“Begorry, the naygur’s off his nut, an’ there’ll be a bloody ruction here wid me for ther coorpse av I sthay.”
He laid aside the ax, and picking up the oil-can, resumed his work with no further molestation from the Irishman.
All this time the ice boat had been going on up the coast. In due course of time she reached the bay they were looking for, and the professor located the lone cedar tree.
A queer sensation at once assailed the Ranger.
Surprised at this Frank glanced out of the window.
The ground seemed to be sinking under the weight of the Ranger.
“There must be soft ground under us,” replied Vaneyke.
He grasped the gyroscope lever and turned it, but though the wheels spun around the ice ship did not rise.
Her runners and wheels had become caught and held fast by the treacherous ground under her.
Leaving the boat in the professor’s care, Frank rushed out on deck, and peering over at the ground, he saw that it was sinking down beneath the weight of the boat.
The ice covering had given way, exposing a muddy marsh, up from which a terrible stench was rising.
The smell came from the rotting carcase of a huge mammoth lying buried in the mud.
It was the animal which Vaneyke was hunting for.
This creature had probably stepped into the marsh centuries before, and sinking into the mire, was buried alive.
It had been preserved by the swamp freezing around it, and thus would have kept for an indefinite period, had not a thaw set in which rapidly decomposed the enormous body.
Exposed to Frank’s view was an elephantine head, covered with dry, dark-gray skin, furnished with tufts of hairs, the neck was covered with a long flowing mane, and a reddish wool grew all over the exposed parts.
The long, curved tusks were ten feet in length.
“What a stench! It is awful!” he muttered, holding his nose. “The mud has hold of the wheels and runners.”
Having seen how the Ranger was held. Frank dashed inside, and telling the professor what he had seen, he pulled the levers controlling the side wheels and driving screw.
As they began slowly to revolve, the mud flew up from them in showers, and the runners having been thus cleared, the ascensional force of the gyroscopes lifted the ship up.
She freed herself this way and rose a few feet, then darted away.