Harbor Tales Down North / With an Appreciation by Wilfred T. Grenfell, M.D.

T

AN'S

d disclosed it in haste: that was all. It might be, however, that the dispatch conveyed news of a more urgent content. It might be that the maid lay ill-that she called for help and comfort. In that event, nothing could

her heart and be sure of its decision. If, then, she had communicated that decision to her mother, according to her promise to communicate it to somebody, and if the telegram contained news of no more consequence, a good man might command his patience, might indulge in

alawag Run, had come to Point-o'-Bay Cove, where they were to lie

rom Scalawag?"

s, new to the occupation, whose administration o

am," Sandy

young woman, glowing with satisfaction.

Rowl s

said he. "I 'low you don't know

man tossed h

your minds," she replied tartly, "you might l

ma'

d the telegraph operator's concern w

ger t' know for

patch to se

a tel

t

dy in t

eplied, "I'm not permitted to s

t' tell who the

s was astonishing simplicity. Permit

hink not!"

tted t' tell

decided that no regulation of the office would be violated by a frank answer

ed with Mrs. Jaco

turned to Tommy Lark. Their eyes met. Both w

he. "Is the te

t

Grace

mitted to te

gravely, "Sandy Rowl an' me will take a look at the ice in Scalawag R

doubt. For a moment he deliberate

a look at

n on the way. A momentous situation, by the dramatic quality of which both young men were mov

sheltered cove, lay against the open sea. Between Point-o'-Bay and Scalawag Island was the run called Scalawag, of the width of two miles, leading from the wide open into Whale Bay, where it

re not been ice in the run; but there was ice in the run-plenty of ice, fragments of the fields in the Labrador drift, blown in by a bre

ice was heavy enough for the passage-thick ice, of varying extent, from fragments, like cracked ice, to wide pans; and the whole, i

d fall of the ice in the great sw

said Tom

ow. What do

e done. I d

or sure, though. The ice is in

avy ice on the

chance it out there. I've never seed th

ark ref

ep from slidin' off. If the worst comes t' the worst, he could dig his toes an' nails in an' crawl. 'Tis not plain from here if them pans is touchin' each other all the way across; but it looks that way-I 'low they is touchin', with maybe

both good an

"Maybe there is. 'Tis awful t' contemplate

i

nd will rise?

bodes a night o' temper. 'Tis veerin' t' the east.

tless contemplation of the g

ood an' evil

er for you. An' God knows t

'twas ov

n end o' the matter. 'Twill

andy. I thinks the s

e my hope

ot I, 'twi

ll be

k his head dole

"I'm not that deser

a sort that should keep for a safer time than this. If 'tis good news for you, you've no right t' risk a foot on the floe this night; if 'tis bad news for you, you might risk what you liked, an' no matte

Tommy Lark replied; "but the telegram may co

Tom

about a telegram. She sa

graphed t' e

o her

d's way, t' do a

e wonderful nervous. Isn't y

m th

l curious, to

patient as we

t' command my patience. What

mind, she jus' could

nder

ld be sin an' folly for a man t' take his life out on Scalawag Run this night for no better reas

be ill," Tommy

ive an' restless. I knows her wa

ight b

e might;

' i

g absently up the coast toward

bank o' fog's comin'

an

ends

s a

the floe in half an hour. W

t know,

y la

wicked folly t' cling t'

ow what's in t

does

' with eagerness t

ne too

jus' got

sed, "we'll go an' bait the te

e was scrupulous, she was of a secretive, untrustful turn of mind; and as she was ambitious for advancement from the dreary isolation of Point-o'-Bay Cove, she was not to be entrapped or entreated into what she had determined was a breach of discipline. Moreover, it appeared to her suspiciou

g creeping around Point-o'-Bay in a rising wind, meant nothing to her experience. At any rate, she would not permit herself to fall into a questionable situation in wh

secret, as I have told you already. I hav

ark was

the message is of no conseq

that it is of

s of cons

ence. I don't say anything either

carry that message across Scalawag

ave to carry

is a man's pa

u are crossing to Scalawag Harbor to-night, I should be glad if you would take this telegram with you.

ssage from

ng woman exclaimed indigna

thing about s

not te

red, "we'll take it across, an' glad t' b

ter?" the young

awkward, "there was another little

g woman

he cried. "Did you

d, ma

ing about El

s 'tis f

w far too much. I think you have more intere

nfess

rk with sparkling curiosity. Her

r name?" sh

mas

man turned t

r name?" sh

there anything in the teleg

ntly. There was a romance in t

know?" she teased

pling, flashing banter. A conclusion sug

d!" he

k that I cou

you coul

man turned t

name's

's nothin' in the telegram about a

ours i

, ma

es I can master. Now, as for this telegram, you may take it or leave it, just as you

" said Sandy Ro

A

're able. It may be the night. It m

take it

the sealed envelope to Tommy La

oned his jacket. Both men turned to the path to the crest of Bl

Sandy Rowl, "is named in th

Lark n

flicker in the woman's eye when she learned the t

A

chosen

cted, Sandy. The woman twinkled when s

Sandy replied, his face awry with a tri

ve do

peful for them all, and quick with an inspiring praise and encouragement, he could discover no virtue in himself, nor had he any compassion when he phrased the ch

ed to foresee in his future any unhappy turn of fortune. The telegraph operator, he was persuaded, had disclosed an understanding of the situation in a twinkle of her blue

g grimly up the hill, his mind sure of its gloomy inference, his heart wrenched, his purpose resolved upon a worthy course o

been forehanded with his declaration. It was known to him that Sandy Rowl was pressing the same pursuit to a swift conclusion. Tom

"I loves you! W

hes, as a man stalks a caribou. He too had been aware of rivalry; and, having surmised Tommy Lark's intention, he had sought the

d endurance, that she was not sure of her love for either, but felt that she loved both, nor could tell whom she loved the most, if either at all. In this agony of confusion, terrifying for a maid, she had fled beyond her moth

every man into whose hands it falls it lays a grave obligation to expedite its delivery. Tommy Lark had never before touched a telegram; he had never before clapped eyes on one. He was vaguely aware of the telegram as a mystery of wire and a peculiar cunning of m

so! After all, this could be no message having to do with the affairs of Tommy Lark and Sandy Rowl. Elizabeth would not have telegraphed such sentimental news. She would have written a letter. Something was gone awry with the maid. She was

ipping past in soggy gusts that rose at intervals to the screaming pitch of a squall. A drab mist had crept around Point-o'-Bay and w

kers flying away in spindrift like long white manes in the wind. Even from the crest of Black Cliff, lifted high above the ice and water of the gray prospect below, it w

in motion, great pans of the pack tossing like chips in the gigantic waves. Nowhere was the ice at rest. It was neither heavy enough nor yet sufficiently close packed to flatt

d Tommy Lark. "I never faced such

adcap thi

will need madman's luck t'

ep as a roof

I wish we had learned t' swim, Sandy, when we was idle lads t'gether. We'll sink like two jiggers if we sl

t, "will you not liste

isdom,

pen the telegra

ch a naughty trick as that! I'

k that will save us

' trouble in the

save u

. I'll not open the telegram; I'll not intrude o

a hand on Tommy

tly, "to a mad venture like this,

impel

drives

aid's

n her life. An' if she isn't, we've no means o' bein' sure that she isn't. 'Tis mere guess-work. We've no certainty of her need. T' be drove out on t

seekin'

seek it. It thrus

none of it. 'Tis a cra

mere c

th caution in a case like this. I c

laughed his

the clamor o' your curiosity

It couldn't be. I'm not worthy. Still an' all, I'll carry her message t' Scalawag Harbor. An' if I'm overcome I'll not care very much-save that 'twill sadden me t' know at t

refl

uctantly, "will you listen

l li

u believe me

lieve yo

l not tell even herself. An' then she's overcome; an', try as she may to conceal what she feels, she's not able at all t' do it. The signs, Tommy? Why, they're all as plain in speech as words themselves could be! Have you seed any signs, boy? No. She'll not wed you. 'Tis not in her heart t' do it, whatever her mind may say. She'll wed me. I knows it. An' so I'll tell you that you'll waste your labor if you puts out on Scalawag Run with the notion o'

kin' you t'

e jus' chose for herself. Is she e

N

been any s

d that I could blame her for. She-she've bee

merry w

A

risk music, an' her laughter's

howed me

lush in you

bles an'

twinkle wit

sts the

your arm an'

rinks f

se you with p

replied. "She says, 'Yes, s

aimed. "'Tis I t

er will in all things. I loves the maid. I'll not

heer m

comin'

er the prospect of fog and s

cried, "lo

rk replied doggedly. "I lov

ed. "I got t' go! Can't you unders

Scalawag Island were a vague black hulk beyond, slowly merging with the color of the advancing night. The wind was up-blowing past with spindrift and a thin rain; but the wind had not yet packed t

in the solidity of its footing, and whatever in the speed with which it might be traversed by agile, daring men, was mitigated by another condition involved in its exposed situation. It lay against the open sea; and the sea was high, rolling dire

en a man takes the corners of an end of the strip and snaps the whole to shake the dust out of it; and the spindrift, blown in fr

crest of a wave and in the lowest depths of a trough. They tipped-pitched and rolled like the deck of a schooner in a gale of wind. And as th

d beyond, approaching the Scalawag coast, where the wind was interrupted by the Scalawag hills, the floe was loose and composed of a field of lesser fragments. There was still a general contact-pan lightly touc

re, in the swell of the sea. The foothold was sometimes impermanent-blocks of ice capable of sustaining the weight of a man through merely a m

ice. When it reached the horizontal in the depths of the trough, and there paused before responding to the lift of the next wave, Tommy Lark caught his feet; and he was set and balanced against the tip and fling of the pan in the other direction as the wave slipped beneath and ran on. When the ice was flat and stable on the crest

against the pitch of the pan as a man stands on a heaving deck, they appraised the chances and were disheartened. The lane was like a narrow arm of the sea, extending, as nearly as could be determined in the dusk, far into the floe; and there was an opposite shore

reat ground swell, not a choppy wind-lop, but agitated by the wind and occasionally breaking. It was a thirty-foot sea in the open. In the lane it was somewhat less-not much,

was u

id he. "I don't like t' try

't turn

ot ver

e middle. If a man could reach tha

ot a bi

fairish so

big enou

the ice, almost off his balance, peere

ily bear a m

never bea

be n

," Rowl declared. "I'm sur

k agreed. "I 'l

elf away tryin' t' cro

w he m

l demanded, "what

' t' cross,

s a footin' on t

gh if the sea lay flat an' st

in' along the s

ep on the side

t be done. If a man didn't la

e would

el

hat big pan in the middle afore the next sea cants it. You watch me, Sandy, an' p

" Sandy Rowl complained. "

so bad as

olly!" Ro

ied, "a telegram's a telegr

ave kept w

a letter

call for two men t' come i

ver can

hance it a

't drow

"No-not yet! We've a mi

Lark l

said he. "I'm not so ver

f water, the mounting seas, their declivities flecked with a path of treacherous ice, all were familiar realities to Tommy Lark and Sandy Rowl. Moreover, a telegram was not a letter. It was an urgent message. It imposed upon a man's conscience the obligation to speed it. It should be delivered with determined expedition. E

assage of Scalawag Run. The maid was ill-her message should be sped. As he paused on the brink of the lane, however, waiting for the ice to lie flat

e, "you be care

. He grinned. "You've no need

you," Tommy explained, "'twould

ruth and unselfishness of the

mmy," said he. "'

y replied simply. "I'd not have t

her that yo

was st

gloomy foreboding, "as though

h come nea

. Well-no

pairful thi

y declared. "You'll mind that I said so. An' I'm glad that I i

hey were like stones in a brook: it was a zigzag course-the intervals varied. Leaping from stone to stone to cross a brook, using his arms to maintain a balance, a man can not pause; and his difficulty increases as he leaps-he grows more and more confused, and finds it all the while harder to keep upright. What he fears is a mossy stone and a rolling stone. The sm

stance in six leaps without pause; and, having come to the middle of the lane, he could rest and catch his breath whi

for the first leap, "I'm

slant o'

e it in t

t y

ited for the

ned. "I might have been hal

re cotched like that you'll slip off the ice. There isn'

st

m the incline of a sea to

andy Row

short. It was difficult, nevertheless, for two reasons. He had no time to gather himself for the impulse, and his flight was taken from sinking ground. Almost he fell short. Six inches less, and he would have landed on the edge of the cake and toppled back into the sea when it tipped

, whatever com

ace for landing, and as ground for a flight the cake furnished a doubtful opportunity. There was no time for recovery. When Tommy Lark landed, the ice began to waver and sink. He had landed awkwardly, his feet

The wind snatched a thin spindrift from the crest and flung it past like a squall of rain. That was all. Tommy Lark was midway of the sea, as a man might be on the side of a steep hill: there was the crest above and the trough below

f the big pan to which he was bound, which was precisely as steep as the wave it was climbing. And this fear was justified by the event. Tommy Lark touched the little cake with the toe of his seal-hide boot, with the sea then nearing its climax,

shed his balance with wides

too bad,"

's be

ouble

e other side of the lane, however, without great difficulty. He could n

er!" he

com

an. 'Tis a ticklish landin'.

n the same way; and thus he proceeded from the first sinking cake through the short leap to the second more substantial one, whence he leaped with confidence to the third,

t of the sea, beginning its descent. He grasped the edge of it and tried to draw himself aboard. In this he failed. The pan was too thick-too high in the water; and the weight of his boots and clothes was too great to overcome. In the trough of the sea, where his opportunity was best, he almost succeeded. He established one kn

that Sandy Rowl could not l

he shouted. "

out to the rescue. It will be recalled that the pan would not support two men. Two men could not accurately adjust their weight.

out, grasp Sandy Rowl by the collar, and drag him from the water. In the circumstances, however, what help he could give Sandy Rowl must be applied in t

rk landed on the pan, Sandy was deep in the water, his hands gripping the ice, his face upturned, his shoulders submerged. Tommy did not even pause. He ran on to the other side of t

umed the interval of his stay in regaining his feet. He did not dare remain. Before he could stretch a hand toward Rowl, the pan was

, dropped him, sure that he had contributed the needed impulse, and ran on. But when he turned, con

t gain more-to land more circumspectly, opposing his weight to Rowl's weight, and to pause until the pan was flooded deep. The plan served his turn. He landed fairly, bent deliberately, caught Rowl's coat with both han

dy Rowl joine

t?" Tommy

otherwise I'm fair enough an' glad t' be breath

want no

I'll leave Elizabeth t' thank you. You've won a

self," Tommy declared. "

chen fire. To her, then, Tommy Lark presented the telegram, having first warned her, to ease the shock, that a message had arrived, contents unknown, from the region of Grace Harbor. Having commanded her self-pos

l could read. Elizabeth Luke's mother stared at the telegram; that

nt whatsoever, she looked up, her wrinkled face screwed in an effort to solve the mystery. She pursed her lips, she tapped the floor with her toe, she tapped her nose with her foref

d sick?" To

e i

it!" Tommy

pulled down her spectacles and referred to t

t el

she's homesick; I've been that myself. But what's this

Lark f

and tense, "what does the

cottage in Squid Cove. An' that

tage in Squid C

mother agreed, "t' be homesick

aid Tommy Lark; "but there's lumber f

about

Tommy roared. "An'