"I'll show you a Yankee trick in a short time," cried Dr. Jones.
They hurried through the meal and prepared again to go out into the terribly cold atmosphere. The fireboxes were again lighted and distributed about their clothing as before. All then went out and assembled again about the rod.
"I must get through this crust of ice and see what depth of snow there is below," said the Doctor.
With the sharp-pointed steel rod he picked and worked several minutes, but made very little progress in the flinty ice.
"Get a hammer, Denison," said he.
The tool being procured, they hammered upon the upper end of the rod, and drilled as miners do in rock. After some time of this work the Doctor said:
"This will never do. We have evidently a great thickness of ice to go through, possibly more than we can ever penetrate. We can do no work in these fur suits, and we should instantly freeze if we took them off. We must settle the globe upon this spot, then we shall be within the cabin and can throw off our coats and go to work. We have a big job on hand. Let's pull the ship over at once."
The wind had subsided to a nearly dead calm, and it was remarkable how all nature seemed to be auspicious to the occasion. She had been forced to yield up her secrets, fast locked and frozen by the chill hand of Jack Frost so many centuries, and now seemed disposed to surrender them with a good grace. The globe was raised a few feet from the earth. Two of the anchors were carried to the opposite side of the Pole, and Will turned on the spring windlasses. Thus they easily drew the ship to the desired spot, and it was slowly settled down so that the "manhole," as they called the hole in the floor through which the cage operated, came directly over the steel rod, the rod standing precisely in the center of the manhole.
"Now, my hearties, furs off!" cried the energetic little Doctor. He doffed his own suit hurriedly, pulled on a pair of woolen gloves in lieu of the sealskin ones, pulled the steel rod out and laid it aside, grasped an axe and began chopping into the ice with all his might. The ice chips flew about the engine-room in a shower. He was soon obliged to stop for breath. Will shoveled the loosened ice out, then seized the axe and worked for a short time with the same spirit that animated the Doctor. And so by turns they kept the axe and shovel flying, making very rapid progress. They soon were too deep to use long-handled tools, and resorted to mallet and chisel, and a short-handled hand axe. Slowly and more slowly progressed the work as the shaft grew deeper. Finally the head of the man in the shaft disappeared below the surface, being now nearly seven feet deep.
"We shall have to devise some plan for hoisting before long," said Dr. Jones.