Ahead of them loomed a gray blanket of fog and Andy sent the Goliath climbing for altitude. Four, five, six, even seven thousand feet they fought their way against the bitter wind but the drifting mist of gray enveloped them. They came down to eight hundred feet but there was no escape. The fog clung to the earth and it was impossible to see more than two hundred feet ahead of the control room. Double lookouts were posted and extra men ordered into the observation cockpits atop the Goliath with telephone sets strapped to them so they could communicate any possible danger or send news of a break in the fog bank.
The Goliath crept ahead under reduced speed, barely feeling its way along. Andy knew that below them was the great ice cap which covered Greenland and in the region over which they were now flying an occasional mountain peak reared its head through the eternal blanket of ice and snow. The danger of colliding with such a peak was known to every member of the crew and not a man so much as closed his eyes while the Goliath battled the fog.
The real danger from the fog, which only Andy and Serge realized, was ice. In less than half an hour the outer covering of the Goliath was sheathed in ice. The sides of the gondola were covered with the treacherous stuff and even the windows froze over. It was necessary to lower them and the cold fog swept into the control room. Sheepskins were buttoned close as the Goliath moved slowly ahead.
Serge kept his eyes on the altimeter. The needle was wavering at eight hundred feet. Then it dropped to seven-fifty and finally to seven hundred. The weight of the ice was forcing them down.
Serge nudged Andy and pointed significantly to the needle. It was down to six seventy-five. Andy nodded grimly and ordered more speed, at the same time trying to nose the Goliath higher with the increased lifting power of the additional speed.
They gained a bare hundred feet, held it for five minutes, and then saw the needle of the altimeter start down.
“Take the controls,” Andy told Serge. “I’m going to ask for volunteers to go on top with me and try and chop the ice loose.”
“You can’t do that,” protested Serge. “The risk is too great. Someone will slip off and be killed.”
“It’s either going up top and trying to clear off the ice or wait here until we’re forced down and crash into something, which would mean the loss of the Goliath and the end of the rescue flight to the Neptune. I’ve got to go.”
There was no hesitancy among the crew in volunteering for the dangerous task. They equipped themselves with short axes and steel bars, special steel cleated shoes and ropes fastened around their waists. Andy divided his crew of volunteers, four of them going aft and three of them accompanying him aloft at the bow of the Goliath.