“Except the sick and the doctor, all hands over the side! We’re going to abandon the boat and wade ashore! Keep your boots on this time, men!”
Slowly the rest of the crew crawled over the side into the water, finding it knee deep. Leaving in the boat only the four men and Snoozer, and taking as heavy a load on his back as each could carry, the crew set out for shore, Nindemann first to break a path through the half inch ice, then in succession Kaack, Görtz, Iversen, Lee, Dressler, Collins, Alexey, Noros, and finally Ah Sam, whose feet were in such bad shape that not to impede the others he was ordered to go last. It was hard work, especially for Nindemann smashing ahead through the ice, with the chilly water changing irregularly in depth from knee deep to over his waist, sinking unexpectedly into mudholes from which he could hardly drag his feet, and all the while pounding away at the sheet ice with hips and thighs, unable to use his arms because of the load on his shoulders.
Finally the panting quartermaster reached the shore, a low and swampy slope. Behind him trudged the others, and thankfully coming up out of the sea, squeezing mud and slush from their boots at every step, they dumped their loads on the beach. Siberia at last! A feeble cheer burst from husky throats and cracking lips.
But looking round at that dismal shore, covered with snow, bare of all vegetation, utterly desolate and devoid of any trace of human habitation then or ever, it is doubtful that there could have been found on earth any group of human beings save only these few who had gone through hell on ice to reach that shore, who would not have cursed instead of cheered at setting foot on that bleak tundra.
CHAPTER XXXV
“Come on, boys; we go back now for the rest of the load and the captain,” ordered Nindemann, who with his rating of quartermaster was senior in the group ashore. “Shake a leg; we got lots to do before dark yet.”
“Yah,” said Iversen, plunging back in the sea, “frozen feet ban yust too bad for any man. Ay tank ve better get it done qvick before yet it gets colder!”
One by one, the men slipped back into the narrow lane broken through the ice after Iversen and stolidly plodded off in the water toward the distant boat, till only Ah Sam and Collins were left.
“Shake it up there, you fellers; we ain’t got much time,” growled Nindemann.
“I’m ashore now and I’m going to stay ashore!” snarled Collins. “Do you think you’re going to get me a mile out in the ocean again wading through that mud and ice to drag in the captain and the dog? Well, you’re not! I might for sick men, but not for them!”