No sooner said than done with Edmund. By this time we were getting into
the ice, huge hills of which surrounded us. Edmund dropped the car in the
lee of one of these strange hummocks. Here the force of the wind was
broken, and the sky directly over us was free from clouds, but a short
distance ahead we could see them whirling and tumbling in mighty masses
of tumultuous vapor. Lashing the two sleds together we attached them
about ten feet below the bottom of the car. Then the natives, who had
been unbound, and had stood looking on in utter bewilderment, were
securely fastened on the sleds. We entered the car and the power was
turned on.

"We'll rise straight up," said Edmund, "and as soon as we are out of the
wind current we will sail over the mountains and come down on the other
side as nice as you please. Strange that I didn't think of carrying the
sleds in this way to begin with."

It was a beautiful program that Edmund had outlined, and we had complete
confidence in our leader's ability to carry it through; but it didn't
work as expected. Even his genius had met its match this time.

No sooner had we risen out of the protection of the hill of ice than the
hurricane caught us. It was a blast of such power and ferocity that in an
instant it had the car spinning like a teetotum, and then it shot us
ahead, banging the sleds against the car as if they had been tassels. It
is a wonder of wonders that the poor creatures on them were not flung
off, but fortunately we had taken particular pains with their lashings,
and as for knocks, they could stand them like so many bears.

In the course of twenty minutes we must have traveled twice as many