"Now, my hearties, furs off!" cried the energetic little Doctor. He doffed his own suit hurriedly, pulled on a pair of woolen gloves in lieu of the sealskin ones, pulled the steel rod out and laid it aside, grasped an axe and began chopping into the ice with all his might. The ice chips flew about the engine-room in a shower. He was soon obliged to stop for breath. Will shoveled the loosened ice out, then seized the axe and worked for a short time with the same spirit that animated the Doctor. And so by turns they kept the axe and shovel flying, making very rapid progress. They soon were too deep to use long-handled tools, and resorted to mallet and chisel, and a short-handled hand axe. Slowly and more slowly progressed the work as the shaft grew deeper. Finally the head of the man in the shaft disappeared below the surface, being now nearly seven feet deep. "We shall have to devise some plan for hoisting before long," said Dr. Jones. "Can't we use the windlass?" suggested Denison. "So we can!" cried the Doctor. "The steel springs forever! Will never did a better thing than when he invented the spring power windlass. We may have to go twenty-five or thirty feet. But we will hoist by hand for awhile yet." They had reached the depth of between eight and nine feet, when Will, who was in the hole, shouted, "Hurrah! I've broken through!" and he tossed up a handful of snow. "Good boy!" cried the Doctor. "Now try with the rod and see if there be another layer of ice within reach." The rod, which was six feet long, was easily passed its full length into the underlying snow. "All right!" said Dr. Jones. "The flagstaff will settle sufficiently deep to hold it there forever. Fire up, Will. I want to rise forty or fifty feet above this hole." This was accomplished in a very few minutes. "Now let us get the foot of the mast precisely over that hole. I mean to let it drop from this height, and its weight will sink it 25 or 30 feet into the snow. That, with 9 feet of ice, will hold it for centuries. We will fill the space in the ice shaft about the foot of the mast with the ice chips that we have taken out, ram them down good and solid, then pour water in. This will instantly freeze, and all the gales that ever howled can never blow down the finest flagstaff that ever stood upon the face of the earth."