Kirk Munroe

“ It is perhaps needless to say that no human being has ever trod its summit, or even effected a landing upon it.
After leaving it, the Fish-hawk skirted the coast of Reykjaines, which presents as awful a scene of desolation, and of terrific struggles between fire and water, as can be imagined. The beetling cliffs of black lava are rent and broken into every conceivable shape. Deep fissures, into which the waves rush and roar with a mad fury only to be churned into foam, draw back their stony lips, as though grinning over the fate of the vessel that shall approach them too closely. ”

“ As the steward announced that his dinner was ready, and asked him if he were not hungry, Breeze was reminded of old Mateo, and his cheery “Vell, Breeze, ma boy, you hongry, eh?” It gave him a homesick feeling, and he thought how gladly he would, if he could, exchange his present luxurious surroundings, in the company of strangers, for the forecastle of the Fish-hawk, and its narrow mess-table surrounded by the faces of his friends. There is nothing more true than that the humblest abode in which are a person’s own people is a happier place to him than a palace without them. ”

“ After a while they all went on board the Saga, where her owner had invited them to luncheon. Here the unbounded joy of Nimbus at again meeting with the “cap’n,” in whose company he had suffered so much on board the Esmeralda, was touching to witness.
After luncheon, as they stood on the deck of the yacht, a weather-beaten fishing schooner, with her flag at half-mast, came sailing slowly up the harbor.
“She is bringing sorrow to some poor souls,” said Mrs. McCloud, as she noted the mournful sign.
“Why, mother, it’s the Fish-hawk!” shouted Breeze, springing up in great excitement. ”

“ SAVED BY ELECTRICITY. The joyful cry of a light at once put new life and hope into the hearts of the hungry, drenched, and shivering occupants of the seine-boat. Those who had huddled together under the wet canvas of the top-sail in the vain effort to keep warm, as well as those who were pulling hopelessly and wearily at the oars, gazed eagerly in the direction indicated by Breeze. Yes, there it was, faint and yellow in the distance, apparently that of some vessel approaching them from the southward. ”

“ It swoops down and envelops him in its blinding folds when he is out in his dory, and when it again lifts, as though to mock him, he finds himself alone on the vast waters, with no vessel in sight. It steals his gear, and sends his craft drifting aimlessly hither 173and thither. Above all, it leads swift-rushing steamers to where the fishing schooners lie, and causes the great ships to spring upon them and crush them down beneath iron prows, never to rise again.
The fog is terrible; but whether it comes or whether it goes, the fish must be caught, for wives and children must be fed. ”

“ Wolfe sprang up in alarm at the sound, only to see his friend pointing with trembling finger to the southward. There, not more than half a mile from them, he saw a square-rigged, deeply laden vessel, rising and falling gracefully on the long swells.
The next moment Breeze had cut the line that held them to their drag with a blow from his sheath-knife, and, under the impulse of two pairs of oars, dory No. 6 was surging over the calm waters as it had never before been driven in all its storm-tossed career. ”

“ In the first shock of his terror, Nimbus rolled, screaming and helpless, among the slippery fish in the bottom of the dory. Suddenly a cry from Breeze of “Help, Nimbus! Help me! I’m being dragged overboard!” seemed to restore his courage. He struggled to his knees, seized upon one of the snake-like things that held him, and, with a mighty wrench, literally tore it in two. This gave him some freedom of motion, and he managed to reach over to where Breeze was clinging to a gunwale, and drew the boy’s sheath-knife from his belt. ”

“ A minute later the cask stood on the schooner’s deck, and Captain McCloud was lifting tenderly from it a sturdy, well-grown baby boy, apparently about two years old. The little fellow smiled in the weather-beaten face, and stretched out his arms eagerly as the rough fisherman bent down towards him. At the same instant there came a fluttering of sails overhead, with a rattling of blocks, and one of the crew sang out as he sprang to the wheel, “Here’s a breeze! and it’s fair for home!” ”

“ Drawn up on the beach, in front of a row of rickety old wooden warehouses, were scores of fishing boats, and the whole place reeked with the smell of fish, fresh, dried, and decaying. Everywhere were nets, oars, and piles of fish. Brawny, hard-featured women trudged along the ill-paved streets carrying great loads of fish on frames like stretchers; while the men of the town lounged at the corners, with pipes in their mouths, and watched them. A drove of ponies fastened in a line, each to the tail of the one ahead of him, bore immense packs of merchandise on their backs ”

“ With this Breeze withdrew the locket from the bosom of his flannel shirt, into which he had instinctively thrust it for safe-keeping when he found himself dropping off to sleep, and they both bent over it eagerly.
One half had swung back from the other on a pivot, by which the two sections were still held together. After a single glance at it, Wolfe gave a shout.
“A compass, by all that’s wonderful!” he cried. “The very thing we’ve been wanting, above all others! Well, old man, any one who says we are not in luck now doesn’t know what he’s talking about, that’s all!” ”

“ All this had happened so suddenly that Nimbus was flat on his back before Breeze at all realized what was taking place. A glance over the side showed him two of the cruelest-looking eyes he had ever seen. They were quite round, very large, and projected from the base of the long writhing arms, or tentacles, that had seized upon Nimbus. Snatching up an oar, and using it as a sort of harpoon, Breeze aimed a furious blow at one of the protruding eyes. ”

“ It was only too plain that gaping seams had been opened by the great strain of her masts and sails while the schooner lay on her beam ends. It was more than probable, also, that butts had been started here and there by the jagged ends of the heavy spars as they lay in the water pounding and grinding against her sides.
Nothing could be saved. There was barely time for all hands to tumble into the seine-boat and pull it to a safe distance from the fast-sinking vessel. Then they lay on their oars and watched her. ”

“ Each winter thousands of icebergs and vast fields of floe-ice drift across from Greenland, and pile themselves up on its western coast, clasping the island in a deadly embrace, and threatening its very life with their chill breath.
Only the coasts of the island are inhabited, while the interior is a desolate, lifeless, and almost unexplored waste of lava plains, bogs, volcanic mountains, and ice-filled valleys. The people live in huts built of wrecked timbers, picked up in the western fiords, or of blocks of lava roofed with turf. ”

“ The second officer seizes the handles at the back of the great lamp, and the broad band of light is slowly swept round to the direction from which the cries have come. In another moment it flashes full in the white faces of Breeze McCloud and his companions, sitting in their seine-boat not more than a hundred yards away. The wonderful eye of the search-light has discovered them, and they cover theirs with their hands, or turn away from the unbearable radiance. ”

“ Since then I have made two trips, one of four months to the Newfoundland Banks, and one to George’s before this one. Now here I am, and you know more about me than I have told to another living soul since leaving home.”
“Well,” said Breeze, “you know a good deal more about yourself than I do about myself. I suppose I must have had a real father and mother, but I never knew them, for I was picked up at sea, floating in a cask, when I was a baby. I am almost certain I must be an American, though, for I know I could never love any other country so well. ”

“ They rowed steadily while they talked, and soon reached the little canvas flag that marked the buoy at the outer end of their trawl.
“I wonder what luck we’re going to have?” said Breeze. “What I like best about fishing is the not knowing what you are going to catch, and the thinking whenever you have bad-luck you may have better next time.”
“I expect that is the most interesting part about most things in this world,” said Wolfe; “but with all my luck I can’t start this anchor. It’s got foul of something. I expect we’ll have to rig up the hurdy-gurdy.” ”

“ At the same moment the deep-mouthed roar of the yacht’s cannon answered the cheers of the Fish-hawk’s crew.
They, poor fellows, had had little enough cause for joy, for their whole weary cruise had been nearly barren of results, and they had come home poorer than when they left. Their sadness was, however, exchanged for great rejoicing, and their poverty for riches, when they heard of the good-fortune of Breeze and Nimbus, and knew that, owing to it, their schooner was “High-line” of the fleet for that season, and that they were worth two thousand dollars apiece. ”

“ The course they were heading would carry them just clear of Cape Cod; and before a spanking breeze, under a press of canvas, the Curlew tore along as though sailing an ocean race that she was bound to win. Almost any fishing vessel but a mackereller going out at this stormy season would have left both top-masts and her jib-boom at home, being content with the safest of working sails. To the early mackerel catcher, however, every minute gained may mean many extra dollars in pocket; so his craft sails in racing 32trim, and carries her canvas to the extreme of recklessness. ”

“ Then, bending to their oars, the boat’s crew began to pull, with lusty strokes, in a great circle around the school of fish that was rippling the water close beside them. Swimming in a dense body close to the surface, often throwing themselves clear of the water, with their steely blue sides flashing in the morning light, the mackerel were darting madly hither and thither. ”

“ So it was finally settled, and an hour later, having written a loving letter home, and been provided, through the old cook’s generosity, with an outfit of clothes quite as good as the one he had lost, Breeze found himself sailing out of Boston harbor in the good schooner Albatross, bound for the George’s Bank. Certainly, nothing had been further from his mind than this, when he had entered the same harbor a few hours before; but he was rapidly learning that nothing is so likely to happen in this life as those things we least expect. ”

“ He was right, and no men could have been more surprised than were her crew, when, soon afterwards, he and Captain Coffin rowed to her in dory No. 6. They welcomed Breeze as one from the dead, and there was not a man on board but shook him heartily by the hand and gave him a cordial greeting. Of them all, none appeared so glad to see him as poor Hank Hoffer, who, still suffering greatly from the effects of his exposure in the ice, had never ceased to mourn the loss of his brave young rescuers. ”