Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/398

 236 THE FUR COUNTRY. Kalumah feared that her " prey/^ so she called the floating island, was about to escape her, and that it would not be driven on to the shore. She saw it fading away, and knew that it would soon dis- appear in the darkness and be lost to her on the boundless ocean. It was indeed a terrible moment for the young native, and she determined at 'all hazards to let her friends know of their situation. There might yet be time for them to take some steps for their deliverance, although every hour took them farther from the con- tinent. She did not hesitate a moment, her kayak was at hand, the frail bark in which she had more than once braved the storms of the Arctic Ocean, she pushed it down to the sea, hastily laced on the sealskin jacket fastened to the canoe, and, the long paddle in her hand, she plunged into the darkness. Mrs Barnett here pressed the brave child to her heart, and Madge shed tears of sympathy. When launched upon the roaring ocean, Kalumah found the change of wind in her favour. The waves dashed over her kayak, it is true, but they were powerless to harm the light boat, which floated on their crests like a straw. It was capsized several times, but a stroke of the paddle righted it at once. After about an hour's hard work, Kalumah could see the wander- ing island more distinctly, and had no longer any doubt of effecting her purpose, as she was but a quarter of a mile from the beach. It was then that she uttered the cry which Hobson and Long had heard. But, alas ! Kalumah now felt herself being carried away towards the west by a powerful current, which could take firmer hold of her kayak than of the floating island ! In vain she struggled to beat back with her paddle, the light boat shot along like an arrow. She uttered scream after scream, but she was unheard, for she was already far away, and when the day broke the coasts of Alaska and the island she had wished to reach, were but two distant masses on the horizon. Did she despair ? Not yet. It was impossible to get back to the American continent in the teeth of the terrible v^ind which was driv- ing the island before it at a rapid pace, taking it out two hundred miles in thirty-six hours, and assisted by the current from the coast. There was but one thing left to do. To get to the island by keeping in the same current which was drifting it away.