CHAPTER XIV.
MAROONED ON AN ICE FLOE.
"We have struck a polar reef!"
It was Captain Barrington who uttered these words after a briefexamination.
"Do you think we will be able to get off?" Frank asked Ben Stubbs, whowith the boys and the rest of the crew was in the bow peering down atwhat appeared to be rocks beneath the vessel's bow, except that theirglitter in the lanterns that were hung over the side showed that theship was aground on solid ice.
"Hard to say," pronounced Ben. "These polar reefs are bad things. Theyfloat along a little below the surface and many a ship that has struckthem has had her bottom ripped off before you could say 'knife.'"
"Are we seriously damaged?" asked Billy, anxiously gazing at thescared faces around him.
"I hope not," said the old salt; "there is one thing in our favor andthat is that we were being towed so that our bow was raised quite abit, and instead of hitting the ice fair and square we glided up ontop of it."
Another point in favor of the ship's getting off was that there hadbeen no time to reshift the cargo, which, it will be recalled, hadbeen stowed astern when her bow was sprung off Patagonia, so that sherode "high by the head," as sailors say. So far as they could see inthe darkness about twenty feet of her bow had driven up onto the polarreef. The Brutus had stopped towing in response to the signal gun ofthe Southern Cross in time to prevent the towing-bitts being rootedout bodily or the cable parting.
"There is nothing to be done till daylight," pronounced CaptainBarrington, after an examination of the hold had shown that the vesselwas perfectly dry. "The glass indicates fair weather and we'll have tostay where we are till we get daylight."
Little sleep was had by any aboard that night, and bright and early inthe morning the boys, together with most of the crew, were on deck andpeering over the bow. The day was a glorious one with the temperatureat two below zero. The sun sparkled and flashed on the great ice-reefon which they had grounded, and which in places raised crested headsabove the greenish surface of the sea.
No water had been taken on in the night, to the great relief of thecaptain, and soon a string of gaudy signal flags were set whichnotified the Brutus, lying at anchor about a mile away, to stand by.The hawser had been cast off over night and so the Brutus was free tosteam to any position her captain thought advisable. As soon as thesignalling was completed he heaved anchor and stood for a point abouthalf-a-mile to the leeward of the Southern Cross, where he came toanchor once more.
Breakfast, a solid meal as befitted the latitude in which they were,was hastily despatched and the boys bundled themselves up in polarclothes and hurried out on deck to see what was going forward. CaptainBarrington, after a short consultation with Captain Hazzard, decidedto order out boat parties to explore the length and depth of theice-reef so that he could make plans to free his ship off her prison.
The boys begged to be allowed to accompany one of the boat parties andso did the professor. Their requests were finally acceded to by thetwo captains and they formed part of the crew of Boat No. 3, in chargeof Ben Stubbs.
"Wait a minute," shouted the professor, as, after the boat to whichthey were assigned lay ready for lowering, the boys clambered intoher.
"What's the matter?" demanded the boys.
"I want to get my dredging bucket," exclaimed the man of science,"this is a fine opportunity for me to acquire some rare specimens."
He dived into his cabin, the two ends of his woolen scarf flying outbehind him like the tail of some queer bird. He reappeared in a secondwith the bucket, an ordinary galvanized affair, but with a wire-netbottom and a long rope attached, to allow of it being dragged alongthe depths of the sea.
"All ready!" shouted Frank, as the professor clambered into the boat.
The "falls" rattled through the blocks and the boat struck the waterwith a splash, almost upsetting the professor, who was peering overthe side through his thick spectacles as if he expected to see somequeer polar fish at once. The crew swarmed down the "falls," and asBen gave the order, pulled away for the outer end of the reef, thestation assigned to them.
In accordance with their instructions when they arrived at the end ofthe reef, the crew, headed by Ben Stubbs, left the boat and trampingabout on the slippery ice tried to ascertain its thickness and how farunder water it extended. The boys soon tired of sitting idle in theboat and, as they had been forbidden to land on the treacherous ice ofthe reef, cast about for something to do. The professor soon provideda digression.
"Look there," he suddenly shouted, pointing at a black triangularshaped object that was moving about on the green water a shortdistance from the boat.
"What can it be?" wondered Billy.
"Some sort of rare fish, I don't doubt," rejoined the professor."Let's row out and see."
The boys, nothing loath, shoved off, and as Ben and the crew of theboat were far too busy sounding and poking about on the reef to noticethem, they rowed off unobserved.
The triangular object proved elusive, and after rowing some time, theboys found they had come quite a distance from the ship withoutgetting much nearer to it. Suddenly a great, shining black back curveditself out of the water and the boys saw that the sharp triangularthing was an immense dorsal fin attached to the back of a species ofwhale they had not so far seen, although they had sighted manyvarieties since entering the Antarctic regions.
"Let's give it a shot," cried Billy, and before any one could stophim, the young reporter fired at the creature.
To their amazement, instead of diving, as do most whales when injuredby a bullet or otherwise, the creature raised its blunt head and gazedat them out of a wicked little red eye.
"What--what--what's the matter with him do you suppose?" gasped Billy.
As he spoke the whale began lashing the water with its tail till thewhite foam spread all about it, slightly flecked with red here andthere, in token that Billy's shot had struck it.
"I'm afraid that we are in for serious trouble," suddenly said theprofessor.
"Why, you don't mean that the creature is bold enough to attack us?"gasped Billy.
"That's just what I do," exclaimed the professor, apprehensively.
"The creature is a killer whale--an animal as ferocious as a shark andfar more bold. I should have recognized what it was when I saw thatsharp fin cruising about."
"We must row back," shouted Frank, and he and Harry sprang to theoars.
But they were too late. With a flashing whisk of its tail theferocious killer whale dived, and when it came up its head was withintwenty feet of the boat.
"Pull for that floe!" shouted the professor, pointing to a smallisland of ice floating about not far from them. It was their onlychance of escape, and the boys gave way with a will. But pull as theywould their enemy was faster than they. Just as the nose of their boatscraped the floe the great "killer" charged.
Frank had just time to spring onto the floe and drag Harry after himwhen the monster's head rammed the boat, splitting it to kindling woodwith a terrible crackling sound. The stout timbers might as well havebeen a matchbox, so far as resistance to the terrific onslaught wasconcerned.
Billy jumped just as the boat collapsed under him, and gained thefloe. But where was the professor?
For an instant the terrible thought that he had perished flashedacross the boys' minds, but just then a cry made them look round, andthey saw the unfortunate scientist, blue with cold and dripping withicy water, come clambering over the other side of the little floe onwhich they stood. He had been hurled out of the boat when the whalecharged and cast into the water. His teeth were chattering so that hecould hardly speak, but he still had his bucket, and insisted onexamining it to see if any creatures had been caught in it when hetook his involuntary plunge.
The whale, after its charge and the terrific bump with which it struckthe boat, seemed to be stunned and lay quietly on the water a few feetfrom the floe, from which it had rebounded.
"I'll bet he's got a heada
che," exclaimed Billy.
"Headache or no headache, I don't see how we are going to get off thisfloe unless we can attract the attention of the ship, and we aredrifting further away from it every minute," said Frank, gravely.
"Let's fire our pistols," suggested Billy.
"I didn't bring mine," said Frank.
"Nor I," said Harry.
"N-n-n-n-or I," chattered the shivering professor.
"Gee whitakers," shouted Billy, "and to top the bad luck, I left minein the boat. I laid it on a seat after I had fired at the whale."
"B-b-b-b-boys, w-w-w-w-w-hat are we g-g-g-oing to d-d-d-do?" shiveredthe scientist.
"Shout," said Frank; "come on, all together."
They shouted at the tops of their voices, but in the clear polar air,rarified as it is, sound does not carry as well as in northernlatitudes, and there was no response.
All the time the floe, slowly revolving in the current like a floatingbottle, was drifting further and further from the ships. The situationwas serious, and, moreover, the scientist was evidently sufferingacutely, although he made no complaint, not wishing to add to theiranxieties. Frank, however, insisted on their each shedding a garmentfor the professor's benefit, and although the scientist at firstrefused them, he finally consented to don the articles of dry appareland seemed to be much comforted by their warmth.
Faster and faster the floe drifted, and they were now almost out ofsight of the ships. The boys' faces, although they tried not to showtheir fear, grew very pale. There seemed to be no prospect of theirbeing saved, and in the rigorous cold of that climate they knew theycould not survive many hours without food or drink.
Suddenly Frank, who had been gloomily watching the progress of thefloe, gave a shout of surprise.
"What's the matter?" said Harry.
"Are we g-g-g-g-going d-d-d-d-down?" gasped the professor.