THE SHIP IMPRISONED 85 



*Those are killers!' cried one of the men in the Pilgrim 

 as two more black and white heads emerged from the 

 water and depressed the rim of the floe to send the third 

 seal sliding to a quick death. Sykes sprawled to within 

 a few feet of the edge but recovered his hold as the floe 

 settled back to the horizontal. 



The whaleboat had got clear by now and was heading 

 towards him and the Pilgrim was entering the wide V- 

 shaped fissure in the ice. As the two converged towards 

 the same point the killers made a mass assault on the floe ; 

 it tilted steeply and the man's last cry for help was cut 

 short as he slid into the cold green sea. There was a 

 flurry of black fins cutting the surface and sleek black and 

 white shapes darting through the green spume-flecked 

 sea; then nothing but the floe rising and falHng on the long 

 undulating swell remained to mark the spot where the 

 drama had taken place. 



'The Lord rest his soul!' murmured the captain but the 

 rest of the men and the boy watching from the Pilgrim's 

 deck were too stricken with horror to speak. 



In Jonathan horror slowly gave way to an involuntary 

 feeling of relief as he became conscious of a great burden 

 being lifted from his aching soul. 



The battered whaleboat limped towards its mother 

 ship. 



'Waste no time, Mr. Macy!' hailed the captain as he 

 brought the ship into the wind. 'The ice is closing in 

 fast.' 



As Chimoo cHmbed over the side of the ship he met 

 Jonathan standing with tears rolling down his young 

 cheeks. The big Indian put an arm around the boys' 

 shoulder. 



'Bad man finish now,' he said. 'Injun god send him to 

 other hunting ground.' 



The drenched, shivering men were helped aboard. In 

 the forecastle a cask of rum was broached at the captain's 



