Chain Locker (33 page)

“Good Lord!” she said aloud as her eyes popped open. “What am I doing, thinking about life with a man I don't even love? Henry, darling, where are you? Are you already in heaven or are you living through hell out there somewhere? If only there were some news; if only there were something I could do for you; if only I could tell you how sorry I am...”

chapter thirty-seven

Henry and Jackie stood as the darkness descended, watching the same light they had seen last night. Tonight it seemed more consistent, and Henry was sure it was the Cape John light. As he stared up at the sky, trying to find a clear patch in the clouds with enough stars so he could perhaps figure out if they were north of the light or east of it, Jackie yelled, “Hey, there's another light!”

“What?” said Henry. “Where?”

“Back there.”

Henry turned and waited for the light to come round. He looked back and forth between the two lights. “You know something, Brud? That can only be one light.”

“What one?”

“Twillingate. That's the Long Point light and we're after drifting in the bay. My guess is that we're about fifteen miles nor'west of Twillingate. You need to get down on your knees and pray to Mary and all the saints that we'll get a northwest wind to drive us in there, because fifteen miles is still a long ways to go with no sails and no engine. I'm going to keep an eye on those lights and see if I can figure out our position. You get some sleep if you want.”

Oh, how I wish this damned piece of ice had a keel, Henry thought halfway through the night, frustrated that it did not track in any predictable direction, but spun slowly at the whim of the wind and tide. By finding two pinnacles that he could line up with the light the way he would line up the sights on a rifle with a target, he had observed that sometimes the light was to the left of where he was aiming and at other times it was to the right, which told him that their floe spun clockwise sometimes and counterclockwise at other times. That didn't surprise him but it made his task almost impossible. He spent the rest of the night in a fruitless effort to determine where they were. By dawn he was mentally and physically exhausted, but all his effort was of no consequence anyway.

“Jack,” he said in a soft voice. It was almost light.

“Yeah?”

“Take a look.”

“Smoke!” Jackie yelled as he looked around. “And there's more over there.”

“Looks like the good people of North Twillingate Island got their tea on for breakfast,” said Henry, with a big grin. “You must have said your prayers last night because we got a nice breeze o' wind straight outa the north.” Seeing land for the first time since they had drifted away from the burning
Viking
had them whooping for joy and hugging one another.

“I can't see any houses, though.”

“Don't you worry; there's houses there. There are half a dozen or more settlements in that direction.”

“How long before somebody comes to get us?”

“Not much chance of that. If we can't see their houses, they certainly can't see us. But we moved in the right direction during the night, because what I'm calling the Long Point light kept getting brighter, and just before daylight I lost sight of what I'm pretty sure now is the Cape John light. And with the sun starting to come up over there where we're seeing the smoke, then that's Twillingate; guaranteed.”

“Oh man, I can't believe it.”

“And you know, Jack, even if we drift past Twillingate and farther in the bay, we would still be in line with New World Island; that's where I'm from. We could hit Moreton's Harbour or Tizzard's Harbour. And if we drifted to the southeast we could hit Black Island or even Exploits. But the bay is froze up at some point, so if we continue the way we been moving we'll probably hit the edge of that first and then we can walk ashore over solid ice. We could be on land by nightfall. Boy, we got 'er knocked!”

As Jackie and Henry rejoiced in their good prospects, Agnes Tizzard was looking in on her mother-in-law, who was not feeling a hundred percent. “How are you, Freda?”

“I'm not doin' very good, maid. I suppose I looks like a streel, do I? I ain't done a tap of work since I crawled outa bed. I feels like takin' me bit o' guts out and givin' them a good scrubbin' with lye soap and then hangin' them out on the line to air them out a bit. Lord knows they needs it with some of the smells I been puttin' out this mornin'.”

“Have you took any medicine? You got some Radway's Ready Relief around here somewhere, haven't you?”

“No. I had a couple o' spoonfuls of Dr. Chase's Nerve Food but it never done me no good. Some people swears by it but it never helps me.”

“If complaining could make you better, you'd be able to leap across the tickle,” Agnes muttered.

“Yes, and the longer I complains the better I feels, too. A couple o' good days of complainin' usually fixes me right up,” Elfreda replied.

“Uh-huh,” said Agnes, rolling her eyes. “And I suppose the passage of time got nothing to do with it?”

“I suppose if I took enough medicine to get me drunk I'd be feelin' no pain, eh?”

“Get drunk on Dr. Chase's? Stop gettin' on with your foolishness; you can't do that.”

“Sure, one time you could get drunk on any kind of medicine if you drank enough of it,” said Elfreda. “Herb Shears used to have cases of Dr. Baird's Blood Purifier come on the coastal boat. Every time he got a batch, he would sneak down to his stage on Saturday evening and get hisself loaded—maggoty drunk he would be. Fronie would have to go down and drag him up for supper. He purified his blood all right!” she cackled, her thin lips parting to reveal three lonely teeth sticking up like tombstones. “Course he would never let rum touch his lips, being a good Salvation Army man. Oh, no. And then the next morning there he would be in barracks, sittin' there right proper, just like he was better than the rest of us for showin' up to church. Fronie was always scared to death that people would find out but everybody knew, sure.”

“She shoulda known better,” said Agnes. “You can't hide nothin' from people around here. By the way, did you hear that they seen smoke out on the ice yesterday?”

“Who seen smoke?”

“Out to the lighthouse somebody seen it—the keeper, I suppose, or the keeper's helper.”

“You don't say? Is they goin' to send somebody out to see what it was? It might be somebody off that sealin' vessel.”

“Ri says the ice is too slack to walk on and too tight to get a boat through, so they can't hardly do anything. I believe they're hopin' this northerly wind might jam the ice in some so they can get out onto it and see who it is.”

“I wonder if 'tis the teacher's boyfriend,” Elfreda said with a smirk.

“If it is and he's all right, then she'll have to make up her mind on which boyfriend she wants,” said Agnes. “I don't know what either one of them sees in 'er, meself. I finds her to be wonderful poor. Ri says there's more meat on a fishhook.”

“Dat Uriah shouldn't be sizin' up any woman 'cept you. Regardless, 'twould be nice if 'twas Henry an' he was alive, the poor soul. My blessed—what is it—five nights out on the ice? Sure, that would have you drove, wouldn't it? An' havin' a young b'y to take care of on top o' that.”

“Ri figures they got at least another night out there, if it is them. He says by the time the ice tightens up today 'twill be too late to go lookin'. And, of course, if they can't spot anything from the lighthouse today, then it's hardly worth sending a search party 'cause they won't know what direction to go in.”

“Tis a desperate situation, girl. Heaven help them, I sez.”

Henry climbed down from atop a pinnacle as Jackie read his thoughts. “No?” he asked.

Henry shook his head. “It's a good ten miles and I can't see any way for us to get ashore in these conditions. We're on the biggest piece of ice around, and if we leave it and get stuck on a smaller one we could be in real trouble.”

“Ain't we been in real trouble for the last five or six days?”

“No point in pushin' our luck and makin' it worse.”

“You're the boss,” he grumbled.

“We're still alive, Jack, because we been lucky and we haven't done anything stupid so far. We have to be patient for a while longer. If the wind holds we should keep drifting in the bay and we'll eventually bring up on something.”

“Whatever you say.”

“What we really need is a few seals so we can send a good, clear signal ashore. I'd be surprised if anybody saw that little one yesterday. Even if you see a seal on another piece of ice, let me know. I'll figure out a way to get the son-of-a-gun.”

They stood together as they had done so many times, looking—for a seal, a boat, a way ashore, something. “Seeing the loose ice like this reminds me of a story my cousin Cyril Horwood told me one time—”

“I don't think I feel like a story right now.”

“Don't ya? Well, I feel like tellin' one anyway,” said Henry. “One summer when he was fishin' on the Labrador he had a little something goin' with this nurse who worked for the Grenfell Mission in Battle Harbour, before they had the big fire up there. She used to travel along the coast in the winter by dog team visiting all the little outports. They had a big dog team and a long komatik to carry all of her medical supplies. He said that if they came upon a swatch of water that was too wide for the dogs to jump across, the driver would take the lead dog still harnessed and throw him across the water to the ice on the other side. Then he would throw another one. When he got them all across they would start pullin' and haul the komatik across the lead—so long as it wasn't more than four or five feet across. If the ice was too loose, he would throw one dog across and then haul on the harness and the dog would stand his ground until they hauled the clumper over with the dog on it. Then he'd get on that one and throw the dog to the next clumper and so on until they got ashore.”

“Hmph. And I thought we were movin' slow,” said Jackie.

“Maybe I should hitch my towin' rope onto you and throw you across there,” Henry joked.

“Sure. Why not?”

A gust of wind took their breath away, a reminder that the northerly wind that was sending them in the right direction was a cold wind—colder than it had been during any of the time they had been adrift. Anybody falling overboard today would have a hard time surviving.

Jackie stood in front of Henry, taking advantage of the tiny bit of shelter Henry's body offered, as they scoped out the ice and the land beyond. “I can see three fairly wide leads about half a gunshot or so away,” said Henry. “They might be closin' up a bit, though. If they tighten up enough before dark, I think we could leave this one and try headin' in.”

“Now you're talkin',” said Jackie, turning around with a grin.

“You sure you're not—”

He stopped dead, his eyes bulging from his head, and pointed behind Henry. Henry turned to behold a massive seal lying on the ice about a hundred feet away, seemingly oblivious to them.

“Well, hello there, old fella. Now aren't you something!” said Henry.

“That's a strange lookin' thing,” said Jackie. “Is it a hood?”

“That's a dog hood, my son, probably the biggest seal you'll ever see, and he's exactly what we need, Jack. There's at least a hundred pounds of old fat on him, the makings of a nice, big, smokey fire. But you got to shoot those brutes with an old-time sealing gun or a high-calibre rifle. We won't get far with nothing but a puny gaff and a knife.”

“He looks pretty sure of himself,” said Jackie.

“Yeah, he sure does,” Henry replied, as he gazed longingly at this possible answer to their needs. The thing had to be at least twelve feet long from scutters to nose. He sat facing the water on a flat area perhaps ten feet from the edge of their ice floe, backed by an area of rough pinnacles. “How did we miss seeing him before now? He must have come up during the night. Looks like he's been there for a few hours, long enough so that he's after getting used to us. As long as we don't get too close he won't see us as a threat.”

“Lord, what a size! Isn't there some way we can kill him?” Jackie asked.

“I doubt it…well, it's a long shot but maybe if you can get his attention I can try to shove the gaff down his throat and choke him to death. But if he chomps down on it he could probably bite the handle off. He might eat the whole bloomin' gaff and shit it out for all I know.”

“Well, it's worth a try,” said Jackie. “We gotta do something.”

“Okay, we'll give it a go, then. Let's see now—you sneak around behind him. When I give the word you start yellin' and when he turns towards you I'll dodge up behind him, and then I'll start yellin'. As soon as I start, you stop; all right? He should turn back towards me and when he does I'll give it to 'im. You'll need to be nimble, now, 'cause he'll be like the lightning if he comes after ya. Go up on that high pinnacle so he can't get at ya. Go on.”

As Jackie slowly walked around him in a wide circle, the old dog watched his every step. He was leery of this activity, preferring that everybody stay in their places. As Jackie got behind him the seal slowly shuffled around to keep him in sight, like the second hand on a clock. There was no need to make any sound; the monster was cooperating. Henry got into position. With the gaff held straight out, he yelled, “Hey, stupid!”

The seal whipped around, obviously disliking the surprise. Baring its huge teeth, it took one look at Henry and headed for the water behind him. In a second it bolted past him and was gone. Everything happened so quickly that Henry could do nothing but leap out of the way or the thing would have ploughed him into the water.