"We were really as safe all the time as a boat in a deep
rapid. The velocity of the current sheered us off."
Our hearts beat more steadily again, but there was a greater danger, of
which he had warned us, but which we had not had time to contemplate. I,
at least, began to think of it with dismay when the scintillant peak was
left behind, and I saw Edmund again working away at his machinery.
Presently it was manifest that we were rapidly sinking.
"What's the matter?" I cried. "We seem to be going down."
"So we are," he replied quietly, "and I fear that we shall not go up
again very soon. The power is failing all the time. It will be pretty
hard to have to stop indefinitely in this frightful place, but I am
afraid that that is our destiny."
Lost and helpless in these mountains of ice and this world of gloom and
storm! The thought was too terrible to be entertained. Yet it was forced
into our minds even more by our leader's manner than by his words. Not
one of us failed to comprehend its meaning, and it was characteristic
that, while talkative Jack now said not a word, uncommunicative Henry
burst into a brief fury of denunciation.
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