e floe."

"Ahoy! there aloft!" roared the captain, as the steam whistle began to
utter its deep-toned yell, which sounded strangely amidst the roar and
crack of the ice in motion. "Down with you both--quick!"

"Do you hear?" cried Johannes excitedly. "Down, my lad, quick!"

Steve made a movement to stoop and raise the trap on which he stood, and
he stopped short and gazed despairingly in the great Norseman's face.

"Well, why do you stop?" said Johannes. "Draw up the trap, and go
down."

"I cannot stir," said Steve faintly. "I did not know it before. It's
the cold, I suppose. My legs and feet are quite numbed."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

ON THE BRINK.

"Do you hear, aloft there?" roared the captain. "Down with you!"

"Ay, ay, sir!" cried the Norseman, as he grasped to the full their
perilous situation.

"Go down, Johannes," said Steve faintly; "never mind me."

The Norseman uttered a low laugh.

"Yes, sir; go down and leave you here! Of course!"

But his hands were busy. He thrust the glass into the case slung from
Steve's shoulder, and taking the line he wore like a baldrick from his
own, he hung it on one arm while he made fast the end round the lad's
chest.

"You can use your hands?" he cried.

"Yes, I think so."

"Then keep yourself clear of the yards and stays as I lower you down.
Don't cling anywhere. I'll let you down safely."

"Are you coming?" roared the captain.

"Ay, ay, sir. Below there!" shouted back the Norseman; and with one
rapid movement he whipped Steve out of the crow's-nest, and, grasping
the line, began to lower him rapidly, till he caught first here and
again there, over and over again, for there was the rigging to pass
through; but in a very few seconds the boy was on deck, and the line
dropped after him. Then the trap was snatched up, Johannes lowered
himself through, stepped down the spells, caught hold of one of the
ice-covered stays, and slid down, to catch another lower, and reach the
deck in turn. He joined the men in getting together biscuit, tinned
meat, and flour bags, ready to cast upon the ice when the terrible nip
should come, and either crack the ship's timbers like an eggshell or
force her up on to the surface, to go on drifting north, while the ice
by the great pressure consolidated into a dense block.

The captain and doctor had in turn been busy, and brought up guns,
rifles, and ammunition; and both now, in spite of the impending peril,
had the