The Ice Pilot

d strode to the rail, glancing keenl

"Looks like a ship headed thi

them with his sleeve and tried again. "Not ye

w. There she is. See her? A

en jerk of his chin. "Just

Marr stood under the shelter of the rail with both elbows resting upon the canvas and a pair of twelve-diameter glasses focused ahead. He lowered these glasses, reached for the engine-room telegraph,

h could come only from Japanese coal. She wallowed across the sea an

for a fifth figure to descend a ladder lowered for his benefit. The boat sheered from the

Star could not have been fashioned. Built in Japan before the war, the brig still carried some of the top-hamper which rightly bel

mall for whaleboats. She bore the unmistakable evidence of a Japanese sealer, a vampire of the sea-as mu

nder the starboard rail of the Pole Star. Whitehouse, on the poop, lowered a bosn's ladde

ered and beamed as he raised himself over the rail, took Whitehouse's hand, and sprang to the deck of the Pole Star. He advanced to Marr's

followed his direction, smiled blandly, and whispered something into the little skipper's e

he sealer. He dropped his glance and studied the four of a crew who were alongside the whaler's run, just aft the break of the poop. Th

aned his elbows on the rail. He, too, gl

ifles and the clubs. They ain't found in an ordinary boat. They

ng their own busines

the emperor who came

on these seas than we will ever know. That brig is a supply ship of some kind. If

seal p

anner. I don't care where Marr disposes of his cat

ng. They must have had a nip of gin. Marr is rubb

t. Marr stood over him and cast off the painter, and the boat sprang away from the sheer of the Pol

funnel. The yards were squared and the sealer wallowed towar

egraph. The screw thrashed; the crew sprang to weather and lee braces. The Pole Star starte

of the Pole Star. The change of course, the gamming by the Japanese sealer, the

rted and left the first and se

forepeak of the whaler, lighted their pipes from the same mat

ch by the striking of the ship's bell forward when the lookout lifted a marl

Stirling. Four bells, an' we're going back. Wouldn't

down with his broad thumb, wheeled sharply, and glared aft. His face hardened as he made out a shadow on the poop, and

Ice Pilot. "We're headed for Dutch Pass and the Bering Sea. We're a point s

e of the outer straits? Ther

at Unalaska. He could take

bout t

o the south'ard of the Pribilofs. It'll break up

peer when it came to working through the loose floes or finding a lane to the northward.

n the ice?" aske

he Pole. It starts to open and break. Through these lanes the whales go into the Arctic. There's usually a big jam at Bering Strait. The current sets

lk about the berg

here's glaciers. There's any number of big fellows on the lower Alaskan coast. These bergs melt in the warm Japan C

ctic bergs,

nd Canada. There's a few on the Siberian coast. The land is all low. The big floes-some of them a

cketed it and glanced aft. There was no sign on the poop of

use's watch," he said. "I'm g

e Star was headed on the same course as given when they left the Japanese sealer. The wind had veered and now swung from over the Al

h, by Cushner. The second mate held a cautious finger o

red. "Put on some clothes and hur

m and clapping a cap down over his ears. Already the temperature had fallen to a marked degree. He emerged to the waist of the whaler and stood breathing

te said, softly. "Get under the lee of the deck h

by hatch. Others were gathered about the form of the sailor who had been in the Frisco room. He lay across the so

ed backward and stood in the gloom of the forecastle. A single electric globe was hung over a m

d?" asked Sti

d from the forepeak and said: "The crew beat him up. They say he's a government spy.

amined a bruise on the right temple then straightened

give you the medicine chest. Tell him t

rat; "Mike Eagan, so

hat happened-yet. I'm going to look out for Eagan! If he represents the United S

ft and mounted th