His next step was to take a prismatic compass and set it in position outside the hut his brother had indicated. By taking a bearing of the twin-peaked hummock, he was able to fix the direction of the scene of the disaster to the Russian airship.
O'Donovan having reported that his preparations were complete, the seven surviving members of Claude Ranworth's party, and the Russian Dmitri, were taken off the sleigh and placed in the snow hut.
Without further delay, the Bird of Freedom set off on her fourteen-mile journey to the rescue of the stranded aviators.
It was as well that Ranworth had thought to question his brother on the subject of the explosion. By so doing he saved himself the trouble and loss of valuable time in retracing his course until Petrovitch could pick up his trail. He also knew that the Russian had greatly overrated the distance.
Instead of being sixty miles from Desolation Inlet, the wrecked airship was about fifty miles from that harbour and fourteen from Observation Camp.
Before the sleigh had put half a mile between itself and the camp, the arm of a wide creek was passed on the left hand. The water was frozen over, except here and there where the ice had broken under its own pressure, and had piled itself up into irregular hummocks. Around these holes thousands of seals were congregated. The mystery of how Claude Ranworth's party obtained their seals was now solved.
"What a pity we didn't know of this before, sir," remarked Leslie. "The Polarity could have approached much nearer the camp."
"The ice is too thick for that," replied Ranworth. "For another reason, the creek apparently opens into the sea on the northern coast of Nova Cania. You must recollect that the southern and the greater portion of the eastern and western sides of this vast island have been explored with fair accuracy."
Three times during the next ten miles the decapod wheels had to be brought into action owing to the rough nature of the ground.
Suddenly Ranworth gave the steering-wheel a vicious turn, which had the effect of making the Bird of Freedom describe a sharp semi-circle.