Part 22 (1/2)

CHAPTER XXIV

UNDER THE DRIFTING SNOW

Bobby and Ji of the floe fros to the utmost exertion of which the ani, and when they reached the rapidly widening chasm it was plain that retreat was hopelessly cut off

”We can swi hand of Bobby he would have plunged into the water and etful was he of his recent experience

”You'd freeze! You'd freeze! We couldn't swim in this cold!” Bobby protested

”I think we could have o his arm

”You kno the water treated us the other day, Jimmy,” said Bobby quietly ”We never could swiot half way across”

”But noe're sure to perish!+” Jimmy exclaimed ”We'll be carried to sea, and the ice will break up, and there'll be no chance for us at all

We'd have had at least a chance if we'd tried! Now our last chance is gone!”

”There wouldn't have been a chance if we'd tried to swim,” Bobby protested ”Here there is some sort of a chance The ice et ashore, and if it holds together long enough soot to make the best of it”

”There's Partner!” broke in Jimmy ”Poor old Partner! See him out there?

I wonder what he'll do”

And then they shouted to Skipper Ed, and again and again they shouted, but the wind blew their shouts back into their teeth and Skipper Ed did not hear them, and at last he faded away, and the land ice faded away in the cloud of drifting snow

”There's going to be a hard blow, and we'll have to find a place to build our _igloo_,” Bobby at length suggested

”Yes,” agreed Jiot the snow knives and the lamp

If it colad we've got these seals, and so We'll have to get back aloo_, I suppose, has been washed away before this Anyway, it's too near the surf to be safe”

”I' huloo_” suggested Ji too near open water out there to be safe, for if the ice breaks it'll break there first”

”Yes, but we reed Bobby, as he took up the whip and turned the dogs about ”We've got to make some kind of shelter”

And so theythe pressure hus to lie down, each with a snow knife began his search for a suitable snow drift upon which to build an _igloo_

The fury of the storm increased with everyclouds and at ti the hummocks In the distance they could hear the boo it with destruction, and noith growing frequency rising above the sound of shrieking wind and boo seas they were startled by the cannon-like report of s snow becoer they would lose the _koroping their way blindly to the _komatik_, which was nearly hidden under the drift, and the sleeping dogs, which by this time holly invisible

”The snow is too soft,” Bobby announced ”I've tried it everywhere, and every block that I cut falls to pieces”