Both Mr Lathrope and Frank were right as to the weather, for, although the snow-flakes came down more slowly and were much smaller than they had been, the shifting of the wind had created the change. This was now blowing into the bay straight from the sea; and while the gale was still as high and fierce as at the beginning of the snow-storm, it was not quite so cold.
The waves, however, were rolling against the cliffs just as they had done when the Nancy Bell struck on the reef, and the reverberation of their roar was fearfully grand out in the open. The piled-up snow against the sides of the house had so deadened the sound within, that the party ensconced there could hear little beyond the whistling of the wind round the eaves of the house.
Frank returned to those within, after carefully closing the door again behind him, just like the dove messenger came back to Noah and his imprisoned family in the ark!
Like the bearer of the olive branch, he too was a herald of glad tidings.
“There is a change,” said he, addressing himself to Mr Meldrum, “and I think, sir, we’ll soon be able to get out again.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” replied the other, getting up to look; but he came back even sooner than Frank, and did not seem quite so jubilant.
“I’m afraid the shift of the wind will not do us much good, as far as getting about is concerned,” he said. “It will only tend to drift the snow where it has not penetrated before; and may very probably shut us in more firmly than ever. I notice one good thing, however, that the snowstorm has done. It has covered over the house, and we will be all the warmer should it start freezing again!”
“But won’t it break down the roof?” said Mrs Major Negus, alarmed at this.
“Oh, no!” replied Mr Meldrum, “the roof is too strongly built for that; besides which, we’re under the lee of the cliff that protects us from this very wind. Still, I hope we’ll have a chance of getting some more Kerguelen cabbage before the snow commences to fall heavily again, as I’ve no doubt it will. I ought to have laid in a stock when we went rabbit shooting that time. In this sort of treacherous climate one should take advantage of every fine day and provide for the next.”
“You forget,” said Mrs Major Negus, “sufficient for the day is the evil thereof!”