Chapter 32 Chapter 9 The Adventures of Kalyma

Karuma unexpectedly came to a small island floating 200 miles away from the American continent!It's incredible! But the most important thing right now is, is this unfortunate girl still alive?Can you still survive?Mrs. Barnett undressed the Eskimo girl and found that her body was not completely frozen.She listened to her heart, which was beating weakly but still beating.The poor girl's blood flowed from the wound on her hand, but fortunately the injury was not serious.Madge wrapped her wound with a handkerchief and stopped the bleeding. Meanwhile Mrs Pauline Barnet knelt beside Karuma, held her against her, held her head high, poured a few drops of white wine into her half-open mouth; Wet her forehead and temples with cold water.

A few minutes passed.Neither Mrs Barnet nor March dared to say a word.Both of them waited extremely anxiously, for fear that misfortune would happen to the Eskimo girl who was still alive at any time! At this moment, Karuma suddenly let out a sigh.Her hands trembled slightly, and when she couldn't open her eyes and couldn't see who was taking care of her, she struggled to say a few words: "Mrs. Paulina! Mrs. Polina!" Under such circumstances, the female traveler was stunned when she heard someone calling her name.Did Karuma come to this floating island voluntarily?How did she know that there she would find that good European woman whom she would never forget?And how did she know this, how did she walk so far to reach Victoria Island?Finally, how could she have guessed that the ice field would carry Mrs. Barnet and all her companions at Fort Hope far from the mainland?These things really cannot be explained.

"She's alive! She's sure to be alive!" March said, feeling in her hands that Karuma's body was beginning to warm and begin to move. "Poor child!" murmured Mrs. Barnet, with a surge of emotion in her heart. "My name, my name! She was saying my name when she was dying!" At this moment, Karuma half-opened her eyes, with a look of panic and bewilderment in her eyes.Suddenly, when she found herself lying in the arms of the female traveler, there was a flash of light in her eyes.In a split second, just a split second, Karuma recognized Mrs Barnett.She called out Mrs Barnet's name again, and her hand slowly rose, then fell limply on Mrs Barnet's.

The two women hurriedly managed to revive the Eskimo girl again.Her coma was caused by extreme fatigue and hunger.Mrs Barnett quickly learned.She has not eaten for 48 hours.After eating a few pieces of wild game and drinking some white wine, Kaluma felt that she had regained some strength. An hour later, she felt that she could go back to the fort with them. During this time, Kaluma sat on the sand between Lady Barnet and March, repeatedly thanking them for their care.Then she told her story.The Eskimo girl hadn't forgotten her European friends at Fort Hope, and the impression Mrs. Barnett had left on her was always on her mind.As we shall see, it was no accident that she was tortured half to death and thrown on Victoria Island.

The following is a brief account of what Karuma told Mrs. Barnett. We will remember that the young Eskimo girl promised on her first visit that she would return to Fort Hope to see her friends in the good season of the second year.When the long polar night was over and May had arrived, Kalyma began her actions to fulfill her promise.She left her winter residence in New Georgia and traveled to the Victoria Peninsula, accompanied by a cousin. Six weeks later, around mid-June, she reached the New Britain region adjacent to Bathurst Point.She immediately recognized the plateau overlooking the volcanic mountains overlooking Liverpool Bay, and 20 miles further on, she reached Moss Bay, where she and her family used to hunt amphibians.

However, on the other side of the bay, on the north side, nothing can be seen!The coast stretches straight to the southeast, and the former Cape Eskimo and Cape Bathurst are gone! Karuma knows what's going on!Either all this place from Victoria Island has sunk to the bottom of the sea, or is drifting away with the sea! Karuma wept bitterly for not seeing her old friends after running so far. However, the Eskimo girl and her brother were not particularly surprised by the disaster before them.There was an ancient legend among the nomadic tribes in North America, saying that Bathurst Point was connected to the mainland a long time ago. It was not a part of the continent in the first place. The next will leave the mainland again.Therefore, the Eskimos were very surprised when they saw that Hoblin Zhongwei built the commercial station at Bathurst Point.However, unwilling to tell outsiders their tribe's secrets, and perhaps motivated by dissatisfaction at seeing outsiders occupy their lands, they said nothing to Lieutenant Hobson, who at this time The business station has also been built.Karuma did not know this legend, which has never been found in serious literature, perhaps one of the many legends of people's views on the evolution of the universe in the extreme north, so it will not be taken seriously, so when the people of Castle Hope When they gain a foothold here, naturally no one will tell them that there will be any danger.

There is no doubt that if the Eskimos had told Lieutenant Hobson of this fact earlier, and he had doubts about the strange character of the place, he would have built the trading station farther away, on a solid piece of land. superior. Knowing the fact that Bathurst Point no longer existed, Karuma continued across Washburn Bay.Disappointed when she couldn't find any trace of those people, she had to go back to the fishing grounds of western Russian America. She and her brother left Moss Bay in late June.They made their way back along the coast, and at the end of July they returned to New Georgia, after a trip in vain.

Calluma thought she would never see Lady Paulina Barnett again, never see her friends at Castle Hope again.She thought they were all lost at sea. At this moment, the Eskimo girl looked at Mrs. Barnett with teary eyes, and held her hands tenderly.Then, she muttered a few prayers to herself, thanking God for saving her again through the hand of her friend! When Karuma returned home, her old life resumed.She went fishing with her family to Cape Ice, about 70 degrees north latitude, more than 600 miles from Bathers Point. For the first half of August, nothing happened.But at the end of the month came the storm that worried Jasper Hobson so much.That storm swept across the entire Arctic Ocean, even as far as the Bering Strait.At Cape Glass the storm was as fierce as Victoria Island.At that time, the floating island lay within 200 miles of the shore, just as Lieutenant Hobson took it.

Mrs. Barnett, who was very clear about the situation at the time, listened to Karuma's narration, and immediately understood many strange things happened and the reason why Karuma came to the island. During the first few days of the storm, the Eskimos who lived in the ice corners hid in their huts and did not go out.They don't go out, let alone go fishing. During the night from August 31st to September 1st, Kalyma suddenly had a premonition that she wanted to venture to the seaside to see it.She went out against the strong wind and rain, and looked at the churning sea, the waves were rolling over like a mountain.

Suddenly, shortly after midnight, she thought she saw something huge, driven by the storm, drifting parallel to the shore.Her eyes, like those of many of the local nomads accustomed to the long polar nights, were unmistakable.That huge thing drifted by two miles off shore, and it was never going to be a whale, or a boat, and it wasn't going to be an iceberg at this time of year. Karuma didn't think much about it.As if someone had given her some inspiration, images of her friends suddenly appeared in her mind.She saw them again, Lady Paulina Barnett, March, Lieutenant Hobson, and the baby she had loved so much at Hope!right!They are passing here, they are being driven adrift by the storm!

Karuma didn't hesitate for a minute of doubt.She thought she had to go and tell the victims, who probably didn't know it, that land was near.She ran back to the hut, picked up a torch made of sackcloth dipped in resin that Eskimos used for night fishing, lit it hastily, and held it up on the high point of the ice corner and shook it. This was the light that Hobson and Sergeant Long had seen through the fog at Cape Mitchell on the night of August 31. How delighted and excited the young Eskimo girl was when Lieutenant Hobson answered her signal by lighting a fir bough!Although the lieutenant's yellow fire spread all the way to the coast of America, he didn't know how close they were to land! The flames quickly disappeared.The wind ceased only for a few minutes, and the dreadful storm picked up again with vigor, only to turn suddenly to the southeasterly. Karuma knew her "prey" - as she called it - was about to flee, and the floating island would not come close!She saw the island, she could feel it drifting away in the night, drifting out to sea again. The Eskimo girl is really heartbroken at this moment!She thought to herself that she should tell her friends about their situation, they might have had time to take action, and every minute they expressed would take them further and further away from the mainland... She didn't hesitate for a minute.There was her little kayak, in which she had weathered more than one arctic storm.She pushed the kayak into the sea, tied herself to the kayak with straps, paddled in hand, and rushed into the dark depths of the sea. Hearing her narration, Mrs. Barnet hugged her tightly in her arms, and Madge also shed tears when she heard it. Karuma dashed into the rough surf, more aided by the wind, and her boat was pushed towards the still looming colossus.Huge waves kept coming over her kayak, but nothing could be done about the unsinkable boat.The boat was always floating on the top of the waves like a straw.The boat was about to capsize several times, but she straightened it with a stroke of the oars. Finally, after fighting for an hour, Kaluma could clearly see the drifting island.With less than a quarter of a mile to go, she had no doubts that she would soon be there! It was then that she gave a loud cry, and it was the same cry that both Hobson and Sergeant Long had heard that night. However, at this moment, Kaluma felt that she was involuntarily being carried westward by a current, no matter how hard she paddled, it was in vain.This current affects her much more than Victoria Island!Her boat flew forward like an arrow.She cried a few more times, but was never to be heard again, for she had drifted away, and by the time the first twilight of dawn had come, both the New Georgia she had left and the drifting island she had pursued were It became two indistinct shadows on the horizon. Is this Eskimo girl desperate?No.It is now impossible to return to the American continent.She was in the midst of the dreadful headwind which, together with the current, carried the island to the sea, two hundred miles forward, in thirty-six hours. Karuma had only one solution: he had to keep his boat in the same current as the island before he could land on the island. But, what a pity!Gradually, the brave girl had more than she wanted, but her strength was not enough.Hunger began to torment her.Exhaustion left her hands with no strength even to grasp the oars. For several hours she struggled, and it seemed to her that she was approaching the island, but the people on the island could not see her, because she was only a speck in the vast sea.Although her arms were numb and her hands were bleeding and she could no longer control them, she was still fighting tenaciously!When she fought to the last moment, until she lost consciousness, the boat drifted away with the current, letting the wind and waves play tricks on her. What happened next?She was unconscious and unable to speak clearly.How long has she been drifting like this?She had no way of knowing, only at the moment when the boat broke apart suddenly, did she wake up again. Karuma fell into the icy water, which woke her up again.After a while, a big wave washed the dying girl onto the beach. This happened the night before, when dawn was about to begin, that is, about two or three o'clock in the morning. More than 70 hours have passed since Karuma boarded her kayak until the boat sank into the sea! But the Eskimo girl rescued by the waves did not know where the storm had brought her to the coast.Was she brought back to the mainland again?Or was she brought to the island she was chasing so hard?It was what she wished for, yes!She is hoping to be taken to the island!And the wind and currents will only take her to the ocean, not back to the coast. The thought gave her strength again.She stood up, feeling weak all over.Start walking along the coast. Indeed, the Eskimo girl was thrown onto this Victoria Island, which was once a corner of Moss Bay, just by accident.However, due to sea erosion and fractures, she could no longer make out the original coast. Karuma was walking, finally stopped, and then encouraged herself again.The road became long for her, and every mile she walked she had to circle the sea-eroded coast.In this way she shuffled on, fell down and picked herself up again, till at last she was not far from the woods where Mrs Polina Barnet and March had just rested that same morning.We already know that the two women were walking towards Cape Eskimo, and they had seen her tracks in the snow not far from the woods.Then, poor Kalyma finally fell down not far from them! From here, she was hungry and tired and could only crawl forward. But again her heart was filled with great hope.Just a few steps from the shore, she recognized Cape Eskimo, under which she and her family had camped last year.She knew she was only eight miles from the Commercial Station, and that she would get there if she followed the road that friends used to visit Fort Hope in the past. yes!The thought supported her.But when at last she reached the shore, she had no more strength, and at last she fell on the snow, and fainted again.If it weren't for Mrs. Paulina Barnett, she would be lost. "But," said she, "my dear lady, I know you will come to my rescue, and God will deliver me through your hand!" We already know the rest of the plot!We know what instinct drove Mrs Barnet and March that day to explore the shore there, and what premonition led them to Cape Eskimo when they rested in the grove before turning back to the trading station. .We also know the story Mrs. Barnett told the girl—how the ice broke and what the polar bear did. Mrs. Barnet smiled and said: "My child, I didn't save you, but that kind animal! If you don't have it, you will be finished. If it comes to us again in the future, we have to respect it, it is your savior!" While they were talking, Kalyma ate something, rested, and regained some strength.Mrs. Barnet suggested returning to the castle as soon as possible, and not delaying outside as long as possible.Immediately the Eskimo girl stood up and was ready to go. In fact, Mrs. Barnett wanted to hasten to tell Lieutenant Hobson what had happened that morning, and that the drifting island had approached the coast of America that very night of the storm. But before that, the female traveler asked Kaluma to keep these things absolutely secret, and the situation on the island should also be kept secret.Let it be assumed that she had come by the coast as a matter of course, and had only fulfilled a promise to come and see friends in good season.Her presence would reassure the people at the castle that nothing had changed at Bathurst Point, as there might well have been doubts about it. At about 3 o'clock, Mrs. Polina Barnett walked eastward with the Eskimo girl and the loyal March. Before 5 o'clock in the evening, the three arrived at the side gate of Fort Hope.