Antarctica Read Online Free Page A

gangplank to a rousing hip hip hooray from the gathered crew.
    He would have enjoyed it if he hadn’t at that moment seen the starboard side of the Mystery.
    It wasn’t the hole — that remained more or less the same size. The hull itself had changed. It was warped. The pressure, unable to puncture a deeper hole, was instead squeezing the Mystery like a snake around a rat.
    A wood plank came flying over the gunwale, and then another. Rivera was still on board, salvaging wood from the wreckage.
    Not a good idea.
    Captain Barth was at Jack’s side, his face red. “What is he doing?”
    “Enough, Rivera!” Jack shouted.
    Rivera gazed down. “This is oak! We can use it!”
    “Get down here right this —”
    The earth slipped.
    The guts of the Mystery — afterhold, engine room, fo’c’sle, and deckhouse — erupted through the deck in a black cloud of wood and twisted metal.
    And the ship began to sink.

5
Colin
    January 10, 1910
    A PIECE OF THE tiller landed to his left. A mangled pipe from the engine room. A push broom.
    The Mystery was dying.
    Colin heard the voices shout and the dogs howl. He felt his body move. But he wasn’t there. He was sinking, too.
    “Get away!”
    “Move back to the camp!”
    “Last of ebb, and daylight waning … ”
    “Oppenheim, stop yammering and help out!”
    “Mansfield’s been hit!”
    “Where’s Rivera?”
    “Has anyone seen Rivera?”
    Mansfield had been clipped on the head by a flying piece of kennel. But he was breathing. Colin could see that because he had his hands under Mansfield’s arms, dragging him away from the ship.
    The half ship. That was all he could see now. Half. The hole that he and Kennedy had planned to fix was below the ice, wedged into the bent hull of the Mystery , now gutted and grotesque.
    “Colin, this way — the infirmary tent.”
    “Siegal found Rivera! He’s okay!”
    “Away to the boundless waste, and never again return.”
    “Someone tie Oppenheim down!”
    Colin stooped to pick up a scrap of wood — a finger-sized splinter from one of the masts. It was attached to a grommet, a metal loop with a length of rope still knotted to it.
    He closed his fingers over it and began to weep.
    All the voices around him seemed to stop at once, and he felt his father’s arm settle perfectly on his shoulder. But Colin wouldn’t open his eyes, he didn’t want to watch her go. The painted name, the gunwales, the taffrail, and finally the smokestack — that would be the order.
    She had brought them into this world. She had kept them warm, sheltered them. When fourteen of her sons ventured out she’d waited for them, stalwart and steadfast.
    They’d taken her example, her toughness, dignity, and grace. In return, they loved and cared for her. Over time, the soul of the Mystery — companion, protector, friend, mother — had become theirs.
    Now she was leaving. Stranding them.
    It was a feeling all too unfathomable and familiar.
    Tears had frozen his eyes shut. He removed a glove and carefully cracked the ice off his lashes. The other men stood around the camp in small groups, facing the Mystery. Some had removed their hats and bowed their heads, and some openly sobbed.
    “You can stand, Father?” Colin said softly.
    “As long as I’m leaning on you.” Father’s eyes seemed gray and prematurely old. They frightened Colin.
    Kosta’s scream broke the silence. “Ta skylakia! Ta skylakia!”
    The dogs.
    They were out of control, scared, fighting and yowling. A group of them, at least half a dozen, had run away, becoming small dots on the horizon.
    “Where’re those mutts going?” said Talmadge.
    “Don’t matter,” Windham replied. “Dogs always come back.”
    Bailey shook his head. “Comin’ back is normal dog instinct. This ain’t normal. They think they’re going to die. Something’s tellin’ ’em to run. Look at the Greek, he knows it. Kiss ’em good-bye, mates.”
    “Pericles! Michalaki! Eleni! Ellàtteh!” Kosta shouted