“She isn’t lost—no, no, it can’t be!” he burst forth. “She is a good gal, and Providence watches over them kind. She is young—and yet I’ve never known her to laugh at my pigtail—not that there’s any thing about it to laugh at for that matter—like some of her sex that I’ve come across in my wanderings. Ay, ay, she’s an angel, and God will take care of her.”
At that moment he heard a shout which he recognized as that of his chum, and his response soon brought the young man to his side.
“Where is she? Where is Alice? She is not where we left her!”
“God only knows!” replied Stump. “I’ve been a-calling her, and searching for her in vain, ever since my return!”
The young harpooner compressed his lips tightly. His head drooped, and his tall frame trembled, so great was his agitation.
“Stump,” he at length said, in a hoarse voice, “What can have become of her? My God!—perhaps she has slipped into the water and been drowned!”
“No, no,” cried Stump, “that last couldn’t happen. She is too careful for that, you may depend upon it. One of the boats couldn’t have come and taken her away, neither.”
“It is my opinion that all the boats are a long distance off, by this time,” replied Marline. “I didn’t even succeed in finding the one I have been looking for, for the horn suddenly stopped blowing; and the blocks of ice have now become so closely wedged, that no boat could have reached Alice soon enough to take her away before your return. No, no, she is on the ice, and if we look carefully for her, we may find her before night.”
Then, with anxious faces and beating hearts, the two men moved away, threading the many intricate passages among the icy rocks with swift steps, peering into every cavern and hollow they encountered. But the crystal chambers were empty, and mockingly echoed back their voices, as they shouted the name of Alice.
They continued their search until the shadows of night put an end to their fruitless exertions; then, in the faint hope that the young girl might have returned to the ark during their absence, they made their way to the point from which they had first started, by means of the pocket-compass in Harry’s possession.