By the time the young girl concluded her story, the fog had cleared sufficiently to enable the party to see for nearly half a league across the watery expanse stretching away to the south.
The faint booming of a gun was now heard in that direction, and it was followed by a joyful exclamation from Stump. With a loud cheer he tossed his sou’wester into the air.
“That gun is from the ship!” he exclaimed, “it’s that lubberly six-pounder that she carries, forward. I can’t mistake the sound.”
He was right; but an hour elapsed before enough of the fog had lifted to enable the spectators to see the vessel, which was nearly a league to the south’ard, heading directly for the floe. The shipkeeper seized an oar, and fastening a piece of canvas to it, waved it about his head. Ere long the signal was answered by that of the Montpelier, which was “run up” to the truck, and when the vessel had approached within a mile of the floe, her main topsail was “backed”; then a boat was lowered. It soon struck the ice, and Alice was received in her uncle’s arms; while Mr. Briggs advanced and shook hands with his harpooner.
Explanations followed, and while the captain’s niece was relating her story to her uncle, Mr. Briggs proceeded to give Marline an account of the adventures of himself and his companions after they had parted from the young men on the floe.
“It was not until we had wandered about for some time,” said he, “that we succeeded in sighting one of the boats--that of the second mate. We shouted to him; he picked us up, and I then told him that I had left you alone upon the ice to take charge of my stove boat, and that we must contrive to work his craft to the spot where you were, so that we could pick you up. By this time, hows’ever, the blocks and bergs had become so closely jammed together, that none of us could see how we were a-going to do what I proposed. Spooner declared that the boat would certainly be knocked to pieces before we got to you, if we tried to force her through them bergs. But, as I insisted, the second mate gave in, and we went to work. But, bless your eyes, you might as well have tried to push the craft through a rock as to force her through them tightly-squeezing lumps of ice! Still, we tugged and strained, using oars and paddles, and sometimes jumping out of the boat to lighten her; and, at last, after we had worked for about three hours, a-sounding our horn all the time, and after we’d got so far among the bergs that we didn’t think we could ever get out again, and all without seeing or hearing anything of you, I came to the conclusion that my craft had got sunk, and that you’d been picked up by one of the other boats; and so I said to Spooner, that we’d better be for getting out of our ticklish quarters if he didn’t want his boat to get stove.”