They were used to overcoming obstacles.
It was often necessary to make a smooth road over or through these barriers, and this took much time. The light of the waning Antarctic day was none too bright.
But steadily our adventurers drew nearer to the mighty cliffs and headlands, which opened to create the deep fiord.
The trip, however, was not without incident, for just as they were skirting a high pinnacle of ice, it cracked, crumbled and fell.
The descending avalanche, fortunately, did not fall squarely upon the Scorcher, else the result might have been serious.
It, instead, massed itself about the machine and half buried it. For a time the adventurers were in a virtual panic.
They feared the Scorcher might be injured.
But as soon as the crashing ice settled into place, Frank sprung out of the pilot-house and began to examine the running gear of the machine.
“How is it?” asked Randall; “has anything smashed?”
“Nothing,” replied Frank, joyfully. “I feared the worst.”