When they emerged in the observation cockpit where another member of the crew was huddled trying to peer into the fog, they found themselves in a world alone. Ahead, behind, and on each side stretched the solid wall of cold, gray mist. The top of the Goliath shone dully under the sheet of ice, the depth of which was increasing every minute.
“Lash yourselves to the steel cable along the catwalk,” Andy cautioned them, “and be careful in using the axes. Don’t chop through the metalized covering if you can help it.”
The men nodded grimly and crept cautiously out on the catwalk, each one careful to fasten the rope around his body. Setting the spikes on their shoes firmly into the ice, they began hacking away at the menacing shield which covered the Goliath.
It was a slow, tedious task and the air was bitter cold. They cleaned off the forward part of the catwalk and then started cautiously out on top of the Goliath. Great sheets of ice slipped away under the prying of their bars but it seemed that new sheets formed almost as fast as they pried the old ones loose.
Andy’s hands became numb and his face felt like an icy mask.
The lookout in the observation cockpit shouted at them.
“Control room says we’re holding steady now at five hundred feet. Asks if you want more help.”
“Tell them to send up a relief crew,” replied Andy. Ten minutes later three fresh men were working with him and they attacked the ice with renewed vigor. Andy felt fortunate that there had been no accident so far but the thought was hardly in his mind when one of the new men, overly-enthusiastic, slipped and disappeared in the fog. His safety rope was fastened to the cable along the catwalk, but he had been in too much haste to tie it securely and Andy saw the rope slipping. Somewhere over the side of the Goliath this man was hanging, undoubtedly feeling the quiver of the rope as the knot slipped.
Forgetting his own danger, Andy hurled himself along the catwalk. He seized the other man’s safety rope just before the knot gave way. Andy’s arms jerked out straight and he cried aloud at the sudden pain. He wrapped his legs around the cable on the catwalk and sprawled out on top of the Goliath, head-foremost toward the edge over which the other man had disappeared.
Andy’s cries brought the attention of the watch in the observation cockpit and the other two men working on top with him. As fast as the treacherous condition of the catwalk would permit, they hastened toward him but to Andy their progress was painfully slow.