"Be smashed, if we do. Go to hell in five minutes!" "Don't care! hell can't be worse than this!" In the electric blaze of the cabin I looked more closely at Gale. There was a green pallor over his features that was not due to fright. Even in that awful hour there came upon me a proper and malicious joy. He was seasick! I did not blame him. We were rolling fearfully and I felt some discomfort, myself. But the spirit of my ancestors had waxed strong now, and prevailed. The others, too, were getting pale, all except Zar, who turned a peculiar blue, and discontinued her prayer service. The brawny stewardess and myself assisted both her and her mistress to their staterooms, where I spoke a reassuring word to Edith Gale, and hastened back to the others. But Gale and Ferratoni had both disappeared, and I saw them no more during that fearful night. Plunging and battering we jammed our way into that mass of thundering ice. Our search-lights, of which we had two, were kept going constantly, but even so, we were likely at any moment to collide with a berg in that surging blackness. The sight from the deck-the shouting sea, with the ice tossing and flashing as it was borne into the angle of our electric rays-was as the view of a riotous in ferno that was making ready to crush us into its sombre depths. But by morning we had penetrated the pack to a point where the violence beneath produced on the surface only a heaving, groaning protest at our presence. With the return of light, I went out to view our condition, and when I realized that our invincible Billowcrest had battled unhurt through it all, that noble vessel-whatever may have been her faults, and in spite of all disparagement-took a place in my affections that was only outranked by those of her builder and her mistress. The wind slackened in the afternoon, and with the calm there came clear, intense cold. By morning the great ice-floes about us were cemented together. We were frozen solidly in the pack. XIV. AN EXCURSION AND AN EXPERIMENT. "WELL, here we are," announced Captain Biffer. as we grouped together on the deck to survey the "And here we're likely to stay for one while, I'm thinking. This is your warm worldhow do you like it?" scene. "Better than a cold sea," I said, "when there's a northeast gale blowing." "How long do we lay up here, Chase?" asked Chauncey Gale. "You're running this excursion." I was secretly uneasy, but I made light of the situation. "Oh, this is the usual thing. We'll be here a day or two, perhaps, then the ice will separate again, or a lead form that will let us back to open water. We could hardly be shut in long at this season." "I'd invent something to beat this game if I was going to play it regular," said Gale, then added, "Great place this to lay out an addition. 'Frozenhurst,' how's that for a name?" 66 Can we go out on the ice?" asked Edith Gale. "Of course, if we are careful, and do not go far from the ship," I said. We can try our new snowshoes." "I shall make the first Antarctic experiment in wireless communication," observed Ferratoni. "Good time to look for the bake-apple," suggested Mr. Larkins. But just here came a sharp protest from Zar. 'Yas, I sh'd say baked apples! Well, I reckon we jes' 'bout as apt to fin' baked apples as anything else in dis refrigidous country! Not much, my Miss Edith ain' gwine out on dat ol' humpety, bow-back ice-pon'! No, sah!" Zar's characterization of the sea's aspect referred to the huge hummocks and heaved appearance of the ice in places. There were also many bergs, apparently at no great distance, and in spite of the old woman's strenuous objections, Edith Gale and I planned to visit the nearest of these. We did so in the afternoon. Numberless penguins, sea-leopards and other species of Antarctic life had gathered curiously about the Billowcrest during the day, and some of these waddled and floundered after us when we set out. We could not make very rapid progress with our new foot-gear, and for a little distance made an interesting spectacle, with our procession of followers trailing out behind. |