SAVING A LIFE

It was a terrible moment for Grenfell when he saw his friend disappear beneath the icy waves.  Would the cold so paralyze him as to render him helpless?  Would he be caught under an ice pan?  A hundred such thoughts flashed through Grenfell’s mind as he stood, impotent to help because of the distance between them.  Then to his great joy he saw Taylor rise to the surface and scramble out upon a pan in safety.

The ice was too far separated now for Taylor either to advance or retreat, and the pan upon which he had taken refuge began a rapid drift seaward.  He had made a valiant effort, but the attempt had failed.

Grenfell resumed firing his gun, still hoping that some one might hear it and come to their rescue.  Time passed and Taylor drifted abreast of Grenfell and finally drifted past him.  Then, in the far distance, Grenfell glimpsed the flash of an oar.  The flash was repeated with rhythmic regularity.  The outlines of a boat came into view.  The men shouted the good news to each other.  Help was coming!

The signals had been heard, and in due time, and with much thankfulness, Dr. Grenfell and William Taylor were safely in the boat and on their way to St. Anthony.

Not long after his return to St. Anthony, the ice drifted eastward and an open strip of sea appeared leading northward toward the Straits of Belle Isle.  The ice was now a full mile off shore, it was the beginning of June, and Dr. Grenfell, expecting that at this late season the Straits would be open for navigation, had the Strathcona made ready for sea at once, and with high hopes, stowed the anchor and steamed northward.  It was his plan to have the vessel carry him westward through the Straits and land him at some port on the west coast of Newfoundland where he could take passage on the regular mail boat, which he had been advised had begun its summer service.  Thence he could continue his trip to New York, where the important meeting had been adjourned several times in expectation of his coming.

But again he was doomed to disappointment.  The Straits were found to be packed from shore to shore with heavy floe ice and clogged with icebergs.  Before the Strathcona could make her escape she was surrounded by ice and frozen tight and fast into the floe.

[Illustration:  “THE HOSPITAL SHIP.  STRATHCONA”]

Grenfell was determined to reach New York and attend that meeting.  It was supremely important that he do so.  Now there was but one way to reach the mail boat, and that was to walk.  The distance to the nearest port of call was ninety miles.

Making up a pack of food, cooking utensils, bedding and a suit of clothes that would permit him to present a civilized and respectable appearance when he reached New York, he made ready for the long overland journey.  Shouldering his big pack, he bade goodbye to Mrs. Grenfell, who was with him on the Strathcona, and to the crew, and set out over the ice pack to the land.