292
The Wireless Operator
it was close beside the middle of the berg, the lieutenant put the gun to his shoulder, while a sailor made sure that the line would run free. At a favorable moment the lieutenant fired high over the mass of ice. The projectile flew true, whisking the line after it. The small boat was brought close to the base of the berg, a weight was attached to the end of the shot-line, and then the boat rowed round the berg and picked up the other end of the line.
The lieutenant now had something to which to attach his mines. Together they weighed more than one hundred pounds. Carefully these were bent to the shot-line and lowered until they rested against the base of the ice, thirty feet below the surface of the sea. The small boat pulled far away, and the shot was fired. The report was a muffled roar. Immense quantities of ice came crashing down from the titantic shoulders of the berg, with thunderous reverberations. The sound was startling. ‘The mountain of ice itself began to rise, the huge bulk lifting straight up out of the water, as though a giant hand were pushing it from beneath. Ten feet it rose, then twenty, and yet it continued to lift. At thirty feet there was a sharp crack, and the huge mass broke fairly in halves. Then it fell back into the sea, throwing out an enormous wave. Each half was a third as large as the original berg had been.