-mountain, while to leeward, close aboard, was another ice-mountain
upon which we were driving.

Quicker in his leap was Aaron Northrup. I delayed a moment, even as the
boat was shoving away, in order to select a spot amidships where the men
were thickest, so that their bodies might break my fall. I was not
minded to embark with a broken member on so hazardous a voyage in the
longboat. That the men might have room at the oars, I worked my way
quickly aft into the sternsheets. Certainly, I had other and sufficient
reasons. It would be more comfortable in the sternsheets than in the
narrow bow. And further, it would be well to be near the afterguard in
whatever troubles that were sure to arise under such circumstances in the
days to come.

In the sternsheets were the mate, Walter Drake, the surgeon, Arnold
Bentham, Aaron Northrup, and Captain Nicholl, who was steering. The
surgeon was bending over Northrup, who lay in the bottom groaning. Not
so fortunate had he been in his ill-considered leap, for he had broken
his right leg at the hip joint.

There was little time for him then, however, for we were labouring in a
heavy sea directly between the two ice islands that were rushing
together. Nicholas Wilton, at the stroke oar, was cramped for room; so I
better stowed the barrels, and, kneeling and facing him, was able to add
my weight to the oar. For'ard, I could see John Roberts straining at the
bow oar. Pulling on his shoulders from behind, Arthur Haskins and the
boy, Benny Hardwater, added their weight to his. In fact, so eager were
all hands to help that more than one was thus in the way and cluttered
the movements of the rowers.

It was close work, but we went clear by a matter of a hundred yards, so
that I was able to turn my head and see the untimely end of the
_Negociator_. She was caught squarely in the pinch and she was squeezed
between the ice as a sugar plum might be squeezed between thumb and
forefinger of a boy. In the shouting of the wind and the roar of water
we heard nothing, although the crack of the brig's stout ribs and
deckbeams must have been enough to waken a hamlet on a peaceful night.

Silently, easily, the brig's sides squeezed together, the deck bulged up,
and the crushed remnant dropped down and was gone, while where she had
been was occupied by the grinding conflict of the ice-islands. I felt
regret at the destruction of this haven against the elements, but at the
same time wa