The Forward made slight headway; this method of working was very fatiguing; the men began to murmur. For four days they advanced in that way, until July 23rd, when they reached Baring Island, in Queen’s Channel.
The wind was still unfavorable. The crew could go no farther. The doctor found the strength of the crew much pulled down, and he thought he detected the first symptoms of scurvy; he used every precaution against this terrible disease, having abundant supplies of lime-juice and chalk-pastilles.
Hatteras soon saw there was nothing more to be got from his crew; kindness and persuasion were fruitless; he resolved to employ severity, and, if need be, to be pitiless; he distrusted especially Richard Shandon, and even James Wall, who, however, never dared to speak too loud. Hatteras had on his side the doctor, Johnson, Bell, and Simpson; these were all devoted to him body and soul. Among the uncertain were Foker, Bolton, Wolston, the gunner, Brunton, the first engineer, who might at any moment declare against him. As to the others, Pen, Gripper, Clifton, and Warren, they openly meditated mutiny; they wanted to bring their companions over and compel the Forward to return to England.
Hatteras soon saw that he could get no more work from his dispirited crew, who now were worn out with fatigue from their hard work. For twenty-four hours they remained in sight of Baring Island without getting a foot forward. Still the weather grew colder, and in these high latitudes even July felt the influence of the approaching winter. The 24th, the thermometer fell to 22°. The young ice formed during the night to a depth of about half an inch; if snow should fall on it, it would soon be strong enough to bear the weight of a man. The sea soon acquired the turbid tint which indicates the formation of the first crystals.
Hatteras read aright these alarming signs; if the passes should close, he would be obliged to winter here, far from the aim of his voyage, and without even having seen that open sea which he must have got very near, according to the accounts of his predecessors. Hence he resolved to get on at any price a few degrees farther north; seeing that he could neither try rowing with his crew exhausted, nor going under sail with the wind always unfavorable, he ordered the fires to be lighted.
XXII
The First Signs of Mutiny
At this unexpected command, the surprise on board of the Forward was very great.
“Light the fires!” said some.
“With what?” said others.
“When we have only two months’ supply in the hold!” cried Pen.
“And how are we to keep warm in the winter?” asked Clifton.
“We shall have to burn the ship down to the waterline, I suppose,” said Gripper.
“And cram all the masts into the stove,” answered Warren, “from the foretopmast to the jib-boom.”
Shandon gazed intently at Wall. The surprised engineers hesitated to go down into the engine-room.
“Did you hear what I said?” shouted the captain, angrily.
Brunton walked toward the hatchway; but he stopped before going down.
“Don’t go, Brunton,” someone said.
“Who spoke then?” shouted Hatteras.
“I did,” said Pen, approaching the captain.
“And what is it you’re saying?” asked the captain.
“I say—I say,” answered Pen with many oaths—“I say that we have had enough of this, that we are not going any farther, that we don’t want to wear ourselves out with fatigue and cold during the winter, and that the fires shall not be lighted.”
“Mr. Shandon,” answered Hatteras, coldly, “have this man put in irons.”
“But, Captain,” said Shandon, “what this man said—”
“If you repeat what this man said,” retorted Hatteras, “I shall order you to your cabin and confine you there. Seize that man! Do you hear?”
Johnson, Bell, and Simpson stepped towards the sailor, who was beside himself with wrath.
“The first man who lays a finger on me—” he cried, seizing a handspike, which he flourished about his head.
Hatteras walked towards him.
“Pen,” he said very quietly, “if you move hand or foot, I shall blow your brains out!”
With these words he drew a revolver and aimed it at the sailor.
A murmur arose from the crew.
“Not a word from any of you,” said Hatteras, “or he’s a dead man.”
At that moment Johnson and Bell disarmed Pen, who no longer resisted, and suffered himself to be led to the bottom of the hold.
“Now go below, Brunton,” said Hatteras.
The engineer, followed by Plover and Warren, went below. Hatteras returned to the quarterdeck.
“That Pen is a worthless fellow,” the doctor said to him.
“No man was ever nearer death,” answered the captain, simply.
Soon there was enough steam on; the anchors of the Forward were raised; and the brig started eastward, heading for Point Beecher, and cutting through the newly formed ice.
A great number of islands lie between Baring Island and Point Beecher, scattered in the midst of the ice-fields; the ice-streams crowd in great numbers in the little straits into which they divide the sea; when the weather is cold they have a tendency to accumulate; here and there hummocks were forming, and it was easy to see that the floes, already harder and more crowded, would, under the influence of the first frosts, soon form an impenetrable mass.
It was with great difficulty that the Forward made her way through the whirling snow. Still, with the variability which is a peculiarity of these regions, the sun would appear from time to time; the air grew much milder; the ice melted as if by enchantment, and a clear expanse of water, a most welcome sight to the eyes of
