"And the ice has preserved it all intact?" shouted Billy.
"If the ship is there at all she is undoubtedly preserved exactly as she entered the great ice," was the calm reply.
"Gosh!" was the only thing Billy could think of to say.
"Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it?" gasped Harry.
"Maybe some Viking fleas got frozen up, too," chirped the professor, hopefully. "What a fine chance for me if we find the ship."
"Have you the latitude and longitude in which the whalers saw the frozen vessel?" asked Frank.
"I have them, yes," replied the captain, "and when the winter is over we will set out on a search for it. On our march toward the pole that will make only a slight detour."
"Was it for this that you wanted to have our aeroplane along?" asked
Frank, his eyes sparkling.
"Yes," was the reply, "in an airship you can skim high above the ice-fields and at a pace that would make an attempt to cover unknown tracts on foot ridiculous. If the Viking ship is to be found it will have to be your achievement."
Captain Hazzard was called out on deck at this juncture and the boys, once he was out of the room, joined in a war dance round the swinging cabin table.