92 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



the sound of excited voices outside the tent in which he 

 now found himself alone. 



He pulled his stiff aching body into the open. A 

 watery sun shone over a world of white and the glare hurt 

 his eyes. 



The men were standing round the fire which was send- 

 ing up a column of black smoke and some were pointing 

 towards the blue stretch of sea that lay only a few hundred 

 yards away. 



The boy joined them and found that they were watching 

 a line of ships that were sailing southward in line ahead 

 along the horizon ; they were tall square-rigged ships with 

 three masts and high sterns ; they were the ships of which 

 the captain had spoken; and they were now the one means 

 of escape from the Arctic for the band of New England 

 whalemen standing on the fringe of the ice. 



'Keep that fire going, Mr. Macy,' cried the captain. 

 *Throw on anything that will make smoke. These may 

 be the last of the ships bound out of the Arctic' 



Slowly the eight ships moved along the horizon and the 

 hearts of the watching whalemen became faint with the 

 fear that their signal would not be seen. 



Then the line of ships altered course not directly towards 

 them but in the direction of a group of bergs that floated 

 near the edge of the ice to the southward and on their 

 left hand. 



'I would hazard that they have sighted whale around 

 those bergs,' said Macy, 'and if they can see the white 

 spout of a whale there is no reason why they should not 

 see the black spout of our fire. Pile on some more fuel, 

 my chummies, for I'll have a column of smoke that will 

 catch their eyes if I have to give you every piece of cloth 

 I stand in.' 



'And I could not be any colder,' said one of the men, 'so 

 you can have mine too,' and he threw his sealskin hat 

 upon the fire. 



