The Ice Pilot

ime Cushner returned from aft with the medicine chest. This containe

salve which was rank with iodoform and arnica. He glanced keenly at Cush

old man say?"

ew of this ship looked

gan. "Who struck you?"

thered his senses, frowned deeply, staring about the empty bunks, and up thro

n't st

over a bucket," he continued. "Slipped, I guess. Must have hit

m a can, spread it upon a piece of paper, and

eeth. "You lie about falling down.

toward the booby hatch then he rubbed his hands toge

end to it! I don't need no afterguard to fight my battl

ecastle, and mounted the ladder to the deck. Cushner removed t

Stirling. "Jus

ond mat

in the waist. We'll have a smoke over this. That crew look as if they

over the canvas rail. His eyes locked with Stirling's and were unable to hold the Ice Pilot's accusing scrutiny. Alre

o seamen lighted pipes and stared out over the Northern sea. A nip

a-jacket and glancing aft. "Whitehouse has gone into the galley

pressed the bowl of his pipe, then bl

ted to come aboard. Then, Sam, there's the mystery of the gamming by the Jap. All lo

croo

eavily. "I've sailed the Arctic and the Bering and the North Pacific, man and boy, for thirty years

e lodestar. "That's my guide," he said. "I play square! I never made anything much by playing squ

lared Cushner. "Yo

hed in the glo

the door to his galley cabin. The ship was plunging eastward with her screw turning over at three-quarter speed. A soft halo capped the funnel,

for Dutch Pass. I'll be glad to see the ice. Somehow

he mixed crew of the Pole Star. The course of the whaler was into t

y-steel pointed they seemed. Within them and over the Northern world a pale sheen glowed, and

filling, mittens, and watch caps were broken

to the crow's-nest, paused on its edge for a glance at the deck, then dropped down int

had been placed in a small chart rack, rested his elbows on t

urned and squinted ahead. Two needlelike peaks showed well to the eastward. They were

in-with each spire and crag forming the teeth of a giant saw. A rose light gleamed and reddened this barrier a

row's-nest, when they reached the overhanging shadow of the pass to the Bering. The ship steadied, swun

ck of the Bishop, sheered and drove with all steam through the narro

bright along the arctic waters which rose and fell in slow gliding. He lowered his elbows and leaned far out over the crow's

nt down through the Bering Strait and were destined to melt in the warm waters of the Japan Current. Some wer

s and polar bear dove overside as the whaler bore down upon this floe

from the poop. "It's your shi

"Where are you headin' for?" he asked with a stout laug

Marr had consulted the binn

ows with the glasses clasped in his hands. He studied the currents and the drift of

d down to the quartermaster

e crow's-nest. "She's hard astarbo

th it. Now steady. Port! Por