The Golden Harpoon — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

$0 “Tt's parfectly wonderful!’ cried Stump. “Here was the harpoon, right plump and plain, ®& minute ago, and now it’s gone. Well, well, them that says the days of miracles is past must be infarnal liars, and——~” He paused suddenly, and fairly trembling with excitement, touched the arm of his com- panion. ‘“ There—there it is, lad, again! sure enough. There, where that small mass of ice sticks out like a knot from the side of the berg, right ahead of us!” “T see it!” cried Harry, darting forward, and, in a few moments, he would have seized it, had not the little bauble suddenly and mys- teriously disappeared from his view. -He carefully scanned the projecting mass of ice, but he saw nothing to explain the singular phenomenon that had just occurred. “Tt’s a queer bit of gold—my eyes, if it isn’t!” cried Stump, “to run away from its friends in that style, seeing that it isn’t through miserliness that we are after it. There’s a miracle about it, sure enough!” As the ship-keeper concluded, he chanced to direct his eyes towards a hole in that part of the ice near his feet, and he then beheld two little twinkling orbs looking up at him from the cavity. He started back with a ery of sur- prise, but the next moment he condemned him- self for this unnecessary display of emotion. “To think that I should be startled by a seal a-looking up at me from his hole!” he exclaimed, as the inquiring eyes of Marline were bent upon his face; “for that was all, Jad—I’m ashamed to own it—that was all that _made me cry out.” He stamped upon the ice, impatiently, as he spoke, and probably alarmed by the noise thus made, the seal crawled from the cavity, and dived into @ narrow channel of water that ex- tended along the base of the berg; but, before accomplished this feat, the two men, to their surprise and unbounded joy, had caught sight of the golden harpoon, which was sus- pended to the neck of the little creature by means of a strip of blue ribbon! “Ay, ay; I told you so,” exclaimed Stump, gleefully rubbing his hands. “The gal is still alive; for who but herself could have tied that bit of gold to the neck of the seal?” “ Certainly!” responded Marline, with gleam- ing eyes, “and, without doubt, we can find the whereabouts of Alice by closely tracking this creature, which will probably go to the point from which it first started. It has been hurt by a blow from aboat-hook, or some other implement. I know that by the way it moved.” “And that’s why it takes to the water,” replied his companion; “for the creatur’ knows that salts is good for its wound, and it’s only by cruising along the edge of the channel that we'll sight it again.” Accordingly, the two men, with their gaze still resting upon the narrow strip of water, proceeded along its icy shore. They had not gone far when they saw the sea] lying motion- a upon a small berg, a few feet ahead of them. THE GOLDEN HARPOON, But it moved slowly away as they advanced —so slowly, in fact, that they were obliged to slacken their pace, in order not to alarm the timid animal. Occasionally, it would vanish, by moving under some overhanging mass of ice; but, the next moment, their eyes would again catch the gleam of the golden harpoon, as its bearer emerged to their view. In this manner they followed it for a full half-hour, at the end of which time the creature. glided towards a hole, near the base of the berg—one which, as it was near the eastern edge of the floe, had not hitherto been encountered by the men during their search. “Ay, ay!” cried Stump, “there it goes, sure enough, into the hole, and—and—my eyes!” he suddenly interrupted, “it’s only got half- way in, after all, for the p’int of the harpoon has caught in a crevice, and holds the little lubber fast.” He darted forward, as he concluded, seized the struggling animal, and, disengaging the bauble from its neck, passed it to Marline, At the same moment, a musical voice was heard to emerge from beneath the thick ice-walls of the berg. “Ts that you, my friend? Heaven be praised !” Both men uttered a simultaneous shout of oy. u It is she—it is Alice!’ cried Marline, bound- ing forward. “ Thank Heaven! she is found at last!” “ Ay, ay!” retorted the ship-keeper, clapping his hands, and dancing around the frozen mass, like a wild islander, “TI felt pretty sartain that blessed little creatur’ would lead us the right way! We are here, Miss Alice—both of us!” he added, raising his voice; “so keep up a good heart, till we get you out, which we'll do in the tying of a square knot!” In fact, Harry had already begun to ascerd one of the sidez of the crystal pile, and soon afterwards, as the berg was not very high, he bad gained the summit. Here he found an aperture, which was barely large enough to admit a human body, and which led into one of those small, curiously-formed cells, which are found among the many crystal wonders fashioned by Nature’s hand. And, in this narrow chamber the sides of which were too smooth to enable her to climb them, stood the niece of Captain Howard, look- ing up at her lover, as he peered through the opening, which was not more than five feet above her head. By means of the “ratlin-cords,” in Stump’s possession, the young girl was soon extricated from her uncomfortable quarters. Then, under the natural impulse of the moment, Marline clasped her to his breast, while she, with a glad but faint cry, pillowed her weary head upon his bosom. “My own Alice, found at last!” “ Harry—dear Harry! Thank Heaven! we meet again!” “Ay, ay!” cried Stump; “so you do; and it does my heart good to see it. It was that ‘ ? COMmIchboo S com