the arch of the icebreaker had been wholly sheathed in
butter-tinted scantlings, and nothing required to be added to it
save the great iron braces. Unfortunately, Boev and Saniavin,
the men who had been engaged upon the task of cutting out the
sockets for the braces, had worked so amiss, and run their lines
so straight, that, when it came to the point, the arms of the
braces refused to sink properly into the wood.

"Oh, you cock-eyed fool of a Morduine!" shouted Ossip, smiting
his fist against the side of his cap. "Do you call THAT sort of
thing work?"

At this juncture there came from somewhere on the bank a
seemingly exultant shout of:

"Ah! NOW it's giving way!"

And almost at the same moment, there stole over the river a sort
of rustle, a sort of quiet crunching which made the projecting
pine branches quiver as though they were trying to catch at
something, while, shouldering their mattocks, the barefooted
sailors noisily hastened aboard their barges with the aid of
rope ladders.

And then curious indeed was it to see how many people suddenly
came into view on the river--to see how they appeared to issue
from below the very ice itself, and, hurrying to and fro like
jackdaws startled by the shot of a gun, to dart hither and
thither, and to seize up planks and boathooks, and to throw them
down again, and once more to seize them up.