The wash of the falling water had worn away the ice so that the steps of their ladder had disappeared. The work they had done toward escape had gone for naught.
They were just as much prisoners of the ice now as they had been when first the Snowbird had settled upon this ledge in the crevasse. And now they lost hope. There seemed no possibility of their escaping from the gulf by cutting their way out.
CHAPTER XIX
A NIGHT ATTACK
It was the aged scientist who again put heart in the party when Andy
Sudds and Phineas Roebach brought back the report of this catastrophe.
"We must not give up hope," declared Professor Henderson, cheerfully. "We have lost what work has been done on the ice-wall, it is true. But we can begin again."
"And of what use will that be?" demanded Mark Sampson. "The sun will melt away the ladder again."
"We have many more hours of night here than we have of daylight—you can all see that, eh?" said the professor.
"The sun seemed to shine on us not more than six hours," admitted Jack.
"Less than that, I believe. The rays were not hot more than four and a half hours. If we begin our work of cutting steps the moment the heat of the short day departs, we will be able, I am convinced, to get to the top of the ice cliff."