Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 27, 2025
The time for rest had come, and when Penellan had added one more foot to the opening, he lay down beside his comrades. The next day, when the sailors awoke, they were surrounded by complete darkness. The lamp had gone out. Jean Cornbutte roused Penellan to ask him for the tinder-box, which was passed to him.
It required some courage to plunge the hands and face in the snow, which had to be melted within. But Penellan bravely set the example, and Marie was not the last to imitate him. Jean Cornbutte did not forget to have readings and prayers, for it was needful that the hearts of his comrades should not give way to despair or weariness. Nothing is more dangerous in these desolate latitudes.
Each, independently of his woollen coverings, had a buffalo-skin to protect him against the cold; but as soon as he put his arms outside the clothes, he felt a pain which obliged him quickly to cover them again. Meanwhile, Louis having lit the stove fire, Penellan, Misonne, and André Vasling left their beds and crouched around it.
Then Jean Cornbutte decided energetically that they should at once set about devising means of safety. André Vasling now said, "If the storm is still raging, which is probable, we must be buried ten feet under the ice, for we can hear no noise outside." Penellan looked at Marie, who now understood the truth, and did not tremble.
He saw him suddenly gaze in one direction, then shudder and turn pale. "What is the matter, Vasling?" he asked. "Nothing," replied the other. "Let us go down and urge the captain to leave these parts, where we ought never to have come, at once!" Instead of obeying, Penellan ascended again, and looked in the direction which had drawn the mate's attention.
Louis and Penellan descended to the cabin, and Marie fell into their arms. Herming, mortally wounded, had been carried to a berth by Misonne and Turquiette, who had succeeded in getting free. He was already at the last gasp of death; and the two sailors occupied themselves with Nouquet, whose wound was not, happily, a serious one. But a greater misfortune had overtaken Louis Cornbutte.
"That may be," added André Vasling, "for the squall which separated us from the Norwegian boat lasted three days, and in three days a ship makes good headway when it is no longer able to resist the wind." "Permit me to tell you, Monsieur Vasling." replied Penellan, "that that was in April, that the thaw had not then begun, and that therefore the 'Froöern' must have been soon arrested by the ice."
I can then judge whether or not Penellan diverges from the straight line." They had gone on thus for half an hour, when Penellan suddenly stopped and listened. The party hurried up to him. "Did you hear nothing?" he asked. "Nothing!" replied Misonne. "It is strange," said Penellan. "It seemed to me I heard cries from this direction." "Cries?" replied Marie.
They again disposed themselves to sleep with their furs. Penellan, much disturbed by the bad success of the expedition, was sleeping restlessly, when, at a waking moment, his attention was attracted by a dull rumbling. He listened attentively, and the rumbling seemed so strange that he nudged Jean Cornbutte with his elbow.
Would André Vasling and his confederates unite with the rest on board in the common peril? Could Penellan and the others, half starved, benumbed with cold, resist these formidable animals, made wild by unassuaged hunger? Would they not be surprised by an unlooked-for attack? Louis made these reflections rapidly. The bears had crossed the blocks, and were mounting to the assault of the ship.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking