The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-06-01
FREE Pass.
ICE BOU N D.
By W. CLARK RUSSELL.


Author Of "Ths Wreck Of the G~rosvsnorn
"Jack's Courtship," my Watch Be
loW. The Lady Maad " Etc
rreplaced the hatch cover, and having no
solved upon the almost of the four cabins
as my bedroom, entered it to see what kind
OF accommodation it would yield me- I hung
up the lantern, and looked into the cot that
was slung athwartships, mt spied q couple
Of rugs or blankets, which l pulled out, hav-
ing no fancy to lie under them. The deck
was like an old clothes shop or the wardrobe
Of a travelling troop of actors From the
confusion in this and the adjoining cabins !
concluded that there had been a rush at the
last-a wild overhauling and finging about
of clothes for articles of more value hidden
among them. But just as likely as not the
disorder merely indicated the sloyenly indif-
ference of plun&erers to the fruits of a pillage
that had overstocked them.
The first garment | picked up was a cloak
of a sort of silk material, richly furred and
lined; all the buttons but one had been cut
off, and that which remained was silver. I
spread il In the cot, as il was n soft thing to
lie upon. Then l picked up a coat OF thu
fashion you will see in HOgarth's e~ngravings
the coat collar a broad fold, and the cuffs
to the elbow. This was as good as a rug, and
1 put it into the cot with the other.
l swept the huddle of things with my foot
into a corner, and lifting the lids of the boxes
saw more clothes, some books, u collection OF
small arms, a couple of quadrants, and
sundry rolls of paper, which proved to be
charts of the islands of the Antilles and the
western South American coast, very iii di-
gested. There were no papers of any kind 70
determine the vessels character, nor journal
to acquaint me with her story.
l was tired in my limbs rather than sleepy,
and went to the cook room to warm myself
at the fire and get me some supper, meaning
to sit there till the fire died out and then go
to rest; but then l put my knife to the ham
l found it as hard frozen as when l had first
met with it-so with the cheese, and this
though there had been a fire burning for
hours! l put the things into the oven to
thaw, as before, and sitting down fell very
pensive over this severity of cold, which had
power to freeze within a yard or two of the
furnace. To be sure, the fire by my absence
had shrunk, and the sliding door being open
admitted the cold of the cabin; but the con-
sideration was, How was l to resist the killing
embodiment of this atmospheric l had slept
III NAS ccNANN ~ - ~ W. N@AA NNoS hOAAS NAO
worse, and now I was under shelter, with the
heat of a plentiful bellyful of meat and
liquor to warm me; but if wine and nam and
cheese froze in an air in which a fire had
been burning, why not l in my sleep, when
there was no fire, and life beat weakly, as it
does in slumberl Those figures in the cabin
were dismal warnings and assurances; they
had been men perhaps stouter and heartier
than ever l was in their day, but they had
been frozen into stony images, neverthe-
less, under cover, too, with the ma
terials to make a fire, and as much strong
waters in their lazarette as would serve their
schooner to float in.
1t strangely and approximately entered my
head to conceive that though those men were
frozen and s~tirless they were not dead as
corpses are, but as a stream whose current,
checked by ice, will flow when the ice is
melted. Might not life in them be suspended
by the cold, not endedl There is vitality in
the seed, though it lies q dead thing In the
hand. Those men are corpses to my eye,
but, said l to myself, they may have the
principles of life in them, which heat might
call into being. PutrefactiOn is a natural
law, but it is baked by frost; and just as
decay is hindered by cold, might not the
~ W VI ~ 10 NClO III q DOulf
though it should be numbed in a marble
form for fifty years2
This was a terrible fancy to possess a man
situated as l was, and it SO worked in me
that again and again 1 caught myself look
ing first forward, then aft, as though, heaven
help mel my secret instincts foreboded that
at any moment l should behold some form
from the forecastle or one of those figures in
the cabin stalking in, and coming to my side
and silently seating himself. Ipshawed and
pished, and querulously asked of myself what
manner of English sailor was 1 to suffer such
womanly terrors to visit me; but it would
not do; I could not smoke; a GOODNESS of the
heart fell upon me, and set me trembling
above any sort Of shivers which the frost Of
the air had chased throughme and presently
a hollow creak sounding out of the hold,
caused by SOM movement of the bed Of ice
on which the vessel lay, I was seized with a
panic terror and sprang to my feet, n Ian
tern in hand made for the companion ladder,
with a prayer in me for the sight of a start
Idurst not look at the figures, but setting
the light down at the foot of the ladder
squeezed through the companion door ON to
the deck. My fear was a fever in its way,
and l did not feel the cold. There was no
star to be seen; but the whiteness of the ice
was flung out in a wild, strange glare by the
blackness of the sky, and made a light of its
own. 1t was The most savage and terrible
picture of solitude the invention of man
could reach to, yet I blessed it for the relief
it gave to my ghost enkindled imagination.
Presently, when the cold was beginning to
pierce me-, my courage was SO much the bet
ter for this excursion into the hoarse and
black and cleaning realities Of the night,
that my heart beat at its usual measure as I
passed through the hatch and vent again to
the cook room.
I was, however, sure that if I sat here long,
listening n thinking, fear would return.
80, raking out the fire, / picked up the lantern
and was about to go, then halted, considering
whether l should not stow the frozen provis-
ions away. 1t was a natural thought, seeing
how precious food was to me. But, alas! it
mattered not where they lay; they were as
secure here as If they were as snugly hidden
in the bottom of the hold. It was the white
realm of death; if ever a rat had crawled in
this ship it was, in its hiding place, as stiff
and idle as the frozen vessel. So l let the
lump of wine, the ice, ham, and SO forth, rest
where they were, and went to the cabin had
chosen, i~nvoluntarily peeping at the figures
as l passed, and hurrying the faster because
of the grim and terrifying l~iveliness put into
the man who sat starting from the table by
the swing OF the lantern in my and.
l shut the door and hung the lantern near
the cot, having the flint and box in my pocket.
There was, indeed, an abundance of can
dies in the vessel; nevertheless, it was my
business to husband them with the utmost
niggardliness. How long l was to be i'm
prisoned here, if indeed l was ever to be de-
hvered, Providence alone knew; and to run
short of candles would add to the terrors of
my existence by forcing me either to open
the matches and ports for light, and so filling
the ship with the deadly air outside, or living
IN darkness. There were q cloak and a coat
in the cot, but they would not suffice; there
was, however, plenty of apparel in the cor
ner to serve as wraps, and having chosen
enough to smother me l vaulted into the cot,
and so covered myself that the clothes were
above the level of the sides Of the cot.
I left the lantern burning while l made
sure my bed was all right, and lay musing,
feeling extremely melancholy; thu hardest
part was the thought of those two men
watching in the cabin. The most fantastic
alarms possessed me. Suppose their ghosts
came to the ship at midnight, and entering
their bodies quickened them into walkingl
l caught myself listening; and there was
enough to hear, too, what with the subdued
roaring of the wind, the sp,intering of ice,
the occasional reaking-not unlike a heavy
booted trcad-of the fIbric o. the schooner
to the blasts of the gale against her masts,
or to q movement in the bed on which she
reposed.
But plain sense came TO nv rescue at last