But they armed themselves with steel-tipped poles and set forth. Soon they were clambering over the ice.
It was a rough and dangerous ascent. Before they had made half it, a startling thing happened.
Mains and Barney were in the lead. Suddenly and without warning they vanished.
There was a slight upheaval of the blocks of ice. Then they disappeared from view most effectually.
“Great Scott!” exclaimed Randall, “did you see that, Frank?”
“I did,” replied the young inventor.
“What does it mean?”
“It means that if we don’t go to the aid of those chaps instantly we may never see them again.”
They clambered furiously up to the spot where the two men had been, but not a trace of them could be found.
There were a few marks of the penstocks on the ice, but this was all. There was no visible pitfall or cavity.