The Captain of the Polestar

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THE
CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR
AND OTHER TALES.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

TO
MY FRIEND
MAJOR-GENERAL A. W. DRAYSON
AS A SLIGHT TOKEN
OF
MY ADMIRATION FOR HIS GREAT
AND AS YET UNRECOGNISED SERVICES TO ASTRONOMY
This little Volume
IS
DEDICATED

PREFACE
For the use of some of the following Tales I am
indebted to the courtesy of the Proprietors of
"Cornhill," "Temple Bar," "Belgravia," "London
Society," "Cassell's," and "The Boy's Own Paper."
A. CONAN DOYLE, M.D.

CONTENTS.

THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLE-STAR
J. HABAKUK JEPHSON'S STATEMENT
THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT
THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL
THAT LITTLE SQUARE BOX
JOHN HUXFORD'S HIATUS
A LITERARY MOSAIC
JOHN BARRINGTON COWLES
THE PARSON OF JACKMAN'S GULCH
THE RING OF THOTH

THE CAPTAIN OF THE "POLE-STAR."
[Being an extract from the singular journal of JOHN M`ALISTER RAY,
student of medicine.]

September 11th.--Lat. 81 degrees 40' N.; long. 2 degrees E. Still
lying-to amid enormous ice fields. The one which stretches away to
the north of us, and to which our ice-anchor is attached, cannot be
smaller than an English county. To the right and left unbroken
sheets extend to the horizon. This morning the mate reported that
there were signs of pack ice to the southward. Should this form of
sufficient thickness to bar our return, we shall be in a position
of danger, as the food, I hear, is already running somewhat short.
It is late in the season, and the nights are beginning to reappear.

This morning I saw a star twinkling just over the fore-yard, the
first since the beginning of May. There is considerable discontent
among the crew, many of whom are anxious to get back home to be in
time for the herring season, when labour always commands a high
price upon the Scotch coast. As yet their displeasure is only
signified by sullen countenances and black looks, but I heard from
the second mate this afternoon that they contemplated sending a
deputation to the Captain to explain their grievance. I much doubt
how he will receive it, as he is a man of fierce temper, and very
sensitive about anything approaching to an infringement of his
rights. I shall venture after dinner to say a few words to him
upon the subject. I have always found that he will tolerate from
me what he would resent from any other member of the crew.
Amsterdam Island, at the north-west corner of Spitzbergen, is
visible upon our starboard quarter--a rugged line of volcanic
rocks, intersected by white seams, which represent glaciers. It is
curious to think that at the present moment there is probably no
human being nearer to us than the Danish settlements in the south
of Greenland--a good nine hundred miles as the crow flies. A
captain takes a great responsibility upon himself when he risks his
vessel under such circumstances. No whaler has ever remained in
these latitudes till so advanced a period of the year.

9 P.M,--I have spoken to Captain Craigie, and though the result has
been hardly satisfactory, I am bound to say that he listened to
what I had to say very quietly and even deferentially. When I had
finished he put on that air of iron determination which I have
frequently observed upon his face, and paced rapidly backwards and
forwards across the narrow cabin for some minutes. At first I
feared that I had seriously offended him, but he dispelled the idea
by sitting down again, and putting his hand upon my arm with a
gesture which almost amounted to a caress. There was a depth of
tenderness too in his wild dark eyes which surprised me
considerably. "Look here, Doctor," he said, "I'm sorry I ever took
you--I am indeed--and I would give fifty pounds this minute to see
you standing safe upon the Dundee quay. It's hit or miss with me
this time. There are fish to the north of us. How dare you shake
your head, sir, when I tell you I saw them blowing from the
masthead?"--this in a sudden burst of fury, though I was not
conscious of having shown any signs of doubt. "Two-and-twenty fish
in as many minutes as I am a living man, and not one under ten
foot.[1] Now, Doctor, do you think I can leave the country when
there is only one infernal strip of ice between me and my fortune?
If it came on to blow from the north to-morrow we could fill the
ship and be away before the frost could catch us. If it came on to
blow from the south--well, I suppose the men are paid for risking
their lives, and as for myself it matters but little to me, for I
have more to bind me to the other world than to this one. I
confess that I am sorry for you, though. I wish I had old Angus
Tait who was with me last voyage, for he was a man that would never
be missed, and you--you said once that you were engaged, did you
not?"

[1] A whale is measured among whalers not by the length of its
body, but by the length of its whalebone.

"Yes," I answered, snapping the spring of the locket which hung
from my watch-chain, and holding up the little vignette of Flora.

"Curse you!" he yelled, springing out of his seat, with his very
beard bristling with passion. "What is your happiness to me? What
have I to do with her that you must dangle her photograph before my
eyes?" I almost thought that he was about to strike me in the
frenzy of his rage, but with another imprecation he dashed open the
door of the cabin and rushed out upon deck, leaving me considerably
astonished at his extraordinary violence. It is the first time
that he has ever shown me anything but courtesy and kindness. I
can hear him pacing excitedly up and down overhead as I write these
lines.

I should like to give a sketch of the character of this man, but it
seems presumptuous to attempt such a thing upon paper, when the
idea in my own mind is at best a vague and uncertain one. Several
times I have thought that I grasped the clue which might explain
it, but only to be disappointed by his presenting himself in some
new light which would upset all my conclusions. It may be that no
human eye but my own shall ever rest upon these lines, yet as a
psychological study I shall attempt to leave some record of Captain
Nicholas Craigie.

A man's outer case generally gives some indication of the soul
within. The Captain is tall and well-formed, with dark, handsome
face, and a curious way of twitching his limbs, which may arise
from nervousness, or be simply an outcome of his excessive energy.
His jaw and whole cast of countenance is manly and resolute, but
the eyes are the distinctive feature of his face. They are of the
very darkest hazel, bright and eager, with a singular mixture of
recklessness in their expression, and of something else which I
have sometimes thought was more allied with horror than any other
emotion. Generally the former predominated, but on occasions, and
more particularly when he was thoughtfully inclined, the look of
fear would spread and deepen until it imparted a new character to
his whole countenance. It is at these times that he is most
subject to tempestuous fits of anger, and he seems to be aware of
it, for I have known him lock himself up so that no one might
approach him until his dark hour was passed. He sleeps badly, and
I have heard him shouting during the night, but his cabin is some
little distance from mine, and I could never distinguish the words
which he said.

This is one phase of his character, and the most disagreeable one.
It is only through my close association with him, thrown together
as we are day after day, that I have observed it. Otherwise he is
an agreeable companion, well-read and entertaining, and as gallant
a seaman as ever trod a deck. I shall not easily forget the way in
which he handled the ship when we were caught by a gale among the
loose ice at the beginning of April. I have never seen him so
cheerful, and even hilarious, as he was that night, as he paced
backwards and forwards upon the bridge amid the flashing of the
lightning and the howling of the wind. He has told me several
times that the thought of death was a pleasant one to him, which is
a sad thing for a young man to say; he cannot be much more than
thirty, though his hair and moustache are already slightly
grizzled. Some great sorrow must have overtaken him and blighted
his whole life. Perhaps I should be the same if I lost my Flora--
God knows! I think if it were not for her that I should care very
little whether the wind blew from the north or the south to-morrow.

There, I hear him come down the companion, and he has locked
himself up in his room, which shows that he is still in an
unamiable mood. And so to bed, as old Pepys would say, for the
candle is burning down (we have to use them now since the nights
are closing in), and the steward has turned in, so there are no
hopes of another one.

September 12th.--Calm, clear day, and still lying in the same
position. What wind there is comes from the south-east, but it is
very slight. Captain is in a better humour, and apologised to me
at breakfast for his rudeness. He still looks somewhat distrait,
however, and retains that wild look in his eyes which in a
Highlander would mean that he was "fey"--at least so our chief
engineer remarked to me, and he has some reputation among the
Celtic portion of our crew as a seer and expounder of omens.

It is strange that superstition should have obtained such mastery
over this hard-headed and practical race. I could not have
believed to what an extent it is carried had I not observed it for
myself. We have had a perfect epidemic of it this voyage, until I
have felt inclined to serve out rations of sedatives and nerve-
tonics with the Saturday allowance of grog. The first symptom
of it was that shortly after leaving Shetland the men at the wheel
used to complain that they heard plaintive cries and screams in the
wake of the ship, as if something were following it and were unable
to overtake it. This fiction has been kept up during the whole
voyage, and on dark nights at the beginning of the seal-fishing it
was only with great difficulty that men could be induced to do
their spell. No doubt what they heard was either the creaking of
the rudder-chains, or the cry of some passing sea-bird. I have
been fetched out of bed several times to listen to it, but I need
hardly say that I was never able to distinguish anything unnatural.

The men, however, are so absurdly positive upon the subject that it
is hopeless to argue with them. I mentioned the matter to the
Captain once, but to my surprise he took it very gravely, and
indeed appeared to be considerably disturbed by what I told him.
I should have thought that he at least would have been above such
vulgar delusions.

All this disquisition upon superstition leads me up to the fact
that Mr. Manson, our second mate, saw a ghost last night--or, at
least, says that he did, which of course is the same thing. It is
quite refreshing to have some new topic of conversation after the
eternal routine of bears and whales which has served us for so many
months. Manson swears the ship is haunted, and that he would not
stay in her a day if he had any other place to go to. Indeed the
fellow is honestly frightened, and I had to give him some
chloral and bromide of potassium this morning to steady him
down. He seemed quite indignant when I suggested that he had been
having an extra glass the night before, and I was obliged to pacify
him by keeping as grave a countenance as possible during his story,
which he certainly narrated in a very straight-forward and matter-
of-fact way.

"I was on the bridge," he said, "about four bells in the middle
watch, just when the night was at its darkest. There was a bit of
a moon, but the clouds were blowing across it so that you couldn't
see far from the ship. John M`Leod, the harpooner, came aft from
the foc'sle-head and reported a strange noise on the starboard bow.

I went forrard and we both heard it, sometimes like a bairn crying
and sometimes like a wench in pain. I've been seventeen years to
the country and I never heard seal, old or young, make a sound like
that. As we were standing there on the foc'sle-head the moon came
out from behind a cloud, and we both saw a sort of white figure
moving across the ice field in the same direction that we had heard
the cries. We lost sight of it for a while, but it came back on
the port bow, and we could just make it out like a shadow on the
ice. I sent a hand aft for the rifles, and M`Leod and I went down
on to the pack, thinking that maybe it might be a bear. When we
got on the ice I lost sight of M`Leod, but I pushed on in the
direction where I could still hear the cries. I followed them for
a mile or maybe more, and then running round a hummock I came right
on to the top of it standing and waiting for me seemingly. I
don't know what it was. It wasn't a bear any way. It was tall and
white and straight, and if it wasn't a man nor a woman, I'll stake
my davy it was something worse. I made for the ship as hard as I
could run, and precious glad I was to find myself aboard. I signed
articles to do my duty by the ship, and on the ship I'll stay, but
you don't catch me on the ice again after sundown."

That is his story, given as far as I can in his own words. I fancy
what he saw must, in spite of his denial, have been a young bear
erect upon its hind legs, an attitude which they often assume when
alarmed. In the uncertain light this would bear a resemblance to
a human figure, especially to a man whose nerves were already
somewhat shaken. Whatever it may have been, the occurrence is
unfortunate, for it has produced a most unpleasant effect upon the
crew. Their looks are more sullen than before, and their
discontent more open. The double grievance of being debarred from
the herring fishing and of being detained in what they choose to
call a haunted vessel, may lead them to do something rash. Even
the harpooners, who are the oldest and steadiest among them, are
joining in the general agitation.

Apart from this absurd outbreak of superstition, things are looking
rather more cheerful. The pack which was forming to the south of
us has partly cleared away, and the water is so warm as to lead me
to believe that we are lying in one of those branches of the gulf-
stream which run up between Greenland and Spitzbergen. There
are numerous small Medusse and sealemons about the ship, with
abundance of shrimps, so that there is every possibility of "fish"
being sighted. Indeed one was seen blowing about dinner-time, but
in such a position that it was impossible for the boats to follow
it.

September 13th.--Had an interesting conversation with the chief
mate, Mr. Milne, upon the bridge. It seems that our Captain is as
great an enigma to the seamen, and even to the owners of the
vessel, as he has been to me. Mr. Milne tells me that when the
ship is paid off, upon returning from a voyage, Captain Craigie
disappears, and is not seen again until the approach of another
season, when he walks quietly into the office of the company, and
asks whether his services will be required. He has no friend in
Dundee, nor does any one pretend to be acquainted with his early
history. His position depends entirely upon his skill as a seaman,
and the name for courage and coolness which he had earned in the
capacity of mate, before being entrusted with a separate command.
The unanimous opinion seems to be that he is not a Scotchman, and
that his name is an assumed one. Mr. Milne thinks that he has
devoted himself to whaling simply for the reason that it is the
most dangerous occupation which he could select, and that he courts
death in every possible manner. He mentioned several instances of
this, one of which is rather curious, if true. It seems that on
one occasion he did not put in an appearance at the office, and
a substitute had to be selected in his place. That was at the time
of the last Russian and Turkish war. When he turned up again next
spring he had a puckered wound in the side of his neck which he
used to endeavour to conceal with his cravat. Whether the mate's
inference that he had been engaged in the war is true or not I
cannot say. It was certainly a strange coincidence.

The wind is veering round in an easterly direction, but is still
very slight. I think the ice is lying closer than it did
yesterday. As far as the eye can reach on every side there is one
wide expanse of spotless white, only broken by an occasional rift
or the dark shadow of a hummock. To the south there is the narrow
lane of blue water which is our sole means of escape, and which is
closing up every day. The Captain is taking a heavy responsibility
upon himself. I hear that the tank of potatoes has been finished,
and even the biscuits are running short, but he preserves the same
impassible countenance, and spends the greater part of the day at
the crow's nest, sweeping the horizon with his glass. His manner
is very variable, and he seems to avoid my society, but there has
been no repetition of the violence which he showed the other night.

7.30 P.M.--My deliberate opinion is that we are commanded by a
madman. Nothing else can account for the extraordinary vagaries of
Captain Craigie. It is fortunate that I have kept this journal of
our voyage, as it will serve to justify us in case we have to put
him under any sort of restraint, a step which I should only
consent to as a last resource. Curiously enough it was he himself
who suggested lunacy and not mere eccentricity as the secret of his
strange conduct. He was standing upon the bridge about an hour
ago, peering as usual through his glass, while I was walking up and
down the quarterdeck. The majority of the men were below at their
tea, for the watches have not been regularly kept of late. Tired
of walking, I leaned against the bulwarks, and admired the mellow
glow cast by the sinking sun upon the great ice fields which
surround us. I was suddenly aroused from the reverie into which I
had fallen by a hoarse voice at my elbow, and starting round I
found that the Captain had descended and was standing by my side.
He was staring out over the ice with an expression in which horror,
surprise, and something approaching to joy were contending for the
mastery. In spite of the cold, great drops of perspiration were
coursing down his forehead, and he was evidently fearfully excited.

His limbs twitched like those of a man upon the verge of an
epileptic fit, and the lines about his mouth were drawn and hard.

"Look!" he gasped, seizing me by the wrist, but still keeping his
eyes upon the distant ice, and moving his head slowly in a
horizontal direction, as if following some object which was moving
across the field of vision. "Look! There, man, there! Between
the hummocks! Now coming out from behind the far one! You see
her--you MUST see her! There still! Flying from me, by
God, flying from me--and gone!"

He uttered the last two words in a whisper of concentrated agony
which shall never fade from my remembrance. Clinging to the
ratlines he endeavoured to climb up upon the top of the bulwarks as
if in the hope of obtaining a last glance at the departing object.
His strength was not equal to the attempt, however, and he
staggered back against the saloon skylights, where he leaned
panting and exhausted. His face was so livid that I expected him
to become unconscious, so lost no time in leading him down the
companion, and stretching him upon one of the sofas in the cabin.
I then poured him out some brandy, which I held to his lips, and
which had a wonderful effect upon him, bringing the blood back into
his white face and steadying his poor shaking limbs. He raised
himself up upon his elbow, and looking round to see that we were
alone, he beckoned to me to come and sit beside him.

"You saw it, didn't you?" he asked, still in the same subdued
awesome tone so foreign to the nature of the man.

"No, I saw nothing."

His head sank back again upon the cushions. "No, he wouldn't
without the glass," he murmured. "He couldn't. It was the glass
that showed her to me, and then the eyes of love--the eyes of love.

I say, Doc, don't let the steward in! He'll think I'm mad. Just
bolt the door, will you!"

I rose and did what he had commanded.

He lay quiet for a while, lost in thought apparently, and then
raised himself up upon his elbow again, and asked for some more
brandy.

"You don't think I am, do you, Doc?" he asked, as I was putting the
bottle back into the after-locker. "Tell me now, as man to man, do
you think that I am mad?"

"I think you have something on your mind," I answered, "which is
exciting you and doing you a good deal of harm."

"Right there, lad!" he cried, his eyes sparkling from the effects
of the brandy. "Plenty on my mind--plenty! But I can work out the
latitude and the longitude, and I can handle my sextant and manage
my logarithms. You couldn't prove me mad in a court of law, could
you, now?" It was curious to hear the man lying back and coolly
arguing out the question of his own sanity.

"Perhaps not," I said; "but still I think you would be wise to get
home as soon as you can, and settle down to a quiet life for a
while."

"Get home, eh?" he muttered, with a sneer upon his face. "One word
for me and two for yourself, lad. Settle down with Flora--pretty
little Flora. Are bad dreams signs of madness?"

"Sometimes," I answered.

"What else? What would be the first symptoms?"

"Pains in the head, noises in the ears flashes before the eyes,
delusions"----

"Ah! what about them?" he interrupted. "What would you call a
delusion?"

"Seeing a thing which is not there is a delusion."

"But she WAS there!" he groaned to himself. "She WAS there!"
and rising, he unbolted the door and walked with slow and uncertain
steps to his own cabin, where I have no doubt that he will remain
until to-morrow morning. His system seems to have received a
terrible shock, whatever it may have been that he imagined himself
to have seen. The man becomes a greater mystery every day, though
I fear that the solution which he has himself suggested is the
correct one, and that his reason is affected. I do not think that
a guilty conscience has anything to do with his behaviour. The
idea is a popular one among the officers, and, I believe, the crew;
but I have seen nothing to support it. He has not the air of a
guilty man, but of one who has had terrible usage at the hands of
fortune, and who should be regarded as a martyr rather than a
criminal.

The wind is veering round to the south to-night. God help us if it
blocks that narrow pass which is our only road to safety! Situated
as we are on the edge of the main Arctic pack, or the "barrier" as
it is called by the whalers, any wind from the north has the effect
of shredding out the ice around us and allowing our escape, while
a wind from the south blows up all the loose ice behind us and hems
us in between two packs. God help us, I say again!

September 14th.--Sunday, and a day of rest. My fears have
been confirmed, and the thin strip of blue water has disappeared
from the southward. Nothing but the great motionless ice fields
around us, with their weird hummocks and fantastic pinnacles.
There is a deathly silence over their wide expanse which is
horrible. No lapping of the waves now, no cries of seagulls or
straining of sails, but one deep universal silence in which the
murmurs of the seamen, and the creak of their boots upon the white
shining deck, seem discordant and out of place. Our only visitor
was an Arctic fox, a rare animal upon the pack, though common
enough upon the land. He did not come near the ship, however, but
after surveying us from a distance fled rapidly across the ice.
This was curious conduct, as they generally know nothing of man,
and being of an inquisitive nature, become so familiar that they
are easily captured. Incredible as it may seem, even this little
incident produced a bad effect upon the crew. "Yon puir beastie
kens mair, ay, an' sees mair nor you nor me!" was the comment of
one of the leading harpooners, and the others nodded their
acquiescence. It is vain to attempt to argue against such puerile
superstition. They have made up their minds that there is a curse
upon the ship, and nothing will ever persuade them to the contrary.

The Captain remained in seclusion all day except for about half an
hour in the afternoon, when he came out upon the quarterdeck. I
observed that he kept his eye fixed upon the spot where the vision
of yesterday had appeared, and was quite prepared for another
outburst, but none such came. He did not seem to see me
although I was standing close beside him. Divine service was read
as usual by the chief engineer. It is a curious thing that in
whaling vessels the Church of England Prayer-book is always
employed, although there is never a member of that Church among
either officers or crew. Our men are all Roman Catholics or
Presbyterians, the former predominating. Since a ritual is used
which is foreign to both, neither can complain that the other is
preferred to them, and they listen with all attention and devotion,
so that the system has something to recommend it.

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