Frank Savile

“ The roar of it slammed across the hollow ponderously, the 243splinters scattering on the hard flooring of the lake bed, shooting out and across the smooth granite in a thousand chips of glancing, flashing crystal. The sun glistened upon them gloriously in many-hued, rainbow rays. Behind us a great pinnacle of basalt was flung from the peak, falling on the glacier with the crash of an artillery salute. A moan trembled out from the vitals of the riven glacier, as if from a prisoned soul within. The impulse of the crushed ice billowed out a dark spate of water at its foot. ”

“ Oily and crestless billows rippled and webbed across it in festoons. The lurid reflections gleamed upon it like the flicker of swords ashock. In a majesty of resistless might it hung over us—a doom unavertable.
As the first slope of the hill of waters slid beneath our keel I tore myself from my trance of fascination. I dashed forward and raised Lady Delahay. With a kick I burst open the door of the companion and thrust her through, turning desperately for Gwen. With the lurch of the rising deck I staggered, slipped, and fell backward. ”

“ Every soul on board stood out in a clearness like the day. Against the mast stood Gerry, one arm round it, one round Vi’s waist, while before the two of them Garlicke and Lessaution had sprung, facing sternly the hill of death, jealously valiant in their pride of race. To the left Janson and Denvarre still held the rail, staring aft with wide, fascinated eyes. Waller and Rafferty at the wheel stood expectant, their shoulders squared to meet and give to the coming shock. The crew, distributed here and there in two and threes, were bracing themselves against the deck-house, mast, or funnel. ”

“ The crimson light flared down into the empty lake basin, reflected back luridly from the rocks. A small, fine rain of soot, gray and woolly, began to fall; it got into our eyes and nostrils, and set us sneezing and winking prodigiously. Then in trembling and with hopelessness in our hearts we climbed the slopes to the cliff-tops, filled with desolation in that the earth having turned traitor, we had but the sea to look to. How vainly we might look and how long we knew but too well.
The red glow wavered upon crestless surges that moved slowly upon the crags. ”

“ The edge of the ice rose slowly, but perceptibly, mounting from the water-level with a heavy swish. I looked up in amazement, and saw the topmost pinnacles bow slantingly across the drifting clouds. There was a suck and a wash as the water rolled in toward the ice to fill the vacuum. The berg lurched slowly back again, and a big breaker gathered itself up, and crested out toward us. There was a line of foam across the pool.
An order roared from between Waller’s lips, and Janson came at a bound from the bridge to wake the watch below. His face was white with terror. ”

“ The water completely hid any moraine there might have been before the irruption of the whelming wave. Between us and the tops of the sea-cliffs was a narrow strand of rock, covered with the silt of the retreating waters. Among the litter the bodies of one or two sea-lions and seals were visible, their fur shining wet and glossy in the light of the rising sun. On the shore beneath the far cliff a whale was stranded, thwacking his huge tail resoundingly upon the boulders as he vainly tried to thrust himself back into his native element. ”

“ Kicking, reeling, panting, snatching at each other and at the rocks, we fought along that pipe-like passage, every nerve in our bodies tingling with expectant terror. My hair bristled on my head as I heard the snap of those grim jaws behind me, and for one awful moment I felt the horrible breath sing past my cheek. I ducked to very earth, and at the same moment felt the rasp of the eager tongue upon my heel. Calling aloud in abject terror I plunged forward, bearing down Gerry and Lessaution with me. ”

“ I climbed to the crow’s-nest with Lessaution, and stayed beside him there hour after hour, drinking in all the glories of the scene, and listening lazily to his babble, taking pleasure in the mere joy of living.
We rolled slowly down the lessening passages all that day, and at sunset lay to with springs on our cables, for the floe-ice surged upon us ceaselessly, making it too dangerous to charge in among the pack without the help of daylight. ”

“ They toyed in terrible mockery with their own reflection in the swift-tided sea. They shook with their fierce spasms the bursting rocks. Before them the granite dissolved into a very paste. And over all crept slowly, gently, irresistibly, a fog of rising steam, where the boiling lava met the ice-strewn ocean, wrapping the torn wounds in the cliff-side as in a soft lint upon their bleedings. Across this veil the shudders of the rending cliff played in ruddy reflections, rippling across it like searchlight rays as the hot molten matter gouted from the crags. ”

“ For a second or two no one spoke, dwelling silently upon the grim wonder of it. Then a sob of terror broke across the tension of the stillness, and Lady Delahay sank to the deck. I raised her quickly, and placed her in a deckchair. Then I looked round me.
On my right Gerry, Denvarre, and Lessaution were clutching the rail before them in stiff, constrained attitudes. The responsive emotions worked across their faces as they watched the travail of the peak. As some gaping fissure spued up a froth of vivid flame, their lips parted in automatic unison to the sundering stone. ”

“ In spite of Gerry’s veto I did dream that night, seeing Denvarre in many a heroic attitude save Gwen from desperate perils by flood and field—masterful deeds which I could only watch in restless helplessness. I rode a nightmare which trampled my every aspiration in the mud of desolation, leaving me to awake heavy-eyed and low-spirited, but yet, as Gerry predicted, with some of the hope that each new day brings. ”

“ For I had realized only too well that the great smoke pall that overhung us and made long the night was Death’s Shadow indeed.
272As the dawn began to filter in under the fog of dust, I woke and strode out to see how fared the world of fire and ice. A great hush had fallen with the livid morning light. The thunderous boom of the crater had ceased, and from above came only the distant purr and simmer of undying fires. The boil and roar of active eruption had died down. The great smoke curtain stretched away in a long wreath inland, carried before the cool sea breeze. ”

“ The dull roar became abruptly a sharp crash. The ground rippled and worked horribly, and we were flung to earth, grasping at the rolling boulders. The cleft beneath the ship yawned like some Titanic mouth. As the remaining hawser parted, the keel sank further into the opening with a thud, and the stones we had built up beneath it went clattering down into the abyss. Not ten yards from where Gwen and I fell abroad, and not two feet from where Lessaution grovelled, a fissure opened and shut with a snap as of teeth. ”

“ Then a hail from the boat reached across to us above the raving of the wind, and I saw our men tug frantically at a rope that tautened suddenly. A dark body came swiftly flying up to the bulwarks as the men hauled, and with eager hands we seized it, fending it from the jumping list of the timbers. A single glance showed me Lady Delahay’s face, sunken and shriveled with fifty new lines of haunting fear. Another hail, another strenuous pull, and Violet fell into the arms that Gerry held out to receive her. ”

“ The red glow of the fire-pillar was beginning to pale into the tints of dawn before we had cleared our deck into any similitude of tidiness. All night long we toiled, relieving each other in crews of eight at the towing. For the heat ashore made the breeze beat landward with aggravating steadiness, and but for persistent effort we should have drifted back on to the sheer cliffs of the wall, and pounded our timbers into matchwood on its iron face. ”

“ One or two of the great timbers—carven and decorated by hands long dead—were now wind-planed and worn by the sand drift, and slanted deep into the pebbles. We shovelled and scraped to trace them further. Below the soil they rounded almost at right angles, and we uncovered one of them at full length. It measured a good forty paces—the keel, as we could but suppose, of some Mayan bark, sole remnant of what had been a gallant ship in the squadron of that lost and hapless race.
We scratched and delved, but nothing further than dried wood splinters did we discover. ”

“ I believe neither captain nor mate left the bridge the whole night long, for the floe and berg began to grow around us, tack as we would. But the deeper we got into the heart of the multitude of island ice, the less grew the force of the wind. I rose the next morning after a few hours’ restless slumber to find us floating gently in a calm, untroubled sea, while around us, as far as eye could reach, the white pack stretched in uneven masses to the horizon. ”

“ A rending crash broke from the cliff in front, and the cold, hungry ocean came clamoring through, beating upon the outcharging tide. For some furious seconds our ship plunged and reared among the fighting billows like a restive horse. Then from the boat came a cry as the pursuing wave reached her and flung boiling spray upon the men. Like a toy she was raised and flung toward us. The wall of water struck with a thud below our stern, and thrust us, bow forward, at the gap. Swifter than paddle or screw could have borne us we sped upon the crest, driving straight into the new reft opening. ”

“ I was conscious of a hand seizing my arm; of some one struggling with me for Gwen. Yet, thought I, we will die together. Then the friendly hand, leaving this useless striving, dragged me forward; behind me some unseen power was thrusting me with mad shoves up the Titan steps of the cliff face. Suddenly came clearness of vision, and I knew Denvarre and Gerry, who were hauling and jerking me up the crevices of our rock of defence. Gwen was still in my arms, and below, the great monster scrabbled at the cliff-foot, reaching up his neck in raging, ravenous disappointment. ”

“ As he hesitated, now looking lakeward, now peering up to us, another crash resounded from the mountain. Like the tearing of a sheet of paper the glacier cañon split further shoreward, and opened beneath his very feet. Half his bulk rolled into the cleft thus riven; his tail and one hind limb disappeared. Slipping and spurring frantically he managed to support himself on his huge elbows, but lost ground with every rock of the shuddering earth. The cleft yawned, then half closed again. Thus as in a vice he was held, his leg and tail mangled in the nip of the fissure. ”

“ His offer was accepted by Waller with effusion, and the screw began to churn a slow, creamy wake upon the blackness. The last of the ice swung by and whirled seaward, the clamor of its striving melting into the sluggish beat of our lame propeller as we got way upon the boat. And thus we ran landward for a length or two to find speed before we turned with the heeling tide.
Suddenly—swift as the cap of a port-fire snaps—the white glare of the moonbeams reddened, died, then leaped again to a flame glow. It wrapped the whole expanse of rock and water in a flood of crimson. The sea became blood. ”

“ But as its first strength died down I flung myself with Gwen upon the ground, and grasping at a ledge hung on with despair’s own grip.
In the case of Fidget the Monster’s wile defeated his object. The back-swirl of his breath whisked the little dog like a leaf past the lowering head and on into the outer cleft. With a sound half bark, half squeal, she leaped upon the unwieldy body before the neck could coil itself out of the inner cave. We heard her yapping pass swiftly out among the boulders, and die away up the empty lake-side. ”

“ Gerry seized one of his outstretched legs and gave him a lusty shove. The ungrateful little wretch never so much as offered him thanks or a tug in return. He gathered himself up, and tore across the confusion of the ice-milled stones like a lapwing.
Parsons respectfully offered a back, as at leap-frog. We took advantage of it to scale the tiny precipice, and follow in the savant’s tracks. The slow-blooded Mr. Parsons, after eyeing the unaided ascent that would be his if he pursued us, sat himself down beside the baggage, and lit his pipe with solemn content. ”

“ Lessaution’s lips were beginning to twitch with words for which he could find no voice, and a low moan broke from Lady Delahay. Of those who dared to look, not one could remove his concentrated gaze.
Another crash, sharp and strident as the crack of a thunderbolt, smote across the surface of the waters. It swelled with devilish crescendo into a roar that threatened to burst our ear-drums. They throbbed and palpitated to the limits of tension. A blare of yellow flame filled the horizon. The island peak seemed to leap bodily heavenwards, and the lower crags toppled and reeled swayingly. ”

“ We managed to get another piece of canvas spread, and then like a thing endowed with sudden life the Racoon began to tear before the wind, bursting aside the surges as she overtook them, as if she would revenge haughtily the shame they had put upon her helplessness. There was an exhilaration about the fury of our rushing. It was like riding a mettled and tireless steed.
I left the crew to their work of re-connecting the broken rudder-chain and went below. The saloon was a desolation. Every movable thing had been swept to port by the list of our sudden broach to. ”

“ Above we could hear the wheeze and the occasional gasp of the watching Monster, and his feet moved restlessly, sending down showers of little stones into the abyss, where they no longer clattered into emptiness, but fell with splashings into the growing flood. Then a thrill pulsed through the rocks, and we could feel the sickening heave and roll of the earth as a new eruption shook the crater. In a second or two the roar of it came dully down to us, drowning the sound of the rifle shots which still pattered at intervals on the rocks, or thudded on that sensationless hide. ”

“ No; no God that ruled the universe could allow it. I wrestled with the cold reason that insisted that these things could be, and that it was stretching the limits of mere coincidence to say they were not.
Into my tortures of despair a hail from Janson broke, and he swung the leaping flash-light from before our bow like a lightning streak. It streamed, a path of light across the billows, to port, and centered there on a tumbling, reeling object, buffeted by the bluster of the breakers, half hidden by the curtain of the spin-drift. ”

“ The ship was trembling and wobbling as the thrills of the hawser shook her bows, and the granite edges scored and frayed her timbers as she wrestled in the mouth of the cleft. In another group farther off, the ladies stood upon the still dripping stones to watch the operations, keeping cautiously their distance, in case the ship should lurch over before the ropes had her fast. The bellowings of Waller and the boatswain echoed thunderously across the amphitheatre of stone as they urged the men to renewed efforts. ”

“ Then I lay down upon my face, my head and shoulders outstretching far above the blue gulf, and set myself to listen with hopeless ears.
223The hard damp silence of a vault was over all. No vestige of a sound was there, but the chill drip of the melting ice, and far away out of the distance the half-heard break of waves upon the sea-cliffs. Now and again the wail of a tern or the call of a gull broke jarringly across the stillness, but from the grave below came nothing—no smallest sound to poise a hope upon; only the hush of death and the ceaseless drip. ”