The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

24 = Why? 99 “Because we'll melt the bottom of the basin.” “True enough, old horse. Well, we haven't much chance to cook, so it doesn't matter. I'll tell you what we can do, though. We can drive a couple of bolts in the ice up here, and fasten a rope to them, to make the ascent and descent easier.” “Good idea.” This we proceeded to do, after which we were both tired out, and made our beds as best we could, and fell into a long sleep. When I woke I looked at the edge of the basin and gasped. Peering over the edge, with its wicked-looking eyes fixed in something like curiosity upon me, was the head of a walrus. I turned cautiously to get my gun, then stopped and lay perfectly quiet. Ordway was already aiming a rifle. CHAPTER XII. A LEAP TO HOPE. THe moment Ordway fired I sprang from the furs and, grabbing up a fire- ax, rushed up from the basin as rapidly as I could. I had no idea the first shot would kill the walrus, nor that Ordway would get the second. I was right. Wounded the fellow was, but not killed. Perhaps he would have died later in the water. But he never got there. I caught him as he was flopping toward the lowest point of the berg, and soon despatched him. Here was good cheer. Here was meat and oil to cook it with. The stove we had neglected was no longer to be despised. Ordway soon joined me and fairly danced in glee. “But what gets my goat,” I said, “is that the fellow is here at all. He ought to be near shore." “ Perhaps. he was on a spree and lost his way home.” “Well, there’s no use hunting for THE ARGOSY. explanations. He has saved our lives for'a still longer period. Lend a hand.” There is no use going into details about the walrus. It was the story of the dolphin over again. We were now drifting rapidly to the southward, and the berg was melt- ing about as fast as it traveled. What would eventually become of us nobody could say. If the ice broke up while we were still in the open sea we were doomed. But the walrus, like the dolphin, came to an end. We had no food. The berg was melting, and the bottom of the basin was water. We had looked north, east, and west, day after day, but we saw no sail. Our brandy, whisky, and wine were gone. We were rapidly losing our strength. We had tried to chew the skin of the walrus, but that was use- less. We were conscious that we were in a warmer current and warmer atmos- phere than before, but all we could see from the deck of our berg was floating ice. Some as large, some larger, than the piece we were on. We knew our chunk wouldn’t last much longer, but neither said much about it. We realized we had drifted to the south, but how far we could not tell. We spent but little time in the basin now. The water was about three feet deep. We had our furs on the upper floor. | “ Dag,” Ordway said one day, try- ing to speak cheerfully, “it’s about due. Let’s say good-by while we have our senses.” I took his outstretched hand. “Good-by, old fellow.”’ “Good-by, old man.” Then we sat on two furs and looked each other in the eyes. It was like a game—watching to see who would do something first. Suddenly there came that familiar cracking sound, and then the roar, but not so loud as the great ones we had CoOMmicbook CO