None needed to be told of the possible consequences of drifting into shallow water. If the base of the iceberg, extending far down into the depths of the ocean, should strike some projecting mountain peak of the deep, or a plateau, the berg was liable to overturn, with an appalling rush, beyond the power of mind to conceive. In such an event there was no more chance of the party saving themselves than there would be in the crater of a bursting volcano.
Well might they look blankly in each other's faces, for they were helpless within the grasp of a power that was absolutely resistless.
They sat silent and waiting, but, as minute after minute passed, without the shock being repeated, hope returned, and they ventured to speak in undertones, as though fearful that the sound of their voices would precipitate the calamity.
"That satisfies me I was right," said Jack, compressing his lips and shaking his head.
"In what respect?" asked Fred.
"We're drifting toward the North Pole, and we are not far from the Greenland coast."
"But are there not shallow places in the ocean, hundreds of miles from land, where such a great iceberg as this might touch bottom?"
"Yes, but there are not many in this part of the world. The thing may swing out of this current, or get into another which will start it southward, but I don't believe it has done it yet."
"Sailing on an iceberg is worse than I imagined," was the comment of Rob; "I'm more anxious than ever to leave this; it isn't often that a passenger feels like complaining of the bigness of the craft that bears him over the deep, but that's the trouble in this case."
"If the capsize does come," said Jack, "it will be the end of us; we would be buried hundreds of fathoms under the ice."