FAREWELL TO NORWAY 125 



bound into the air while the engine whizzed round at 

 a tearing- rate. It all happened in a second, before I 

 had time to stop her. Unluckily one screw blade was 

 broken off, but we drove ahead with the other as best 

 we could. Our progress was certainly rather uneven, 

 but for all that we managed to get on somehow. 



Towards morning we drew near the Fram, passing 

 two Samoyedes, who had drawn their boat up on an 

 ice-floe and were looking out for seals. I wonder what 

 they thought when they saw our tiny boat shoot by 

 them without steam, sails, or oars. We, at all events, 

 looked down on these " poor savages " with the self-sat- 

 isfied compassion of Europeans, as, comfortably seated, 

 we dashed past them. 



But pride comes before a fall ! We had not gone 

 far when — whir, whir, whir — a fearful racket! bits 

 of broken steel springs whizzed past my ears, and the 

 whole machine came to a dead stop. It was not to be 

 moved either forward or backw^ard. The vibration of 

 the one-bladed propeller had brought the lead line little 

 by little within the range of the fly-wheel, and all at 

 once the whole line was drawn into the machinery, and 

 got so dreadfully entangled in it that we had to take 

 the whole thing to pieces to get it clear once more. 

 So we had to endure the humiliation of rowing back to 

 our proud ship, for whose flesh-pots we had long been 

 anhungered. 



The net result of the day was: tolerably good news 



