“True,” said McBain; “and they are placed around a pool of open water.”
“Open water!” exclaimed Rory, “and the sea frozen everywhere all around!”
“Ah, yes!” replied McBain; “that is the mystery. But we are in the land of mysteries. This pool of open water may be situated over a warm spring, or it may be there is some kind of a whirlpool there which prevents the formation of the ice, only there it is, sure enough, and howsoever hard the frost should become, or howsoever long it may last, I think that that pool will never, never close and freeze.
“The ice,” he continued, “was thin at the edge, but I have had it broken off, and will try to keep it so, and thus you will be enabled to go quite close to the water’s edge; and if my experience is anything to go by, you’ll see many a startling apparition there before the winter is past and gone.”
“You astonish me,” said Rory.
“And me,” said Allan.
“But what,” persisted Rory, “will the apparitions be like?”
“Nothing that can harm us, I think,” said McBain. “But as the ice extends farther seaward, sea-monsters will come to the pool to breathe and to disport themselves in the sunshine.”
“Perhaps the sea-serpent, for instance?” said Rory.
“Perhaps,” said McBain.