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The two adversaries now confronted each other, cutlass in hand. The combat was about to become decisive. To entirely glut his vengeance, and to have the young girl witness her lover's death, Vasling had deprived himself of Herming's aid. He could now reckon only on himself. Louis and Vasling seized each other by the collar, and held each other with iron grip. One of them must fall.
Penellan hastened the fitting out of the ship with all his energy, all the more because, according to his opinion, André Vasling had not perhaps made every effort possible to find the castaways, although he was excusable from the responsibility which weighed upon him as captain. Within a week the "Jeune-Hardie" was ready to put to sea.
But neither Marie nor Jean Cornbutte had yet been able to wave their hands at the captain of the ship. "Faith! there's the first mate, André Vasling," cried Clerbaut. "And there's Fidèle Misonne, the carpenter," said another. "And our friend Penellan," said a third, saluting the sailor named.
Some other creek, then, must be found; it was in vain that he explored northward. The coast remained steep and abrupt for a long distance, and beyond the point it was directly exposed to the attacks of the east-wind. The circumstance disconcerted the captain all the more because André Vasling used strong arguments to show how bad the situation was.
Gradlin! where are you?" "Here I am!" responded Turquiette, shaking off the snow with which he was covered. "This way, Vasling," cried Cornbutte to the mate. "And Gradlin?" "Present, captain. But we are lost!" shouted Gradlin, in fright. "No!" said Penellan. "Perhaps we are saved!" Hardly had he uttered these words when a frightful cracking noise was heard.
André Vasling then called the crew together, took command of the ship, and set sail for Dunkirk." After reading this dry narrative, Jean Cornbutte wept for a long time; and if he had any consolation, it was the thought that his son had died in attempting to save his fellow-men. Then the poor father left the ship, the sight of which made him wretched, and returned to his desolate home.
"Yes," said Jean Cornbutte; "and we must use every effort to strengthen the house in the interior." "But a still more terrible danger menaces us," said Vasling. "What?" asked Jean. "The wind is breaking the ice against which we are propped, just as it has that of the promontory, and we shall be either driven out or buried!"
André Vasling had brought back the "Jeune-Hardie," but Louis Cornbutte, Marie's betrothed, was not on board. Jean Cornbutte's Project. As soon as the young girl, confided to the care of the sympathizing friends, had left the ship, André Vasling, the mate, apprised Jean Cornbutte of the dreadful event which had deprived him of his son, narrated in the ship's journal as follows:
It is the coldest we have seen here yet!" "Ten degrees more," said Vasling, "and the mercury will freeze!" A mournful silence followed this remark. About eight in the morning Penellan essayed a second time to go out to judge of their situation. It was necessary to give an escape to the smoke, which the wind had several times repelled into the hut.
On fair days, when the wind was not too violent, Marie remained on deck, and her eyes became accustomed to the uncouth scenes of the Polar Seas. On the 1st of August she was promenading aft, and talking with her uncle, Penellan, and André Vasling. The ship was then entering a channel three miles wide, across which broken masses of ice were rapidly descending southwards.
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