"Will she make it, think you?"
Another clever ruse of this great heart! He wanted the boy to have a part in the action. Archie felt the blood stirring in his veins once again.
"She's pretty near steady, sir, I think," he replied, after a pause.
The two leaned over the rail and looked intently at the ice sweeping past.
"Are we losing, sir?" asked the boy.
"I think we're holdin' our own," said the captain, elatedly.
The boy turned to the great growler, now vague of outline in the dark. The ice floe had swept over the limit of vision. He wondered if it had struck the base of the berg. Then all at once the heap of cloudy white swayed forth and back before his eyes. For a moment it was like a gigantic curtain waving in the wind. It vanished of a sudden. A mountain of broken water shot up in its place—as high as its topmost pinnacle had been; and, following close upon its fall, another berg, with a worn outline, reared itself, dripping streams of water.
Thus far there had been no sound; but the sound beat its way against the wind, at last, and it was a thunderous noise—"like the growlin' of a million dogs," the captain said afterwards. The growler had capsized.
"Look!" the boy cried, overcome.