mparison with her present state--that of a complete
wreck, with her bows stove in, her masts all carried by the board, and
her decks swept fore and aft of everything!

Fortunately, as the mainmast had fallen over the side, it had jammed
against the iceberg with which they had collided, so fending off the
vessel's head that she had sheered to starboard and thus passed by the
floating mountain; otherwise, probably, the poor _Nancy Bell_ would have
been ground down by the pressure of the ice below the surface of the
sea. Ben Boltrope, too, returning from forward after a survey of the
damage, in accordance with the captain's command, reported another piece
of good news. The bows had been stove in, it was true, and the bulkhead
smashed, filling the fore compartment and bringing the ship's head so
much down that it would be almost impossible to sail her even in a
smooth sea; but the jury-mast, which had been rigged forward in place of
the lost foremast, had gone over on the port bow, instead of falling to
the starboard side of the ship like the other masts, and the fore
staysail attached to it, dragging overboard, had got sucked into the
hole which the iceberg had made, thus stopping the inrun of water to any
appreciable extent Ben said that he believed they would be able so to
patch up the damaged place in the bows after a time, thanks to this
circumstance, that they might hope to make a shift of rigging up a sail
again to run the ship ashore with.

"Bravo!" said Captain Dinks on hearing this. "Take what men you like
and commence the repairs at once, for there's no time to be lost Mr
Meldrum, what say you to this?"

But, Mr Meldrum had gone below to his daughters, well imagining the
state of alarm they would be in and rather surprised that Kate had not
already made her appearance on deck. When he reached the cuddy, the
reason of her absence was explained.

Poor Florry had met with an accident, the concussion when the ship had
struck the iceberg having thrown her out of her berth, cutting her head
against the cabin door; and Kate, assisted by Mr Lathrope, was binding
up the wound and comforting the sufferer.

"I guess, mister," said the American, looking up as Mr Meldrum entered
the main saloon, "I've had to act the good Samaritan, same as your gal
did to me when I got jammed together t'other day in my innards agin the
wash-stand! We're fixin' up the little miss finely. 'Tain't much of an
injoory, I kalkerlate, mis