ADRIFT!
Six of the huge warriors picked up the unfortunate professor, who was
bound hand and foot, and were preparing to carry him toward the fire
when there came a startling interruption to their plans.
With a roar as if the desolate mountains about them were toppling
about their ears one of the dynamite bombs carried by the boys was
dropped and exploded a short distance from the camp. A huge hole was
torn in the earth and a great cloud of dust arose.
Shrieks and cries filled the air and, although none of them was hurt,
the Patagonians rushed about like ants when some one has stirred up
their nests. Suddenly one of them happened to look upwards and gave a
wild yell.
Instantly the tribesmen, without waiting to pick up any of their
possessions, fled for their horses and mounting them rode out of sight
without daring to look round. To accelerate their progress the boys
sent another dynamite bomb and two rockets after them, and then
descended to pick up the professor who, bound as he was, had been left
on the ground and was quite as much in the dark as to what he owed his
escape to as the Indians were.
"Oh, boys!" he exclaimed, as the machine glided to earth and the boys
stepped out, "you were just in time. I really believe they meant to
make soup out of me. They were worse than the electric ray, a great
deal. Oh, dear, I wish I had obeyed Captain Hazzard, but I wanted to
get a specimen of a Patagonian dog-flea. They are very rare."
"Did you get one?" asked Frank, laughing in spite of himself at the
woe-begone figure of the professor, who, his bonds having been cut,
now stood upright with his spectacles perched crookedly on his nose.
"I did not," moaned the man of science, who seemed more grieved over
his failure to collect the rare specimen than he did over his own
narrow escape, "there is every other kind of flea around here, though,
I found that out while I was in the tent."
"Come, we had better be going," said Frank at length, after they had
explored the camp and picked up some fine feather robes and curious
weapons which the Patagonians had left behind them in their hurry to
escape.
"The Patagonians might take it into their heads to come back and
attack us and then we should be in a serious fix."
All agreed that it was wise not to linger too long in the camp and so
a few minutes later the Golden Eagle was sent into the air again, this
time with an added passenger.
"Dear me, this is very remarkable," said the professor, "quite like
flying. I feel like a bird," and he flapped his long arms till the
boys had to laugh once more at the comical man of learning.
As they flew along the professor explained to them that after he had
taken the boat he had heard a dog barking ashore, and being confident
that the Patagonians were friendly people and that it was a Patagonian
dog he heard, he determined to do some exploring in search of the
Patagonian dog-flea. He had only crawled a few steps from the river
bank, however, when he felt himself seized and carried swiftly away.
It was then that he had fired the shot the boys heard. Later he had
managed to break loose and then had discharged his revolver some more,
without hitting anybody, however.
The Patagonians had then bound him and tied him to the back of a horse
and rapidly borne him into the interior. They might not have meant any
harm to him at first, he thought, but when they found him examining a
dog with great care they were convinced the simple-minded old man was
a witch doctor and at once sentenced him to be burned to death.
"How about your friend that said that the Patagonians were a friendly
race?" asked Billy, as the professor concluded his narrative.
"I shall write a book exposing his book," said the professor, with
great dignity.
Nothing more occurred till, as they drew near the ships, Frank waved
his handkerchief and the others fired their revolvers in token of the
fact that they had been successful in their quest. In reply to these
joyous signals the rapid-fire gun of the Southern Cross was fired and
the air was so full of noise that any Patagonians within twenty miles
must have fled in terror.
The professor, looking very shamefaced, was summoned to Captain
Hazzard's cabin soon after he had arrived on board and put on clean
garments. What was said to him nobody ever knew, but he looked
downcast as one of his own bottled specimens when he left the cabin.
By sundown, however, he had quite recovered his spirits and had to be
rescued from the claws of a big lobster he had caught and which
grabbed him by the toe as soon as he landed it on deck.
In the meantime the aeroplane was "taken down" and packed up once more
while the boys came in for warm congratulations on the successful
outcome of their aerial dash to the rescue. Captain Hazzard himself
sent for them and complimented them highly on their skill and courage.
"I shall mention your achievement in the despatches I shall send north
by the Brutus," he said in conclusion to the happy boys.
The damage to her bow being repaired, there was nothing more to keep
the Southern Cross and her escort in the dreary river, and with no
regrets at leaving such a barren, inhospitable country behind them,
the pole-seekers weighed anchor early the next day.
Ever southward they forged till the weather began to grow chilly and
warm garments were served out to the men from the storerooms of the
Southern Cross. To the boys the cold was welcome, as it meant that
they were approaching the goal of their journey.
Captain Barrington doubled watches day and night now, for at any
moment they might expect an encounter with a huge iceberg. In the
antarctic these great ice mountains attain such bulk that they could
crush the most powerful ship like an eggshell. It behooves all
mariners venturing into those regions, therefore, to keep a most
careful lookout for them.
One day soon after dinner, while the boys were on the fore peak
chatting with Ben Stubbs, the old bos'n suddenly elevated his nose,
drew in a long breath and announced:
"I smell ice."
Recollecting that Ben had said that he "smelled land" on another
memorable occasion, the boys checked their disposition to laugh,
although the professor, who was trying to dissect a strange little
fish he had caught the day before, ridiculed the idea.
"Ice being a substance consisting of frozen water and without odor,
what you say is a contradiction in terms," he pronounced with much
solemnity.
"All right, professor," said Ben, with a wink at the boys, "maybe ice
ain't as easy to tell as an electric ray, but just the same I'm an old
whaling man and I can smell ice as far as you can smell beefsteak
frying."
This was touching on the scientist's weak spot, for like many men of
eminence, he was nevertheless fond of a good dinner and his alacrity
in answering meal calls had become a joke on board.
"You are arguing 'ad hominum,' my dear sir," spoke the professor with
dignity. "Ice and beefsteak have no affinity for one another, nor do
they partake of the same qualities or analyses."
Whatever Ben might have said to this crushing rejoinder was lost
forever, for at this moment there was a great disturbance in the water
a short distance from the ship. The boys saw a whale's huge dark form
leap from the waves not forty feet from the bow and settle back with a
crash that sent the water flying up in the air like a fountain.
"Whale ho!" shouted Ben, greatly excited. "Hullo," he exclaimed the
next instant, "now you'll see some fighting worth seeing."
As he spoke, a form dimly seen, so near to the surface was it, rushed
through the water and crashed headlong into the whale.
"What is it, another whale?" asked Billy.
"No, it's a monster sword-fish," cried Ben, "and they are going to
fight."
The water grew crimson as the sword-fish plunged his cruel weapon into
the great whale's side, but the monster itself, maddened by its wound,
the next instant charged the sword-fish. Its great jaws opened wide as
it rushed at its smaller enemy, for which however, it was no
match,--for the sword-fish doubled and swam rapidly away. The next
instant it dived, and coming up rammed the whale with its sword once
more. With a mighty leap the sea monster mounted clear of the water
once more, the blood spouting from its wounds.
But its strength was gone and it crashed heavily downward while it was
in mid-spring. A warning shout from Ben called the attention of
everybody who had been watching the fight to a more imminent danger to
the ship. The giant cetacean in falling to its death had struck the
towing cable and snapped it under its huge bulk as if the stout hawser
had been a pack thread.
"We are adrift," shouted Captain Barrington, rushing forward with
Captain Hazzard by his side.
Another cry of alarm mingled with his as he uttered it.
"The iceberg!" cried Ben.
The old sailor pointed ahead and there, like a huge ghost drifting
toward them, was a mighty structure of ice--the first berg the boys
had ever seen. With its slow advance came another peril. The air grew
deathly cold and a mist began to rise from the chilled sea.
"Signal the Brutus!" shouted Captain Barrington, but the fires had
been extinguished on the Southern Cross when she was taken in tow, and
she had nothing to signal with but her rapid firing gun. This was
fired again and again and soon through the mist there came back the
low moan of the siren of the Brutus.
"They won't dare to put back after us in this," exclaimed Captain
Barrington, as he stood on the bridge with the boys beside him, "we
shall have to drift helplessly here till the iceberg passes or--"
"Until we are crushed," put in Captain Hazzard quietly, "wouldn't it
be as well to have the boats made ready for lowering," he went on.
"A good idea," agreed Captain Barrington. Ben Stubbs was summoned aft
and told to give the necessary orders, and soon the men were at work
clearing the life-boats in case things should come to the worst.
The mist grew momentarily denser and the cold more intense, yet so
critical was the situation that nobody thought of leaving the decks to
don warmer clothing. The fog, caused by the immense berg chilling the
warmer ocean currents, was now so thick that of the mighty berg itself
they could perceive nothing. The knowledge that the peril was
invisible did not make the minds of those on board the drifting vessel
any the easier.
"If only we had steam we could get out of the berg's path," said
Captain Barrington, stamping his foot.
"Couldn't we hoist sail," suggested Frank.
"There is no wind. I wish there were," replied the captain, "then it
would blow this mist away and we could at least see where we are
driving to."
In breathless silence and surrounded by the dense curtain of freezing
mist the polar ship drifted helplessly on, those on board realizing
that at any moment there might come the crash and disaster that would
follow a collision with the monster berg.
Suddenly there came a shock that almost threw those on the bridge off
their feet.
Hoarse cries and shouts sounded through the mist from the bow of the
ship, which was no longer visible in the dense smother.
Above all the confused noises one rang out clear and terrible.
"The berg has struck us. We are sinking!" was the terrible cry.