"We can't work along the edge in the dark?" he said.
"Well," said Dampier drily, "it wouldn't be wise. We could stand on as she's lying until half through the night, and then come round and pick up the ice again a little before sun-up."
Wyllard made a sign of acquiescence. "Then," he said, "don't call me until you're in sight of it. A day of this kind takes it out of one."
He moved aft heavily towards the deck-house, and Dampier watched him with a smile of comprehension, for he was a man who had also in his time made many fruitless efforts, and quietly faced defeat. After all, it is possible that when the final reckoning comes some failures will count.
For several hours the Selache stretched out close-hauled into what they supposed to be open water, and they certainly saw no ice. Then they hove her to, and when the wind fell light brought her round and crept back slowly upon the opposite tack. Wyllard had gone to sleep in the meanwhile, and daylight was just breaking when he next went out on deck. There was scarcely an air of wind, and the heavy calm seemed portentous and unnatural. The schooner lay lurching on a sluggish swell, with the frost wool thick on her rigging, and a belt of haze ahead of her. On the edge of it, the ice glimmered in the growing light, but in one or two places stretches of blue-grey water seemed to penetrate it, and Dampier, who strode aft when he saw Wyllard, said he fancied there must be an opening somewhere.
"By the thickness of it, that ice has formed some time, and as we've seen nothing but a skin it must have come from further north," he added. "It gathered up under a point or in a bay most likely, until a shift of wind broke it out, and the stream or breeze set it down this way. That seems to indicate that there can't be a great deal of it, but a few days' calm and frost would freeze it solid."
"Well?" said Wyllard impatiently.
"It lies between us and the inlet, and it's quite clear that we can't stay where we are. Once we got nipped, there'd probably be an end of her. We have got to get into that inlet at once or make for the other further south."
Wyllard smiled. "It all leads back to the same point. We must get through the ice. The one question is—how's it to be done?"
"With a working breeze I'd stand into the biggest opening, but as there's none we'll wait until it clears a little, and then send a boat in. The sun may bring the wind."