heart of the iceberg. “ Who is that?” cried the ship-keeper, ‘and where are you?” “ft is —Harry Marline,” retorted the voice. “Js that you, Stump?” “Ay, ay, it’s me, bless your eyes, but skin me if I see how you could have condensed your- self so as to get into this solid chunk of ice!” “You are mistaken,” retorted the laughing voice of the harpooner, “there’s a rift in the berg Jike a ravine. You can see it if you climb to the top where I was before I slipped into it. “And is this where you've been all the time?” “Yes. The inner side of my quarters are so slippery that I can’t climb them! You had better get a rope and is “T have a bunch of ratlin stuff in my pocket!” interrupted Stump, who generally earried a little of everything useful about him, “which I guess will do.” And pulling out the bunch of rigging, he fastened one of its ends to his pigtai'—for he cid not like the taste of tar sufficiently to put the strands in u.5 month—and proceeded to scramble to the top of-the ice, which he finally gained with much difficulty. Peering through the mouth of the rift, he saw the upturned face of Marline, towards which he mow lowered the - disengaged end of the piece of rigging. It was soon in the young man’s hand, and Stump was about to unfasten the other end from the pen- dent mass of hair, so as to secure it to ano of the rough projections of ice, when his fost slipped, causing him to descend haliway down the frozen declivity, which he had mounted with so much trouble, and where he now hung suspended by his pigtail to the rope; for the young harpooner, believing that his corpulent chum was ¢linging to it with his hands, and that he was doing him a good service by hold. ing on to the piece of rigging, had not allowed it to escape his grasp. So there hung the stout little ship-keeper, kicking his legs and vociferating in an excited manner, until at length he succeeded in turning himself and grasping the rope with both hands. “You sarved me a bad trick, Marline, with- out knowing it,” he said, as soon as he had re- gained the top of the berg. ‘‘Hang me if I think my pigtail will ever recover from the effects of it.” And he then proceeded to explain the pre- dicament in which he had been placed. ‘he harpooner expressed his sympathy and regret, atter which Stump proceeded very carefully to fusten the rope to an icy projection near the mouth of the crevice. , Assured that the ropes were perfectiy secure, Tiarry clambered hand over hand, until he had gained the top of the berg, and then expressed his intention of continuing his search for tha boats. ‘“As for you, Stump,” he added, “you had better make your way back to Alice, as speedily as possible, ‘so as to calm her fears en my ac- count.” “Willingly enough will I do that,” replied the shipkeeper, gently smoothing his rufiled pigtail, “for I’m mightily tired of this ice- cruising business—I'll give you my word. for that.” The two men separated soon afterwards, but not until Stump had presezted the pocket-com- pass to his chum, and delivered a long tirade upon its merits, Each of the seamen then continued his course —the ship-keeper waddling along towards the spot where he had left Alice, which was not more than five hundred yards from the scene of his late adventure, and the young harpooner darting swiftly forward in the direction of the blowing horn. Stump strained his eyes, as he neared the point of his destination, eager to get a glimpse of the captain’s fair nicce. In iler to relieve her anxiety as soon as possible, he kept up a continual shouting as he advanced. “Tt’s all right, Miss Alice—bless your pretty eyes—it’s all right! Ive seen him, f have, and he’s well and hearty! He was penned up ina sort of scal-hole, but I got him out of it in quick time, and he’s now started off again after tthe boats.” Quickening his pace as he moved on, he had soon made so much progress that the little arix, looming up through the fog directly ahead ci him, suddenly broke upon his view. Then, looking round him in every direction, and not seeing Alice, he stopped short, and rubbed his eyes, to make sure that they had not been dis- arranged in saeh a manner as to deceive him. The next moment he laughed very quietly to himself. 3 “What a lubber I am getting to be, to think that the poor gal would have stood where I leit her all this time. She’s gone into her little cubby-hole, and is now, I daresay, a-grieving and taking on in a sad fashion. And that’s why she didn’t answer my shouting as I came on. Ay, ay, that’s it, sure enough !” Eager to soothe the young girl with the news of her lover’s safety, he hurried forward until he had gained the side of the boat, when he hastily threw aside the end of the tarred cloth that covered it. To his astonishment and dis- may, the vessel was empty! Little did the harpooner imagine this as he moved onward over the floating bergs. Hops made his step light and his hearp buoyant. The S COMIEHoOO C@