ce in the open water running rapidly
northward; but the task of avoiding this was easy, for the engineer had
followed out the captain's instructions, and there was a sufficiency of
steam for navigating the vessel.

It was needed, too; for though they had escaped from the terrible trap
in which they had been caught, the peril was not far away. A few
minutes' observation showed that the great body of ice was closing in
upon the land, and that if before long the _Hvalross_ was not placed in
a safe anchorage she would certainly be crushed, the only difference
being that she would be crushed between ice-floe and rock, and not
between ice and ice, the doctor saying that they would have jumped out
of the frying-pan into the fire.

There was the danger still coming on as they steamed northward between
the moving ice and the perpendicular cliffs of the great headland on
their right. But the fires were humming and roaring away below, the
rattle of stoking implements and shovel was heard on the iron stoke-hole
floor; and as the engine worked and panted away, and the propeller shaft
made the after part of the vessel thrill, there were divers hissings and
snorts which told that there would soon be plenty of steam for the
captain's purpose, as he stood on the bridge with his binocular scanning
the opening on the right to see if it would give them the security he
sought.

"Up aloft again, Johannes!" he cried. "Take a glass and see if you can
con a way round and through those rocks."

Steve started, and took a step forward; but the captain shook his head.

"Not this time," he said.

The boy shrank back feeling disappointed, for this observing from the
crow's-nest seemed to have become partly his work; but he said nothing,
for he felt that he had not distinguished himself very highly aloft upon
two occasions, so he contented himself with watching the grand coast
they had reached. He gazed at the towering cliffs a couple of hundred
yards upon his right, streaked in every crevice with snow, which crossed
these streaks again, lying as it did upon every ledge, and forming a
gigantic network on the black rock. Higher up the streaking and netting
ceased, for the rocks were not so perpendicular; and here they were
coated with dazzling ice.

The sea-birds circled about the vessel by hundreds, while thousands must
have been seated in rows upon the ledges, from which, as they came and
went, throwing themselves off as if diving into t