The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 134: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

130 one of the heavy hangings, and, rolling himself in it for warmth, lay down upon the floor and pillowed ‘his head upon his arm. Despite the disturbed state of his mind, he managed to lose himself in a momentary doze. But not for long. Suddenly the an- cient ship experienced an awful shock. It seemed to plunge forward, and When he leaped up Feltnar found him- self standing on an inclined deck, whereas it had before been quite level. And the crashing and thundering without had recommenced with greater fury. The great berg, in the heart of which the ship had lain for so long, was in the throes of some mighty change! “T guess I shall find my finish before I looked for it—and in an entirely dif- ferent way from the one expected,” thought the prisoner. “ Ah, hear that! The ice is going to pieces in every di- rection.” He set himself the task of trying to remember all he had ever read about such formations. He knew that their form and position in the water was changing almost continually. “Tf a wind has sprung up from off shore, that might cause this change and destruction,” thought Feltnar. “ The ice-field—and therefore the berg—may be again in motion. As more than two- thirds of a berg 1s always under water, decp as the sea may be here this one might touch bottom, and perhaps the jar of contact is what is knocking us about so. “Tt doesn’t much matter what the cause may be, however,” he added. “The bally old ship is bound to be crushed if this keeps on. And if the berg should split up so as to drop the boat into the water—well, it’s good-by for sure! She'll fill, of course, and sink like a stone.” . He camped upon the rocking floor of the cabin again, and tried to compose- his thoughts. But it was not a situa- tion to mspire calmness. As the mountain rocked and the thunder of recurrent avalanches faintly reached his ears, John Feltnar made up his mind pretty thoroughly that he was rapidly nearing the end of things in this world. There may be hope in (500 gle - THE ARGOSY. the human mind as long as hfe exists; but kis hope was small indeed. Neither Enrik nor his other friends among the Icelandic bouders could help him now. The Almighty might only save him by a miracle. He had been a clean lived fellow during the thirty years of his existence, and he had little to trouble his mind on that score. But life had only begun for him—he had but recently realized its possibilities. And then, aside from his work, there was the thought of some recent inci- dents. What would Bruda say when Kirik reported him lost in the wreck of this iceberg ?. Feltnar had tried to be better friends with the girl since his return from that fateful journey in the desert, and he really flattered himself that he had managed to get closer to her than be- fore. She never had showed any dis- like for him—exactly the opposite, in fact; but she was seldom alone in his company. He harked back to the day the great bear had penned them into the lava bubble. She had clung to him then! Terrified as he had been at the moment, he had ever held it in his remembrance as precious. The time dragged slowly by while he sat there on the cabin floor. Now and then there was a shock which pitched the ship forward at even a sharper angle. Tremors went through the berg which’made the plate in the chest be- neath him rattle again. Sometimes he dozed; but then the shocks would awaken him, and he was never unconscious for more than a few moments at a time the long night through. Had he computed the hours by his agony of mind, he might have thought a week had elapsed. The almost incessant jar of the mov- ing ice he compared to the movement of a steamship’s engines. He had often found the rhythm of the machinery un- pleasant while at sea. This seemed similar. But now and then above the rum- bling jar there sounded a sharper crack which told of the starting of another avalanche. \ EO DOO COL