TRAPPED
Loud orders sounded on the deck and there was a rush of many feet as
the men sprang to obey. But with all the din, there was no panic or
confusion. It was a Government ship, manned by a trained and
disciplined crew, and in this moment of peril they lived up to the
best traditions of the navy.
The Radio Boys looked at each other. Their hearts were thumping fast
with excitement, but they rose to the emergency and held their
voices steady.
“Must have hit a berg,” said Bob, never, however, letting his
thoughts wander from the key.
“Sounds that way,” replied Jimmy. “But we were barely moving, and
perhaps it didn’t do much damage.”
Just then there was a loud explosion, and a moment later the
_Meteor_ rolled from side to side while there was a deafening
clatter on deck.
“Part of the berg must have broken off, and some of the flying
fragments have struck the ship,” conjectured Joe.
The _Meteor’s_ engines now began to reverse, and the boys could feel
the boat yield to them.
“Backing off!” said Herb. “Thank goodness she didn’t stick.”
At this moment, Ensign Porter appeared at the door.
“Captain’s orders,” he announced. “Send out S. O. S. at once. Ship
surrounded by bergs.”
“Is the ship badly hurt?” ventured Joe, as Bob sprang to his key.
“Don’t know yet,” returned the ensign. “This is a precautionary
measure. An examination is being made of the hull. We know that some
of the plates are cracked, for water is coming in.”
“Anybody hurt when the top of the berg broke off?” questioned Herb.
“Two men hit by flying chunks,” was the answer. “One had his arm
broken. Doctor attending to them. Lucky the whole mass didn’t hit
the ship. Would have crushed it like an eggshell.”
He hurried off. Bob, in the meantime, had been flinging out the S.
O. S. messages through the ether, describing the plight of the ship
and giving her exact position.
Again and again he sent the messages abroad, but for some time
received no answer. Then messages began to come at intervals, but
none of them from ships near by. It would take many hours for help
to come from these, though the promise was made that they would make
the fastest time possible.
“Perhaps we’ll have to take to the boats,” conjectured Jimmy.
“That’s a possibility,” admitted Joe.
“I’m not hankering for any more experiences in an open boat,” put in
Herb. “The one I had was enough for a lifetime. I’m no glutton.”
“We might be afloat for days with no one knowing where to look for
us,” said Jimmy, somberly.
“I guess not,” observed Joe. “We could keep the radio going, and
there are a good many ships in these waters. As long as a storm
didn’t come up we’d probably be rescued.”
“But a storm might come up,” persisted Jimmy. “We’ve had so much
good weather lately that a storm must be just about due. And what
did you mean by saying that we could keep the radio going?”
“Didn’t you know that the lifeboats of the _Meteor_ were equipped
with radio sets?” asked Joe.
“I hadn’t heard of it,” replied Jimmy.
“Sure thing,” replied his comrade. “The boats are covered now with
tarpaulins, and that’s the reason you haven’t noticed them. Johnson
lifted the cover of one that we were passing the other day and
showed me the set. Of course they’re not so powerful as the regular
ship’s set, but they could send a good way and get in touch with
vessels all about us. But I hope there won’t be any necessity for
that. I’m going out now and see what I can learn of the condition of
the ship. Come along, Jimmy. Herb can stay in here with Bob, and
we’ll be back in a few minutes.”
The pair went out, with Hector trailing lugubriously at their heels.
The fog was still as dense as ever and spread like a pall over the
ship. On the starboard side a great mass reared itself that they
knew must be an iceberg. It was so close that it almost seemed as
though they could reach out and touch it.
Why the _Meteor_ did not get away from such a deadly menace became
apparent when they went over to the port side. There, looming up in
the gray gloom, was another berg, seemingly even more massive than
the one they had first seen. Escape was cut off in that direction.
They made their way to the bow and the stern, in the hope of
discovering some way out of the impasse. But here again nothing
hopeful presented itself to their straining eyes. The icebergs did
not seem so near as on the sides, but by the aid of the fierce rays
of the searchlight they could make out huge floating masses that
blocked the way.
The _Meteor_ was trapped!
As this conviction penetrated the minds of the two boys, their
hearts sank for a moment. They were under no delusions as to the
dreadful danger they were in. They had already seen too much of the
possibilities of icebergs to underestimate their deadly peril.
Their lives and the lives of all on board were simply hanging by a
thread. At any instant the summit of one of those bergs might break
off and smash the ship into splinters. Or, if this did not happen,
the shifting currents might bring the two bergs at the sides
together, catching the _Meteor_ between them, grinding her to bits.
Just then Ensign Porter passed them.
“Any water in the hold?” asked Joe.
“No more than we can handle,” replied the ensign, without relaxing
his pace.
“That’s some comfort, anyway,” commented Joe.
The two boys made their way again to the port side of the vessel.
Their progress was made difficult by the splinters of ice that
strewed the deck and made it slippery.
“What are those things over there on the berg?” asked Jimmy. “There,
on that level space? They seem to be moving.”
Joe strained his eyes in the direction indicated.
“It does look that way,” he said. “Maybe they’re some of the
_Meteor’s_ men who have been sent there for something.”
“They don’t look like men,” remarked Jimmy, in a puzzled way.
“They——”
What more he might have said was lost in a crashing, grinding roar
as the berg rubbed up against the side of the ship. A shower of ice
splinters dislodged by the contact came down on the deck like giant
hail.
At the same time something else came down! Two great lumbering
figures had either been thrown or had leaped from one of the
overhanging ledges of the berg!
The boys took one look at them, and their faces turned ashen.
“Bears!” shouted Joe. “Polar bears! Run, Jimmy, run!”
The boys turned and ran for their lives.