The Golden Harpoon — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

oan ig 26 horn was still being blown, and he doubted not that he would soon reach the boat. Sud- denly, however, the sound of the instrument became hushed. He paused, waiting in vain for a repetition of the familiar notes. He heard only the whispering noise of the rain, the gurgling of the seal, as it rolled about in the water, impatient for the sunshine, and the ery of theynorthern bird, as it wheeled in circles through the foggy air. Now and then, it is true, a louder and more startling noise would salute his ears, when some huge mass of ice, becoming loosened on the summit of a minia- ture cathedral, would fail, with a tremendous erash, to the base of the tower. He continued his search a quarter of an hour Jonger, when his further progress was pre- vented by a channel, not less than fifteen feet wide, which separated the floe into two parts. As he was turning to retrace his steps, his at- tention was drawn to a number of little eddies that suddenly appeared upon the surface of the water. Round and round they whirled, becom- ing larger every moment. A peculiar noise, resembling the distant rolling of a drum, rose up from the depths of the sea. The berg upon which he stood trembled like a rock when the rumbling earthquake approaches its founda- tion. At length the little whirlpools vanished ; the water bubbled and broke into ripples—then parted with a roar, as the hump of a huge whale rose above the surface. Marline had no difficulty in recognising this monster as the same from which Briggs had been obliged to “cut”; for he saw his own irons protruding from its body. The barbed instruments seemed to madden the creature with pain. It rolled and plunged from side to side, so furi- ously lashing the water with its flukes, that the harpooner was enveloped in elouds of spray. In order to escape this uncomfortable shower- bath, he ascended a“ crystal tower,” the upper part of which, though out of range of the flying drops of water, yet afforded him a good view of the whale. He continued to watch the mon- ster with much interest, feeling sorry that he had not the means with which to put an end to its sufferings. The noise of its spouting was inexpressibly mournful; it was not unlike the half-smothered shriek of a drowning man, heard amid the roaring of the blast. Soon, however, the animal became silent; for a few seconds it remained nearly motionless; then it rushed quickly backwards and breached (sprang up- ward) nearly its full length out of the sea. For an instant, with ifs fins extended and the tre- mendous proportions of its body fully exposed, it hovered in the air, and then came crashing down with a noise like the bursting of a thun- derbolt! The wupheaving waters dashing against the icebergs, agitated them on all sides. The frozen mass occupied by Marline rocked so violently that he could scarcely maintain his position. He descended from it just in time to catch a glimpse of the whale’s uplifted flukes, as the monster plunged into the green depths of the sea. “Ay, ay,” he muttered, sorrowfullv, “ there it goes at last—back again to its watery cham- THE GOLDEN HARPOON. bers below, as though it would flee from the torturing pain caused by those barbed irons. Would to Heaven that we had succeeded in killing it! It must suffer terribly!” 3 He turned, and glancing at the compass in his possession, hurried off, with the intention of returning to the ark. He had not gone far, however, when he heard upon his right a light, pattering noise, such as a dog might have made in running over the ice. His curiosity being excited, he moved in the direction of the sound, peering keenly through the fog as he advanced. The footfalls receded rapidly, but pressing steadily forward, the young man was enabled, before long, to distinguish the faint outline of some animal gliding swiftly on ahead of him. He quickened his steps into a run; as he did so the object disappeared behind an iceberg. Marline soon gained the frozen mass, but the creature, whatever it was, had vanished. “This is strange!” muttered the harpooner. “The animal must be pretty swift of foot to get out of my sight so quickly; though it is true the fog would hide it, if it were only a few yards from me. Perhaps, however, it has crawled into some hollow in the ice.” So saying, he commenced to peer into the nooks and crevices among the bergs, after which he climbed to their summits to look for rifts, using his boat-hatchet freely when he en- countered any rugged mass that might contain a secret chamber; but his search was un- rewarded. He thrust the hatchet in his belt, and had turned once more for the purpose of making his way to the ark, when his glance fell upon an object that caused him to utter an exclamation of surprise and horror. He advanced a few steps to assure himseit that he was not deceived by any peculiarity in the formation of the ice; then he moved to the side of the object and eyediTaosely. It was the skeleton of a human being, extended upon a shelf of ice that protruded from the lower part of a lofty berg. Bleached by wind and sunshine, it had evi- dently lain there for many weeks. particle of flesh had been stripped from its bones by some hungry bear that had been cast adrift upon the floe. It lay upon its back so that its hollow sockets, partially glazed over with ice, were turned upward, as if it wera trying to discover whether or not its spirit had passed to the ethereal shores of Heaven. Marline gazed upon it for a long time, and then clapped his hand to his brow, as though some sudden recollection had flashed across his mind. “Ay, ay!” he exclaimed, as he pointed to the broken ribs of the skeleton, “it must be so! The remains before me are none other than those of George Wills, whose story was related to me by one of the crew of the ‘Comus,’ a week ago.” He turned away with a sigh, and once more consulting his compass, moved off in the direc- tion of the ark. The story of which he had spoken, may be told in a few words EORMnICGlOOKS (©) Every —