The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-07-22

| <Ao AZ" hS dohCos
Don't ye see what's got her?"
queried the grizzled old mariner.
Potter shook his head.
''It's the berg; she's shut us off," said
Andrew.
The skipper strained his eyes to see
through the haze. 1t was quite as
thick as it had been for the last eight
hours, yet there was whiteness in it
at strange variance with the night.
"Listen!" commanded Potter, and
raised his hand.
The faint clatter of falling stream
grew upon their ears-the hustle and
splash of a miniature waterfall find
ing its way to the seas from the sum-
NIT of an iceberg. And the berg was
even then upon them!
| In the fog loomed Of a sudden vast,
moving shape. 1t whitened the mist
which clung about it like a ghostly veil
and it's peak lowered far above the
Valiant's topmast.
| "She's got us!" cried old Andrew.
"Stand by the dories!" shouted the
skipper.
There was jarring crash. The little
schooner had run her nose upon a spur
of the berg. She shook from truck to
heel. The next swell threw her for
| ward on her knees, as it were, and
then, splintering and crashing, the dis
placed ice began to fall upon and about
her.
| The men worked like mad to launch
| the dories, but one after another was
dashed to pieces or swept away and
swallowed up in the suddenly angered
I sea. A great piece of the berg fell
across the schooner's deck, carrying
away the roof of her house and staving
in her sides. The sea rushed into the
gap.
Four men in tossing dory saw this
death blow delivered. They were all
that were left of the Valiant's crew
afloat in the ice-pack without food,
compass or oars. The ice cakes buff
feted the fragile craft numerically,
"Shell last about ten minutes at this
| rate" said Potter, calmly. eve must
! ease her. boys. Andrew, grab that cake
it'll hold us all. So! Now, Herman,
jump ashore"
"What's the use?" growled the cook,
obeying the order.
Don't croak," said Potter. He had
them all out upon the cake and the
| dory hauled up also in three minutes.
Old Andrew was inclined to continue
his croakings.
"About one chance in a thousan' of
aour gittin' aout O. this alive" he said.
"We'll take that thousandth chance"
rejoined Potter, briskly.
"How long d'yeou s'pose this chunk
of ice is goin' to hold together7" the
| old cook demanded.
81 don't know. When it breaks up
| We'll take another. We've got the dory
yet"
The cook shook his head. Two hun
| dred miles from the fishing grounds, al
most as far from any land, and we'll
| out of the course of the steamships-it
was truly one chance in thousand.
They crouched together in the boat
| till dawn. Their bodies became chilled
20 the bone. The dampness and cold
| seemed to penetrate the planks of the
| dory and they might as well have lain
| upon the bare ice itself. Old Andrew
became well-night crippled with rheu-
matte pains.
The fog lifted bit when the sun
arose, and they were able to view sew
eral hundred square yards of the ice
pack. The cakes were rubbing close to-
gether, occasionally separating for
little, only to crash again with fearful
force, the heavier grinding the smaller
to powder. The four castaways could
see the berg itself not far away; but
the schooner had disappeared.
AS soon as Potter obtained a sight of
the berg he became anxious to.reach it.
1t was not very tall, but was of con-
siderable circumference, and upon one
side was plain several feet above the
sea and an acre or two in extent. If
they could once reach this they would
be in comparative safety until the berg
foated far enough south for the de-
structive warm currents to have a seri-
Gus effect upon the ice. But between
them and the berg death lurked in
every crowding, shifting cake.
''It's temptin' Providence" objected
the cook. LET we'll enough be, skip
per-" Old Andrew was a good deal of
fatalist, but he influenced the other
two men strongly.
1T will be our salvation if we reach
that berg" declared Potter.
"We're well enough here" growled
one of the others. 1--WE can starve just
as well here as yonder."
Look here!" cried Potter, decisively,
'I'm captain here yet, reckon. Jest
as longs stick O. the Valiant holds
together, or one o her boats, I'm in
command. An by holy! Ipropose that
you'll obey me. Move sharp, now, you
fellers, an get ready to launch this
boat"
Amid much grumbling he was obeyed
Tom Potter was not a man to be trifled
with. AS the cake on which they fioated
swung clear from its sister cakes for
moment, they dropped the dory into the
water and tumbled into her. The seats,
wrenched from their places, were their
paddles and they forced the frail and
overloaded boat -four in dory is a
dangerous number) through the mar
row lanes between the cakes.
Under the spur of Potter's voice the
two younger men piled their rude pad
dies madly. The cook could do little,
because of his swollen joints, and when
the ice shut in upon them and Potter
and the other two leaped out, they
4 dron npad tho dorx- with a. ala ,,,~,.. -4:I1