Four followed the sailor to the engine-room companion and went down the iron ladder. Soon sounds of fires being freshened by new coal came through the ventilators, and the ship surged and shook as if freeing itself.
Stirling motioned for the three Russians who remained by the galley, and they followed the girl to the waist of the ship. He leaned over the quarter-deck canvas and stared at them.
The girl climbed the steps and stood by his side. He shielded her with his body as they waited while the sun glided within the horizon haze. A frosty nip came with its disappearance, and the lines about Stirling's lips softened slightly. He turned from the girl and strode to the rail on the landward side of the ship, where she joined him, and they watched the Russians streaming in a long line over the snow-mantled island. The leader turned on the brow of an icy hill and waved farewell; then he was gone.
The wind died to a faint breeze which varied during the hours of semi-darkness while Stirling and the girl stood the watch. Ice creaked and splintered to the north and east; the aurora flamed and crimsoned the heavens, with cold light points dying beneath its glow. The moon rose with a double ring, revealing its position in the haze, and the far-off North pack groaned and whispered its grim warning of danger.
[CHAPTER XXXIV—THROUGH THE DRIVING SNOW]
Soon Stirling felt the girl's body close beside him, but she had said no word for hours. The glory of the Arctic night had held her spellbound; the beauty of the North enthralled her. She was in tune with the great wilderness of ice and snow.
Suddenly a soft gust of vapour-laden air swung over the island and pressed the ship toward the true north. This gust was repeated. The Pole Star tugged at her anchor chain, the floes parted to leeward, and a lane of open water showed. This led through the deeper part of Barrow Strait; it was the road to open sea and Baffin Bay.
A Russian forward sang out a warning, leaning over the forepeak rail and pointing toward the anchor chain.
"The wind has veered!" Stirling said, simply.
"From the south?" she asked.