strait actually came in close crushing contact with each other. Roswell
took a look before and behind him, saw that his boat was safe owing to the
formation of the two outlines of the respective fields, when he sprang
upon the ice itself, bidding the boat-steerer to wait for him. A shout
broke out of the lips of the young captain the instant he was erect on the
ice. There lay the schooner, the Martha's Vineyard craft, within half a
mile of him, in plain sight, and in as plain jeopardy. She was jammed,
with every prospect, as Roswell thought, of being crushed, ere she could
get free from the danger.

Chapter XVI.

"A sculler's notch in the stern he made,
An oar he shaped of the bottle blade;
Then sprung to his seat with a lightsome leap
And launched afar on the calm, blue deep."

_The Culprit Fay._

Roswell was hardly on the ice before a sound of a most portentous sort
reached his ear. He knew at once that the field had been rent in twain by
outward pressure, and that some new change was to occur that might release
or might destroy the schooner. He was on the point of springing forward in
order to join Daggett, when a call from the boat arrested his steps.

"These here fields are coming together, Captain Gar'ner, and our boat will
soon be crushed unless we get it out of the water."

Sure enough, a single glance behind him sufficed to assure the young
master of the truth of this statement. The field he was on was slowly
swinging, bringing its western margin in closer contact with the eastern
edge of the floe that lay within it. The movement could be seen merely by
the closing of the channel through which the boat had come, and by the
cracking and crushing of the ice on the edges of the two fields. So
tremendous was the pressure, however, that cakes as large as a small house
were broken off, and forced upward on the surface of the field, or ground
into small fragments, as it might be under the vice of a power hitherto
unknown to the spectators. Slow as was the movement of the floe, it was
too fast to allow of delay; and, finding a suitable place, the boat was
hauled up, and put in security on the floe that lay nearest the schooner.

"This may give us a long drag to get back into the water, Stimson, and a
night out of our bunks," said Roswell, looking about him, as soon as the
task was achieved.

"I do not know that, sir," was the answer. "It seems to me that the floe
has parted alongside of