by E. J. Craine
CHAPTER XVIII
THE COLD HAND OF FEAR
Noon came and went, with the same steady progress being maintained hourafter hour. Tom relieved Beverly at the pilot's berth, and the lattersucceeded in getting some much needed rest. Still, none of them couldsleep comfortably, which was hardly to be wondered at considering theirstrange surroundings.
"My first nap when flying, for a fact!" admitted Colin, after he hadawakened, and managed to stretch his stiffened limbs.
"Tough work trying to get a few winks of sleep when one is quivering allover with excitement," Jack remarked.
They were no longer maintaining such a high course, having descendeduntil the heaving sea lay not more than a thousand feet below. Nothingwas in sight in any direction, which was one reason for Tom's droppingdown as he did.
"A lot of water," Jack commented, for they had started to try out thewonderful little wireless telephone, to find that it really workedsplendidly. "Guess after the flood Noah must have thought that way too.But shucks! we haven't got even a dove to send out."
"We happen to have something better," Tom told him, "which is the powerto shoot our boat through space at the rate of a mile a minute. No arkbusiness about this craft."
"Well, is there any objection to breaking our fast again?" the otherinquired, changing the subject.
Beverly seemed to think not, for he proceeded to get out the hamper inwhich much of their prepared food was contained.
"I laid in double the quantity I expected we'd devour," he told them,"and then added something to that for good measure. No telling what maycrop up; and if we happen to be cast on a desert island a healthy lot ofgrub might come in handy."
"It does right now, when we are far from any island, unless that's one upthere in that dark cloud floating above us," and Jack stretched out toreceive his portion of the lunch as parceled out by Colin.
"One thing that made me drop to a lower level," explained Tom, "was thefact of its being so cold up there among the clouds. Already I feelbetter for the change."
"How about it if we should sight a steamer?" asked Jack. "They'd reportmeeting a plane flying west here in midocean, which would stir up no endof comment in the papers, and might lead to our being found out."
"We depend on you to keep the glasses in use, and report anything insight ahead," laughed Tom; for the clatter of the motors did not seem tobother them in the least when using the wireless telephone. "And when yousing out 'smoke down low on the horizon to the west!' it's going to be aneasy job for us to climb up above the clouds in a hurry."
So it was settled, and they ate their lunch in comfort.
Up to that time not the slightest thing had arisen to give them concernwith regard to the working of the engines. These aroused the admirationof the three voyagers by their remarkable performance. Tom declared theirequal had never been installed in any plane that was ever built, andLieutenant Beverly's eyes glowed with satisfaction to hear his petpraised so cordially by one whose good opinion he valued as highly as hedid Tom Raymond's.
After Jack had taken his turn at piloting the machine, he amused himself"between naps" by watching the surface of the sea through the binoculars.
"No telling but what I may glimpse a submarine creeping along under thesurface," he told the others jokingly. "Then wouldn't we wish we'dbrought along a few bombs--the kind they dropped on that Hun bridge thenight we went with the raiders. Right now I could almost imagine thatshark's dorsal-fin was a periscope belonging to an undersea boat."
Other things came along to cause momentary interest, among them rollingporpoises that rose in sight, and then vanished under the waves, thoughfrom their height the boys could easily follow their movements.
Jack was getting a good deal of enjoyment out of the situation, and Tomwas glad to notice this fact. He had feared his chum's nerves might giveway under the long-continued strain; but apparently Jack had returned tohis ordinary condition.
All of them rather dreaded the coming of night. Flying in midocean whiledaylight lasted was serious enough, but with darkness around for manyhours, the situation must awaken new anxieties.
But their hearts were still apparently undaunted. The success that hadrewarded their bold starting out gave abundant promise of still betterthings ahead. Tom resolutely refused to allow himself to have any fear.What if two thousand miles still lay between them and the goal oftheir hopes? Was not the miracle-worker of a monster plane doingremarkably fine work, and should they not continue to believe the endjustified the means?
So they watched the sun dropping lower and lower in the western skywithout any one voicing the thought that must have been in each mind. Thesame inscrutable Providence that had watched over them by day would stillguard them when the light was gone. Under the stars, seeming now so muchnearer and brighter than when ashore, they went on and on, until back inthe east another day dawned, the great day of hope for them!
Jack had taken to looking eagerly ahead once more.
"What do you think you see?" Beverly asked him, for Tom again served aspilot at the steering gear.
"Why, I'm all mixed up about it," came the slow reply. "It certainlyisn't a steamer, and again it just can't be land!"
"Well, hardly," Beverly answered. "To tell the honest truth I don'tbelieve there's a foot of land closer to us than the Bermudas, which mustlie off in that direction," pointing further toward the southwest.
"When the sun glints on it I'm fairly dazzled," Jack continued, "just asif some one had used a piece of broken looking-glass to shoot the raysinto my eyes. And then there's a sort of queer mist hanging about thatthing in the bargain, so that sometimes it's almost blotted out. Whatunder the sun can it be?"
"I think I can give a guess," Tom called back. "How would an iceberg fillthe bill, Colin?"
"Just the thing, I'd say," the lieutenant answered, "only who ever heardof an iceberg floating down in mid-Atlantic at this season of the year?Such a thing would be uncommon, to say the least."
"But not impossible?" ventured Tom, to which the other agreed.
"Take a look, and tell us, Colin," urged Jack, offering the glasses.
A minute afterwards they were handed bade again.
"Just what it is, Tom, after all," reported Beverly. "A pretty tall bergit seems to be, with an extensive ice-floe around it as level in spots asa floor. I thought I saw something move on it that might be a Polar bear,caught when the berg broke away from its Arctic glacier. We will passdirectly over, and may be able to feel the chill."
"It was the _Titanic_, wasn't it, that bumped into an iceberg, and wentdown with such a frightful loss of life?" remarked Jack.
"No other," replied Tom. "But we'll try to make sure nothing like thathappens to our frail craft. Try to guess what would happen to thatmonster berg if we hit head on?"
"Hardly a crack!" Jack retorted. "But I'm more interested in wonderingwhat would become of us. Guess we'd better keep a good thousand feet up,and not bother trying to pry into the ice-floe's secrets."
"I'm not dreaming of dropping a foot lower just at present," Tom saiddecisively; and not one of them dreamed how soon that decision would haveto be reversed, since all still looked fair about them, with no storm insight and the wonderful motors kept up their regular pulsations as ifcapable of going on forever.
Yet strange vicissitudes and changes are the portion of those whofollow the sea; which may also be applied to other voyagers of space,the sailors of the air. One minute all seems fair, with the sunshining; another, and a white squall is dashing down upon the ship, tocatch the crew unawares and perhaps smother them with its mightyfoam-crested billows.
It was not half an hour later when something happened that was calculatedto chill the hearts of those bold navigators, such as even close contactto the ice-floe and berg could never bring about.
At the time they had reached a point almost above the field of ice fromthe Arctic regions, and Jack was scrutinizing its full extent, commentingthe while on many peculiar features that attrac
ted his attention.
"It's a Polar bear, all right, fellows," he announced, "and believe mehe's some size in the bargain. If I had a rifle along I wouldn't minddropping down there and rustling him. But what ails you, Tom? You seembothered about something. Gee! you're as white as a ghost!"
Lieutenant Beverly leaned forward and clutched the pilot's arm.
"Anything gone wrong with the motors, Tom?" he demanded hoarsely.
"I've just made a terrible discovery," replied Tom, trying tocontrol himself. "The worst has happened, and I'm afraid we're infor a bad time!"