The poor brutes lay to the ice and did
their best, but it was quite hopeless. In an incredibly short time the
ribbon had widened into a gulf a quarter of a mile wide. Then it grew
to a mile, and presently the shore became a thin black line that was
soon lost to view entirely. They were adrift on the wide Atlantic!
They stopped the dogs when they realized that further effort was
useless and sat down on the komatik in impotent dismay.
The weather had grown intensely cold and the perspiration that the
excitement and exertion had brought out upon their faces was freezing.
Snow squalls were already beginning and before nightfall a blizzard
was raging in all its awful fury and at any moment the ice pack was
liable to go to pieces.
XXII
THE MAID OF THE NORTH
"The's no profit in this trade any more," said Captain Sam Hanks, as
he sat down to supper with his mate, Jack Simmons, in the little cabin
of his schooner, _Maid of the North_. "I won't get a seaman's wages
out o' th' cruise, an' I'm sick o' workin' fer nothin'. Now there was
a time before th' free traders done th' business t' death that a man
could make good money on th' Labrador, but that time's past They pays
so much fer th' fur they's spoiled it fer everybody, an' I'm goin' t'
quit.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225