Chapter 30 Chapter 7 Fires and Shouts

The Lieutenant and Sergeant Long stayed at Fort Hope for the night until bedtime.All were gathered in this hall, except the astronomer, who was shut up in his cell alone and isolated from the world.Everyone went about his business, some cleaning guns, some repairing tools.Mrs. Mac Knapp, Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Jolliffe sewed with March, while Mrs. Polina Barnett read aloud to everyone.The sound of her reading was interrupted by the banging of doors and windows caused by the strong wind outside and the cry of the baby.Corporal Jolliff was in charge of the children, which was very busy.His knees were shaking like a galloping horse, and he was quickly exhausted.He had to place the indefatigable little knight on a large table, and let the child roll about on it until sleepiness overcame him.

At 8 o'clock, according to the custom, everyone prayed together, then turned off the lights, and went back to their own rooms to sleep. After everyone was asleep, Lieutenant Hobson and Sergeant Long slipped through the deserted hall to the corridor.Lady Paulina Barnett was there waiting for them to shake hands for the last time. "See you tomorrow," she said to the lieutenant. "See you tomorrow, ma'am," replied Lieutenant Hobson, "yes, tomorrow. . . . Surely . . . " "However, what if you come back late?..." "Wait patiently for us then," replied the Lieutenant, "for as I observe the southern horizon tonight, if we approach the coast of New Georgia, we may have a flare in the middle of the horizon. That way I will be sure during the day Where we are. Our scouting may take 24 hours. However, if we reach Cape Michelle by midnight, we will be back tomorrow night. So please be patient with us, madam, and trust us that we will not be needless adventurous."

"But," asked the traveler, "what if you don't come back tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or even two days later? . . . " "That means we're never coming back!" said Hobson bluntly. The lieutenant opened the door.Lady Paulina Barnett then closed the door behind them.She soon became uneasy, and returned to the room where March was waiting in thought. Jasper Hobson and Sergeant Long walked through the inner courtyard, and a whirlwind almost knocked them down. They leaned on iron bars, supported each other, and walked out of the side door to the area between the hill and the lagoon.

The earth was shrouded in a twilight twilight.The new moon had not yet risen on the horizon, and the night looked eerie and terrifying, but only for a few hours at most.At this moment, they are good enough to see the way. What a fierce storm!Lieutenant Hobson and his companions wore rain boots and close-fitting raincoats, and their heads were tightly wrapped by rain hats.They were moving fast, as the wind pushed them forward violently from behind, and it could be said that they could not move forward if they didn't want to.None of them spoke, for they could hear nothing over the roar of the storm.

Jasper Hobson didn't want to go along the coast because it would be a long way around and he would have to head into the wind.He wanted to take a short cut and go straight from Bathurst Point to Michel Point.He carried a pocket compass with which he could take his bearings at any time.In this way, they can reach their destination in less than 10 to 11 miles.The twilight twilight lasted about two more hours, and he figured they'd get there in time before night fell. Jasper Hobson and the sergeant slumped in the wind, tucking their heads into their clothes, leaning on their iron staff and sprinting forward.When they walked along the lake shore, the wind did not blow them, and they were less miserable.The low hill and the trees on it partially obscured them.A gust of wind whipped the branches and leaves of the trees so violently that they almost uprooted them or snapped loose trunks, and then galloped past.In the wind, the rain is blown into fine beads and dances with the wind.Thus, for a distance of almost four miles, the two explorers did not suffer as much as they had feared.

They reached the southern end of the woods, where there were no hills to be seen, no trees to shelter them, and the flat land was left to the sea wind, so they had to stop for a while.They had another six miles to go to reach Cape Michel. "This is going to be tough!" the lieutenant shouted into the sergeant's ear. "That's right," replied the sergeant, "we're not being kind to us this time." "I'm afraid there will be hail in the rain now and then!" added Hobson. "It's not the same as a hail of bullets!" Sergeant Long replied in a philosopher's tone. "Lieutenant, you and I have been through the fire anyway. Come on, let's go!"

"Forward, my brave soldier!" It was ten o'clock at night, and the last twilight of the twilight was fading away, as if drowned in fog or hail or blown out by wind and rain.However, a glimmer of light is still faintly discernible.The lieutenant put on the tinder, looked at his compass by the light of the tinder, then shrank back tightly into the raincoat, followed by the sergeant, and ran towards the open space. As soon as they took a step, the two fell to the ground suddenly, but they got up immediately, holding each other's arms, like two old people, bent over, turned sideways, and trotted forward.

This storm is really scary!The clouds were torn to shreds, and the rain was blown in all directions, skimming the land.There was flying sand and rocks everywhere, and Lieutenant Hobson and his companions felt that the raindrops on their lips were salty, because the sea water was lifted like a curtain two or three miles away, and it was smashed to produce consequences. Sometimes the wind and rain stopped briefly, and they stopped quickly to catch their breath.Once more the lieutenant took his bearings, took stock of his course, and continued on his way. But the storm blew harder after nightfall.The wind and rain have been mixed together, making it impossible to distinguish.They formed terrible tornadoes at low altitudes, which had the potential to turn rivers and seas upside down.People would think that the sea seemed to be lifted from the bottom, and it would all be crushed on this small floating island.

Jasper Hobson was indeed thinking, how could this ice field withstand such a catastrophe, how could it not be broken into hundreds of pieces under the impact of huge waves!The wave was so terrible that the lieutenant heard it roaring in the distance.At this moment, Sergeant Long, who was walking a few steps ahead of him, stopped suddenly, then turned around and said intermittently to the lieutenant: "Can't go here!" he said. "why?" "ocean!……" "What?! Sea! Haven't we reached the southwest coast yet?" "Look, Lieutenant." Indeed, in the dark shadows ahead appeared a great expanse of water, splashing violently to the lieutenant's feet.

Lieutenant Jasper Hobson fired his scythe again, carefully observing the direction of the compass needle. "No," he said, "the sea is further to the left. We haven't passed the great woods that separate us from Cape Michel." "But now, this is..." "It's part of the broken island," Hobson replied.At this time, the captain and his companions had to lie down on the ground in order to withstand the wind. "Maybe a large part of the island has left, is drifting away, or just a gap we can go around. Let's go." Jasper Hobson and the sergeant stood up and walked to the right, along the water's edge, into the depths of the island.They went on like this for ten minutes, always fearing that they would never get to the south of the island again.After a while, the sound of the surf mixed with the storm was no longer heard.

"It's just a gap," Lieutenant Hobson said into the sergeant's ear. "Let's turn the corner!" So they turned again to the south.Thus these two brave souls might come upon dire peril, which they knew well but did not speak of.In fact, the part of Victoria Island they were marching at this time had broken a large piece and would break away from the main part of the island at any moment.If the rift had opened earlier under the impact of the big waves, they would have drifted away with the part of the fault!But without hesitation, they continued to move forward in the dark, without even thinking about whether there would be a way back! What troubles and sorrows haunted Lieutenant Hobson's heart!Did he still expect the island to last until winter?Hasn't the irresistible break already begun?If the wind does not push the island to the shore, is it not soon doomed to collapse and disintegrate?What a terrible ending!How much life is there for the residents of the displaced people on this ice sheet? These two strong men had a job to do, and they kept going, despite the blows of the wind and rain.In this way they came to the edge of the great woods adjoining Cape Michel.It is now necessary to walk through the woods to reach the coast.Lieutenant Jasper Hobson and Sergeant Long walked into the woods, into a world of darkness save for the roar of cedars and birches.Everything around seemed to be exploding.Branches broken by the strong wind whipped them from time to time.At every moment they were in danger of being crushed by a fallen tree, or crashing in the dark against unseen limbs of fallen trees.But now they were no longer walking blindly and aimlessly, the roar of the sea guided them through the woods!They heard the roar of the waves crashing on the shore, and more than once felt the thinned continent tremble and tremble under the impact.In order not to get lost, in order to help a person when he encounters an obstacle, they held hands and supported each other, so they finally reached the end of the woods. But at this moment, a whirlwind suddenly separated them and threw them to the ground. "Sergeant! Sergeant! Where are you?" Holson shouted with all his might. "Yes! Lieutenant!" Sergeant Long shouted back. The two then crawled on the ground, trying to get back together.However, there seemed to be a strong hand pinning them to the ground and immobilizing them.At last, after much effort, they reached their goal.They tied themselves together by belts so that they would never be separated again; and then they began to crawl forward over the sand, hoping to get to the grove of young cedars.They crawled there, got a little cover, and dug a hole there, huddled inside.They are exhausted and worn out. It was half past eleven in the evening. Jasper Hoblin and his companions remained like this for several minutes without saying a word.Their eyes were half-closed, and they were motionless, with a sense of sleepiness and numbness all over their bodies, while the storm broke the trunk of the young pine tree above them, making a terrible noise.They had to get over their weariness, however, and refreshed themselves with a few sips of schnapps from the sergeant's jug. "As long as the trees don't fall," said Lieutenant Hobson. "Let's hope our hole doesn't get blown away with the tree!" added the sergeant, squatting in the quicksand. "Anyway, we're here," said Hobson. "It's only a few steps from Cape Michelle, and since we're here to observe, let's do it! Sergeant Long, I I have a hunch that we are not far from solid land now, but this is just a hunch!" From where the lieutenant and his companions were, they would have seen two-thirds of the horizon if they could see.But it was pitch black, and unless they had torches they had to wait until daylight to see if they were near the shore. The lieutenant had said to Mrs. Paulina Barnett that in this part of New Georgia in North America there were frequent encounters with fishing boats.There are many business stations on the coast here, and they buy the ancient elephant teeth collected by the aborigines, because there are many bone fossils of ancient animals hidden in this sea area.Arcangil is located at a lower latitude. It is the administrative center of the entire Aleutian Islands and the capital of Russian America.However, it was the Arctic coast that hunters visited most often, especially since the Hudson's Bay Company leased the hunting areas that used to be under Russian jurisdiction.Although Hobson was not familiar with the area, he knew the merchants who frequented it at this season of the year, and he believed he would run into a few of his compatriots, or even colleagues, or even if they didn't come, they would come here Nomadic tribes of Indians from the coast. However, was Hobson correct in his conclusion that Victoria Island was being pushed towards the coast? "Yes! One hundred yes!" he said again to the sergeant. "This hurricane blowing from the northeast has been blowing for seven days. I know this island, although it is flat, but it has hills and woods scattered in it. Everywhere, like the sails of a ship, is carried by the wind. Also, the tide is driven by the wind towards the shore. It is impossible if we have not got out of the westward current, if we have not been caught Pushing to the south is also out of the question. We were only a hundred miles from land when we last took our bearings, and now it's been seven days..." "Your deduction is correct, Lieutenant." Sergeant Long said, "And if the wind is helping us, then God will help us. God will not let so many victims die. I trust God All hope!" Hobson and the sergeant talked in this way, and their words were often interrupted by the wind.Their vision pierced the darkness, and the mist from the storm made things even more blurry.There is no light in the darkness. At half past one the storm died down for a few minutes.Only the waves remained undimmed.One after another, the waves are still churning with overwhelming momentum. Suddenly Jasper Hobson grabbed his companion's arm and called out, "Sergeant, do you hear that?" "what?" "The roar of the sea." "Yes, Lieutenant," Sergeant Long replied, listening carefully, "I've been paying attention for a while, and it seems to be the crash of the waves..." "The sound is different...isn't it, Sergeant!...Listen...listen...it's like a surf...like a wave crashing against a rock! . . . " Lieutenant Hobson and Sergeant Long listened carefully.This is obviously not the monotonous, dull sound of interacting waves, but the echoing sound of rows of waves hitting hard objects.However, there is no rock on the shore of the island, only mud and sand. Couldn't Jasper Hobson and company get it wrong?The sergeant stood up to hear better, but was immediately knocked down by the renewed wind.The sound of the storm again overwhelmed the sound of the sea, and the sound of the wind was deafening to the lieutenant. How disturbed the minds of the two observers were.They crouched again in the hole, wondering whether they should leave the shelter, for they felt the sand giving way under their feet, and the young pines breaking at the roots.But they did not stop looking south, they watched intently, their eyes searching the darkness that the light of morning was about to dispel. Suddenly, just before 2:30 in the morning, Sergeant Long shouted: "I saw it!" "what?" "Fire!" "Fire?" "Yes! There...in that direction!" The sergeant pointed southwest.Is he wrong?No, for Hobson was looking too, and saw a flickering glimmer in that direction too. "Yes!" he cried, "Yes! Sergeant! Firelight! There's land!" "Unless it's a ship's light!" replied Sergeant Long. "There are boats at sea in this weather!" cried Hobson. "Impossible! No! No! There's land, I tell you, miles from us!" "That's good! Shall we signal!" "Okay, Sergeant, let's answer the land fire with the island fire!" Neither Lieutenant Hobson nor Sergeant Long carried a torch.And on their heads there are cedar trees with resin. "Bring the scythe, Sergeant!" said Lieutenant Jasper Hobson. Sergeant Long took out his scythe and struck the tinder; then he climbed up the sand and under the bushes.The lieutenant followed him.There are many dead branches on it.They piled up dry branches and set them on fire, and the fire was quickly ignited by the wind. "Ah!" cried Hobson, "since we've seen the fire, they'll see us too!" The cedar bushes were ablaze with white flames, and shone brightly, as if a great torch had been kindled.There was a crackling sound when the resin burned, but after a while the sound stopped and the fire went out. Lieutenant Hobson and Sergeant Long stared vigorously into the distance to see if there was any new fire that answered them... But nothing.They watched for about 10 minutes, hoping to see the flickering light again, and when they were disappointed, they suddenly heard a desperate cry from the other side of the sea! Feeling flustered, Hobson and Sergeant Long slid down the beach... But the cry just now never reappeared. After a few minutes, the dawn gradually appeared.The storm seemed to die down as the sun rose.Soon the sky became clear, and even the distant horizon could be seen clearly... There is no land in front of me, and the sea and sky are still the same color as before on the original horizon!