[Illustration: Holding one of the hooks in his gloved hand, Travers ... deftly engaged the hook in the ring-bolt at the bow of the sleigh.
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At the third attempt he succeeded in engaging the after hook. With a terrific jerk the sleigh was raised ten feet above the sea as the Polarity rolled to port. The next moment the return roll of the ship let the sleigh down with a resounding smack upon the white-foamed waves.
Travers, holding on like grim death to the span which he had now made fast, had slipped to the deck and was revolving round the chain in a vain endeavour to obtain a foothold upon the slippery platform.
The ship's donkey-engine was clanking. Slowly the wire rope was being wound round the drum of the windlass. Each jerk, as the Bird of Freedom dropped with the waves, became less and less, until she drew entirely clear of the water.
Five minutes later the sleigh rested upon the Polarity's deck. Travers, with two fingers of his left hand smashed to a pulp, slid inertly from his precarious perch. Two of the crew were just in time to break his fall. Insensible he was carried below, another victim of the grim Arctic.
The sick and wounded men were quickly transferred from the sleigh to the main cabin of the ship, which speedily resembled a hospital ward. The ship's doctor was soon hard at it, assisted by plenty of voluntary workers. John Ranworth had already recovered consciousness, and his first question was how long it would take to get the Bird of Freedom ready for the second dash for Observation Camp.
Leslie and Guy, their work for the present accomplished, were sound asleep, worn out with fatigue. Aubrey Hawke, although unfit for active duty, was superintending the recharging of the accumulators and overhauling the defects in the wiring of the motors.
It was indeed wonderful that the Bird of Freedom had survived her fall from the glacier. Well it was that the engines had been strongly bolted to their bearers, for had the motors been wrenched from their beds they would have crashed through the roof of the sleigh and sealed the fate of all on board.