Red Rooney

Red Rooney, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Red Rooney The Last of the Crew
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21696]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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ROONEY ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

RED ROONEY, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
A Tale of Eskimo (Innuit) Life in Greenland at the end of the
Eighteenth Century.
CHAPTER ONE.

THE LAST OF THE CREW.
LOST AND FOUND.
There is a particular spot in those wild regions which lie somewhere
near the northern parts of Baffin's Bay, where Nature seems to have set
up her workshop for the manufacture of icebergs, where Polar bears, in
company with seals and Greenland whales, are wont to gambol, and
where the family of Jack Frost may be said to have taken permanent
possession of the land.
One winter day, in the early part of the eighteenth century, a solitary
man might have been seen in that neighbourhood, travelling on foot
over the frozen sea in a staggering, stumbling, hurried manner, as if his
powers, though not his will, were exhausted.
The man's hairy garb of grey sealskin might have suggested that he was
a denizen of those northern wilds, had not the colour of his face, his
brown locks, and his bushy beard, betokened him a native of a very
different region.
Although possessing a broad and stalwart frame, his movements
indicated, as we have said, excessive weakness. A morsel of ice in his
path, that would have been no impediment even to a child, caused him
to stumble. Recovering himself, with an evidently painful effort, he
continued to advance with quick, yet wavering steps. There was,
however, a strange mixture of determination with his feebleness.
Energy and despair seemed to be conjoined in his look and action--and
no wonder, for Red Rooney, although brave and resolute by nature, was
alone in that Arctic wilderness, and reduced to nearly the last extremity
by fatigue and famine. For some days--how many he scarcely
remembered--he had maintained life by chewing a bit of raw sealskin
as he travelled over the frozen waste; but this source of strength had at
last been consumed, and he was now sinking from absolute want.
The indomitable spirit of the man, however, kept his weakened body
moving, even after the mind had begun to sink into that dreamy,
lethargic state which is said to indicate the immediate approach of

death, and there was still a red spot in each of his pale and hollow
cheeks, as well as an eager gleam of hope in his sunken eyes; for the
purpose that Red Rooney had in view was to reach the land.
It was indeed a miserably faint hope that urged the poor fellow on, for
the desolate shore of Western Greenland offered little better prospect of
shelter than did the ice-clad sea; but, as in the case of the drowning man,
he clutched at this miserable straw of hope, and held on for life. There
was the bare possibility that some of the migratory Eskimos might be
there, or, if not, that some scraps of their food--some bits of refuse,
even a few bones--might be found. Death, he felt, was quickly closing
with him on the sea. The great enemy might, perhaps, be fought with
and kept at bay for a time if he could only reach the land.
Encouraging himself with such thoughts, he pushed on, but again
stumbled and fell--this time at full length. He lay quiet for a few
seconds. It was so inexpressibly sweet to rest, and feel the worn-out
senses floating away, as it were, into dreamland! But the strong will
burst the tightening bands of death, and, rising once more, with the
exclamation, "God help me!" he resumed his weary march.
All around him the great ocean was covered with its coat of solid,
unbroken ice; for although winter was past, and the sun of early spring
was at the time gleaming on bergs that raised their battlements and
pinnacles into a bright blue sky, the hoary king of the far north refused
as yet to resign his sceptre and submit to the interregnum of the genial
sun.
A large hummock or ridge of ice lay in front of the man, blocking his
view of the horizon in that direction. It had probably been heaved up by
one of the convulsions of the previous autumn, and was broken into a
chaotic