SWALLOWED BY A CREVASSE.
The early morning following the discovery of the night trip of the
dirigible saw the Golden Eagle rising into the chill air and winging
her way to the camp. The boys, as soon as they descended, hastened to
Captain Hazzard's hut and detailed their adventures. As may be
supposed, while both the leader of the expedition and the captain of
the Southern Cross were deeply interested in the account of the
flaming mountain and the prehistoric seal-like creatures, they were
more deeply concerned over the boys' sighting of the airship.
"It means we have earnest rivals to deal with," was Captain Hazzard's
comment, "we must set about finding the Viking ship at once. The
search will not take long, for if she is not somewhere near where I
have calculated she ought to be it would be waste of time to seek her
at all."
Full of excitement at the prospect of embarking on the search for the
ship, before long the boys dispersed for breakfast only to gather
later on in Captain Hazzard's hut. The officer informed them that they
were to fly to the position he indicated the next day and institute a
thorough search for the lost craft. The Golden Eagle was to carry her
wireless and a message was to be flashed to the camp's wireless
receiving station if important discoveries were made.
In the event of treasure being found, the boys were to at once
"wireless" full details and bearings of the find and a relay of men
and apparatus for saving the treasure would be sent from the ship to
their aid on the motor-sledge. In the event of their not discovering
the Viking ship they were to spend not more than three days on the
search, wirelessing the camp at the end of the third day for further
instructions.
The rest of that day was spent in putting the Golden Eagle's wireless
in working order and stretching the long "aerials" above her upper
plane. The instruments were then tested till they were in tune for
transmitting messages from a long distance. The apparatus, after a
little adjustment, was found to work perfectly.
Captain Hazzard warned the boys that, in the event of the rival
expedition discovering them, they were on no account to resort to
violence but to "wireless" the camp at once and he would decide on the
best course to pursue.
"But if they attack us?" urged Frank.
"In that case you will have to defend yourselves as effectively as
possible till aid arrives," said the commander.
Early the next day, with a plentiful supply of cordite bombs and
dynamite on board for blasting the Viking ship free of the ice casing
which it was to be expected surrounded her, the Golden Eagle soared
away from the camp.
The boys were off at last on the expedition they had longed for. The
professor accompanied them with a formidable collection of nets and
bottles and bags. He had had prepared a lot of other miscellaneous
lumber which it had been explained to him he could not transport on an
aeroplane and which he had therefore reluctantly left behind. The
engine worked perfectly and Frank anticipated no further trouble from
it.
As they sped along Harry from time to time tested the wireless and
sent short messages back to the camp. It worked perfectly and the
spark was as strong as if only a few miles separated airship and camp.
Nor did there seem to be any weakening as the distance between the two
grew greater.
They passed high above snow-barrens and seal-rookeries and colonies of
penguins, the inhabitants of which latter cocked their heads up
inquiringly at the big bird flying by far above them. Their course
carried them to the eastward and as they advanced the character of the
scenery changed. What were evidently bays opened up into the land and
some of them seemed to run back for miles, cutting deep into the many
ranges that supported the plateau of the interior on which they had
found the volcano.
These bays or inlets were ice covered but it was easy to see that with
the advance of summer they would be free of ice. At noon, Frank landed
the aeroplane and made an observation. It showed him they were still
some distance from the spot near which Captain Hazzard believed the
Viking ship was imprisoned. After a hasty lunch, cooked on the stove,
the aeroplane once more ascended and kept steadily on her course till
nightfall.
As dark set in, the boys found themselves at a spot in which the water
that lapped the foot of the great Barrier washed--or would when the
ice left it--at the very bases of the mountains, which here were no
more than mere hills. They were cut into in all directions by deep
gulches into which during the summer it was evident the sea must
penetrate.
"We are now not more than one hundred and fifty miles from the spot in
which Captain Hazzard believes the ship is ice-bound," announced Frank
that night as they turned in inside the snugly curtained chassis.
Sleep that night was fitful. The thought of the discovery of which
they might be even then on the brink precluded all thought of sound
sleep. Even the usually calm professor was excited. He hoped to find
some strange creatures amid the mouldering timbers of the Viking ship
if they ever found her.
Dawn found the adventurers up and busily disposing of breakfast. As
soon as possible the Golden Eagle rose once more and penetrated
further into the unknown on her search. Several wireless messages were
sent out that day and the camp managed to "catch" every one of them.
The wireless seemed to work better in that dry, cold air than in the
humid atmosphere of the northern climes.
The character of the country had not changed. Deep gullies still
scarred the white hills that fringed the barrier, but not one of these
yielded the secret the boys had come so far to unravel.
"I'm beginning to think this is a wild goose chase," began Billy, as
at noon Frank landed, took his bearings, and then announced that they
were within a few minutes of the spot in which the ship ought to lie.
"She seems as elusive as the fur-bearing pollywog," announced the
professor.
"You still believe there is such a creature?" asked Harry.
"Professor Tapper says so," was the reply, "I must believe it. I will
search everywhere till I can find it."
"I think he was mistaken," said Billy, "I can't imagine what such a
creature could look like."
"You may think he was mistaken," rejoined the professor, "but I do
not. Professor Tapper is never wrong."
"But suppose you cannot find such an animal?"
"If I don't find one before we leave the South Polar regions, then,
and not till then, will I believe that he was mistaken," returned the
man of science with considerable dignity.
This colloquy took place while they were getting ready to reascend
after a hasty lunch and was interrupted by a sudden cry from Frank,
who had been gazing about while the others talked.
"What's that sticking above the snow hill yonder?" he exclaimed,
pointing to a spot where a deep gully "valleyed" the hills at a spot
not very far from where they stood.
"It looks like the stump of a tree," observed the professor, squinting
through his spectacles.
"Or-or-the mast of a ship," quavered Harry, trembling with excitement.
"It's the Viking ship--hurray!"
"Don't go so fast," said Frank, though his voice shook, "it may be
nothing but a plank set up there by some former explorer, but it
certainly does look like the top of a mast."
"The best way is to go and see," suggested the professor, whose calm
alone remained unruffled.
The distance between the boys and the object that had excited their
attention was not considerable and the snow was smooth and unmarked by
impassable gullies. The professor's suggestion was therefore at once
adopted and the young adventurers were soon on their way across the
white expanse which luckily was frozen hard and not difficult to
traverse.
The boys all talked in excited tones as they made their way forward.
If the object sticking above the gully's edge proved actually to be a
mast it was in all probability a spar of the ship they sought. The
thought put new life into every one and they hurried forward over the
hard snow at their swiftest pace.
The professor was in the lead, talking away at a great rate, his long
legs opening and shutting like scissor blades.
"Perhaps I may find a fur-bearing pollywog after all," he cried; "if
you boys have found your ship surely it is reasonable to suppose that
I can find my pollywog?"
"Wouldn't you rather find a Viking ship filled with gold and ivory,
and frozen in the ice for hundreds of years, than an old fur-bearing
pollywog?" demanded Billy.
"I would not," rejoined the professor with much dignity; "the one is
only of a passing interest to science and a curious public. The other
is an achievement that will go ringing down the corridors of time
making famous the name of the man who braved with his life the rigors
of the South Polar regions to bring back alive a specimen of the
strange creature whose existence was surmised by Professor Thomas
Tapper, A.M., F.R.G.S., M.Z., and F.O.X.I.--Ow! Great Heavens!"
As the professor uttered this exclamation an amazing thing happened.
The snow seemed to open under his feet and with a cry of real terror
which was echoed by the boys, who a second before had been listening
with somewhat amused faces to his oratory, he vanished as utterly as
if the earth had swallowed him--which it seemed it had indeed.
"The professor has fallen into a crevasse!" shouted Frank, who was the
first of the group to realize what had occurred.
Billy and Harry were darting forward toward the hole in the snow
through which the scientist had vanished when a sharp cry from the
elder boy stopped them.
"Don't go a step further," he cried.
"Why not,--the professor is down that hole," cried Harry, "we must do
something to save him."
"You can do more by keeping cool-headed than any other way," rejoined
Frank. "A crevasse, into one of which the professor has fallen, is not
'a hole' as you call it, but a long rift in the earth above which snow
has drifted. Sometimes they are so covered up that persons can cross
in safety, at other times the snow 'bridge' gives way under their
weight and they are precipitated into the crevasse itself,--an
ice-walled chasm."
"Then we may never get the professor out," cried Billy in dismay. "How
deep is that crevasse likely to be?"
"Perhaps only ten or twenty feet. Perhaps several hundred," was the
alarming reply.