It was a hard task, but at last he made an opening through the drift,
and was astonished as he forced his way out to find that it was broad
day and the sun shone brightly and a dead calm prevailed.
But a wild terror came upon him as he looked about. Less than fifty feet
from the place where he had lain waves were breaking over the edge of
the ice. On the opposite side and very close to him lay the land, and
the ice upon which he stood was jammed against the land ice, offering
him a clear road to safety.
But safety now meant nothing to Jimmy. The main ice pack from which his
little section had broken, lay glimmering in the sunlight a full two
miles to the southeast and well out to sea, and Bobby was either on that
pack or had been lost in the sea. The discovery made Jimmy numb with
fear and consternation.
He recognized the land near him as the farthermost point of Cape
Harrigan. The pack in its southward drift had come in contact with Cape
Harrigan's long projection of land, the wind had severed the pack, and,
while the comparatively small section of floe upon which he stood had
remained jammed against the land, the main floe, reaching far out beyond
the obstruction of the cape, had been swept on and on, and was now
floating steadily southward.
In frantic frenzy Jimmy ran about and shouted, and searched every nook
and turn of his little corner of the original floe for Bobby, but there
was no trace of his missing comrade. Again and again he searched, but
without reward.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182