“Don’t you think we have drawn nearer to that magnificent iceberg?” said Fanny to her sister.
“Yes, I am almost sure we have,” was the answer. “Papa, what do you think?”
“It is possible, but perhaps the changing light may have deceived us; it is difficult to calculate distances in this atmosphere.”
As may be supposed, they had been several times interrupted by the crew, who now and then came by leading aft the stays of the mast now at length set up. Scarcely any of the men cast more than a momentary glance at the icebergs, but this glance showed that they looked on them with no favourable eyes. All the time, too, it must be remembered, the pumps were kept clanking away as before. No human beings ever worked harder than the crew of the “Ranger;” they well knew, indeed, that they were labouring for their lives. Hour after hour passed by—there was no knocking off even for breakfast; it would be time enough to take their food when the sails were spread, and the ship was standing away from the beautiful but fearfully dangerous icebergs.
By the time the sun had risen high in the sky the water around had become of a dark-green hue, and now not only icebergs and the distant fields of ice were seen, but vast masses of drift ice were observed floating about. Already two or three yards had been got across, and the sails were being bent.
Willy found himself close to his friend Harry. “Shafto, you look unusually grave,” he observed; “you seem pretty well knocked up.”
“We all of us have reason to be grave,” answered Harry; “there is evidently a strong in-draught towards that big berg, and unless we can get the sails bent and a breeze to take us off, no human power can save us from driving against it, and then we shall be worse off than we were when we struck the berg the other night.”
“But don’t you think we shall get the sails bent in time?” asked Willy.
“We may get the sails bent, but the wind to fill them may not come; we must depend on Heaven’s mercy for that.”
Harry Shafto would not generally have spoken so despondingly, but he was well-nigh worn-out; and yet he probably did not see matters in a worse light than most of the other officers.