De Long, abstractedly watching Ambler hobbling aft, hardly heard me. Without a word in reply, he turned to the ladder behind him, and with his tall frame sagging inside his parka as if the whole world bore on his bent shoulders, haltingly descended it. I looked after him pityingly. He had brought Dan, a husky, vital young man into the Arctic; now of all times, what a weight to have on his mind as Dan’s life hung in the balance! Unconsciously I groaned as I turned back to thawing out my steam line and I am afraid that my mind wandered considerably for the next hour as I played a steam hose back and forth along that frozen length of iron pipe.
I was still at it, and still not concentrating very well, when Tong Sing’s slant eyes peered at me through the cloud of vapor enveloping my head and he pulled my arm to make sure he had my attention.
“Mister Danenhower likee maybe you see him, chief.”
I shut off my steam hose, nodded to the steward, started aft. If I could help to lighten poor Dan’s burden any, I was glad to try. But what, I wondered, did he want of me—advice or information?
I entered Dan’s room, sidling cautiously between the double set of blankets draping the door to shut out stray light. It was pitch-black inside.
“That you, chief?” came a strained voice through the darkness the minute my foot echoed on the stateroom deck.
“Yes, Dan. What is it?”
“My eye’s in horrible shape, the doctor tells me, chief. If it’s anything like the way it hurts, I guess he understates it. What’s happened to make it worse the last couple of days I don’t know,” he moaned, then added bitterly, “Most likely it’s just worry. How do you think I feel lying here useless, not lending a hand, while the rest of you are killing yourselves trying to stop that leak and save the ship?”
I felt through the blackness for his bunk, then slid my fingers over the blankets till I found his hand.
“Don’t let that get you, Dan,” I begged, giving his huge paw a reassuring squeeze. “We’re making out fine with that leak. As a fact, we got it practically licked already. It wasn’t much trouble.”