'm rip! Le'go
an' haul! ... Quick, Mist'r! Christ! What ye standin' at? ...
Ice! Ice, ye bluidy eedi't! Ice! Th' echo! Let go! LE'GO AN' HAUL!
LE'GO!"

Ice! The Mate stood stupid for an instant--then jumped to the
waist--to the brace pins--roaring hoarse orders. "All hands on deck!
Haul away, there! All hands! On deck, men--for your lives!"

Ice! At the dread cry we ran to the ropes and tailed on with desperate
energy! Ice! The watch below, part dressed, swarmed from house and
fo'cas'le and hauled with us--a light of terror in their eyes--the
terror that comes with stark reason--when the brain reels from restful
stupor at a trumpet of alarms!

Ice! The decks, that so late had been quiet as the air about us,
resounded to the din of sudden action! Yards swinging forward with a
crash--blocks _whirring_--ropes hurtling from the pins--sails lifting
and thrashing to the masts--shouts and cries from the swaying haulers
at the ropes--hurried orders--and, loud over all, the raucous bellow of
the fog-horn when Dago Joe, dismayed at the confusion, pumped
furiously, _Ra! Ra! Ra! Ra! Ra!_

... _Reh! Reh! Reh! Reh! Reh!_ ... Note for note--the echo--out
of the mist!

"Belay, all! Well, mainyards!" The order steadied us. We had time
now to look! ... There was nothing in sight! ... No towering monster
looming in our path--no breakers--no sea--no sky; nothing! Nothing but
the misty wall that veiled our danger! The Unknown! The Unseen!

She was swinging slowly against the scend of the running swell--laying
up to the wind. Martin had the wheel and was holding the helm down,
his keen eyes watching for the lift that would mark the limit of
steering-way. The Old Man stood by the compass, bending, peering,
smiling--nosing at the keen air--his quick eyes searching the
mist--ahead--abeam--astern.... Martin eased the helm; she lay quietly
with sails edged to the wind, the long swell heaving at her--broadside
on.

Suddenly a light grew out of the mist and spread out on both bows--a
luminous sheen, low down on the narrowed sea-line! The 'ice-blink'!
Cold! White!

At the first glow the Old Man started--his lips framed to roar an
order! ... No order came!

Quickly he saw the hopelessness of it; what was to happen was plain,
inevitable! Broad along the beam, stretching out to leeward, the great
dazzling 'ice-blink' warned him of a solid barrier, miles long,
perhaps! The barque lay to the wi