ly being drawn in toward the side of
the mountain; and if--which God grant--it remains perfectly calm up here
for another quarter of an hour, she will be once more alongside, and we
may yet regain access to her. To do this, however, we must edge away
more toward the eastern side of the mountain, where I fear we shall
encounter even greater difficulties than we have yet met with. We can
but try, however, and I think the sooner we push on the better."

"Forward, then, at once," cried the baronet; "and take heed to your
steps, my friends, for this ice is terribly smooth and slippery."

Once more was the journey resumed, the baronet availing himself of the
ledge, as far as it extended, to work his way round the shoulder of the
hill in the required direction; and by the time they reached a point
where actual descent had again become necessary, they had once more come
within sight of the ship, and had the satisfaction of seeing that she
had drawn sensibly nearer to the cliff.

"All right," exclaimed Sir Reginald cheerfully, "I see the spot we must
aim for--that pinnacle of bare rock yonder, and there is a tolerably
easy road down to it, moreover."

Away they now went, their spirits at the very highest pitch of
exhilaration, and their nerves by so much the steadier, and such rapid
progress did they make that ten minutes later saw them clustered
together clinging to the rocky pinnacle before mentioned. And a
gruesome-enough looking spot it was--a sharp projecting point of rock
overhanging a sheer precipice some two hundred feet deep, with a narrow
snow-bank immediately beneath, and then another frightful abyss of
unknown depth beyond. And, to the right and left of it, an almost
vertical face of bare rock coated with smooth, slippery, transparent
ice, any attempt to traverse which would be courting death in its most
horrible form.

The _Flying Fish_ seemed to be drifting steadily in toward this pinnacle
of rock, though at a depth of some twenty feet below it, and it was
resolved to pause there and allow events to develop somewhat before
exerting themselves further.

Slowly, very slowly, the _Flying Fish_ drifted nearer and nearer in; the
little party clustered upon the rock watching her with bated breath, and
every moment dreading that a faint air of wind might after all waft her
beyond their reach. But nothing of the sort occurred; in she steadily
came, until at last her starboard gangway was immediately underneath t