CHAPTER XIV
A COLLISION
Jack scorned everything of the kind, and he ate his piece with as muchgusto as if it had passed through the hands of a professional cook.The boys managed to dispose of considerable, so that it may be saidthe little party made a fair meal from the supply so unexpectedlyprovided them.
The primitive meal finished, the three friends remained seated anddiscussed the future, which was now the all-important question beforethem.
"How long is this fog likely to last?" asked Fred.
"No one can answer that," replied Jack; "a brisk wind may drive itaway, a rain would soon finish it, or it may go before colder weather,or it may last several days."
"Meanwhile we can do nothing but drift."
"That's about all we can do any way," was the truthful remark of thesailor; "we'll make the bear last as long as we can."
"I think he will last a good while," observed Rob, with ahalf-disgusted look at the carcass; "it will do when there's nothingelse to be had, but I never can fancy it without cooking."
At that moment they received a startling shock. A peculiar shiver orjar passed through the iceberg, as though from a prodigious blow thatwas felt through every part--an impossible occurrence.
"What can that mean?" asked the lads, in consternation.
"By the great horned spoon!" was the reply of the frightened Jack; "Ihope we won't feel it again."
"But what is it?"
"The berg scraped the bottom of the sea just then. There it goesagain!"
A shock, fully as violent as before, went through and through the vastmass of ice. It lasted only a second or two, but the sensations of theparty were like those of the housekeeper who wakes in the night, tofeel his dwelling swaying under the grasp of the earthquake.
None needed to be told of the possible consequences of drifting intoshallow water. If the base of the iceberg, extending far down into thedepths of the ocean, should strike some projecting mountain peak ofthe deep, or a plateau, the berg was liable to overturn, with anappalling rush, beyond the power of mind to conceive. In such an eventthere was no more chance of the party saving themselves than therewould be in the crater of a bursting volcano.
Well might they look blankly in each other's faces, for they werehelpless within the grasp of a power that was absolutely resistless.
They sat silent and waiting, but, as minute after minute passed,without the shock being repeated, hope returned, and they ventured tospeak in undertones, as though fearful that the sound of their voiceswould precipitate the calamity.
"That satisfies me I was right," said Jack, compressing his lips andshaking his head.
"In what respect?" asked Fred.
"We're drifting toward the North Pole, and we are not far from theGreenland coast."
"But are there not shallow places in the ocean, hundreds of miles fromland, where such a great iceberg as this might touch bottom?"
"Yes, but there are not many in this part of the world. The thing mayswing out of this current, or get into another which will start itsouthward, but I don't believe it has done it yet."
"Sailing on an iceberg is worse than I imagined," was the comment ofRob; "I'm more anxious than ever to leave this; it isn't often that apassenger feels like complaining of the bigness of the craft thatbears him over the deep, but that's the trouble in this case."
"If the capsize does come," said Jack, "it will be the end of us; wewould be buried hundreds of fathoms under the ice."
"There can be no doubt of that, but I say, Jack, isn't there somethingoff yonder? I can't make it out, but it seems to me that it is morethan the fog."
While the three were talking, Fred Warburton was seated so as to facethe open sea, the others being turned sideways and giving no heed tothat point of the compass.
It will be remembered that at this time they were inclosed in theall-pervading fog, which prevented them seeing as far as the length ofthe mountain of ice on which they were seated. Turning toward thewater and peering outward, they saw the cause of the boy's question.The vapor itself appeared to be assuming shape, vague, indistinct,undefined, and almost invisible, but nevertheless perceptible to all.
The sailor was the first to see what it meant. Leaping to his feet heemitted his favorite exclamation:
"By the great horned spoon! it's another berg!"
With awful slowness and certainty the mass of fog disclosed more andmore distinctly the misty contour that had caught the eye of FredWarburton. At first it was like a pile of denser fog, rolling alongthe surface of the sea, but the outlines became more distinct eachmoment, until the form of an iceberg was clearly marked in the wetatmosphere.
The new one was much smaller than that upon which they were afloat,but it was of vast proportions for all that, enough to crush thelargest ship that ever floated, as though it were but a toy in itspath.
But the fearful fact about its appearance was that the two bergs wereapproaching each other, under the influence of adverse currents!
A collision was inevitable, and the boys contemplated it with hardlyless dismay than they did the overturning of the larger one a shorttime before.
"This is no place for us!" called out Jack, the moment after hisexclamation; "let's get out!"
He started up the path from which the polar bear had come, with hisyoung friends at his heels. They did not stop until they could go nofarther, when they turned about and shudderingly awaited thecatastrophe that was at hand.
Their withdrawal from the edge of the iceberg to a point some distanceaway dimmed their vision, but the smaller berg was easilydistinguished through the obscurity.
The two continued to approach with a slowness that could hardly havecaused a shock in a couple of ships, but where the two masses were soenormous the momentum was beyond calculation.
The frightful crisis was not without its grim humor. The boys bracedthemselves against the expected crash as if in a railway train with acollision at hand. They lost sight of the fact that no force in naturecould produce any such sudden jarring and jolting as they apprehended.
The two bergs seemed to be lying side by side, within a few inchesreally, but without actually touching.
"Why don't they strike?" asked Rob, in an awed whisper.
"There it comes!" exclaimed Fred; "hold fast!"
The smaller berg was seen to sway and bow, as if that, too, had sweptagainst the bottom of the sea, and it was shaken through every part.
But amazing fact to the lads! they felt only the slightest possibletremor pass through the support upon which they had steadiedthemselves against the expected shock.
The smaller berg acted like some monster that has received a mortalhurt. It seemed to be striving to disentangle itself from the fatalembrace of its conqueror, but was unable to do so. Nearly conical inshape, a peak rose more than a hundred feet in air, ending in atapering point almost as delicate as a church spire.
The crash of the immense bodies caused the breaking off of this icymonument a couple of rods from the top, and the mass, weighing manytons toppled over and fell upon the larger berg with a violence thatshattered it into thousands of fragments, bits of which were carriedto the feet of the awed party. Then, as if the smaller one saw that itwas idle to resist longer, it began moving with the larger, whichforced it along its own course as a tug pushes a floating chip infront of it.
The danger was over, if, indeed, there had been any danger. It was aminute or two before the boys comprehended it all, but when Rob did,he sprang to his feet and swung his cap over his head.
"Hurrah for our side! We beat 'em hands down!"
"I fancy it is quite safe to count on our keeping the right of way,"added Fred, whose mental relief at the outcome was as great as hiscompanion's. "I thought we would be tumbled about when the two cametogether, as if we were in an overturned wagon, but I can understandnow how that could never be."
"But wait till we butt against an iceberg bigger than ours," said Rob,with a shake of his head.
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