CHAPTER XVIIIA GLORIOUS PANORAMA“One more iceberg bit the dust!” exclaimed Jimmy, in a melodramatic tone.“Rather wet dust,” returned Herb, with a grin. “But look at the big chunks of ice floating about. There must be a thousand of those baby bergs.”“They’re too small to do any damage,” remarked Bob. “They’ll soon melt; and, anyway, if a vessel touched them she’d nose them aside.”“Johnson was telling me the other day that the fishing smacks tow in some of those small chunks, and so lay in their summer ice supply,” remarked Jimmy.“At any rate, that makes them of some use in the world,” affirmed Herb.“How are you feeling now, Joe?” asked Bob, turning to his chum.“I’m all right,” answered Joe. “But I never want to have such a close call as I had on that berg. If you hadn’t got to me just as you did, I’d have gone up with the berg.”“It surely was a case of touch and go,” replied Bob. “Gee, but my heart stood still for a moment when I missed you and thought of that TNT!”TheMeteorsped on her course, and soon had made her way out of the welter of ice fragments that strewed the sea. Several times in the course of the next few hours, they sighted other bergs, but none that was nearly so large as the one they had destroyed. The positions of these smaller ice mountains were carefully noted, and their locations wirelessed to all vessels that might be within the zone of danger.“But that only gives the positions at the time they’re discovered,” remarked Jimmy, with a slightly puzzled air. “They’re getting away from that location all the time.”“True enough,” explained Bob. “But they’re moving at the rate of about seven-tenths of a mile an hour. Given the direction of the drift, the vessel that is warned can figure just where that special berg will be with every hour that passes.”The incident had served to engross their minds for the time being, but now their thoughts returned with a doubled intensity to those at home.“No news yet,” groaned Joe, after a fruitless errand to the wireless room.“Let’s hope that in this case no news is good news,” replied Bob, with a greater display of confidence than he really felt.“If only our folks’ lives are safe!” muttered Jimmy.There was silence for a few minutes, each busy with his own troubled thoughts.“The operator says that he’s heard nothing yet of Mr. Strong having been picked up,” was the further bad news that Joe gave them.“If he’s lost, that means that your watch is lost too,” Jimmy observed to Bob.“I’d rather lose any other thing that I own than that watch,” said Bob, mournfully. “It was a beauty. But, after all, I’d gladly give that to know that Mr. Strong was safe.”At about three o’clock in the afternoon theMeteorhove to, about half a mile away from a small iceberg.“Wonder what’s up now,” remarked Joe, as he noted the slowing down of the engines. “Going to make a visit to that berg, I wonder?”“No sign of lowering boats,” responded Bob. “They’re swinging out a big boom at right angles to the ship.”“And the boom has ladders that reach down to the water,” chimed in Herb. “What kind of a Chinese puzzle is this, anyway?”The boys’ bewilderment was increased as they noted that a large number of the crew were stripping off their clothes.“By ginger, they’re going in swimming!” exclaimed Bob.“Swimming in sight of an iceberg!” ejaculated Joe. “Why, they must be crazy!”“I’ve heard of fellows going into the surf on the first of January,” put in Herb. “But I’ve always put them down as plain nuts. Look, there go some of them now!”Several of the sailors had gone out on the boom, which was so broad that it afforded sufficiently safe footing.Even as Herb spoke, one of them poised himself with uplifted hands, and then, straight as an arrow, dived into the blue depths below.His companions followed his example, and presently a score or more were frolicking around like so many dolphins and enjoying themselves to the utmost.“Come on in, the water’s fine!” they shouted to some of their more hesitant companions on the boom.“Well, that beats me!” exclaimed Herb. “I’ve always heard that sailors were a hardy bunch, but this is the limit. The water must be freezing!”“Not a bit of it,” said a voice beside them, and they looked up to see Ensign Porter. “I think you’d enjoy it if you went in yourselves. That is, assuming you can swim.”“We can swim, all right,” replied Bob. “But we’ve been used to doing our swimming in the summer.”“This is summer, isn’t it?” replied the ensign, with a quizzical smile.“Of course,” assented Jimmy. “But there aren’t icebergs where we go in. I should think these fellows would freeze to death.”“They don’t seem to be shivering,” remarked the ensign. “As a matter of fact, I’ll wager that you’ve often been in water that was colder than this.”“Show us what you’ve got up your sleeve,” urged Bob. “You’re just kidding us along.”“It’s simple enough,” was the smiling reply. “TheMeteorhas picked out a warm strip of water for her men to bathe in. At the present moment, she’s lying right across it. The water temperature is twenty-two degrees colder at one end of the boat than it is at the other. At the bow it’s thirty-four, at the stern it’s fifty-six.”“It doesn’t seem possible,” ejaculated Bob.“A good many things are possible in this part of the world,” replied the ensign. “That’s what forms one of the fascinating features of our work. You see, the boundary line between the cold Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream is very sharply defined, and we’re just astride it at this moment.”“But how do you pick it out?” asked Joe, in wonderment. “I can recognize boundaries on land, all right; but how you can see them in the water is beyond me.”“Matter of practice,” was the reply. “We can tell by the color of the water and the ‘rips’ between the two currents. If you’ll look closely, you’ll be able to see a decided difference between the color of the water at the stern and the water at the bow.”“I can see it now,” declared Joe, after a moment’s close scrutiny. “But I’d never have noticed it if you hadn’t called our attention to it.”Bob looked enviously at the men sporting around in evident enjoyment in the water.“I’ve a good mind to take a crack at it,” he said suddenly. “What do you say, fellows? Are you game?”“I never take a dare,” replied Joe.“Count me in,” said Herb.“I’m with you,” chimed in Jimmy.They sought and got permission from Lieutenant Mayhew, who just then was the officer of the deck, and hurried to their cabin, where they slipped on the bathing trunks that they had packed in their suitcases when they started on their trip. In a short time they were ready and made for the deck.“Last one in is a Chinaman,” sang out Bob, as he raced for the boom.All sought to avoid the stigma, but Jimmy, with his short legs, was at a disadvantage and proved to be the Chinaman. At that, he was so slightly behind the others that the splash of the four bodies as they went down was almost simultaneous.Despite the ensign’s assurances, they had not felt quite sure as to the temperature of the water, but as they rose after their immersion and shook the water from their eyes, they were agreeably surprised to find that there was none of the heart-gripping cold they had half anticipated.“Why, the water’s as warm as milk!” sputtered Joe, with a little exaggeration, as he struck out.“Like milk that’s been standing in the refrigerator for a while,” corrected Herb. “But it isn’t so bad, at that. I’ve found it colder sometimes in an early morning swim at Ocean Point.”They were overjoyed beyond measure to find themselves at a pastime that they had mentally relinquished for the rest of that year, and they made the most of it. Again and again, they climbed up the ladder and dived from the boom. They were all good swimmers, and their skill in that respect earned them the respect of the sailors. The men at first had been inclined to grin at the “land-lubbers,” but they were soon forced to admit that there was little they could teach them when it came to swimming.It was with reluctance that, a little later on, they obeyed the order given from the deck that the sport must end for the present, and they promised themselves that they would avail themselves of every opportunity of the kind that might offer in the future.They were immensely exhilarated and refreshed by the swim and the rub-down that followed it, and that night at the table they showed the steward a quartette of appetites that made that functionary’s eyes bulge with wonder and admiration. Jimmy especially was at the top of his form, and made a clean sweep of everything within his reach.When at last they had finished and come on deck, the horizon was aflame with glory of the aurora borealis. The beauty of it made them catch their breaths. They had seen very rarely that wonderful phenomenon, and never in such magnificence as it was now revealing under the northern skies.All the colors of the rainbow were there, but shining with a splendor and radiance beyond all words. Great bands of many colored light shot out like a gigantic fan until the sky seemed to be blazing with millions of jeweled shafts. And these kept shifting, deepening, advancing, retreating, each combination of rarer loveliness than the one that preceded it until it seemed that Nature herself, the supreme artist, could do no more.Awed into silence by the spectacle, the boys watched it spellbound. They were aroused at last by a voice behind them.“Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Johnson, the wireless operator, taking a seat beside them.“Beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” answered Bob.“There’s just one thing I have against it,” continued Johnson.“What’s that?” asked Joe, in surprise.“It’s put my wireless out of commission!”
“One more iceberg bit the dust!” exclaimed Jimmy, in a melodramatic tone.
“Rather wet dust,” returned Herb, with a grin. “But look at the big chunks of ice floating about. There must be a thousand of those baby bergs.”
“They’re too small to do any damage,” remarked Bob. “They’ll soon melt; and, anyway, if a vessel touched them she’d nose them aside.”
“Johnson was telling me the other day that the fishing smacks tow in some of those small chunks, and so lay in their summer ice supply,” remarked Jimmy.
“At any rate, that makes them of some use in the world,” affirmed Herb.
“How are you feeling now, Joe?” asked Bob, turning to his chum.
“I’m all right,” answered Joe. “But I never want to have such a close call as I had on that berg. If you hadn’t got to me just as you did, I’d have gone up with the berg.”
“It surely was a case of touch and go,” replied Bob. “Gee, but my heart stood still for a moment when I missed you and thought of that TNT!”
TheMeteorsped on her course, and soon had made her way out of the welter of ice fragments that strewed the sea. Several times in the course of the next few hours, they sighted other bergs, but none that was nearly so large as the one they had destroyed. The positions of these smaller ice mountains were carefully noted, and their locations wirelessed to all vessels that might be within the zone of danger.
“But that only gives the positions at the time they’re discovered,” remarked Jimmy, with a slightly puzzled air. “They’re getting away from that location all the time.”
“True enough,” explained Bob. “But they’re moving at the rate of about seven-tenths of a mile an hour. Given the direction of the drift, the vessel that is warned can figure just where that special berg will be with every hour that passes.”
The incident had served to engross their minds for the time being, but now their thoughts returned with a doubled intensity to those at home.
“No news yet,” groaned Joe, after a fruitless errand to the wireless room.
“Let’s hope that in this case no news is good news,” replied Bob, with a greater display of confidence than he really felt.
“If only our folks’ lives are safe!” muttered Jimmy.
There was silence for a few minutes, each busy with his own troubled thoughts.
“The operator says that he’s heard nothing yet of Mr. Strong having been picked up,” was the further bad news that Joe gave them.
“If he’s lost, that means that your watch is lost too,” Jimmy observed to Bob.
“I’d rather lose any other thing that I own than that watch,” said Bob, mournfully. “It was a beauty. But, after all, I’d gladly give that to know that Mr. Strong was safe.”
At about three o’clock in the afternoon theMeteorhove to, about half a mile away from a small iceberg.
“Wonder what’s up now,” remarked Joe, as he noted the slowing down of the engines. “Going to make a visit to that berg, I wonder?”
“No sign of lowering boats,” responded Bob. “They’re swinging out a big boom at right angles to the ship.”
“And the boom has ladders that reach down to the water,” chimed in Herb. “What kind of a Chinese puzzle is this, anyway?”
The boys’ bewilderment was increased as they noted that a large number of the crew were stripping off their clothes.
“By ginger, they’re going in swimming!” exclaimed Bob.
“Swimming in sight of an iceberg!” ejaculated Joe. “Why, they must be crazy!”
“I’ve heard of fellows going into the surf on the first of January,” put in Herb. “But I’ve always put them down as plain nuts. Look, there go some of them now!”
Several of the sailors had gone out on the boom, which was so broad that it afforded sufficiently safe footing.
Even as Herb spoke, one of them poised himself with uplifted hands, and then, straight as an arrow, dived into the blue depths below.
His companions followed his example, and presently a score or more were frolicking around like so many dolphins and enjoying themselves to the utmost.
“Come on in, the water’s fine!” they shouted to some of their more hesitant companions on the boom.
“Well, that beats me!” exclaimed Herb. “I’ve always heard that sailors were a hardy bunch, but this is the limit. The water must be freezing!”
“Not a bit of it,” said a voice beside them, and they looked up to see Ensign Porter. “I think you’d enjoy it if you went in yourselves. That is, assuming you can swim.”
“We can swim, all right,” replied Bob. “But we’ve been used to doing our swimming in the summer.”
“This is summer, isn’t it?” replied the ensign, with a quizzical smile.
“Of course,” assented Jimmy. “But there aren’t icebergs where we go in. I should think these fellows would freeze to death.”
“They don’t seem to be shivering,” remarked the ensign. “As a matter of fact, I’ll wager that you’ve often been in water that was colder than this.”
“Show us what you’ve got up your sleeve,” urged Bob. “You’re just kidding us along.”
“It’s simple enough,” was the smiling reply. “TheMeteorhas picked out a warm strip of water for her men to bathe in. At the present moment, she’s lying right across it. The water temperature is twenty-two degrees colder at one end of the boat than it is at the other. At the bow it’s thirty-four, at the stern it’s fifty-six.”
“It doesn’t seem possible,” ejaculated Bob.
“A good many things are possible in this part of the world,” replied the ensign. “That’s what forms one of the fascinating features of our work. You see, the boundary line between the cold Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream is very sharply defined, and we’re just astride it at this moment.”
“But how do you pick it out?” asked Joe, in wonderment. “I can recognize boundaries on land, all right; but how you can see them in the water is beyond me.”
“Matter of practice,” was the reply. “We can tell by the color of the water and the ‘rips’ between the two currents. If you’ll look closely, you’ll be able to see a decided difference between the color of the water at the stern and the water at the bow.”
“I can see it now,” declared Joe, after a moment’s close scrutiny. “But I’d never have noticed it if you hadn’t called our attention to it.”
Bob looked enviously at the men sporting around in evident enjoyment in the water.
“I’ve a good mind to take a crack at it,” he said suddenly. “What do you say, fellows? Are you game?”
“I never take a dare,” replied Joe.
“Count me in,” said Herb.
“I’m with you,” chimed in Jimmy.
They sought and got permission from Lieutenant Mayhew, who just then was the officer of the deck, and hurried to their cabin, where they slipped on the bathing trunks that they had packed in their suitcases when they started on their trip. In a short time they were ready and made for the deck.
“Last one in is a Chinaman,” sang out Bob, as he raced for the boom.
All sought to avoid the stigma, but Jimmy, with his short legs, was at a disadvantage and proved to be the Chinaman. At that, he was so slightly behind the others that the splash of the four bodies as they went down was almost simultaneous.
Despite the ensign’s assurances, they had not felt quite sure as to the temperature of the water, but as they rose after their immersion and shook the water from their eyes, they were agreeably surprised to find that there was none of the heart-gripping cold they had half anticipated.
“Why, the water’s as warm as milk!” sputtered Joe, with a little exaggeration, as he struck out.
“Like milk that’s been standing in the refrigerator for a while,” corrected Herb. “But it isn’t so bad, at that. I’ve found it colder sometimes in an early morning swim at Ocean Point.”
They were overjoyed beyond measure to find themselves at a pastime that they had mentally relinquished for the rest of that year, and they made the most of it. Again and again, they climbed up the ladder and dived from the boom. They were all good swimmers, and their skill in that respect earned them the respect of the sailors. The men at first had been inclined to grin at the “land-lubbers,” but they were soon forced to admit that there was little they could teach them when it came to swimming.
It was with reluctance that, a little later on, they obeyed the order given from the deck that the sport must end for the present, and they promised themselves that they would avail themselves of every opportunity of the kind that might offer in the future.
They were immensely exhilarated and refreshed by the swim and the rub-down that followed it, and that night at the table they showed the steward a quartette of appetites that made that functionary’s eyes bulge with wonder and admiration. Jimmy especially was at the top of his form, and made a clean sweep of everything within his reach.
When at last they had finished and come on deck, the horizon was aflame with glory of the aurora borealis. The beauty of it made them catch their breaths. They had seen very rarely that wonderful phenomenon, and never in such magnificence as it was now revealing under the northern skies.
All the colors of the rainbow were there, but shining with a splendor and radiance beyond all words. Great bands of many colored light shot out like a gigantic fan until the sky seemed to be blazing with millions of jeweled shafts. And these kept shifting, deepening, advancing, retreating, each combination of rarer loveliness than the one that preceded it until it seemed that Nature herself, the supreme artist, could do no more.
Awed into silence by the spectacle, the boys watched it spellbound. They were aroused at last by a voice behind them.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Johnson, the wireless operator, taking a seat beside them.
“Beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” answered Bob.
“There’s just one thing I have against it,” continued Johnson.
“What’s that?” asked Joe, in surprise.
“It’s put my wireless out of commission!”