CHAPTER XXV.
THE VIKING'S SHIP.
Suddenly, from the depths as it seemed, there came a faint cry.
It was the professor's voice feebly calling for aid. Frank hastenedforward but dared not venture too near the edge of the hole throughwhich the scientist had vanished.
"Are you hurt, professor?" he cried, eagerly, and hung on the answer.
"No," came back the reply, "not much, but I can't hold on muchlonger."
"Are you at the bottom of the chasm?"
"No, I am clinging to a ledge. It is very slippery and if I shouldfall it would be to the bottom of the rift, which seems severalhundred feet deep."
Even in his extreme danger the professor seemed cool and Frank tookheart from him.
Luckily they had with them a coil of rope brought from the GoldenEagle for the purpose of lowering one of their number over the edge ofthe gulf onto the Viking ship--if the mast they had seen proved to behers.
It was the work of a moment to form a loop in this and then Frankhailed the professor once more.
"We are going to lower a rope to you. Can you grasp it?"
"I think so. I'll try," came up the almost inaudible response.
The rope was lowered over the edge of the rift and soon to their joythe boys felt it jerked this way and that as the professor caught it.
"Tie it under your arms," enjoined Frank.
"All right," came the answer a few seconds later. "Haul away. I can'tendure the cold down here much longer."
The three boys were strong and they pulled with all their might, butfor a time it seemed doubtful if they could lift the professor out ofthe crevasse as, despite his leanness, he was a fairly heavy man. Heaided them, however, by digging his heels in the wall of the crevasseas they hoisted and in ten minutes' time they were able to grasp hishands and pull him into safety.
A draught from the vacuum bottle containing hot coffee which Frankcarried soon restored the professor and he was able to describe tothem how, as he was walking along, declaiming concerning thefur-bearing pollywog, the ground seemed to suddenly open under hisfeet and he felt himself tumbling into an abyss of unknown depth.
As the chasm narrowed, he managed to jam himself partially across therift and in this way encountered an ice-coated ledge. One glance downshowed him that if he had not succeeded in doing this his plunge wouldhave ended in death, for the crevasse seemed to exist to an unknowndepth beneath the surface of the earth.
"And now that I am safe and sound," said the professor, "let us hurryon. The fall hasn't reduced my eagerness to see the wrecked Vikingship."
"But the crevasse, how are we to pass that?" asked Frank.
"We must make a detour to the south," said the professor, "I noticedwhen I was down there that the rift did not extend more than a fewfeet in that direction. In fact, had I dared to move I might haveclambered out."
The boys, not without some apprehension, stepped forward incontinuance of their journey, and a few minutes later, after they hadmade the detour suggested by the professor, realized to their joy thatthey had passed the dangerous abyss in safety.
"And now," shouted Frank, "forward for the Viking ship or--"
"Or a sell!" shouted the irrepressible Billy.
"Or a sell," echoed Frank.
With fast beating hearts they dashed on and a few minutes later stoodon the edge of the mastmarked abyss, gazing downward into it.
As they did so a shout--such a shout as had never disturbed the greatsilences of that region--rent the air--
"The Viking ship at last. Hurray!"
The gully was about thirty feet deep and at the bottom of it, glazedwith the thick ice that covered it, lay a queerly formed ship with ahigh prow,--carved like a raven's head.
IT WAS THE VIKING SHIP.
After all the centuries that had elapsed since she went adrift she wasat last found, and to be ransacked of the treasure her dead sailorshad amassed.
The first flush of the excitement over the discovery quickly passedand the boys grew serious. The problem of how to blast the preciousderelict out of the glassy coat of ice without sinking her was aserious one. Frank, after a brief survey, concluded, however, that theice "cradle" about her hull was sufficiently thick to hold her steadywhile they blasted a way from above to her decks and hold.
It was useless to linger there, as they had not brought the needfulapparatus with them, so they at once started back for the GoldenEagle. Frank's first care, arrived once more at the aeroplane, was tosend out the good news, and it was received with "wireless acclaim" bythose at Camp Hazzard.
"Will be there in two days by motor-sledge. Commence operations atonce," was the order that was flashed back after congratulations hadbeen extended. As it was too late to do anything more that night, theboys decided to commence work on the derelict in the morning. After ahearty supper they retired to bed in the chassis of the aeroplane, allas tired out as it is possible for healthy boys to be. Nevertheless,Frank, who always--as he put it--"slept with one eye open," wasawakened at about midnight by a repetition of the noise of themysterious airship.
There was no mistaking it. It was the same droning "burr" they hadheard on the night following their discovery of the flaming mountain.Waking Harry, the two lads peered upward and saw the stars blotted outas the shadowy form of the air-ship passed above them--between the skyand themselves. All at once a bright ray of light shot downward and,after shifting about over the frozen surface for a time, it suddenlyglared full on to the boys' camp.
Both lads almost uttered a cry as the bright light bathed them andmade it certain that their rivals had discovered their aeroplane; butbefore they could utter a word the mysterious craft had extinguishedthe search glare and was off with the rapidity of the wind toward thewest.
"They must be scared of us," said Harry at length, after a longawe-stricken silence.
"Not much, I'm afraid," rejoined Frank, with a woeful smile.
"Well, they hauled off and darted away as soon as they saw us,"objected Harry.
"I'm afraid that that is no guarantee they won't come back," remarkedFrank, with a serious face.
"You mean that they--"
"Have gone to get reinforcements and attack us," was the instantreply, "they must have trailed us with the powerful lenses of whichthe Japanese have the secret and which are used in their telescopes.They are now certain that we have found the ship and are coming back.It's simple, isn't it?"
The professor, when he and Billy awakened in the morning, fully sharedthe boys' apprehensions over the nocturnal visitor.
"If they think we have discovered the ship they won't rest till theyhave wrested it from us," he said soberly.
"I'm afraid that we are indeed in for serious trouble," said Frank, ina worried tone. "You see, Captain Hazzard and his men can't get here,even with the motor-sledge, for two days."
"Well, don't you think we had better abandon the ship and fly back tothe camp?" suggested Billy.
"And leave that ship for them to rifle at their leisure--no," rejoinedFrank, with lips compressed in determination, "we won't do that. We'lljust go ahead and do the best we can--that's all."
"That's the way to talk," approved the professor, "now as soon as youboys have had breakfast we'll start for the ship, for, from what youhave related, there is clearly no time to be lost."
The thought that their mysterious enemies might return at any timecaused the boys to despatch the meal consisting of hot chocolate,canned fruit, pemmican, and salt beef, with even more haste thanusual. Before they sat down to eat, however, Frank flashed a messageto the camp telling them of their plight.
"Will start at once," was the reply, "keep up your courage. We arecoming to the rescue."
This message cheered the boys up a good deal and they set out for theViking ship with lighter hearts than they had had since the sightingof the night-flier. They packed with them plenty of stout rope, drillsand dynamite. Harry carried the battery boxes and the rolls of wire tobe used in setting of
f the charges when they were placed.
Arrived at the edge of the gully, a hole was drilled in the ice and anupright steel brace, one of the extra parts of the aeroplane, wasimbedded in it as an upright, to which to attach the rope. It was soonadjusted and Frank, after they had drawn lots for the honor of beingthe first on board, climbed down it. He was quickly followed by theothers, but any intention they might have had of exploring the ship atthat time was precluded by the ice that coated her deck with theaccumulation of centuries of drifting in the polar currents.
With the drill several holes were soon bored in the glassy coating andsticks of dynamite inserted. These were then capped with fulminate ofmercury caps, and Harry climbed the rope to the surface of the narrowgully with the wires which were to carry the explosive spark. Theothers followed, and then, carrying the battery box to which the wireshad been attached, withdrew to what was considered a safe distance.
"Ready?" asked Frank, his hand on the switch, when all had beenadjusted.
"Let 'er go," cried Billy.
There was a click, and a split of blue flame followed by a roar thatshook the ground under their feet. From the gully a great fountain ofice shot up mingled with smoke.
"I'm afraid I gave her too much," regretted Frank apprehensively, asthe noise subsided and the smoke blew away. "I hope we haven't sunkher."
"That would be a calamity," exclaimed the professor, "but I imaginethe ice beneath her was too thick to release her, even with such aheavy charge as you fired."
"Let's hope so," was the rejoinder.
Billy led the others on the rush back to the gulf.
All uttered a cry of amazement as they gazed over its edge.
The explosion had shattered the coating of ice above the vessel'sdecks and had also exposed her hold at a spot at which the deck itselfhad been blown in.
"I can't believe my eyes," shouted Billy, as he gazed.
"It's there, right enough," gasped Frank, "the old manuscript wasright after all."
As for the professor and Harry, they stood speechless, literallypetrified with astonishment.
Below them, exposed to view, where the deck had been torn away, wasrevealed the vessel's hold packed full, apparently, of yellow walrusivory and among the tusks there glittered dully bars of what seemedsolid gold.
Frank was the first down the rope. The explosion had certainly doneenough damage, and if the ice "cradle" beneath the vessel's keel hadnot been so thick she must have been sunk with the shock of thedetonation. The ice "blanket" that covered her though had beenshattered like a pane of glass--and, with picks thrown down onto thedecks from above the boys soon cleared a path to the door of a sort ofraised cabin aft.
Then they paused.
A nameless dread was on them of disturbing the secrets of the longdead Vikings. Before them was the cabin door which they longed to openbut somehow none of them seemed to have the courage to do so. Theportal was of massive oak but had been sprung by the explosion till ithung on its hinges weakly. One good push would have shoved it down.
"Say, Billy, come and open this door," cried Harry, but Billy wasintently gazing into the hold, now and then jumping down into it andhandling the ivory and bar gold with an awe-stricken face.
"Well, are you boys going to open that door?" asked the professor atlast. He had been busy in another part of the ship examining therotten wood to see if he could find any sort of insects in it.
"Well--er, you see, professor--" stammered Harry.
"What--you are scared," exclaimed the professor, laughing.
"No; not exactly scared, but--," quavered Frank, "it doesn't seem justright to invade that place. It's like breaking open a tomb."
"Nonsense," exclaimed the scientist, who had no more sentiment abouthim than a steel hack-saw, "watch me."
He bounded forward and put his shoulder to the mouldering door. Itfell inward with a dull crash and as it did so the professor leapedbackward with a startled cry, stumbling over a deck beam and sprawlingin a heap.
"W-w-what's the matter?" gasped Harry, with a queer feeling at theback of his scalp and down his spine.
"T-T-THERE'S SOMEONE IN THERE!" was the startling reply from therecumbent scientist.
Boy Aviators' Polar Dash; or, Facing Death in the Antarctic Page 25
