This accident was a bad one for the chances of the voyagers and all felt secretly discouraged.
It seemed almost a certainty that the ship would be nipped before they could get to her. But Frank said:
“Don’t give up yet. We have a good chance and we’ll hang onto it.”
Slowly the Scorcher now made its way down the fiord.
The days passed into weeks before finally the great headlands were seen, and all craned their necks for a sight of the ship.
But an immense barrier of ice had risen just off shore. It was fully two hundred feet high.
This showed that beyond a doubt the pack had been at work. There must have been terrific crowding and crushing to have raised this barrier.
What, then, might be the fate of the ship?
Was she lying on her beam ends, a crushed and worthless wreck? Or had she gone to the bottom?
It could hardly be believed that she had altogether escaped mishap. The adventurers were in a fever of anxiety.