58 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



Many times Jonathan noticed the brooding eyes of 

 Sykes cast in his direction and once when Jonathan and 

 Chimoo stood together on the foredeck the boy saw those 

 eyes darken with hate and fear. Chimoo saw them too but 

 he said nothing. 



On the third day of fog came a call from the forward 

 lookout, 'Ice ahead ! Ice ahead ! Starboard your helm ! 



To starboard, to starboard! ' and the rest of the 



words that he continued to shout as he scrambled to 

 safety along the bowsprit were swallowed up by the spine- 

 chilling crash that followed as the ship hit a towering cliff 

 of ice. 



Jonathan had been serving the midday meal to Macy 

 the first mate and now he followed the man up the 

 companionway and along the main deck to the bows which 

 had taken the main brunt of the collision. The smashed 

 bowsprit hung in a tangle of sails and rigging and the 

 forward bulwarks had been stove in; the single staysail 

 was still filled by the faint breeze which kept the ship 

 pressed against the face of the ice and with each lift of 

 the swell came a sickening grinding of wood against ice. 



'Lower that sail!' shouted Macy and through the fog 

 came the reply, 'The halliard is jammed, sir, and will not 

 come free!' 



'Then go aloft and free it, you fools!' cried Macy. 



But no man moved for the topmast was scraping an 

 overhanging buttress of the ice and the larboard crosstree 

 had already been smashed. The masthead lookout had 

 already forsaken his dangerous perch and Joseph and 

 Chimoo were engaged in trying to clear away the tangled 

 forward rigging. 



Jonathan saw Macy move but in the same second that 

 it took the mate to reach the starboard shrouds the boy 

 leapt ahead of him and scrambled aloft to the crosstrees. 

 The ship rolled and the mast moved through an arc away 

 from the ice; then, like an inverted pendulum, it stopped 



