“They don’t look like men,” remarked Jimmy, in a puzzled way. “They——”
What more he might have said was lost in a crashing, grinding roar as the berg rubbed up against the side of the ship. A shower of ice splinters dislodged by the contact came down on the deck like giant hail.
At the same time something else came down! Two great lumbering figures had either been thrown or had leaped from one of the overhanging ledges of the berg!
The boys took one look at them, and their faces turned ashen.
“Bears!” shouted Joe. “Polar bears! Run, Jimmy, run!”
The boys turned and ran for their lives.
CHAPTER XXV
IN THE NICK OF TIME
Joe and Jimmy made for the wireless room, while behind them came the larger of the two polar bears, the other apparently having been injured in the fall.
The boys were running at full speed, but the deck was slippery with ice, and again and again they almost lost their footing. It seemed to them as if they were in a nightmare.
Behind them, they could hear the heavy padding of the brute’s feet, running with surprising speed for so heavy and clumsy a creature. Once Joe ventured to glance behind him, and the sight of the huge monster with his slavering jaws and fiery eyes bearing down upon them lent wings to his feet.