for a full month we drifted slowly with our monster berg. so slowly that at times, when the wind shifted, we were almost at a standstill, and the drift-ice was ready to shut us in. but within our big giant’s lap we were well protected, and lying idly were borne steadily to the south. we grew presently to love our big protector, and had the captain’s name of pacemaker not clung to him we should have christened him something very grand, indeed. for as a pacemaker he was not a success. an average of twenty miles a day was about the best we could do, and at times we did even worse. still, we gave him great credit, for without him we might, as gale said, “have gone to the wall” before we were ready to.
as the days passed i found that i must change my calculations somewhat concerning the position of the barrier. i had located it not lower than 75°, 135but by the 25th we were below 76°, and no barrier as yet. could it be that this undercurrent flowed through the antarctic continent? but this, i decided, would be impossible.
we were not idle during this period of drifting, and the month as a whole was one of enjoyment. when we no longer had the sun at midnight, we began preparing for winter. from the skins obtained by the sailors we rigged ourselves out in new suits, according to the best polar authorities. it was not seriously cold as yet, but with the advent of the antarctic night who could say what cold might come? gale was fondly referred to as jumbo when he got properly put together. one day, however, he got down on his back and could not get up again. then he was christened the “turtle.”
“i’ve heard of people being as big as a barrel,” he said, “but in this outfit i’m as big as a whole cooper-shop.”
we were frequently tempted to try scaling our big pacemaker to make observations ahead. edith gale would have gone promptly had her father consented. ferratoni, too, was eager to make some further experiments, testing his apparatus with the berg as an elevation. with our little steam launch we believed we might be able to find a place where the ascent would not be difficult, and as days passed 136and brought still deeper latitudes, the temptation grew even stronger.
we yielded to it, at last, on the second of march, a momentous day in our calendar. immediately after breakfast that morning we discovered that our pacemaker was moving considerably faster than at any previous time, and that its great right wing was swinging ahead of the left. i argued at once that we had reached a bend in the current, where the outer edge would have the greater speed. it seemed to me that we must be near the barrier by these indications, and that it was now more important than ever that we should know how the land, or rather the water, lay ahead, that we might decide whether to continue with the berg, or to strike out now on our own account and endeavor to find a way around to the south. gale was for sending up the balloon, but this would have required two days’ preparation, and seemed unnecessary. i was greatly in favor of trying to scale the berg ahead, which plan was finally adopted.
i had thought of going with two sailors only, one to remain with the launch, and one to assist me in the ascent, but when the launch was ready edith gale suddenly appeared, panoplied for the undertaking, and finally coaxed and intimidated her father into yielding. it was against his judgment and mine, but she had been confined to the ship so 137long, and our old friend ahead had been so steady and faithful, that it seemed there could be no more danger than in scaling a mountain, provided we found an accessible and easy path. this we did without much difficulty, and just outside of the little hollow where the billowcrest lay. here the berg appeared to have been washed or gullied out by snow melting from above, which had formed a sort of natural snow-carpeted stairway, similar to that made by a mountain brook in winter. there was also a good landing below, and here we left the sailors with the launch, which we thought was more likely to need them than we. then we ran and stumbled up the snowy stair like two children.
it was not quite so easy and safe as it looked. at one place i slipped into a narrow crevice and came near breaking my ankle, as well as ferratoni’s telephone apparatus, which i carried. after this we went more carefully. the berg was even higher than it appeared, but we soon reached the top, which we were glad to find comparatively level and firmly crusted over. here we tried the telephone with great success. chauncey gale asked if we could see the south pole from where we were, and cautioned “johnnie” to be careful. by going near the brink we could have looked down on the vessel, but this we would not risk.
we now hastened across to the opposite side of 138the berg, not more than a third of a mile distant, for the pacemaker was a long, narrow section of the barrier, and the hollow in which the billowcrest was lying made it still narrower at this point. there was a light mist rising from the ice that obstructed our vision somewhat, and there was a dazzle, too, that we thought must be the sun shining on the ice-pack ahead. it was not until we were quite near the edge that we realized our mistake.
then, suddenly we stopped dead still. out of the mist, the dazzle had crystallized into definite form. it was ice, truly, but not the far-lying level of the pack. steadily, surely, inevitably, we were being borne forward to a towering, gleaming wall! it loomed far above us, and extended to the east and west as far as our eyes could follow. no need to guess what it was—we knew! we were face to face with the great barrier—the huge, impregnable fortress of the antarctic world.
for a moment we stood stupefied, spellbound. then came a realization of doom. the pacemaker would strike presently, with its irresistible, crushing momentum. the right wing seemed to us even now touching. rending destruction, perhaps annihilation, must follow.
there was no necessity of discussion. as usual we were of one mind, and were on our way back to the ship quicker than anything ferratoni could produce. 139we even forgot we had the telephone and could warn the others. what we desired most was to get off from that berg before the earthquake.
“this is the way,” panted edith gale, presently.
“no, this!” i panted back, bending a little to the east.
in our haste and excitement we had grown a bit confused.
“try both,” i breathed.
but at that instant there came a vast trembling under our feet, and the next i was lying upon the snow, while the air about me was being rent by a sound so awful as to batter into my brain the thought that we had struck the antarctic continent and split it in two! i was nearly right, only that, when a second later i opened my eyes, i saw that the split was the pacemaker’s, and that i was lying within six inches of its edge. just across, perhaps ten yards away, lay edith gale. more than two hundred feet below was the sea, and at that instant i saw the billowcrest being lifted up and up by the mightiest, slowest wave that ever sea was heir to. it seemed to me that she would never stop, and i remember thinking dimly that if she kept on coming i could get aboard. then at last she fell back and the sea swallowed her. again i could count time, and i was sure she was on her 140way to the bottom when she reappeared, swinging and rolling, but apparently undamaged. i saw black figures on her begin to move; then i looked across once more to edith gale, who was slowly drifting farther from me. she was sitting upright, half dazed as it seemed. i called across to her. she assured me that she was not in the least injured—only a bit shaken up and confused. then i saw she had been correct in the position of the launch.
sketch from mr. chase’s note-book.
“go to the boat,” i said. “if they are not lost, they can take you to the ship, and then try to get me. i can see the ship from here. it seems safe.”
“keep away from that edge!” she called back. “and why don’t you use the telephone?”
141i had forgotten it entirely. even as she spoke it began ringing, and holding it to my ear i distinguished the eager “hello” of chauncey gale.
“hello!” i called, “all right up here! how’s the ship?”
“wet, but safe. how’s johnnie?”
“safe. we were separated when the shake-up came and the berg broke between us. she’s on the side where the launch is.”
gale would always be gale.
“no danger of your fighting then about whose fault it was.”
i heard him now give an order to put off two boats for us, at once, in case the launch had been destroyed. i called this across to edith gale, who immediately set out for the landing place, after bidding me not to be uneasy, and to be careful about taking cold. she added that i was sure to be taken off, soon, though by what special means she had acquired this information i have yet to learn. she disappeared down the snow stairway, and i was alone.
i could still talk to gale, however, and i told him just what we had seen before we struck. i said i would go back over there now and take another look. but this he counselled against, as we were still grinding away at the wall, and there would be great danger from crumbling fragments. i realized, 142now, why the older bergs were battered and so much smaller. pounding along that wall for a thousand miles or so is not calculated to encourage the growth or improve the appearance of even the best constructed iceberg.
then gale told me what had happened on the ship. officer larkins and one sailor had been on deck when the upheaval came. they had seized ropes on the upward lift, and though very wet and breathless after the plunge, had come up safely. the water had not been fierce, but very deep. larkins had interviewed, and named, a few fish while he was down. the billowcrest had fully earned her title.
“but where were you?” i called.
“playing euchre with biffer, in the cabin. it was my deal. i shuffled as we went up and dealt as we came down. i had plenty of time to get through and turn trump while we were under. then biff said, ‘i order you up!’ and up we come. ‘guess our pacemaker’s hit the south pole,’ says biff, ‘an’ knocked it over!’ then i remembered right away about you an’ johnnie.”
a little later he called to me that “johnnie” had got back safely. when the upheaval came, the launch had been swamped but did not sink because of her air-tight compartments. the men had scrambled to the berg and had the water about 143pumped out by the time miss gale reached them. i might expect rescue any time, and i’d better walk about to keep warm.
i could do this and talk, too. edith gale took the telephone then, and told me in detail all that had happened, and encouraged me in my long waiting. incidentally i looked about for a way down, but without success. by and by i heard her speaking to some one, but so low that i could not distinguish the words. then to me, and it seemed that there was a note of anxiety in her voice:
“how wide is the chasm, now?”
i walked over nearer and answered.
“about as it was—perhaps narrower. it seems to be drawing together again.”
“oh, i’m so glad!”
“why, has anything——?”
“oh, no, don’t be frightened! but the men have returned and can’t find any place to scale the berg on that side. they are going now with ropes and ladders to get you across the chasm.”
i tried to reply, but the first effort was unsuccessful. i could never, even as a boy, walk a beam that was more than ten feet from the ground. the thought of crossing that chasm on anything to which i was not securely tied made me colder than any antarctic climate.
“oh,” i managed to say at last, “tell them to 144bring ropes, plenty of them, and a—a derrick, if they happen to have such a thing.”
through another cold, wretched hour—warmed and encouraged only by messages from the ship. at last i heard voices, and then there were men with ropes and ladders on the other side of the chasm, which by this time was no more than fifteen feet across. their ladders they had expected to splice end to end, but as each was long enough to reach, i insisted that they be spliced side by side. they threw me a rope, and one end of this bridge i dragged over and jammed securely into the snow. then, untying the rope, i fastened it under my arms and threw them the other end; after which i lay down, for i could never have walked, and was hauled ignominiously across.
“got a pretty cold shake, didn’t you?” said gale as he welcomed me back to the ship.
and so it was that we reached the great antarctic barrier, at last. we came around to the westward of old pacemaker, who in two parts was still grinding along to the eastward. we found open water and a northerly current, which, on examination, we accepted as our warm surface river, and this we followed directly to an anchorage in a small ice-bound bay or bottle, for it seemed more like a tall glass tube with a strip out of the side than anything i can think of, while its height gave it the 145appearance of drawing together at the top. we half hoped to find a way into the continent when we entered this ice-locked harbor, but the warm fresh current flowed, as i had rather expected it would from beneath the barrier, and apparently in great volume. the water in the harbor was only slightly brackish, and its temperature on our arrival about 36° fahrenheit. how far it had come through the ice we could only surmise, or to what extent it would affect our winter climate. it would freeze solidly, no doubt, during the long winter, but even then we believed it would be only an added protection against the floes outside, and the squeeze of the pack. altogether, we were mightily pleased with our winter quarters, and warmed and fed, and safe again on the old billowcrest with those i loved, i was happier than i can say.
