270 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



leaped for either the stem or stern of the ship to see what manner of 

 monster might have crept up upon them thus unheralded over the 

 open vastness of the ice. But what met their eyes was far stranger 

 and much more uncanny than any sea monster that a Northlander 

 could conjure up in his wildest tales, for there, not half a mile away, 

 was a full-rigged ship belching black smoke from somewhere amid- 

 ships and calmly sailing right through the solid ice. And, what was 

 more, right behind her followed the Truelove with a thin tow- 

 line tying her to the smoking one. The apparition gave three 

 more raucous hoots and the ice rang beneath the men's feet in an- 

 swer. 



"All aboard!" yelled Captain Hardwicke. "For your lives, men. 

 Aboard and save yourselves!" 



Just in time the cooper leaped for an ice-covered line and hauled 

 himself to the scuppers. He was the last man up, and just as they 

 hauled him over the side, the ice below gave way with a noise like 

 a cannon, and clear black water opened up right where he had been 

 standing. 



Within minutes the steamship Ardnamucken was alongside and 

 had thrown them a line, and half an hour later, tied between her and 

 the Truelove, they were moving out towards open water along a 

 narrow lane through the ice. The Ardnamucken wheezed and 

 thumped on ahead, white foam boiling from her flanks. She forged 

 ahead contrary to all the laws of nature, but by noon she was in the 

 clear. 



"It's a fine thing sometimes that the ability to read is reserved for 

 the upper classes," Captain Hardwicke remarked casually to his 

 mate. "Your ideas of education for everybody may seem fine in 

 Scotland, Mr. MacNeil, but I warrant we'd not have got her tight if 

 that craven old porpoise hunter, Bates, could have read your mes- 

 sage." 



Angus MacNeil puffed twice deliberately on his pipe, then he re- 

 moved it from his mouth, spat over the rail, and observed, "And I'll 

 wager another ten guineas ye'd never 'a found the bloody hole if 

 the lad Arrach had 'n read the Scriptures. You'll be owing me the 

 ten guineas for that." 



And Angus MacNeil found an extra ten guineas, in gold, in his 

 wallet when he signed off in Hull two months later. 



