Radisson!" shouted Gillam.
"Coming!" says Radisson; and he went off with his teeth gritting sand.
[1] See Radisson's own account.
CHAPTER XIII
THE WHITE DARKNESS
How much of those instructions we carried out I leave untold.
Certainly we could not have been less grateful as guests than Ben
Gillam's men were inhospitable as hosts. A more sottish crew of rakes
you never saw. 'Twas gin in the morning and rum in the afternoon and
vile potions of mixed poisons half the night, with a cracking of the
cook's head for withholding fresh kegs and a continual scuffle of
fighters over cheating at cards. No marvel the second officer flogged
and carved at the knaves like an African slaver. The first night the
whole crew set on us with drawn swords because we refused to gamble the
doublets from our backs. La Chesnaye laid about with his sword and I
with my rapier, till the cook rushed to our rescue with a kettle of
lye. After that we escaped to the deck of the ship and locked
ourselves inside Ben Gillam's cabin. Here we heard the weather-vanes
of the fort bastions creaking for three days to the shift of fickle
winds. Shore-ice grew thicker and stretched farther to mid-current.
Mock suns, or sun-dogs, as we called them, oft hung on each side of the
sun.
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