The Cruise of the Snowbird: A Story of Arctic Adventure

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Stables Gordon. The Cruise of the Snowbird: A Story of Arctic Adventure

Chapter One. The Young Chief of Arrandoon – The Rising Storm – Lost in the Snow

Chapter Two. Saved – Rory and Ralph – McBain has an Idea

Chapter Three. Life at the Old Castle – McBain Explains his “Idea” – Allan’s Dream

Chapter Four. The “Flower of Arrandoon” – Old Ap’s Cottage – Trial Trips and Useful Lessons

Chapter Five. Showing how Royalty Visited Arrandoon, and how our Heroes Returned the Call

Chapter Six. Cruising round the Hebrides – Caught in a “Puff” – Man Overboard – Dinner on the Cliff – Bright Prospects

Chapter Seven. A Summer’s Day at Sea – Strange Scenery – The Squall – Adventure among Bottle-Nosed Whales – The “Snowbird.”

Chapter Eight. Rolling Home – A Rough Passage – The Welcome Back – The Way a Sailor Sleeps

Chapter Nine. The “Snowbird” at Anchor – Preparations for Departure – Farewell to the Land of the Rock and the Wild Wood

Chapter Ten. Onshore in Shetland – A Family of Guides – A Wild Ride and a Primitive Lunch – Westward Ho! – Racing a Whale

Chapter Eleven. The Storm – A Fearful Night – The Pirates – A Fight at Sea

Chapter Twelve. Containing a Strange, Strange Story, Told by the Snuggery Fire

Chapter Thirteen. Was it an Old Man’s Dream? – Sunday on Mid-Ocean – Land Ho! – A Strange Adventure – Lost in the Great Forest

Chapter Fourteen. Oscar Finds the Truants – Breakfast for Seven – Seth Spins a Yarn – The Walrus-Hunters – The Indians – Beautiful Scenery – A Week’s Good Sport

Chapter Fifteen. The Old Trapper Buries his Valuables – The “Snowbird” Goes on her Voyage – Ice – A Whale in Sight – A Fall! A Fall! – In at the Death – The “Trefoil” on Fire

Chapter Sixteen. Old Seth Becomes Surgeon – A Terrible Danger – Ralph Floods the Magazine – Fighting the Fire – Wreck of the “Trefoil” – Buried at Sea – “Land Ho!”

Chapter Seventeen. On Shore for a Run – Noontide on the Seashore – A Natural Harbour – The Land of Adventure and Sport – After the Antelope – Face to Face with a Grizzly

Chapter Eighteen. Rory Poet, Dreamer, and Merchant-Minstrel – Who Says Shore? – All among the Buffalo – “A Big Shoot” – Preparations for Winter

Chapter Nineteen. Winter Comes Apace – New Visitors from the North – A “Perwision o’ Natur’” – A Mad but Merry Scene – The Downfall of Snow-Stars – An Adventure, but where will it End?

Chapter Twenty. Alone in the Beast-Haunted Wilderness – The Search Party – Agony of Thought – A Midnight Visitor – The Forest on Fire

Chapter Twenty One. Narrow Escape – A Terrible Scene – Allan and Oscar – A Gloomy Evening – Reunion – Seth’s Adventure – A Welcome Back

Chapter Twenty Two. Frost and no Skates! – Rory Disconsolate – McBain to the Rescue – A Roaring Day and a Merry Night – A Mysterious Pool

Chapter Twenty Three. The Great Black Frost – Funny Jack Frost – The Cold Half-Hour – A Terrible Apparition under the Ice – Blowing Soap-Bubbles – Strange Effect – Snow and Snow-Shoes

Chapter Twenty Four. The Dogs and the Snow – The Sledge-Dog – Training Caribou – A Dinner-Party Interrupted – The Race for Life

Chapter Twenty Five. The Dead Leviathan – The Mate of the “Trefoil” Makes a Proposal – A Rich Harvest – Christmas Cheer – Something like a Dinner

Chapter Twenty Six. Hockey with Snow-Shoes on – The Ice Breaks up – Change of Quarters – Going on a Big Shoot – The Great Snow Lake – Indians – The Fight in the Forest

Chapter Twenty Seven. The Search for an Antidote – Can Rory be Dead? – Seth to the Rescue – Seth as Doctor and Nurse

Chapter Twenty Eight. One Last Day on Shore – Bearing up for the East and North – Farewell, Old Seth; Farewell, Plunket

Chapter Twenty Nine. The Consultation – Bearing up for Home – The Wanderers’ Return

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There is probably no music in the world more spirit-stirring – when heard amongst the native hills – than that of the Highland bagpipe. How often it has led our Scottish troops to victory, and cheered their drooping hearts in times of trouble, let history tell. In the London streets the sound of the pipes may be something vastly different, and then the pipers get undue blame.

The little party who left the Castle of Arrandoon to go in search of Ralph and Rory did well to have Peter and his bagpipes included in their number, for, so long as they were within hearing distance of the castle, the music would give hope to those left behind; and when beyond that, it would not only serve to while away the time of the searchers, but even in the darkness it might perchance be heard by the sought.

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Very simple words these were, yet there was something in the very tone in which they were uttered that would have convinced even a stranger, that Allan McGregor bore for the youth before him quite a brother’s love.

And who was Rory, and who was Ralph? These questions are very soon answered. Roderick Elphinston and Ralph Leigh were, or had been, students at the University of Cambridge. They had been “inseparables” all through the curriculum, and firm friends from the very first day they had met together. And yet in appearance, and indeed in character, they were entirely different. Ralph was a great broad-shouldered, pleasant-faced young Saxon Rory was small as to stature, but lithe and wiry in the extreme; his face was always somewhat pale, but his eyes had all the glitter and fire of a wild cat in them. Well, then, if you do not like the “wild cat,” I shall say “poet” – the glitter and fire of a poet. And a poet he was, though he seldom wrote verses. Oh! it is not always the verses one writes that prove him to be a poet. Very often it is just the reverse. I know a young man who has written more verses than would stretch from Reading to Hyde Park, and there is just as much poetry in that young man’s soul as there is in the flagstaff on my lawn yonder. But Rory’s soul was filled with life and imagination, a gladsome glowing life that could not be restrained, but that burst upwards like a fountain in the sunlight, giving joy to all around. Everything in nature was understood and loved by Rory, and everything in nature seemed to love him in return; the birds and beasts made a confidant of him, and the very trees and the tenderest flowerets in garden or field seemed to whisper to him and tell him all their secrets. And just because he was so full of life he was also full of fun.

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