:\ /^. /d^^^^ ^^-^ 'f/. THE LOG OF THE "FLYING FISH,' LIEUTENANT MILDMAY RUNS FOR HIS LIFE. THE LOG OF THE "FLYING FISH;" A STOKY OF AEEIAL AND SUBMAEINE PEEIL AND ADYENTUEE. BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD, ^^^^ Author of "The Congo Rovers;" "The Pirate Island;" "The Missing Merchantman;" Ac. WITH TWELVE FULL-PAQE ILLUSTRATIONS Br GORDON BROWNE. ( T ^. ^^S NiiilSM h^>^ i ^^ NEW YORK SCEIBNEE AND WELFOED 743 & 745 BROADWAY. IteA, !\*Cu CONTENTS. Chap. Page I. Professor von Schalckenberg makes a startling Sug- gestion, 9 II. The Kealization of a Scientist's Dream, 25 III. The "Flying Fish," 32 IV. The novel Beginning of a singular Voyage, ... 55 V. A Submarine Excursion, 75 VI. In Search of a submerged Wreck, 90 VII. En Route for the North Pole, 105 VIII. A Superb Spectacle, 119 IX. An Exciting Adventure and a Eescue, . . . . . .136 X. The "Humboldt" Glacier, 153 XL An Interesting Relic, 170 XII. Another Startling Discovery, 185 XIII. At the North Pole, 204 XIV. Southward Ho! 219 XV. A Troop of Unicorns, 231 XVI. A Battle on Lake Tanganyika, 249 XVII. A Native Chieftain's Visit to Cloudland, .... 265 XVIII. King M'Bongwele is temporarily reduced to Submis- sion, 280 XIX. King M'Bongwele turns the Tables upon his Visitors, 295 XX. The History of certain Distressed Damsels, . . . 312 XXL Retribution overtakes King M'Bongwele, . . . . 331 XXII. An Adventure on the top of Mount Everest, . . . 346 XXIII. How the Adventure terminated, 358 XXIV. The Foundering of the "Mercury," 368 r^o/s c^c^/\ Q ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Lieutenant Mildmay runs for his Life, . . Frontispiece. 195 At Dessert before the Start, 59 A Fight with the Conger- eels, 80 The "Flying Fish" and the Barque in the Jaws of Death, 147 Colonel Lethbridge discovers a Diamond Mine, .... 209 The Professor appears after berthing the "Flying Fish," 230 The Unicorn Hunters in retreat for the Ship, .... 246 A Squadron of Mounted Warriors put to Flight, . . . 262 The Professor and his Comrades in the Hands of the Savages, 305 The "Flying Fish" destroys King M'Bongwele's Palisade, 339 An Adventure on Mount Everest, 856 " Thank God, we have saved her ! " ejaculated Sir Reginald, 378 THE LOG OF THE ^^LYING FISH." CHAPTER I PROFESSOR VON SCHALCKENBERG MAKES A STARTLING SUGGESTION. HE " Migrants' " Club stands on the most delight- ful site in all London ; and it is, as the few who are intimately acquainted with it know full well, one of the most cosy and comfortable clubs in the great metropolis. It is by no means a famous club; the building itself has a very simple, unpretentious elevation, with nothing whatever about it to attract the attention of the passer- by; but its interior is fitted up in such a style of combined elegance and comfort, and its domestic arrangements are so perfect, as to leave nothing to be desired. Its numerous members are essentially wanderers upon the face of the earth — that is the one distinguishing characteristic wherein they most widely differ from their fellow-men — they are ceaseless travellers; mighty hunters in far-off lands ; adventurous yachtsmen; eager explorers; with a small sprinkling of army and navy men. Their 10 THE SMOKE-ROOM OF THE "MIGRANTS'." visits to their club are infrequent in the extreme; but, during the brief and widely separated intervals when they have the opportunity to put in an appearance there, they like to be made thoroughly comfortable; and no pains are spared to secure their complete gratification in this respect. The smoke-room of the " Migrants' " presented an appearance of especial comfort and attractiveness on a certain cold and stormy February evening a few years ago. A large fire blazed in the polished steel grate and roared cheerfully up the chimney, in rivalry of the wind, w^hich howled and scuffled and rumbled in the flue higher up. An agreeable temperature pervaded the room, making the lashing of the fierce rain on the window-panes sound almost pleasant as one basked in the light and warmth of the apartment and contrasted it with the state of cold and wet and misery which reigned supreme outside. A dozen opal-shaded gas-burners brilliantly lighted the room, and revealed the fact that it was handsomely and liberally furnished with luxurious divans, capacious easy- chairs, a piano, a table loaded with the papers and periodicals of the day, an enormous mirror over the black marble mantel-piece, a clock with a set of silvery chimes for the quarters, and a deep, mellow-toned gong for the hours, and so many pictures that the whole available surface of the walls was completely covered with them. These pictures — executed in both oil and water-colour — represented out-of-the-way scenes visited, or incidents participated in by the members who had executed them, and all possessed a considerable amount of artistic merit; it being a rule of the club that every picture should be submitted to a hanging committee of distinctly artistic THE PROFESSOR AND THE BARONET. 11 members before it could be allowed a place upon the smoke-room walls. The occupants of the room on the evening in question [ were four in number. One, a German, known as the Professor Heinrich von Schalckenberg, was half buried in the recesses of a huge arm-chair, from the depths of ^ which he perused the pages of the Science Monthly, smoking meanwhile a pipe with a huge elaborately carved meerschaum bowl and a long cherry-wood stem. From the ferocious manner in which he glared through his spectacles at the pages of the magazine, from the im- patience with which he from time to time dashed his disengaged hand through the masses of his iron-gray hair, ; and from the frequent ejaculations of "Pish!" "Psha!" " Ach!" and so on which escaped his lips, accompanied by vast volumes of smoke, it seemed evident that he was not altogether at one with the author whose article he was perusing. He was an explorer and a scientist. Near the Herr Professor there reclined upon a divan the form of Sir Reginald Elphinstone, sometimes called by his friends "the handsome baronet," said to be the richest commoner in England. At the age of thirty-five, having freely exposed himself to all known sources of peril, except those involved in a trip to the Polar regions, in his eager pursuit of sport and adventure. Sir Reginald seemed, for the moment, to have no object left him in life but to shoot as many rings as possible of cigar-smoke through each other, as he lay there on the divan in an attitude more easy than elegant. Square in front of the fire, dreamily puffing at his cigar and apparently studying the merits of a painting hanging behind him, and on the reflected image of which in the 12 HOW THE MATTER ORIGINATED. mirror before him his eyes lazily rested, sat Cyril Leth- bridge, ex-colonel of the Royal Engineers, a successful gold-seeker, and almost everything else to which a spice of adventure could possibly attach itself. And next him again, on the side of the fire-place opposite to the Herr Professor, lounged Lieutenant Edward Mildmay, KN. The lieutenant was skimming through the daily papers. Presently he looked up and remarked to the colonel: " I see that some Frenchmen have been making experi- ments in the navigation of balloons." "Ah, indeed!" responded the colonel, with his head thrown critically on one side, and his eyes still fixed on the reflection of the picture. "And with what result?" " Oh, failure, of course." "And failure it always will be. The thing is simply an impossibility," remarked the colonel. " No, bardon me, colonel, id is not an imbossibilidy by any means." This from the professor. "Indeed? Then how do you account for it, professor, that all attempts to navigate a balloon have hitherto failed?" asked the colonel. "Begause, my dear zir, the aeronauts have never yed realized all the requiremends of zuccess," replied the professor, laying down his magazine as though quite prepared to go thoroughly into the question. The colonel accepted the challenge, and, rousing himself from his semi-recumbent posture, said: " That is quite possible ; but what are the requirements of success?" The professor knocked the ashes out of his meerschaum. THE PROFESSOR BEGINS TO EXPOUND. 13 refilled it with the utmost deliberation, carefully lighted it, gave a few vigorous puffs, and replied: " The requiremends of zuccess in balloon navigation are very zimilar to those which enable a man to draverse the ocean. If a man wants to make a voyage agross the ocean he embargs in a ship, not on a life-buoy. Now a balloon is nothing more than a life-buoy; id zusdains a man, but that is all. Id drifts aboud with the currends of air jusd as a life-buoy drifts aboud with the currends of ocean, and the only advandage which the aeronaud has over the man with the life-buoy is thad the former can ascend or descend in search of a favourable air currend, whereas the ladder is obliged do dake the ocean currends as they come." "Very true," remarked the colonel; "and what do you deduce from that, professor?" "I deduse from thad thad the man who wands to navigade the air musd do as his brother the sailor does, he musd have a ship.'' " Well, is not a balloon a sort of air ship ? " "You may gall it zo iv you like, colonel, I do nod; I call it merely a buoy," returned the professor. " A shijy is zomething gabable of moving in the elemend which zustains it; a balloon is ingabable of any indebendend movement in the air; it drifts aboud at the mercy of every idle wind that blows. Id is like a ship on a breath- less sea; withoud any means of brobulsion the ship lies motionless, or drifts at the mercy of the currends. Bud give the ship a means of brobulsion, and navigation ad once begomes bossible. And zo will it be with bal- loons." " Well, that has already been tried," remarked the 14 THE UNFOLDING OF THE IDEA. colonel; " but the buoyancy of a balloon is too slight to permit of its being fitted with engines and a boiler." "My vriendt," said the professor impressively, "whad would you think of the man who tried to pud the engines and boilers of an Atlantic liner in a leedle boad?" " I should think him an unmitigated ass," retorted the colonel. "Jusd so. Yed thad is whad the aeronauds have been doing; they have been drying to make the leedle boad-balloon garry the brobelling bower of the aerial ship. In other words, they have not made their balloons large enough." " Then you think they have not yet reached the prac- tical limit to the size of a balloon?" asked the colonel. " They have — very nearly — if balloons are do be made only of silk," was the reply. " Bud if navigable balloons are to be gonsdrugded, aeronauds musd durn do other maderials and adobd another form. As I said before, they musd build a shih, and she musd be of sufficiend size to float in the air and to garry all her eguip- ments." " But such an aerial ship would be a veritable monster^' protested the colonel. " Zo are the Adlandic liners of the presend day," quietly answered the professor. "Phew!" whistled the colonel. The baronet rose from the divan, flung away the stump of his cigar, and settled himself to listen, and perhaps take part in the singular conversation. " And of what would you build your aerial ship, pro- fessor?" asked the colonel when he had in some measure recovered from his astonishment. A DIFFICULT TASK. 15 "Of the lighdescl and, ad the zame dime, sdrongesd maderial I gould find," answered the professor. " Once get the aeronaud to realize thad greadly ingreased bulk and a difFerend form are necessary, and id will nod be long before he will find a suitable building maderial. Iv I were an aeronaud I should dry medal." " Metal !" exclaimed the colonel. " Oh, come, professor; now you are romancing, you know. A ship of metal would never float in the atmosphere." " A zimilar remarg was made nod zo very many years ago when id was suggesded that ocean shibs could be buildt of medal," retorted the professor. '' Yed there are thousands of medal shibs in exisdenze do-day; and there can be no doubt as do the facd thad they fload. And zo will an aerial shib. The gread — in facd the only difli- guldy in the madder is thad air is eight hundred dimes lighder than wader; and an air shib of given dimensions musd therefore be ad leasd eight hundred dimes lighder than her ocean sisder do enable her do fload in the atmo- sphere. The broblem, then, is this: How are you to gonsdrugt a medal shib, of given dimensions, sdrong enough do hold dogether and withsdand the shock of goming do earth, yed of less weighd than her own bulk of air? With the medals hitherdoo ad our disbosal, I admid thad the dask is a diffiguld one; bud I maindain thad id is by no means an imbossibilidy. An ocean shib musd be buildt sdrong enough nod only do susdain the weighd of her gargo — often amounding do upwards of a thousand dons — bud also do withstand the dremendous and incessandly varying sdrain do which she is exbosed when garrying thad gargo through a moundainous sea. This enormous sdrength necessidades the use of a gorres- 16 THE KEY TO THE SOLUTION. bonding thickness — and therefore weighd — of the medal used in her gonsdruction. Such brovision would of gourse be unnecessary in the gase of an aerial shib; begause no one would dream of garrying an ounze of unnecessary weighd through the air; and there are no moundain seas in the admosphere to sdrain a shib. A vasd saving in weighd would resuld from these zirgumsdances alone; and a further saving — zufficiend, I believe, to aggomblish the desired object — gan, no doubd, be efFecded by skilful engineers, one of whose greadesd driumphs id is do design sdrugdures in which the maximum of sdrength is zecured with the minimum of weighd. Id musd nod be forgodden, either, thad an air shib musd, in one imbordand bardi- gular, be dreated exactly like her ocean sisder. An ocean shib gonsdrugded, say, of sdeel, will sink if filled with wader, begause sdeel is heavier than wader, bulk for bulk; bud bump oud all the wader from her inderior, and if she be proberly gonsdrugded, she will fload on the elemend she is indended do navigade. And the same with an air shib: bump out all or nearly all the air which she gon- dains, and if she be gonsdrugded in aggordanze with the brincibles I have indigaded, she will fload in the lighder elemend." " Upon my word, professor, you have argued your case extremely well," exclaimed the colonel. '* I can see only one difficulty in the way; and that is in the matter of weight" "Which diffiguldy I have gombledely gonquered," triumphantly exclaimed the professor, rising excitedly from his seat with flushed cheeks and flashing eyes. " Do me, Heinrich von Schalckenberg, belongs the honor and glory of having made dwo mosd imbordand dis- (359) " ^THEREUM.''' 17 goveries, disgoveries of ingalgulable value do the worldt, disgoveries which will enable me do soar ad will indo the highesd regions of the embyrean, do skim the surface of the ocean, or do blunoe do ids lowesd debths." "Bravo, professor; that was positively dramatic!" ex- claimed the baronet. " You have mistaken your business, my dear sir; you were undoubtedly born to be an actor. But what are these two most important discoveries of which you so exultantly speak?" " They are a new medal and a new power," exclaimed the professor. Then, fumbling in his breast-pocket, he drew forth a wallet from which he extracted a small rectangular plate of — apparently — polished silver. It measured about five inches long by four inches broad, and was about a quarter of an inch thick. " There, Sir Reginald," he exclaimed, offering the plate to the baronet, " dell me whad you think of thad." " Very pretty indeed," commented Sir Reginald, as he held out his hand to take it. "What is it? Silver? Phew! No; it can't be that," as his fingers closed upon it; "it is far too light for silver. Why, it seems to be absolutely devoid of weight altogether. What is it, pro- fessor?" "Thad, my good sir, is my new medal, which I gall ' oitliereum begause of ids wonderful lighdness. See here." There was a WQry handsome cut glass water-jug, full, standing on the table in a capacious salver of hammered brass. The professor took up the jug and emptied it into the salver, almost filling the latter. Then he laid the glittering slab of metal down on the surface of the water, where it floated as buoyantly as though it had been an (359) B 18 AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT. empty box constructed of the lightest cardboard. The professor raised the salver from the table and agitated the water, to show that the metal actually floated. "Why, it floats as lightly as a cork!" exclaimed the colonel in the utmost astonishment. '' Korg!" exclaimed the professor disdainfully, "korg is heavy gombared with this. This is the lighdesd solid known. Loog ad this." The professor lifted the plate of metal out of the water, and, wiping it dry very carefully with his silk pocket- handkerchief, held it suspended, flat side downwards, between his finger and thumb. Then, when he had poised it as nearly horizontal as he could guess at, he let it go. It wavered about in the air as a thin sheet of paper would have done, and finally sailed aslant and very gently to the ground, amid the astonished exclamations of the beholders, by whom it was immediately examined with the utmost curiosity. " You have seen for yourselves and gan therefore judge how marvellously lighd this medal is," continued the professor when the plate had been handed back to him; " bud ids sdrength you musd dake my word for, as I have no means ad hand do illusdrade id. Ids sdrength is as wonderful as ids lighdness, being — zo var as I have had obbordunidy do desd id — exactly one hundred dimes thad of the besd sdeel." " If that be the case, professor, then I should say you have solved the problem of aerial navigation," remarked the colonel. " But you spoke of having also discovered a new power. What is it?" The professor once more instituted a search in his pockets, and at length produced a small paper packet, A SOMEWHAT DANGEROUS SUBSTANCE. 19 which, on being opened, was found to contain about a table-spoonful of green metallic-looking crystals. " There id is," he said, handing the packet to the colonel for inspection. " Um!" ejaculated the colonel, turning the crystals over slowly with his finger. "Quite new to me; I don't recognize them at all. And what is the nature of the power derivable from these crystals?" "Dreated in one way they give off elegdricidy; dreated in another way they yield an exbansive gas, which may be subsdiduded for either gunbowder or sdeam," answered the professor. "Are they explosive, then?" asked the colonel. " Nod in their bresend form. You mighd doss all those crysdals indo the fire with imbunidy; but bowder them and mix indo a baste with a zerdain acid, and whad you now hold in your hand would develop exblosive bower enough to demolish this building," was the quiet reply. The professor's little audience looked at him incredu- lously; a look to which he responded by saying: "Id is quide drue, I assure you," in such convincing tones as left no room for further doubt. They knew the professor well; knew him to be quite incapable of the slightest attempt at deception or exaggeration. " Then, if I have understood you aright, you will con- struct your aerial ship of your new metal, and apply your new power to give motion to her machinery?" said the colonel. " Yes. Thad is do say, I ivould if I bossessed the means do build such a ship as I have described. Bud I am a scientist, and therefore boor. Never mind; I have no doubt thad, when I make my discoveries known, I shall 20 find some wealthy man who, for the sake of science, will find der money," said the professor hopefully. " How much would it cost to build an aerial ship such as you have been speaking of?" asked the baronet. "Oh! I cannod say. Nod zo very much. Berhabs a hundred thousandt bounds," was the reply. "Phew! That's rather 'steep,' as the Yankees say. But — 'a fool and his money are soon parted' — if you are convinced that your scheme is really practicable, pro- fessor, I will find the needful," remarked the baronet. " Bragdigable ! My dear sir, id is as bragdigable as id is to build a shib which will navigade the ocean. I have thoughd the madder oudt, and there is nod a single weak boindt anywhere in my scheme. Led me have der money and I will brovide you with the means of zoaring above the grest of Mount Everest, or of exbloring the deepest ocean valleys," exclaimed the professor enthusiastically. "Good!" remarked the baronet quietly. "That is a bargain. Meet me here at noon to-morrow, and we will go together to my bankers, where I will transfer one hundred thousand pounds to your account. And — what say you, gentlemen? — when this wonderful ship is com- pleted will you join the professor and me in an experi- mental trip round the world?" " I shall be delighted," exclaimed the colonel. "Nothing would please me better," remarked the lieutenant. And so it was agreed. "Well," remarked the baronet reflectively, and as though he already began to feel doubtful as to the wisdom of his agreement with the professor, *'if it has no other good result it will at least afibrd employment to a few of the "ONCE BIT, TWICE SHY." 21 unfortunate fellows who are now hanging about idle day after day." The professor looked up sharply. " What!" he exclaimed. "Of whom are you sbeaging, my dear Sir Reginald?" " I am speaking of the unfortunate individual known as ' the British Workman/ " was the baronet's quiet reply. "Am I do understandt thad you make the embloymend of Eno^lish workmen a o-ondition of the underdakin^r?'* asked the professor somewhat sharply. "By no means, my dear sir," answered Sir Reginald; "I shall not attempt to impose conditions of any kind upon you. But I should naturally expect that, if English workmen are as capable of executing the work as foreigners, the former would be given the preference in a matter involving the expenditure of say a hundred thousand pounds of an Englishman's money." "Quide zo," concurred the professor; "and you would be perfectly justified in such an expegdation if the Bridish workman was the steady, indusdrious, reliable fellow he once was. Bud, unfordunadely, he is nod the same, zo var ad leasd as reliahilidy is concerned'. You gannod any longer debend ubon him. Id is no longer bossible to underdake a work of any imbordance with- oudt the gonsdand haunting fear that your brogress will be inderrubted — berhaps ad a most cridical juncture — by a 'sdrike.' The greadt quesdion which, above all others, do-day agidades the British mind is: 'Do whadt cause is the bresendt debression of drade addribudable?' And, in my obinion, gendlemen, the answer to that quesdion is thad id is very largely due do the consdandly recurring 22 VON schalckenberg's views on "strikes." sdrikes which have become almosdt a habid with the Bridish workman. The 'sdrike' is the most formidable engine which has ever been brought indo oberation do seddle the differences bedween embloyer and embloyed; and, whilst I am willing to admid thad in certain cases id has resulded in the repression and redress of long-sdanding oppression and injusdice, id has been used with such a lack of discrimination as do have almost ruined the drade of the goundry. With the invention of the 'sdrike' the workman thoughd he had ad lasd discovered the means of enriching himself ad the expense of his embloyer, or of securing his fair and righdful share of the brofids of his labour, as he described id; and, udderly ignorand of the laws of bolidigal egonomy, recognizing in the 'sdrike' merely an insdrumend for forcing a higher rade of wages from his embloyer, he has gone on recklessly using id undil the unfordunade gabidalist, finding himself unable do produce his wares ad a cost which will enable him do successfully gompede with the manufagdurers of other goundries, has been gombelled to glose his works and remove his gabidal and his energies to a spodt where he gan find workmen less unreasonable in their demands. There is no more capable or valuable workman in exist- ence than the English artisan, if he gould only be induced to do his honest best for his embloyer; there is hardly any branch of industry in which he is nod ad leasd the equal, if not very greadly the suberior of the foreigner; and id is even yet in his power to recover the command of the world's market by the suberior excellence of his broductions, if he could only be brevailed upon do aban- don sdrikes and do be satisfied with a wage which will allow the cabidalist a fair and moderade redurn for the THE PROFESSOR DECLINES TO BE COERCED. 23 use of his money and brains and for the risks he has do run. If the British workman would goUecdively make up his mind to do this, and would acquaindt the gabi- dalist with his decision, we should speedily see a revival of drade and embloymend for every really capable work- man. Bud in the meantime there unfordunadely seems do be very little chance of this; and in so delicade a madder as the gonsdrugdion of this ship of ours, it would be nod only unwise, but also unfair to you to run the risk of a failure through the embloymendt of untractable or unreliable workmen; and if, therefore, you had insisted on my embloying Englishmen, I should have been re- lugdandly gombelled do wash my hands of the whole affair. Ad the same dime I feel id due do myself do say thad, even had you nod mendioned the madder, I should have done my best to secure Englishmen for the work, as of course I shall now; bud I do uod feel very sanguine as do the resuldt." "My dear professor!" exclaimed the baronet, smiling at the intense earnestness of the German, " are you not lay- ing on the colour rather thickly? I admit with sorrow that your portrait is only too truthful — as a portrait — still I cannot help thinking it rather highly coloured. They are surely not all as despicable as you have painted them?" " No," answered the professor with enthusiasm, " no they are nod. Id was only a few weeks ago thad I read of the workmen of a cerdain firm bresending their em- bloyers with a full week's work fi^ee, in order to helb the firm out of their beguniary diffiguldies. Now, they, I admid, were fine, noble, sensible fellows; they had indel- ligence enough to regognize the diffiguldies of the sidua- 24 SIR REGINALD SHOWS HIS GOOD SENSE. tion, and do grabble with them in a sensible way. I warrand you they always worked honesdly and efficiendly whether their embloyer's eye was on them or nod. And they will find their reward in due time; their embloyers will never rest until they have recouped the men for their generous sacrifice. But where will you find another body of men like them? They are only the one noble, grand exception which goes do brove my rule." " Well, professor, though what you have said is, in the main, only too true, I cannot agree with you altogether; I believe there are a few good, intelligent, reliable men to be found here and there, in addition to those splendid fellows of whom you have just told us," said the baronet. " But," he continued, " I will not attempt to constrain you in any way. If you cannot find exactly what you want here, import men from abroad, by all means. I have a great deal of sympathy for want and suflfering when they are the result of misfortune; but when they are brought on by a man's own laziness or perversity he must go elsewhere for sympathy and help; I have none to spare for people of that sort." •- CHAPTEE IX. AN EXCITING ADVENTURE AND A RESCUE. T was at this moment that Mildmay caught a momentary glimpse of an object far away on the northern horizon, which his practised eye at once told him was a sail of some sort. He instantly seized one of the telescopes suspended in the pilot-house, and brought the instrument to bear in her direction. For nearly a minute he was unsuccessful in his endeavour to find her; but at length she reappeared from behind an intervening berg; and it appeared to him that she was in a situation of considerable peril. She was a barque, under close-reefed topsails, reefed courses, fore topmast staysail, and mizzen; and she appeared to be embayed in the bight of a huge floe, with a whole fleet of bergs in dangerous proximity and apparently bearing down upon her. Perhaps the strangest peculiarity about her was that, notwithstanding her perilous position, she was dressed with flags, from her mast-heads downward, as though it were a gala day on board. Mildmay 's anxious attitude and expression of face, to- gether with his earnest devotion to his telescope, soon attracted the notice of the rest of the party; and the A PERILOUS POSITION. 137 baronet asked him what object it was that so riveted his attention. He withdrew his eyes for a moment from the instru- ment, and, pointing out the vsmall and scarcely distinguish- able dark spot on the horizon, said: "Do you see that object, gentlemen? Well, that is a barque embayed in the ice, and evidently making a supreme effort to free herself — an effort which to me, and at this distance, appears quite hopeless. It is my opinion that, unless the wind changes, or something equally unforeseen occurs, she will within the next half hour be smashed into matchwood — unless, indeed, we can help her." "Help her? Of course we can," said the professor; and without waiting for further discussion, he laid his hand on the engine lever and sent the machinery ahead at nearly half-speed. The Flying Fish darted forward like a swallow in full flight; and the professor, leaving the baronet in charge of the engines and the steering-gear, summoned Mildmay and the colonel to follow him. The trio hastened to the after part of the deck, and, raising a trap-door which the professor indicated, withdrew therefrom a thin pliant wire hawser— made, like almost everything else in the ship, of aethereum — which, having secured one end of it to a ring-bolt in the after extremity of the deck, they coiled down in readiness for use as a tow-line. "There!" ejaculated the professor in a gratified tone of voice, " we will give her the end of that rope; and it shall go hard with us, but we will tow her into some place of at least temporary safety." " That is all right," responded Mildmay; " but how are we going to get it on board her? Its weight is a mere 138 AN UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT. nothing, it is true, but it is rather too bulky to heave on board. Have you nothing smaller that we can bend on to the eye of the hawser and use as a heaving-line?" " Certainly I have," replied the professor. " I had not thought of that. * Every man to his trade.'" And, diving down the hatchway, he rummaged about for a few minutes and finally reappeared with a small coil of very thin light pliant wire line, which Mildmay, pro- nouncing it to be exactly the thing, proceeded at once to attach to the eye of the hawser. Meanwhile, the baronet had been anxiously watching the barque through the telescope, and had seen so much to increase his anxiety for her safety that, forgetful of the exposed situation of his companions, he had gradually increased the pace of the Flying Fish until he had brought it up to full speed. This, of course, created so tremendous a draught that not only was it quite impossible for the party aft to make headway against it and thus regain the pilot-house, but they actually had to fling themselves flat on the deck to avoid being blown overboard; and even thus it was only with the utmost difficulty that they were able to save themselves. And this, unfortunately, was not the worst of it. The light hawser, acted upon by so powerful a draught, was for an instant slightly lifted off the deck, and that slight lift did the mischief. The next moment the coils went streaming away astern one after the other, and, almost before those who witnessed the accident could tell what had happened, the propeller had been fouled and the hawser snapped like a thread. The powerful jerk thus occasioned caused the baronet to turn his head; and he then saw in a moment what ANCHORED ON AN ICE FLOE. 139 mischief he had done. He, luckily, had presence of mind enough to stop the engines at once; the Flying Fish's course was stayed, and she immediately began to drive swiftly astern in apparently a dead calm, but actually swept along upon the wings of the gale. The professor at once scrambled to his feet, and, fol- lowed by his companions, hurried to the pilot-house, where, without wasting time in useless words, he at once set himself to look out for a suitable spot upon which to alight, it being absolutely necessary to clear the pro- peller before again moving the engines, lest in doing so a complete break-down should result. A favourable spot was at length found — but not until they had drifted completely out of sight of the apparently doomed barque — and the Flying Fish was carefully lowered to the surface of a large floe, her anchor being first let go in order to " bring her up " and prevent her being driven along by the wind over the smooth surface. It was a task more difficult of accomplishment than they had anticipated, the anchor for some time refusing to bite, but it caught at last in a crevice, and immediately on the vessel touching, the grip-anchors were extended and the ship secured. No sooner was the Flying Fish fairly settled on the ice than Mildmay, who knew exactly what ought to be done, descended to the lower recesses of the ship, and, opening the trap-door in her bottom, made his way out on the ice, dragging with him a ladder which was always kept in the diving-room. He soon reached the stern of the vessel, and, rearing the ladder in a suitable position against the propeller, nimbly ran aloft and began to throw off the convolutions of the entangled hawser. 140 OFF ONCE MORE TO THE RESCUE. Twenty minutes sufficed, not only to complete the work, but also to assure him that no damage had been done to the hull of the vessel; and, his three companions having followed him and removed the hawser to the interior of the vessel, he re-entered the hull, secured the trap-door after him, and ascended to the deck. He here found Sir Reginald and the colonel busily engaged in adjusting a new hawser ready for use, and, with his assistance, this task was completed in another five minutes, and the ship was once more ready for service. As the Flying Fish was in the act of rising from off the ice, Sir Reginald asked: " Should we not make better speed by taking at once to the water, professor?" " Undoubtedly we should," was the answer. '' Such a course would also have the additional advantage of enabling us to immerse the hull to the proper depth as we go along, thus giving us that hold upon the water necessary to cope successfully with the weight of a large ship like the one of which we are going in search. We might, whilst floating in the air, be able to tow her out of danger, but I am a little doubtful on the point; and, as this is a case in which it will not do to incur any risk by trying experiments, we will take to the water as soon as we can discover a suitable channel. It appears to me that there is something of the kind about six miles ahead and a little to our right." There certainly was a channel through the ice at the point indicated by the professor, but w^iether it was a true channel, or merely a cut de sac, they were for the moment unable to decide. On nearing it to within a mile, however, they found it to be the latter; but about a WILL THEY BE IN TIME? 141 couple of miles beyond it another streak of water was seen extending, unbroken, as far as the eye could reach. For this they steered, and in a very few minutes after- wards the Flying Fish was once more afloat, with her water-chambers full and her air-compresser working to the full extent of its power. The hawser being this time temporarily secured in such a manner as to render a repetition of their late acci- dent impossible, and the entire party being, moreover, safely ensconced in the pilot-house, there was no hesita- tion about again pressing the ship forward at full speed, the channel, luckily, being straight enough to allow of this; and very soon the group of icebergs in which the unfortunate barque was entangled once more appeared in view. Mildmay was at the helm, with the professor standing by the engines; but Sir Reginald and the colonel no sooner saw the bergs than they seized their telescopes and began at once to look out for the barque. At first they could see nothing of her, but presently she glided into view from behind an intervening berg, and a single glance was sufficient to assure them that another five minutes would decide her fate. She had gradually set down into the triangular extremity of the bight in which she was embayed, so that every tack she made became shorter than the one preceding it, and very soon the water space would become so circumscribed as to leave no room for her to manoeuvre. But this was not the worst feature of the case. As desperate diseases are sometimes combated with desperate remedies, so in her desperate condition the hazardous and almost hopeless expedient of berthing her alongside one of the edges of the floe might have been attempted. But this last 142 A DANGEROUS MANCEUVRE. resource wns denied to the despairing seamen, from the fact that two enormous bergs, the vanguard of the fleet, had already reached the edge of the floe, on opposite sides of the bay, to windward of the entrapped barque, and were rapidly rasping their way down toward the apex of the triangle where the whaler was already shoot- ing into stays for what must evidently be her last tack. This would be so short that she could scarcely fail to miss stays on her next attempt, when she would drift helplessly down into the corner of the bight, and be ground out of existence by the berg which first happened to reach that point. It was at this critical moment that 'a cry of dismay arose simultaneously from the lips of the party in the Flying FisJis pilot-house. A slight turn in the channel had revealed to them the appalling fact that it, also, ter- minated in a cul de sac, a neck of solid ice, some fifty yards in width, dividing it from the open water in which the barque was still battling for her life. What was to be done ? There was no time to discuss the question; but a happy inspiration flashed through the baronet's brain. " We must leap the barrier!" he exclaimed. " Right! I understand," was the professor's brief reply; and, turning the compressed air into the water-chambers, he forced out the water and succeeded in raising the sharp nose of the Flying Fish just above the level of the floe a single instant before she reached it. It was a tremendous risk to run — one which would never have been thought of in cold blood, as the ship was rushing forward at full speed, and there was no knowing what might happen; but the sympathies of the party LEAPING THE BARRIER. 143 were now so fully aroused by the awful peril of the barque — which, in the midst of all her danger, was still gaily dressed in flags — that they never paused to think of the possible consequences, but sent the ship at the barrier as a huntsman sends his horse to a desperate leap. For an infinitesimal fraction of time the four adventurous travellers were thrilled with a feeling of wild exultation as they held their breath and braced themselves for the expected shock. Then the smooth polished hull of the Flying Fish met the ice, and, rising like a hunter to the leap, slid smoothly, and without the slightest jar, up on to the surface of the floe, across the narrow barrier, and into the water beyond. "Stop her!" shouted Mildmay, checking the exultant cheer which rose to the lips of his companions. " Sheer as close alongside the barque as you can go. Sir Reginald, and give me a chance to get our heaving line on board. Then, as soon as I wave my hand, go ahead gently until you have brought a strain upon the hawser, when you may increase the speed to about twelve knots — not more, or you will tear the windlass out of the barque. Steer straight out between those two bergs, and remem- ber that onoments are now precious." With these words the lieutenant hurried out on deck and made his way aft, where he at once began to clear away the heaving line and make ready for a cast. The engines meanwhile had been stopped in obedience to Mildmay's command, his companions intuitively recog- nizing that he was the man to cope with the present emer- gency, and the Flying Fish answering the helm, which the baronet, an experienced yachtsman, was deftly manipulat- ing, shot cleverly up along the weather side of the barque. 144 ALONGSIDE THE BARQUE. "Look out for our line, lads!" hailed Mildmay to the crew of the vessel, who were gaping in open-mouthed astonishment at the extraordinary apparition which had thus abruptly put in an appearance alongside them. "Ay, ay, sir; heave!" answered one smart fellow, who, notwithstanding his surprise, still seemed to have his wits about him. Mildmay hove the line with all a sea- man's skill, and a couple of bights settled down round the neck and shoulders of the expectant tar. " Haul in, and throw the eye of the hawser over your windlass bitts," ordered Mildmay; "we will soon have you clear of your present pickle." "Thank you, sir," hailed the skipper; "haul in smart there, for'ard, and take a turn anywhere; those bergs are driving down upon us mighty fast." With a joyous "hurrah" at the timely arrival of such unexpected assistance, the men roused the hawser on board, threw the eye over the bitts, passed two or three turns of the slack round the barrel of the windlass, and adjusted the rope in a "fairlead" with lightning rapidity. Mildmay, who was intently watching their movements, waved his hand as a signal to the baronet the instant he saw that the hawser was properly fast on board the barque, and the Flying Fish immediately began to glide ahead. The baronet was evidently bent on retrieving his character and making up for his past carelessness, for he handled his strangely- shaped vessel with most consum- mate skill, bringing the strain upon the hawser very gradually, and, when he had done so, coaxing the barque's head round until her nose and that of the Flying Fish pointed straight toward the rapidly narrowing passage between the bergs. Then, indeed, the thin but tough '*INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH." 145 hawser straightened out taut as a bow-string between the two vessels as the baronet sent his engines powerfully ahead; the barque's windlass bitts creaked and groaned with the tremendous strain to which they were suddenly subjected; a foaming surge gathered and hissed under her bows, and as her harassed crew, active as wild-cats, skipped about the decks busily letting go and clewing up, away went the two craft toward the closing gap. It was like steering into the jaws of death. The two bergs were by this time within a bare cable's-length of the Flying Fish's conical stem; and as they swept irresistibly onward, their pinnacled summits towering five hundred feet into the air, their rugged sides rasping horribly along the edges of the floe with an awful crush- ing, grinding sound, and their contiguous sides approach- ing each other more and more nearly every moment, there was not a man on either of those two vessels who did not hold his breath and stand fascinated in awe- stricken suspense, gazing upon those menacing walls of ice and waiting for the shock which should be the herald of their destruction. Rapidly — yet slower than a snail's pace, as it seemed to those anxious men — the space narrowed between the bergs and the ships; the grinding crash and crackle of the ice grew momentarily more loud and distracting; the freezing wind from the bergs cut their faces like an invisible razor as it swept down upon them in sudden powerful gusts, apparently intent upon retarding their progress until the last hope of escape should be cut off; the gigantic icy clifls lowered more and more threateningly down upon them; and at last, when the feeling of doubt and suspense was at its highest, the Flying Fish entered (359) ^ 146 AN ANXIOUS MOMENT. the gap. The channel had by this time become so narrow that for the Flying Fish to pass through it seemed utterly impossible; indeed, it looked as though there remained scarcely room for the barque with her much narrower beam; and as the towering crystal walls closed in upon them every man present felt that the final moment had now come. Everything depended upon Sir Reginald; if at this critical instant his nerve failed him there was nothing but quick destruction and a horrible death for every man there. But the baronet's nerve did not fail him. With a face pale and teeth clenched with excite- ment, but with a steady pulse and an unquailing eye, he stood with one hand on the tiller and the other on the engine lever, guiding his ship exactly midway through the narrow gorge; and precisely at the right moment, when the Flying Fish's sides were actually grazing the ice on either side, he increased the pressure of his hand upon the lever, the engines revolved a shade more ra- pidly, and the flying ship slid through the narrowest part of the pass uninjured, but escaping by the merest hair's- breadth. But would the barque also get through? She was fully two hundred feet astern of the Flying Fish, and the bergs were revolving on their own centres in such a manner that ere many seconds were past they must in- evitably come together with a force which would literally annihilate whatever might happen to be between them. And as for the barque — the way in which her bows were burying themselves in the hissing wave that foamed and surged about her cutwater, and the terrified looks of her crew as they glanced, now aloft at the formidable bergs, and now at the straining hawser — from which they stood iliiMP'.l