“We’ll probably reach it sometime tomorrow morning,” answered Johnson. “Why are you so anxious to see your first iceberg?”
“Not so much to see the iceberg, as to see it blown up,” replied Bob. “It must be a sight worth watching.”
“The real excitement,” affirmed Johnson, “is in boarding the iceberg and setting the charge. TNT isn’t the safest thing in the world to handle, and ice is slippery stuff to travel on. Oh, there’s plenty of excitement at times for the landing party.”
“That means that we’ll have to be part of the landing party then,” announced Bob. “How about it, fellows?”
“Not for mine!” exclaimed Jimmy, raising one hand in the attitude of taking an oath. “You fellows can climb around icebergs with cans of explosive strapped to your backs all you want to, but I’ll stick to the ship and watch you work. Besides, tomorrow’s the day I get my doughnuts, and I can’t take a chance on missing them.”
“Well, then, we’ll have to struggle along without you,” said Joe. “I want to be in on whatever’s doing, though. How about you, Herb?”
“Surest thing you know! I don’t think we ought to let Jimmy off so easily, though. He’d make an ideal one to carry the TNT. If he slipped, he could let the can fall on top of him, and he’s so nice and fat that it would cushion the fall.”
“I suppose it wouldn’t matter if it broke a few of my ribs, would it?” asked the fat boy.
“Oh, well, it would be in a good cause, so you oughtn’t to mind.”
“Perhaps not; but I do, all the same. Anyway, it isn’t likely that Captain Springer will let any of you go.”