THE SHIP GRAVEYARD
Truly the adventurers were in a position that might well cause the
stoutest heart to quail. With hundreds of tons of ice above, below, and
on every side of them, their chances of escaping alive from this frozen
tomb were very small.
"Can't we make an attempt to get out of this prison?" asked Jack.
"Indeed we will," said the professor. "We will try all the means at our
command. If they all fail--"
He dared not finish the sentence, but they all knew what he meant. It
was now about one o'clock in the morning. The ship had become stationary
after the uneasy motion caused by the oscillation of the big berg.
"We may as well turn in and get a little sleep," remarked Mr. Henderson.
"We can all work better if we get some rest."
It is doubtful whether any of them slept, for the horror of their
position was too fresh in their minds. Still, lying down in the bunks
rested them.
It was six o'clock when Washington awoke. In spite of the dangers of the
icy grave, he had managed to get a little sleep. He prepared breakfast
and called the others.
"Make a good meal," advised Mr. Henderson. "We have plenty of work ahead
of us."
"Are you going to free the ship?" asked Mark.
"I am going to try," was the answer.
A little later the inventor was busy in one of the small store rooms aft
when Jack came up. The professor was carefully taking out a box
labelled:
DYNAMITE! DANGEROUS!
"What are you going to do?" asked the boy.
"I am going to try the same experiment we attempted on the volcanic
island," was the reply. "Only, this time, I am afraid we shall have to
complete it to the end. There is little likelihood of the ice falling
apart."
"Then you are going to blow it up?" went on Jack.
"That's what I hope to do," the inventor went on. "I see no other way,
and, though there is a risk, it is not so great a one as to wait to be
crushed in the ice as it freezes more solidly."
Under the directions of Mr. Henderson they got out the diving suits. The
professor, the two boys and Andy put them on. The dynamite, in
specially prepared water-proof packages, with long fuses was laid in
readiness close to the door of the diving chamber.
Into the cell, the four who were to make the perilous journey under the
ice, took their places. The water was slowly admitted, and then, with
the electric lights in their helmets throwing out powerful gleams, they
started forward as the outer door swung open.
It was well they had all taken the precautions to don thick
undergarments and clothing, for, even through the heavy rubber diving
suits, the terrible cold of the southern polar sea struck a chill to
their very bones.
As the professor had said, the ship was caught between the upper and
lower parts of the iceberg. On either side, ahead and to the rear there
was open water. Beneath their feet there was a floor of ice. It was as
if they and the ship had been placed between two great sheets of the
frozen matter.
Their progress was slow, for the water hampered their movements and each
one had some of the dynamite to carry. The footing, too, was insecure,
for the icy bed of the ocean was slippery.
As they were huddled together, the professor in the lead, and their
lamps making a faint illumination in the darkness, they suddenly became
aware of a great shadow over them. They looked up, and their hearts
nearly ceased beating as they saw a gigantic sperm whale right over
them, and between the ice. The terrible animal had observed them also,
and, food being scarce in those frigid regions, had evidently made up
its mind to dine on some choice morsels.
The whale was nearly as large again as the submarine, and to the
frightened voyagers seemed more immense than a house. With slow motions
of the flukes the animal placed itself right over the boys and men,
ready to rush at and take them into its terrible maw.
Old Andy, who alone seemed to retain his presence of mind, stepped to
the front. The professor and the boys wondered what he was going to do.
Then Andy held up one of the electric guns.
Always thinking of his chosen calling, the old hunter had picked up the
weapon as he was leaving the _Porpoise_. He waited until the whale was
within a short distance, so close in fact that the small eyes, out of
all seeming proportion to the rest of the big body, could be seen. Then
Andy fired one of the explosive bullets straight into the open mouth
that was fringed with rows of the springy bone that is a part of a
whale's eating apparatus.
The shot took effect, and made a vital wound. In its death struggles the
beast lashed the ocean to foam, and, but for the fact that Andy as soon
as he fired the shot crouched down, pulling the others toward the floor
of ice, they might all have been killed.
The whale turned and made a rush in the opposite direction to that of
the divers. This was a welcome sign to the professor, for he knew the
animal was seeking open water and this told him it must be somewhere in
the vicinity.
Their hearts still beating loudly from the closeness of death, the
adventurers continued their way. On every side were fish, big and
little, and, though some of the larger ones thrust themselves to the men
and boys, as if wondering what strange creatures they were, none of them
offered to attack.
Led by the professor they made a complete circuit of the ship that was
held fast in the ice. As the inventor had surmised, the _Porpoise_ was
nipped only above and below. If she could be freed at either of those
points she could rise to the surface, or sink down under the ice.
After making a careful examination of the position of the craft, Mr.
Henderson motioned to have the dynamite placed on the ice, in front of,
and about two hundred feet away from the nose of the ship.
He connected the cartridges with the fuse and wires that were to explode
them, and then, taking the free end, he started back toward the ship.
Washington was on the watch for them, and operated the diving chamber.
Soon the four were back in the _Porpoise_.
"Now to see if our plan will work," said Mr. Henderson. "I am relying on
the well known downward force of dynamite to blow a hole in the bottom
part of the ice, so that we can drop below."
"Why not make a hole above so we can rise and escape?" asked Bill.
"Because," replied the professor, "we are now in the region of perpetual
ice. The ocean above us is one fast floe, or a number of smaller ones,
so that, in any event our progress would be impossible. But we can sail
far enough down under water to escape all the ice. That is the purpose
of the _Porpoise_. That is why I built her. We will now begin on the
last part of our voyage; that is if we can get free of the fearful grip
of this sea of ice."
There was little they could do to protect themselves. They would either
escape or be blown to pieces in case the explosive exerted too great a
force. They all put on life preservers to guard against the contingency
of the _Porpoise_ being ripped apart and themselves cast into the water,
yet they realized that without their ship, they could live but a little
while in the ice-filled water near the south pole.
The professor saw that everything was in readiness. He hesitated a
moment and looked at the electric button in his hand, for this time the
dynamite was to be detonated by a battery. How much might depend on one
push of the finger!
There was a slight movement to the muscles of the professor's hand. Then
it seemed as if a thunderbolt had fallen into the midst of the ocean
about them.
There was a dull rumble, but the confined space and the thick walls of
the ship shut most of it out. It was followed by a sickening dizzy
motion to the submarine. She seemed about to roll over and those in her
grabbed frantically at the sides. The next instant the craft plunged
down, down, down, into the water which was filled with broken cakes of
ice, that rattled against the steel sides, like peas in a pan.
Down and down the _Porpoise_ went, for her tanks were full. More and
more rapidly she continued to sink, until it seemed she would fetch up
in the deepest cavern of the ocean.
"We's gwine t' Mars Davy Jones's locker, suah!" Washington exclaimed as
he looked at the depth gages.
[Illustration: THEY WERE IN THE MIDST OF A GRAVEYARD OF WRECKED
SHIPS.--_Page 200._]
"Has the experiment succeeded?" asked Andy of Mr. Henderson.
"I think so," was the answer. "At any rate we are free from the ice,
temporarily at least. We are sinking down through the hole the dynamite
made, just as I hoped we would."
"Where will we end up?" asked Jack.
"No one knows," replied the captain. "But I would say--"
At that instant the ship stopped sinking and brought up with a bump.
"I should say we were at the end of this part of our journey," finished
the inventor.
He turned off the cabin lights and lighted the search lamps that threw a
gleam so the water could be looked at from the bull's-eyes windows. The
sight that met their gaze was an astonishing one.
They were in the midst of a graveyard of wrecked ships, and, on every
side, scattered over the ocean bed, were the broken hulks that had once
been stately vessels.