Nothing more was said until the two exhausted men were helped aboard the airship.
Then Barney was undressed and thawed out, and both were given hot drink and food.
The Celt’s story was brief and succinct.
“Shure, whin I fell into that hole,” he declared, “fer toime me head was under wather. Then I cum up into the air an’ all was dark.
“I felt mesilf being carried along by the current, an’ thin all became loight agin an’ I kem out into daylight wanst more. I was carried about a moile below here, to a big, open basin av wather. I cloimbed out, an’ shure there in the ice I saw the hull av a big ship.
“Masts nor riggin’ there was none, only the hull. An’ whin I wint up to it this gintleman crawled out an’ spoke to me. Shure, he kin tell his story betther than me.”
“Golly! but I am done glad fo’ to see yo’ safe agin, I’ish!” cried Pomp, with glistening eyes.
“Shure, an’ it’s glad I am to be wid yez wanst again!” replied Barney.
The Arctic refugee now began, in a weak, quavering voice to tell his story.
“Three years I have passed in thus cursed clime!” he declared. “All has been solitude like unto death. Oh, God! the horror of that time!