The Ice Pilot

The _Bear_ had one fact in its favour: the two ships were driving for the Bering Strait. The Strait was less than forty miles from headland to headland, and between the two cape...

The girl had given him courage, since her tiny offering still lay upon the bunk. Unconsciously he reached for it and twirled the silver-plated barrel. It was fully loaded with s...

A faint sound from above echoed throughout the alleyway, and Stirling turned his head, listening with every sense alert. The sound was repeated, then footfalls grated on the dec...

The statement was made so fervently that Helen Marr blushed and did not answer as she followed the towering form of the Ice Pilot across the quarter-deck and down into the cabin...

Landlocked and secure, the crew of the _Pole Star_ worked out the day by odd jobs about the deck. Stirling heard them swabbing down, and caught the cockney accent of the mate ra...

Marr and Whitehouse knew the secret of the after cabin of the whaler. They never had given any sign that another shared the meals and splendid staterooms with them. This other h...

Night shaded overhead and the wind sank to a following breeze which flapped the sails on the polished spars. Steam was got up in the boilers, the screw thrashed, and the ship pl...

It was a full half hour later before Stirling made out the Japanese flag which fluttered at the stern of the brig. He called out her nationality then swung and glanced toward th...

Stirling climbed over the edge of the crow's-nest and reached for a line. He dropped to the deck like a plummet, strode aft and mounted the poop, where Marr stood with the pin i...

Soon Stirling felt the girl's body close beside him, but she had said no word for hours. The glory of the Arctic night had held her spellbound; the beauty of the North enthralle...

The Ice Pilot placed the captain as he listened to the apology--Marr was of a nature to brook no excuse. He had determined upon sailing the _Pole Star_ for a voyage of discovery...

The sun came up on a long slant, to swing its southern arc. Glancing from ice floe to ice floe, it seemed a cold bronze disk placed in motion by some Norseman of the Arctic wilds.

The girl raised her chin and thrust out her right hand. "I was always a wild creature," she said. "Father died soon after I was born, and mother let me run wild in Concord. Then...

A man stood alone on the crest of Telegraph Hill. Below him the city stretched with its square-checked habitations; its long, blurred lanes of lights; its trolley cars creeping...

In a way, Whitehouse spoke the truth. Stirling had always held a slight liking for the English mate, who was one of England's outcasts--one who had left his country for his coun...

As the sun rose above the ice-covered sea on the morning following Stirling's talk with the leader of the revolutionists, the ship was swung toward the magnetic north and driven...

The pall which lay around the _Pole Star_ was like an ultramarine depth. The narrow circle of visible waters rose and fell sullenly, while aloft the taper spars merged into the...

For a second time a bore of white water showed. This was followed by a plume of soft spray which spurted up into the frosty air and vanished to leeward. The whale was rising for...

It was a mad wave of victory for them. They brought surprise and determination as their allies, and were in great numbers. Already they had mopped up the anchor watch and some o...

Stirling kept a careful record of the changes given in the course of the _Pole Star_, and found that the little skipper was reaching for the true great-circle route to Yokohama....

From his lofty perch Stirling tried to count the number of revolutionists, and had reached two hundred and ten before he stopped counting. Others were ashore. A whaleboat had be...

Stirling saw the sack-sewn body plunge into the icy waters of the Bering Sea, and replaced his cap when the last ripples had died. He turned and glanced upward at Marr, watching...

The steady clanking of the triple-expansion engines driving the screw at a racing speed of one hundred and ten revolutions a minute, the glow over the drab funnel, the hiss of s...

The girl cried aloud as she saw the reason for the Ice Pilot's course. Ice backed by more ice was rushing northward; winter had arrived, and new floes and bergs were forming in...

The _Pole Star_ threaded the ice floes like a dancer on a polished floor. She drove all that day north and east; she crashed through new ice; she dodged the ancient floes and wo...

Stirling had finished his examination of the seaman's wound by the time Cushner returned from aft with the medicine chest. This contained bandages and crude cures which had the...

The floes through which Stirling guided the ship became larger and higher. Old "grandpas" drifted by--their sides honeycombed by the action of the water. These floes had broken...

Rough-garbed and soiled from his efforts, Stirling led the way aft to the large cabin of the _Pole Star_, then turned and held the curtain back for Helen Marr. He bowed as she p...

In a maze of doubt and resolution Stirling stared out over the dark harbour and saw that the band of outcasts had reached the shelving beach and were making preparations to swim...

Breathing the invigorating night air, Horace Stirling climbed over the ship's rail, squared his shoulders, and started toward the poop steps. The consciousness that he had been...

A breeze, fresh and gripping with the taste of brine, swept over the stern of the ship and filled the canvas which Cushner and Whitehouse ordered set. The anchor was brought inb...

The Ice Pilot reached the deck by way of the chains in the waist, and saw that the entire crew had gathered between the galley house and the break of the poop.

The main hold was littered with a maze of boxes, bales, and bundles, the last made up of sealskins roughly bound, with salt sprinkled upon the fleshy side of the pelts. This pre...

The companion slide opened suddenly and Helen Marr emerged from the cabin. She stood in furs and close-drawn cap as Stirling swung the wheel and looked at her. She surveyed the...

Marvelling at the turn of events, Stirling groped about the crow's-nest and found his twelve-diameter glasses, which had been used in whale hunting. He turned their screw, adjus...

The Ice Pilot had no way to answer the piercing call of the girl, yet the revolutionists might detect her presence at any moment. The leader was alert and kept sweeping the sea...

When Stirling awoke it seemed to him that he had passed through an ocean of dreams. He rolled over and blinked through leaden eyes at the porthole. Dawn was breaking across a wi...