The screams
of the natives frenzied the pack and they rioted out onto the bending
sheet, while the long sledge, borne by its momentum, shot forward
till the splitting cry of the ice sounded over the lamentations. It
slackened, sagged and disappeared in a surge of congealing waters.
The wheel dogs were dragged into the opening and their mates ahead
jerked backward onto them. In a fighting tangle, all settled into
the swirl.
Orloff leaped from the sinking sled, but hindered by his fur
swaddling, crashed through and lunged heavily in his struggles to
mount the edge of the film. As he floundered onto the caving surface
it let him back and the waters covered him time and again. He
pitched oddly about, and for the first time they saw his eyes were
bound tightly with bandages, which he strove to loosen.
"My God! He's snow-blind!" cried George, and in a moment he appeared
among the frantic mob fringing the shore.
The guide broke his way toward a hummock of old ice forming an islet
near by, and the priest half swam, half scrambled behind, till they
crawled out upon this solid footing.
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