"Turn her astarn, sir! The ice has closed up ahead." The captain gave the order without question, the speed was checked, and the _Hvalross_ began to glide back, when Johannes' voice rose again in hoarse command. "Stop! There is no way back." "Look again!" roared Captain Marsham. "There must be. Quick!" "No way out astarn, nor to right or left, sir!" cried Johannes; "the ice is closing in upon us." "But forward--is it not opening?" "No, sir; and we're in the current, too." The captain gave his orders again; but those which reached the crow's-nest had nothing to do with the navigation of the ship; they were to the men to stow provisions as rapidly as possible in the boats. "Johannes, what does this mean?" whispered Steve, aghast. "That the captain means to have the boats ready, if we can use them; if not, to have provisions to heave on to the ice when we take to it." "When we take to the ice?" cried Steve. "Yes, my lad; look!" said the Norseman, pointing to the narrow limits of the water in which the _Hvalross_ lay; and as the boy gazed downward with dilating eyes, he could see that on one side there was a wall of ice almost stationary, while on the other the masses were grinding together, the smaller being forced upward above the larger to form a chaotic ridge, which was coming toward them with swift, irresistible power. "Quick!" said the Norseman sternly. "In another five minutes we shall be crushed in the ice. We must be on deck so as to have our chance of escape with the rest when they take to the floe." "Ahoy! there aloft!" roared the captain, as the steam whistle began to utter its deep-toned yell, which sounded strangely amidst the roar and crack of the ice in motion. "Down with you both--quick!" "Do you hear?" cried Johannes excitedly. "Down, my lad, quick!" Steve made a movement to stoop and raise the trap on which he stood, and he stopped short and gazed despairingly in the great Norseman's face. "Well, why do you stop?" said Johannes. "Draw up the trap, and go down." "I cannot stir," said Steve faintly. "I did not know it before. It's the cold, I suppose. My legs and feet are quite numbed." CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. ON THE BRINK. "Do you hear, aloft there?" roared the captain. "Down with you!" "Ay, ay, sir!" cried the Norseman, as he grasped to the full their perilous situation. "Go down, Johannes," said Steve faintly; "never mind me." The Norseman uttered a low laugh. "Yes, sir; go down and leave you here! Of course!" But his hands were busy. He thrust the glass into the case slung from Steve's shoulder, and taking the line he wore like a baldrick from his own, he hung it on one arm while he made fast the end round the lad's chest. "You can use your hands?" he cried. "Yes, I think so." "Then keep yourself clear of the yards and stays as I lower you down. Don't cling anywhere. I'll let you down safely." "Are you coming?" roared the captain.