unate men try to jump over the
bulwarks, they had not time, and they were dragged away in this
dreadful fall.

Yes! I saw it! I saw the schooner topple over, slide down first on
its left side, crush one of the men who delayed too long about
jumping to one side, then bound from block to block, and finally
fling itself into space.

In another moment the _Halbrane_, staved in, broken up, with gaping
planks and shattered ribs, had sunk, causing a tremendous jet of
water to spout up at the foot of the iceberg.

Horrified! yes, indeed, we were horrified when the schooner, carried
off as though by an avalanche, had disappeared in the abyss! Not a
particle of our _Halbrane_ remained, not even a wreck!

A minute ago she was one hundred feet in the air, now she was five
hundred in the depths of the sea! Yes, we were so stupefied that we
were unable to think of the dangers to come--our amazement was that
of people who "cannot believe their eyes."

Prostration succeeded as a natural consequence. There was not a word
spoken. We stood motionless, with our feet rooted to the icy soil.
No words could express the horror of our situation!

As for West, when the schooner had disappeared in the abyss, I saw
big tears fall from his eyes. The _Halbrane_ that he loved so much was
now an unknown quantity! Yes, our stout-hearted mate wept.

Three of our men had perished, and in what frightful fashion! I had
seen Rogers and Gratian, two of our most faithful sailors, stretch
out their hands in despair as they were knocked about by the
rebounding of the schooner, and finally sink with her! The other man
from the Falklands, an American, was crushed in its rush; his
shapeless form lay in a pool of blood. Three new victims within the
last ten days had to be inscribed on the register of those who died
during this fatal voyage! Ah! fortune had favoured us up to the hour
when the _Halbrane_ was snatched from her own element, but her hand
was now against us. And was not this last the worst blow--must it
not prove the stroke of death?

The silence was broken by a tumult of despairing voices, whose
despair was justified indeed by this irreparable misfortune!

And I am sure that more than one thought it would have been better
to have been on the _Halbrane_ as she rebounded off the side of the
iceberg!

Everything would have been over then, as all was over with Rogers
and Gratian! This foolish expedition would thus have come to a
conclusion wor