crew of some six men, among them the skipper's sons, had been missing
since morning. The skipper had stayed home out of sympathy for his
servant girl, and his mind was torn asunder by the anxiety for the
girl and his fear for his boys.
When night fell, the old captain and I were through with the hardest
part of our work. We had new bedding on the bed and the patient clean
and sleeping quietly. Still the boat and its precious complement did
not come. Every few minutes the skipper would go out and listen, and
stare into the darkness. The girl's heart suddenly failed, and about
midnight her spirit left this world. The captain and I decided that
the best thing to do was to burn everything--and in order to avoid
publicity to do it at once. So having laboriously carried it all out
onto the edge of the cliff, we set a light to the pile and were
rewarded with a bonfire which would have made many a Guy Fawkes
celebration. Quite unintentionally we were sending out great streams
of light into the darkness over the waters away down below us, and
actually giving the longed-for signal to the missing boat. Her crew
worked their way in the fog to life and safety by means of the blazing
and poor discarded "properties" of the soul preceding us to our last
port.
Although our work has lain almost entirely among the white population
of the Labrador and North Newfoundland coasts, still it has been our
privilege occasionally to come in contact with the native races, and
to render them such services, medical or otherwise, as lay within our
power. Our doctor at Harrington on the Canadian Labrador is appointed
by the Canadian Government as Indian Agent.
Once, when my own boat was anchored in Davis Inlet, a band of roving
Indians had come to the post for barter and supplies. Our steamer was
a source of great interest to them. Our steam whistle they would
gladly have purchased, after they had mastered their first fears. At
night we showed them some distress rockets and some red and blue port
flares. The way those Indians fled from the port flares was really
amusing, and no one enjoyed it more than they did, for the shouting
and laughter, after they had picked themselves out of the scuppers
where they had been rolling on top of one another, wakened the very
hills with their echoes. Next morning one lonely-looking brave came on
board, and explained to me by signs and grunts that during the
entertainment a white counter, or Hudson Bay dollar, had rolled out of
the lining of his hat into our woodpile. An elaborate search failed to
reveal its whereabouts, but as there was no reason to doubt him, I
decided to make up the loss to him out of our clothes-bag. Fortunately
a gorgeous purple rowing blazer came readily to hand, and with this
and a helmet, both of which he put on at once, the poor fellow was
more than satisfied. Indeed, on the wharf he was the envy of the whole
band.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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