She was alive, but faint and suffering. She did not wish to talk and Ben did not urge her, although he was curious to know her identity.
“I will learn all in the morning,” he said to himself; “that is, if we are spared until then.”
He was too excited and terrified to fall asleep, even had his discomfort not been too great to permit it, and he found he needed his wits about him.
Now and then the cake of ice which supported them was crowded by others, until it seemed on the point of being overturned, in which event another terrible struggle would be necessary to save himself and the little girl.
Then again, there seemed to be eddies and whirlpools in the current, which threatened to dislodge them or to break up the miniature iceberg into fragments, as the bridge itself was destroyed.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CIPHER TELEGRAM
The almost interminable night came to an end at last and the dull gray of morning appeared in the east.