go THE WHALE HUNTERS 



bergs its path to the sea would be cut off by the Hne of 

 broken ice left in the path of that line of giants. 



Fatigued by many hours of arduous travel with little rest 

 and half blinded by the glare of the snow the party 

 increased its pace in a desperate race to the sea. 



Snow began to fall and soon the bergs were hidden from 

 their view. Only the direction of the ever increasing 

 roar of crushing ice could now tell them whether their race 

 would be won. 



Now the sound was almost directly on their right and so 

 loud that they knew that the next few minutes would 

 decide their fate. 



Jonathan and Joseph joined with the others who were 

 not pulUng upon the sledge ropes and pushed at the boat 

 with strength that comes only from great fear. 



Two men who had become lame with frostbite fell 

 behind the main body of the expedition and as the deafen- 

 ing roar approached its climax two others ran back 

 through the blizzard to help them. 



Those ahead toiled onwards ignorant of the fate of their 

 four comrades and not until the noise behind them began 

 to recede into the distance did they stop to rest their weary 

 bodies. It was the boy among them who first noticed 

 that the men were missing. He had been concerned for 

 the faihng strength of old Pierre and after he had lain 

 exhausted in the snow for a while he sat up and looked 

 about him. Thinking that the old cook might be one of 

 the many dim shapes in the snow around him he crawled 

 from one recumbent figure to another. He found the 

 captain seated on the snow with his head on his chest. 



'Captain, sir,' murmured the boy, T think that old 

 Pierre and some others are missing.' 



Captain Slocum raised his head wearily and his blood- 

 shot eyes regarded the boy with a certain gentleness of 

 expression that Jonathan had not noticed in his captain 

 before. 



