THE RESCUE 



89 



which amongst the few other personal possessions and a 

 quantity of food lay the tattered diary, now more precious 

 to him than ever. It also held the small brass crucifix and 

 the copy of Bunyan's Country Rimes for Boys and Girls which 

 he had never found time to read. 



He slung the bag over his shoulder and with one last 

 sad look at the doomed ship still flying her tattered New 

 England flag he took his place in the single line of men 

 following in the tracks of the whaleboat which on its 

 improvised sledge runners was already moving off as 

 a dozen men hauled at the two lines that had been 

 attached for that purpose. 



By the next day the blue-green line of the sea was well 

 within sight but down from the north moved a line of five 

 huge icebergs which, propelled southward by the currents 

 that flowed under the ice, crashed their way through the 

 white desert like giants breasting the thin covering on a 

 frozen pool. 



Unless the expedition could pass ahead of the oncoming 



