"She's pretty near steady, sir, I think," he replied, after a pause.
The two leaned over the rail and looked intently at the ice sweeping past.
"I think we're holdin' our own," said the captain, elatedly.
The boy turned to the great growler, now vague of outline in the dark. The ice floe had swept over the limit of vision. He wondered if it had struck the base of the berg. Then all at once the heap of cloudy white swayed forth and back before his eyes. For a moment it was like a gigantic curtain waving in the wind. It vanished of a sudden. A mountain of broken water shot up in its place--as high as its topmost pinnacle had been; and, following close upon its fall, another berg, with a worn outline, reared itself, dripping streams of water.
Thus far there had been no sound; but the sound beat its way against the wind, at last, and it was a thunderous noise--"like the growlin' of a million dogs," the captain said afterwards. The growler had capsized.
"Turned turtle, ain't she?" remarked the skipper, calmly.
"The pack might have carried us near it!"
"Oh," said the captain, lightly, "but it didn't. She's a good ship, the _Dictator_. What's more," he added, "she's makin' her way right through the pack."
Another berg had taken form over the port quarter. The captain shaped a course for it, eyeing it carefully as he drew near. It was low--not higher than the ship's spars--and broad, with the impression of stability strong upon it.
"See that berg, b'y?" said the captain. "Well," decisively, "we'll lie in the lee o' that in half an hour. You see, b'y," he went on, "the wind makes small bother for a solid berg. It whips the pan ice along, easy enough, but the bergs float their own way, quiet as you please. In the lee of every big fellow like that, there's open water. We'll lie there, tied up, till mornin'."
In half an hour, the ship broke from the ice into the lee of the berg. The floe raced past under the force of the gale, which left the lee air and water untouched by its violence. Skillful seamanship brought the vessel broadside to the ice. A wild commotion ensued: orders roared from the bridge, signal bells, the shouts of the line men, the hiss of steam, and the churning of the screw. Archie saw young Billy Topsail scramble to the ice like a cat, with the first line in his hand: then Bill o' Burnt Bay and half a dozen others, with axes and hooks.