y vision. For the whole substance of the grey
ice-core had come to life and begun to heave itself upwards! Yes, the
hitherto level surface was thrusting forth sharp angular ridges, and
the air seemed full of a strange sound like the trampling of some heavy
being over broken glass.

With a quiet trickle there came a swirl of water around me, while an
adjacent pine bough cracked and squeaked as though it too had come to
life. My companions shouted, and collected into a knot; whereupon, at
once dominating and quelling the tense, painful hubbub of sounds, there
rang forth the voice of Ossip.

"Mother of God!" he shouted. "Scatter, lads! Get away from one another,
and keep each to himself! Now! Courage!"

With that, springing towards us as though wasps had been after him, and
grasping the spirit-level as though it had been a weapon, he jabbed it
to every side, as though fighting invisible foes, while, just as the
quivering town began, seemingly, to glide past us, and the ice at my
feet gave a screech and crumbled to fragments beneath me, so that water
bubbled to my knees. I leapt up from where I was, and rushed blindly in
Ossip's direction.

"Where are you coming to, fool?" was his shout as he brandished the
spirit-level. "Stand still where you are!"

Indeed, Ossip seemed no longer to be Ossip at all, but a person
curiously younger, a person in whom all that had been familiar in Ossip
had become effaced. Yes, the once blue eyes had turned to grey, and the
figure added half an arshin to its stature as, standing as erect as a
newly made nail, and pressing both feet together, the foreman stretched
himself to his full height, and shouted with his mouth open to its
widest extent:

"Don't shuffle about, nor crowd upon one another, or I'll break your
heads!"

Whereafter, of myself in particular, he inquired as he raised the
spirit-level:

"What is the matter with YOU, pray?"

"I am feeling frightened," I muttered in response.

"Feeling frightened of WHAT, indeed?"

"Of being drowned."

"Pooh! Just you hold your tongue."

Yet the next moment he glanced at me, and added in a gentler, quieter
tone:

"None but a fool gets drowned. Pick yourself up and come along."

Then once more he shouted full-throated words of encouragement to his
men; and as he did so, his chest swelled and his head rocked with the
effort.

Yet, crackling and cracking, the ice was breaking up; and soon it began
slowly to bear us past the town