Dave, and they were cautious at every spot where the ice showed itself.
The scenery around them was magnificent, but it was such a gray day this was practically lost upon them. They were going steadily upward and to the north of Norway, and they could feel the air growing colder. Only the firs stood out against the sky; all else was snow and ice.
"This is winter weather, and no mistake," remarked Roger. "I don't know that I want to go much further north."
"How desolate it is!" said Dave. "Not a sign of a house or hut anywhere! It's as bad as being in the far West of our country in mid-winter."
"Hark! I hear bells!" cried Granbury Lapham. "Can another sleigh be coming?"
They looked in the direction from whence the sound came, and presently made out something moving below them, on a road in the valley.
"I really believe it is a sled with a reindeer attached!" cried Dave. And such proved to be the case. But before they could get a good look at the novel turnout, sled and reindeer flashed out of sight.
"I shouldn't mind having a ride behind a reindeer myself," said Dave, as they resumed their journey.
"Nor I," added his chum.
At the end of three hours of hard traveling they came in sight of the sheep-station for which they were bound. It was composed of a log cabin and half a dozen large sheds, surrounded by a high fence. Nobody was in sight, and they had to call several times before the care-taker of the place put in an appearance.
"Have you a party of strangers here?" questioned Granbury Lapham.
"Yes," was the answer, "but they are not here just now."
"A scientific exploring party?"
"Yes."
"Where have they gone?"
"They started this morning for the top of old Thundercap," said the sheep raiser. "They will be back by to-morrow night."
"Found at last," said the Englishman, joyfully, and translated what had been said to Dave and Roger.
"Back to-morrow night," murmured Dave. His heart began to beat rapidly. "I wish they'd come to-night. I can hardly wait."
The sheep raiser was questioned further, and told them the party was made up of Mr. Porter, Mr. Lapham, and five others, including a Norwegian guide named Bjornhof. He said they had a number of scientific instruments with them, and talked of gold and silver and other precious metals.
"Maybe they are trying to locate a mine," suggested Roger.
"If they are, I fancy they will be disappointed," answered Granbury Lapham. "Norway has been pretty well explored for minerals and the best of the mines have been located."
"This region doesn't look as if it had been explored very much," returned Dave. "It's about as wild and primitive as could be."
The sheep-station afforded but meager accommodations, and they were glad that they had brought along some supplies. There was, to be sure, plenty of mutton, but who wanted to eat that all the time?
"I don't mind lamb," said the senator's son. "But mutton, especially when it is strong, is another matter."
"Which puts me in mind of a story, as Shadow Hamilton would say," said Dave, with a smile. "A young housewife was going to have a number of her husband's friends to dinner, and her husband told her to get a big leg of lamb for roasting. So she went to the butcher. 'Give me a leg of lamb,' she said. 'I want a very large one. I think you had better give it to me from a lamb four or five years old.'"
"And that puts me in mind of another," answered the senator's son. "A country boy went to town and there saw a circus parade including two camels. When he got back home he told his folks that the parade was all right, but he thought it was a shame to drive around such long-necked, hump-backed cows!"
The sheep raiser told them that all the members of the exploring party were in excellent health. He said one of the men resembled Dave very much, and smiled broadly when told the man was the lad's father. When Granbury Lapham added that the two had not met since Dave was a little fellow, the sheep raiser opened his eyes wide in astonishment.
"'Tis like a fairy tale," said he, and then told them several fairy tales he had heard when a boy. He was an uneducated man and his life was exceedingly simple, and the fairy tales were, consequently, very wonderful to him.
"Imagine such a man set down in the heart of New York or Chicago," observed Roger. "How his eyes would open and how he would stare!"
"If you told him of all the wonders of the big cities he wouldn't believe you," answered Dave. "I once started to tell one of those natives of the South Sea Islands about the Brooklyn Bridge and when I pointed out how long it was, and said it hung in mid-air, he shook his head and walked away, and I know he thought I was either telling a lie or was crazy."
The day passed slowly, especially to Dave, who could scarcely wait for the hour to arrive when his father should come back. What a meeting that would be! It made the tears stand in his eyes to think about it.
"Dear, dear father!" he murmured to himself. "I know we are going to love each other very, very much!"
CHAPTER XXVI
DAYS OF WAITING
With the coming of night a strong wind sprang up, and by ten o'clock it was blowing a gale. The wind caused the house to rock and groan, and for the travelers sound sleep was out of the question. The man in charge, however, had experienced such a condition of affairs before and did not appear to mind it.
"Some great winds here at times," he said to Granbury Lapham. "Once the top of the house was blown off and sailed away down into the valley."
"Excuse me, but I don't want to be here at such a time, don't you know," answered the Englishman.
The wind increased steadily, and at midnight it was blowing so furiously that Dave thought the shelter might go over. He went towards the door, to find a quantity of snow sifting in above the sill.
"Hello, it must be snowing again!" he remarked. "That's too bad, for it will make traveling worse than ever."
It was snowing, and the downfall continued all night and half of the next day. The wind piled it up against the house until it reached the roof, burying two of the windows completely from sight.
"This is a regular North Pole experience," remarked Roger, as he bustled around in the morning, trying to get warm. "I don't know that I want to go much further north."
"Don't want to become an arctic explorer, then?" queried Granbury Lapham.
"Not much! Say, stir up the fire, or I'll be frozen stiff."
Wood was piled on the fire, and soon a pot of steaming coffee made all feel better. When the man in charge went out to look at the sheep in the various folds Dave went with him. The air was filled with snow, and it was very dark.
"This is terrible," said Dave, on returning. He was thinking of his father and the others of the exploring party.
"Land of the Midnight Sun," returned the senator's son, laconically.
"The man says they'll not return to-day," said Granbury Lapham. "It would not be safe on the mountain trail."
"I thought as much," answered Dave. "Well, all we can do, I suppose, is to wait." And he heaved a deep sigh.
The day passed slowly, for the place afforded nothing in the way of amusement, and even if it had, Dave was too much worried about his father to be interested. All went out among the sheep and saw them fed. The folds were long, low, and narrow, and the occupants huddled together "just