Part 75 (1/1)

”Full speed ahead!” signalled the captain; and the propeller churned up the water now rushi+ng by theazed wildly at the sides, expecting to be swept down the fiord to destruction in the reat floe daiven way at last, and for a short time their position was one of terrible peril But the cables proved true, eased as they were by the full power of the propeller, and half an hour after the _Hvalross_ was riding nearly forty feet lower than she had been in the , with the way out to the ocean free

In those precarious waters no opportunities can be lost A place open one day e of wind, be closed the next by the ice-floes; and in view of this the _Hvalross_ glided out of her prison deeply laden with the spoil of another su loudly as they went Then after various vicissitudes of being caught in the ice, freed, caught, and freed again, she made her way southward till the last lane in the ice-floes was threaded, and her head laid for Nordoe in the brightest of sunshi+ne, and the deck in the long su hot

There was a warians, Johannes looking quite mournful when he shook farewell hands with Steve; but they were cheered loudly as they stepped on to the little quay, any sadness they felt being chased away by the many friends who pressed round the the head of the stout little steaave vent to the heartiest of cheers, which increased to a roar of delight as Andrew, forgetful of all past suffering, , tobeloith crest and tail drooping, and his sharp, white teeth bared to the gums

Then all settled down to the quiet e holided south, heavily laden, but steady, and looking, as Steve said, perfectly satisfied with having well done her work And so she had, for everysafe and sound, and she was bringing back the captain and crew of brave one in search

”I feel convinced,” said Captain Marsha, ”that ere the first visitors to those icy shores”

”Yes,” said Captain Young; ”I doubt whether any one ever reached so far north before; but I don't like leaving o behind”

”Let theo there,” said Captain Marsha caught in the ice again”

”Yes, we had enough darkness and cold to last soht in the bows bribing Skene to sit up with scraps of alley; but he ceased and looked shyly at the boy as he advanced

”Well, Watty,” cried Steve, ”we shall soon be hoain now, all alive and well”

”Ay, she'll sune pe seeing Glasgie, and her puir auld o up north once rease is peautiful, Meester Stevey, and she ton't mind the chilplains after a pit; but it's a' tat tairkness mak's her hairt sair

Hey, but it's a waefu' place”

”Then you wouldn't care to go again?”

”Na,” said Watty; ”put if she ganged there acain to fetch the ither shi+p she'd gang wi' her”

”You would, Watty?”

”Ay, tat she would, and to the ferry wairld's end”

THE END