peared to
be embayed in the bight of a huge floe, with a whole fleet of bergs in
dangerous proximity and apparently bearing down upon her. Perhaps the
strangest peculiarity about her was that, notwithstanding her perilous
position, she was dressed with flags, from her mast-heads downward, as
though it were a gala day on board.

Mildmay's anxious attitude and expression of face, together with his
earnest devotion to his telescope, soon attracted the notice of the rest
of the party; and the baronet asked him what object it was that so
riveted his attention.

He withdrew his eyes for a moment from the instrument, and, pointing out
the small and scarcely distinguishable dark spot on the horizon, said:

"Do you see that object, gentlemen? Well, that is a barque embayed in
the ice, and evidently making a supreme effort to free herself--an
effort which to me, and at this distance, appears quite hopeless. It is
my opinion that, unless the wind changes, or something equally
unforeseen occurs, she will within the next half hour be smashed into
matchwood--unless, indeed, _we_ can help her."

"Help her? Of course we can," said the professor; and without waiting
for further discussion, he laid his hand on the engine lever and sent
the machinery ahead at nearly half-speed.

The _Flying Fish_ darted forward like a swallow in full flight; and the
professor, leaving the baronet in charge of the engines and the
steering-gear, summoned Mildmay and the colonel to follow him. The trio
hastened to the after part of the deck, and, raising a trap-door which
the professor indicated, withdrew therefrom a thin pliant wire hawser--
made, like almost everything else in the ship, of aethereum--which,
having secured one end of it to a ring-bolt in the after extremity of
the deck, they coiled down in readiness for use as a tow-line.

"There!" ejaculated the professor in a gratified tone of voice, "we will
give her the end of that rope; and it shall go hard with us, but we will
tow her into some place of at least temporary safety."

"That is all right," responded Mildmay; "but how are we going to get it
on board her? Its weight is a mere nothing, it is true, but it is
rather too bulky to heave on board. Have you nothing smaller that we
can bend on to the eye of the hawser and use as a heaving-line?"

"Certainly I have," replied the professor. "I had not thought of that.
`Every man to his trade.'" And, diving down the hatchway, he rumma