fer that it should be so, and that he should fire the first shot,"
said Erik, as he gave orders to return it.

His first attack was not more successful than that of Tudor Brown--for
it fell short two or three hundred yards. But the combat was now begun,
and the firing became regular. An American projectile cut the large sail
yards of the "Alaska," and it fell upon the deck killing two men. A
small bomb from the Swedish vessel fell upon the bridge of the
"Albatross," and must have made great havoc. Then other projectiles
skillfully thrown lodged in various parts of the vessel.

They had been constantly approaching each other, when suddenly a distant
rumbling mingled with the roar of artillery, and the crews raising their
heads saw that the sky was very black in the east.

Was a storm with its accompanying fog and blinding snow, coming to
interpose between the "Albatross" and the "Alaska," to permit Tudor
Brown to escape?

This Erik wished to prevent at any price. He resolved to attempt to
board her. Arming his men with sabers, cutlasses, and hatchets, he
crowded on all the steam the vessel could carry and rushed toward the
"Albatross."

Tudor Brown tried to prevent this. He retreated toward the banks of ice,
firing a shot from his cannon every five minutes. But his field of
action had now become too limited; between the ice and the "Alaska" he
saw that he was lost unless he made a bold attempt to regain the open
sea. He attempted this after a few feigned maneuvers to deceive his
adversary.

Erik let him do it. Then at the precise moment when the "Albatross"
tried to pass the "Alaska," she made a gaping hole in the side of the
yacht which stopped her instantly, and rendered her almost unmanageable;
then she fell quickly behind and prepared to renew the assault. But the
weather, which had become more and more menacing, did not give him time
to do this.

The tempest was upon them. A fierce wind from the south-east,
accompanied by blinding clouds of snow, which not only raised the waves
to a prodigious height, but dashed against the two vessels immense
masses of floating ice. It seemed as if they were attacked at all points
at once. Erik realized his situation, and saw that he had not a minute
to lose in escaping, unless he wished to be hemmed in perhaps
permanently. He steered due east, struggling against the wind, the snow,
and the dashing ice.

But he was soon obliged to confess that his efforts were fruitless.