CHAPTER X.

PLUNGED IN A LAKE.

A conference was held by the four adventurers to devise a means of overcoming the icy barrier choking up the exit of the ravine, and finally Frank said:

“The only way I can see out of the difficulty is to melt it.”

“How yo’ gwine ter do dat?” asked Pomp, in perplexity.

“By means of electric heat,” promptly answered Frank.

“Faix, it’s a puzzle yer givin’ us intoirely,” said Barney.

“I’ll explain. By forming a wire net over the ice and charging it with all the heat we use for the boat, the ice can gradually be melted away enough to let us get through.”

“Such a plan will consume much time,” said Dr. Vaneyke, “but as no better solution of the problem can be advanced, let us try it.”

“By de time we done reach Nordenskjold bay,” said Pomp, “de Red Eric mebbe be gone away.”

“I hope not,” Frank said.

They saw no more of the cyclone that drove them into the pass, and set to work to carry out his idea.

The days were now so short that most of the work was done by moonlight.

Frank’s plan operated, but it took a long time to melt the icy barrier, and deprived of the heat, the interior of the Ranger became cold and cheerless.

A day and a night passed before they finally got the ice ship out on the icy plain again, and resumed their journey over the ground toward the place where the whaler was in winter quarters.

The question that most troubled them was whether Ben Bolt had the shanghaied boy aboard his ship yet.

They did not know that he had contracted with Alfred Milburn to put Walter Grey out of the way, so the lawyer could gain possession of the boy’s fortune.

Nor did Bolt know that the lawyer was in prison, Mrs. Grey in possession of her husband’s fortune, and Frank on his track to rescue the boy.

The mammoth’s bones did not interfere with the Ranger’s work, whether she was in the sea, on the ice, or in the air, as she was calculated to carry a much greater weight.

Barney and Pomp were so delighted over their escape from the pass that they got out the fiddle and the banjo and struck up a lively melody as the ice ship sped along.

The cyclone had left a broad trail where it swept over the ice, tumbling great blocks here and there, sending the loose snow up in great drifts and sweeping the ice perfectly clean.

“Had the Ranger been caught in its grip,” said Frank, “there would by this time have been nothing left of her.”

“Then it’s lucky we ran into that cul-de-sac,” answered Vaneyke.

“Now to locate Nordenskjold Bay.”

“It’s on the northwest coast, ain’t it?”

“Yes,” answered Frank.

“Why did Ben Bolt go there?”

“Very likely to avoid the whalers in the strait.”

“You think he must have had an object in so doing?”

“It is my impression that he yet has the shanghaied boy on his craft, and did not want the other whalers to know it. In a lonely, desolate place like the bay is where the Red Eric lies, he can put the unlucky boy out of the way, and no one will be the wiser. Don’t you see the point?”

“That’s just what I thought, Frank.”

At this moment a fine big reindeer bounded into view from behind a mass of icy blocks.

The beast cast a frightened glance of its big soft eyes at the boat, and wheeling around, it sped away.

“There’s fine game!” ejaculated Frank.

“For those who can catch it.”

“I think we could drop him.”

“With a rifle?”

“Yes; if I can get in range.”

“Try it.”

“You take the wheel.”

The professor grasped the spokes, put on more speed, and Frank took a rifle and went out on deck.

The deer was speeding over the ice like the wind, and the ice boat rushed after it furiously.

A loud buzz arose from the wheels and a crackling from under the big steel runners.

Fast as the deer was going, the animal was no match for the ice ship, and it gradually bore down upon the creature.

“The deer is going in a long curve,” said the doctor.

“Can’t you cut across the curve and head it off?” asked Frank.

“Yes. That will bring us nearer the sea coast.”

“Go ahead, then. I want to get in range.”

The deer was heading for the coast; but, for some reason, was describing a sort of semi-circle.

Dr. Vaneyke, instead of steering along in the animal’s tracks, now took a short cut with the boat.

Only half the distance to the shore was covered when Frank raised his rifle and fired.

The deer bounded up in the air and fell dead.

“Hurrah! You’ve dropped him!” cried the professor.

“Cut across toward him, doctor.”

Vaneyke was about to carry out this order when the ice suddenly began to crack and snap under the boat like a volley of artillery.

Then it broke in.

Down sank the Ranger in the midst of the smashing ice, and a tremendous upheaval of the water.

There was a lake beneath the thin ice which emptied into the sea.

She had gone into this.

It was low tide, and much of the water had run out from under the sheet of ice, so that when the boat broke through she went down five feet before she touched the water.

The ice over a large area had split and caved in all around the Ranger.

It was to go around the lake that the deer had been going in a circle was now very evident.

A cake of the ice struck Frank a violent blow and knocked him overboard into the freezing water.

Scarcely had he landed in the brine when down came the ice upon his head, and he was buried out of sight.

Pushed under the water, he sank to a considerable depth.

When he arose his head was under the ice.

It held him under the water so he could not breathe.

For an instant Frank was so bewildered that he felt sure he was going to drown; then he pulled his faculties together, and realizing his position, he dove under and swam under water.

It was lucky for him that he went in the right direction, for he came up in clear water beside the boat.

Had he not done so he certainly would have drowned.

Grasping one of the runners, he held himself up until he got his breath, and then climbed to the deck.

No one knew what had befallen him until he went inside the turret, where he found Barney and Pomp with the doctor.

“Good Heaven! what does this mean?” asked the latter.

“Knocked overboard by a cake of ice.”

“Lord amassy, chile, why didn’ yo’ yell?” asked Pomp.

“I scarcely had time to even breathe.”

“Yer’d better change yer clothes an’ take a sup o’ whiskey,” advised Barney; “or, be heavens! it’s a cowld in yer head yez will catch.”

Frank laughed and dove down-stairs.

When he returned in a change of clothing, he showed no ill effects from his involuntary cold bath.

He found his companions devising a means of getting out of the trap into which the deer had lured them.

“The only way to do is to start the gyroscopes revolving,” said Frank. “Let her land near the dead deer.”

This plan was carried out.

The boat landed on solid ice again.

As soon as the ice ship landed beside the carcase of the deer Frank went around and secured the best portions of it.

Then they resumed their journey to the northward.

Numerous indentations were met with along the coast, and a keen lookout was kept for the whaler.

As they proceeded the ice grew rougher.

Mighty cliffs rose here and there, vast glaciers were crossed, valleys were traversed, and they had to skirt the bases of huge rocky ridges and towering mountains.

Everything presented a wild and picturesque appearance, perfectly desolate as far as humanity was concerned, and yet teeming with birds and beasts.

How these creatures subsisted in that barren region was a mystery; but it was clear that they gained a very meager living, as was evidenced by their gaunt, bony forms.

League after league was passed over.

Finally Frank made a calculation, and referring to a chart, he said to his friends in the cabin:

“We must be very close to Nordenskjold bay now.”

“Faix, it’s no soign av a bay have I seen in some toime.”

“Neither have I,” said the doctor.

“But the distance traveled warrants the belief that we are near it,” persisted Frank.

Barney was just about to reply when there came a yell from Pomp, up in the turret.

“Dar’s a anchored ship now!”

Every one was startled.

They rushed up-stairs.

Off to the right they saw the vessel.

As soon as Frank saw her he cried:

“It is the Red Eric!”

The whaler, stripped of her canvas, was moored to the shore of a large bay in a great basin below an eminence upon which the ice ship had just come to a pause.