[Alaskan Quest 03] - Whispers of Winter (3 page)

“Oh, stop complaining,” Elmer Warrick, former first mate, commanded. “We haven’t got time to list all of our problems.”

Originally there had been fourteen men who’d abandoned the
Regina
when she sank. They’d lost four in accidents—accidents that had awakened the rest of the team to just how serious their station had become. Now with Latimore gone, that left nine men. They were a good bunch, as far as Jacob was concerned, but they were starting to get sick and irritable. It would only be a matter of time before they started feeling the desperation of their situation. Especially if help didn’t come soon.

As the men paired up in teams, Jacob considered the lay of the land and each man’s ability. Some were growing weak from the lack of a good diet, and Jacob didn’t want to further risk anyone’s life by making their trek too arduous. The snow was difficult to navigate at times, and unfortunately, many of these men were from southern states that saw very little cold or ice.

“Travis, you and Keith go north. Dr. Ripley and Elmer go west and follow the tracks Jayce found. Jayce, you and Bristol head east and Ben and Matt go northeast.” Since they stood on the southern shore of the island and were able to see for some miles to the south, no one felt the need to head in that direction. Besides, the ice was far too unstable.

As the men gathered some supplies and split up, Jacob decided to head northwest, away from the shoreline. There was no telling if the tracks Jayce had found belonged to Latimore or to one of the other men. The captain could have gone any direction, for any reason. Jacob sighed. Latimore hadn’t been much use to them since getting stuck in the floes, but he couldn’t be forsaken—no matter the risk to the rest of them.

“What I wouldn’t give for a few good dogs,” Jacob muttered.

The landscape of their island offered some diversion. There were hills and cliffs where nesting birds had provided good meals for the team, but dangerous crevices and ice heaves were plentiful and difficult to navigate, and snow depths were often deceptive due to the drifts. It was truly an inhospitable wasteland. God forgive the leader of the
Karluk
expedition for calling it “the friendly Arctic.” Vilhjalmur Stefansson was well known for declaring that the Arctic was merely misunderstood and that with proper training anyone could live quite easily in the frozen north. But Jacob knew better. Life up here was a matter of God’s grace and common sense. Lose either one and you were doomed.

The glare from the constant sunlight was blinding. Jacob could only pray that the men were practicing wisdom and using their sun goggles. Jacob had shown each of them how to make the wooden glasses by carving tiny slits out of driftwood masks. They were crude but efficient, and the man who forgot to wear them quickly learned not to do it again. Several of the men had become snow-blind and suffered brutally; the pain caused by the condition was intense and would last for hours, even days. Now that their normal treatment of zinc sulphate solutions was nearly exhausted, the men were becoming far more cautious. No one wanted to endure such a fate.

Besides the lack of scenery, the monotony of their routine had nearly driven them all mad at one time or another. Bristol had a deck of cards that the men shared, but Dr. Ripley would have nothing to do with it, swearing they were the devil’s tool of destruction. Dr. Ripley would therefore bury his face in one of three medical books he’d managed to keep with him after leaving the ship.

Travis, Ben, and Keith were quite good at singing and often entertained the group with their renditions of old folk songs and hymns. Travis, a meteorologist, kept records of their conditions, and Keith planned to keep similar botany records once the ground thawed.

Jacob often read from the Bible, sharing stories that the men knew from their childhood days in church. Besides botany, Keith was well versed in church history and the Bible, and Jacob had enjoyed dialoguing with the man from time to time. Ben and Matt also enjoyed such conversations, as did Travis. The others, however, avoided religious discussions.

Generally speaking, the men were a good lot. Jacob had feared there might be troublemakers in their group—men who would steal or kill in order to survive. He was glad to say that hadn’t been the case so far.

Yet despite the men’s good natures, Jayce was Jacob’s mainstay. Together the two talked of home and of Leah. They remembered times spent in Ketchikan and of Karen’s cooking and Adrik’s stories. Their conversations sustained Jacob’s hope of seeing home again.

He also often thought of Helaina Beecham. He wondered where she was and how she was doing. Had she gone back to work for her brother? A dangerous job such as bounty hunting should never have been allowed for women. Still, the world was changing.

Jacob thought of the war going on in Europe. He could only wonder if the war had extended to include America by now. So many people seemed to think it would happen that way. Still, it was possible the European countries had worked out their differences and had ended the war. That would be the best they could hope for, but somehow Jacob doubted it had happened. There had seemed no end in sight the summer before.

He trudged through the ice to crest one of the bigger hills and scanned the landscape in all directions. Using his binoculars, he spotted a great herd of seals on the ice. They were sunning themselves at the edge of a break—open water clearly available to them should a bear or man make an unwanted appearance. The water was a good sign. Perhaps the breakup would come sooner than Jacob anticipated.

There was no sign of Latimore, but the storm clouds were thickening and moving toward the island at an alarming rate. Jacob could feel that the temperatures had dropped significantly as the wind picked up and blew in the storm. He hurriedly scanned the rest of the land. There was nothing to suggest that a man had passed this way recently.

Making his way down the opposite side, Jacob tried to calculate the distance he and the men might cover in an hour. To press for more time would surely risk being out in the storm. He wondered if he’d be forced to leave Latimore to the elements rather than endanger the lives of everyone else.

The men, however, wouldn’t consider this the loss of a leader. That had happened back in January when Latimore had sunk into a deep depression, isolating himself from most everyone. Jacob had taken it upon himself to hide the firearms from the captain for fear he might take his own life. With each small decision, the men began to think more and more of Jacob as their leader. Even the captain’s first mate, Elmer Warrick, yielded all authority to Jacob. It wasn’t exactly a responsibility Jacob had wanted, but having it thrust upon him out of necessity, he hadn’t turned them away.

It had been clear that he and Jayce would be the only hope these men had. Most knew nothing about living in the Arctic; they had no training in hunting, neither were they very knowledgeable about survival off the ship. When fresh water ran desperately low, it was Jacob who taught them that good water could be had from the oldest parts of the ice floes, where ice could be chipped out and melted for a decent cup of water. With the fear of thirst defeated, the men then began to listen to Jacob in earnest for ways to survive the cold.

There Jayce had been equally helpful. They worked with the furs they’d managed to collect from their hunts, for prior to leaving the Canadian team at the Queen Elizabeth Islands, the crew had managed to shoot several bears, multiple caribou and seals, and a few fox. The furs came in handy as Jayce helped teach the men how to fashion warmer clothes for themselves. It was imperative they learned to keep their hands and feet warm and dry and their chest well insulated against the icy winds.

Jacob felt the wind blow hard against him and turned to observe the approaching storm once again. The mass was picking up speed, and the light was diminishing quickly as thick gray clouds descended. He checked his watch. They still had another twenty minutes before they’d agreed to return to camp. Jacob picked up his pace and decided to parallel camp just to the north. It would allow him quicker access to safety and give him the optimum time to search.

He crossed a frozen stream, hoping that the ice was still solid enough to hold him. Hours in the sun had weakened the foundation, however, and Jacob nearly fell through twice. He noted to go well downstream as he returned home, knowing that there he’d find a narrowing short enough to jump.

Time passed quickly, and soon the hour was up, but tracks that seemed fresh drew Jacob farther north and away from camp. Certainly they had to belong to the captain. Snow began to fall, and the wind blew hard against his back as Jacob topped another hill and strained against the pelting ice to see. He pulled his snow goggles up just long enough to put the binoculars to his eyes.

There, against the gray skies and snowy hills, was the unmistakable blue of Latimore’s coat. Jacob called to him, but the man didn’t hear. Hurrying, Jacob stumbled and slid most of the way down the hill. He jumped to his feet, sore but unhurt, and raced across the field to where Latimore seemed to wander in circles.

“Captain, are you all right?”

“I was not informed of the situation,” he muttered. His face showed signs of frostbite and his lips were rather blue. “I can’t seem to find the engineer.”

“Sir, we have to get back to camp. There’s a storm upon us. If we hurry, we might yet get back before the worst of it.”

“You are not coming to the party, then?”

Jacob shook his head. Latimore had clearly lost his mind—at least temporarily. Not only that, but his eyes were nearly swollen shut from exposure. Jacob sighed. “Come, sir. The party is this way.”

Latimore seemed momentarily appeased, but when Jacob pulled him along at a merciless pace, the man protested. “I cannot force the children to walk this quickly.”

“The children will manage,” Jacob replied, his gaze ever to the skies. If they kept this pace, they might make it back within half an hour. That would be just enough time, Jacob surmised. He absolutely couldn’t allow the captain to slow for any reason.

“I haven’t seen Regina. Is she here?”

The captain’s mention of his wife surprised Jacob. “She’s back at the camp, sir. She’s waiting for you there,” he lied, not knowing how else to ensure Latimore’s cooperation.

This did the trick. “Then let us make haste. She is not one to be kept tapping her toes. She loves to dance, and the party will do much to raise her spirits.”

The snow was blinding by the time they reached the camp. Had it not been for Jayce standing in the storm with one of their ship’s lanterns, Jacob might have wandered out to sea. It was a danger he had often warned the men about. In the eternal darkness of Arctic winter, it was impossible to be certain where land began and ended without strict attention to detail. In an Arctic blizzard, it was just as difficult to gain your bearings.

“ I see you found him,” Jayce called above the winds. He reached out to take hold of Latimore’s arm. “Let’s just take him to our shelter.”

“Have the others safely returned?” Jacob pushed Latimore while Jayce pulled.

“They have.”

They reached the shelter of their makeshift house. The house had been built of pallets and wooden boxes from the ship’s supplies. Around this they’d packed ice and snow, and it served them remarkably well. With the small camp stoves continually heating the shelter, they had survived sixty-below temperatures with only minor discomfort.

Jacob pulled off gear and helped Latimore to the stove. Keith and Ben got up to assist their captain, although it was easy to see they were disgusted with the man.

“He’s confused and blind. I found him wandering in circles.”

“I find the Atlantic abominable to navigate,” Latimore stated as they helped him sit. Jayce brought several blankets and wrapped them around the man while Ben poured a cup of tea and handed it to Latimore. The man’s hands shook so much that he couldn’t hold the tin, so Ben gently held the cup to his lips.

Latimore drank, then eased back. “We shall never see Scotland again.” He sighed the words, then passed out and fell backward against Jayce.

“Will he live?” Ben asked.

Jacob shook his head. “Not if he doesn’t want to.”

Chapter Three

I
’ll take you to Nome.”

John’s statement startled Helaina. She’d been working to feed the dogs and hadn’t even heard the native man approach. She straightened, ignoring the ache in her back. John’s expression was emotionless, yet his eyes bore great pain. His mother’s passing had not been an easy thing to bear.

“That’s very kind of you. How soon can we leave?”

“Right now, if you can be ready.”

“If you’re sure. I don’t want to … well … I know you’re grieving.”

“We are all grieving, but not just for my mother. I grieve for my friend Jacob. I grieve for Leah and her children. We must go and see what is to be done.”

It was the moment Helaina and Leah had waited for all winter. “Let me get my things packed. I shouldn’t need more than ten minutes.”

“Meet me at the water.”

Helaina nodded. The ice was gone and they would take the umiaks to Nome. It would be a blessing to the whole village, for she knew they would bring back ample supplies from her storehouse and that of any new shipments from Seattle and San Francisco. That was, if any of the ships had made it north yet.

She hurried back to the Barringer inne and gathered her things. The warm weather was already causing the ground to thaw, and it would be only a matter of weeks before the house started to flood. Still, she liked the place. Liked it because it reminded her of Jacob. She could see him here—smell his scent, hear his voice. Here she felt an unusual sense of peace that he would return to reclaim his home—and she hoped he might claim her as well.

Helaina hurried to pack a small bag of necessities for the trip, then threw everything else into her trunk and placed it up on the kitchen table. She would ask about having someone retrieve it and take it back to Leah’s home. Maybe she’d just mention it to Leah when she told her good-bye.

Rushing for the Kincaid house, Helaina was glad to find that Leah was already waiting outside with the children. “John told me about the trip. I’ve packed you some food.” Leah handed Helaina a gunnysack. “Hopefully the good weather will hold and you won’t have to stop before reaching Nome.”