"Now I'll find Jimmy," said he, seizing his snow knife, "and see how he
spent the night in the storm."
He removed the snow block from the entrance and cut away the
accumulated drift, and crawling out at once looked about him with
astonished eyes. On one side very near where he had been sleeping waves
were breaking upon the ice, and far away beyond the waters lay the bleak
and naked headland of Cape Harrigan. In the east the sun was just
rising, and the snow of the ice pack sparkled and glittered with
wondrous beauty.
But Bobby saw only the open water, and the distant land, and nowhere
Jimmy or the dogs. A sickening dread came into his heart. The water had
eaten away the ice as he slept! That was the side upon which Jimmy must
have been! Jimmy was gone! He had no doubt Jimmy's body was now floating
somewhere in that stretch of black water!
Then he ran out over the ice and among the hummocks, shouting: "Jimmy!
Jimmy! Answer me, Jimmy, and tell me you're alive! Oh, Jimmy! Tell me
you're alive!"
But no Jimmy answered, and, overcome with grief, Bobby sat down upon the
snow and threw his arms over his knees, and, pillowing his head in the
crook of his elbow, wept.
"It's all my fault! It's all my fault!" he moaned. "I the same as killed
him! I led him into it! Oh, if I hadn't gone back for the whip! Oh, if
I'd only hurried when Skipper Ed told me to!"
But Bobby was young and healthy and active, and had an appetite, and the
air was excessively cold.
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