CHAPTER XII.
ADRIFT!
Six of the huge warriors picked up the unfortunate professor, who wasbound hand and foot, and were preparing to carry him toward the firewhen there came a startling interruption to their plans.
With a roar as if the desolate mountains about them were topplingabout their ears one of the dynamite bombs carried by the boys wasdropped and exploded a short distance from the camp. A huge hole wastorn 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 uptheir nests. Suddenly one of them happened to look upwards and gave awild yell.
Instantly the tribesmen, without waiting to pick up any of theirpossessions, fled for their horses and mounting them rode out of sightwithout daring to look round. To accelerate their progress the boyssent another dynamite bomb and two rockets after them, and thendescended to pick up the professor who, bound as he was, had been lefton the ground and was quite as much in the dark as to what he owed hisescape to as the Indians were.
"Oh, boys!" he exclaimed, as the machine glided to earth and the boysstepped out, "you were just in time. I really believe they meant tomake soup out of me. They were worse than the electric ray, a greatdeal. Oh, dear, I wish I had obeyed Captain Hazzard, but I wanted toget a specimen of a Patagonian dog-flea. They are very rare."
"Did you get one?" asked Frank, laughing in spite of himself at thewoe-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 overhis failure to collect the rare specimen than he did over his ownnarrow 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 hadexplored the camp and picked up some fine feather robes and curiousweapons which the Patagonians had left behind them in their hurry toescape.
"The Patagonians might take it into their heads to come back andattack 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 soa few minutes later the Golden Eagle was sent into the air again, thistime with an added passenger.
"Dear me, this is very remarkable," said the professor, "quite likeflying. I feel like a bird," and he flapped his long arms till theboys had to laugh once more at the comical man of learning.
As they flew along the professor explained to them that after he hadtaken the boat he had heard a dog barking ashore, and being confidentthat the Patagonians were friendly people and that it was a Patagoniandog he heard, he determined to do some exploring in search of thePatagonian dog-flea. He had only crawled a few steps from the riverbank, however, when he felt himself seized and carried swiftly away.It was then that he had fired the shot the boys heard. Later he hadmanaged 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 horseand rapidly borne him into the interior. They might not have meant anyharm to him at first, he thought, but when they found him examining adog with great care they were convinced the simple-minded old man wasa witch doctor and at once sentenced him to be burned to death.
"How about your friend that said that the Patagonians were a friendlyrace?" asked Billy, as the professor concluded his narrative.
"I shall write a book exposing his book," said the professor, withgreat dignity.
Nothing more occurred till, as they drew near the ships, Frank wavedhis handkerchief and the others fired their revolvers in token of thefact that they had been successful in their quest. In reply to thesejoyous signals the rapid-fire gun of the Southern Cross was fired andthe air was so full of noise that any Patagonians within twenty milesmust have fled in terror.
The professor, looking very shamefaced, was summoned to CaptainHazzard's cabin soon after he had arrived on board and put on cleangarments. What was said to him nobody ever knew, but he lookeddowncast as one of his own bottled specimens when he left the cabin.By sundown, however, he had quite recovered his spirits and had to berescued from the claws of a big lobster he had caught and whichgrabbed him by the toe as soon as he landed it on deck.
In the meantime the aeroplane was "taken down" and packed up once morewhile the boys came in for warm congratulations on the successfuloutcome of their aerial dash to the rescue. Captain Hazzard himselfsent for them and complimented them highly on their skill and courage.
"I shall mention your achievement in the despatches I shall send northby the Brutus," he said in conclusion to the happy boys.
The damage to her bow being repaired, there was nothing more to keepthe Southern Cross and her escort in the dreary river, and with noregrets 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 andwarm garments were served out to the men from the storerooms of theSouthern Cross. To the boys the cold was welcome, as it meant thatthey were approaching the goal of their journey.
Captain Barrington doubled watches day and night now, for at anymoment they might expect an encounter with a huge iceberg. In theantarctic these great ice mountains attain such bulk that they couldcrush the most powerful ship like an eggshell. It behooves allmariners venturing into those regions, therefore, to keep a mostcareful lookout for them.
One day soon after dinner, while the boys were on the fore peakchatting 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 anothermemorable occasion, the boys checked their disposition to laugh,although the professor, who was trying to dissect a strange littlefish 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 muchsolemnity.
"All right, professor," said Ben, with a wink at the boys, "maybe iceain't as easy to tell as an electric ray, but just the same I'm an oldwhaling man and I can smell ice as far as you can smell beefsteakfrying."
This was touching on the scientist's weak spot, for like many men ofeminence, he was nevertheless fond of a good dinner and his alacrityin answering meal calls had become a joke on board.
"You are arguing 'ad hominum,' my dear sir," spoke the professor withdignity. "Ice and beefsteak have no affinity for one another, nor dothey partake of the same qualities or analyses."
Whatever Ben might have said to this crushing rejoinder was lostforever, for at this moment there was a great disturbance in the watera short distance from the ship. The boys saw a whale's huge dark formleap from the waves not forty feet from the bow and settle back with acrash that sent the water flying up in the air like a fountain.
"Whale ho!" shouted Ben, greatly excited. "Hullo," he exclaimed thenext instant, "now you'll see some fighting worth seeing."
As he spoke, a form dimly seen, so near to the surface was it, rushedthrough 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 tofight."
The water grew crimson as the sword-fish plunged his cruel weapon intothe great whale's side, but the monster itself, maddened by its wound,the next instant charged the sword-fish. Its great jaws opened wide asit rushed at its smaller enemy, for which however, it was nomatch,--for the sword-fish doubled and swam rapidly away. The nextinstant it dived, and coming up rammed the whale with its sword oncemore. With a mighty leap the sea monster mounted clear of the wateronce more, the blood spouting from its wounds.
But its strength was gone and it crashed heavily downward while it wasin mid-spring. A warning shout from B
en called the attention ofeverybody who had been watching the fight to a more imminent danger tothe ship. The giant cetacean in falling to its death had struck thetowing cable and snapped it under its huge bulk as if the stout hawserhad been a pack thread.
"We are adrift," shouted Captain Barrington, rushing forward withCaptain 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 driftingtoward them, was a mighty structure of ice--the first berg the boyshad ever seen. With its slow advance came another peril. The air grewdeathly cold and a mist began to rise from the chilled sea.
"Signal the Brutus!" shouted Captain Barrington, but the fires hadbeen extinguished on the Southern Cross when she was taken in tow, andshe had nothing to signal with but her rapid firing gun. This wasfired again and again and soon through the mist there came back thelow moan of the siren of the Brutus.
"They won't dare to put back after us in this," exclaimed CaptainBarrington, as he stood on the bridge with the boys beside him, "weshall have to drift helplessly here till the iceberg passes or--"
"Until we are crushed," put in Captain Hazzard quietly, "wouldn't itbe as well to have the boats made ready for lowering," he went on.
"A good idea," agreed Captain Barrington. Ben Stubbs was summoned aftand told to give the necessary orders, and soon the men were at workclearing the life-boats in case things should come to the worst.
The mist grew momentarily denser and the cold more intense, yet socritical was the situation that nobody thought of leaving the decks todon warmer clothing. The fog, caused by the immense berg chilling thewarmer ocean currents, was now so thick that of the mighty berg itselfthey could perceive nothing. The knowledge that the peril wasinvisible did not make the minds of those on board the drifting vesselany the easier.
"If only we had steam we could get out of the berg's path," saidCaptain Barrington, stamping his foot.
"Couldn't we hoist sail," suggested Frank.
"There is no wind. I wish there were," replied the captain, "then itwould blow this mist away and we could at least see where we aredriving to."
In breathless silence and surrounded by the dense curtain of freezingmist the polar ship drifted helplessly on, those on board realizingthat at any moment there might come the crash and disaster that wouldfollow a collision with the monster berg.
Suddenly there came a shock that almost threw those on the bridge offtheir feet.
Hoarse cries and shouts sounded through the mist from the bow of theship, 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.
Boy Aviators' Polar Dash; or, Facing Death in the Antarctic Page 12