e bitter breeze
forced him to fix his attention on his task. The boat was heavily
loaded, and the tops of the grey seas splashed unpleasantly close about
her gunwale. She was running before them, rising sharply, and dropping
down out of sight of all but the schooner's canvas into the hollows,
and though this made rowing easier he was apprehensive of difficulties
when he reached the ice.

His misgivings proved warranted as they closed with it, for it
presented an almost unbroken wall against the face of which the sea
spouted and fell in frothy wisps. There was no doubt as to what would
happen if the frail craft was hurled upon that frozen mass, and
Wyllard, who was sculling, fancied that before she could even reach it
there was a probability of her being swamped in the upheaval where the
backwash met the oncoming sea. Charly looked at him dubiously.

"It's a sure thing we can't get out there," he said.

Wyllard nodded. "Then," he said, "we'll pull along the edge of it
until we find an opening or something to make a lee. The sea's higher
than it seemed to be from the schooner."

"We've got to do it soon," said Charly. "There's more wind not far
away."

Wyllard dipped his oar again, and they pulled along the edge of the ice
for an hour cautiously, for there were now little frothing white tops
on the seas.

It was evident that the wind was freshening, and at times a deluge of
icy water slopped in over the gunwale. The men were further hampered
by their furs, and the stores among their feet, and the perspiration
dripped from Wyllard when they approached a ragged, jutting point. It
did not seem advisable to attempt a landing on that side of it, and
when a little snow commenced to fall he looked at his companions.

"I guess we've got to pull her out," said Charly. "Dampier's heaving a
reef down; he sees what's working up to windward."

Wyllard could just make out the schooner, which had apparently followed
them, a blurr of dusky canvas against a bank of haze, and then, as the
boat slid down into a hollow, there was nothing but the low-hung,
lowering sky. It was evident to him that if they were to make a
landing it must be done promptly.

"We'll pull round the point first, anyway," he said.

A shower of fine snow that blotted out the schooner broke upon them as
they did it, and the work was arduous. They were pulling to windward
now, and it was necessary to watch the seas that ranged up ahead and
handle