"They are pointing a gun! I can see the muzzle of it! It has an ugly look!" Some five minutes more passed, when _puff_ came a little cloud of smoke.

We held our breaths.

It gives a fellow a queer sensation to know that a deadly projectile is coming for him.

It might have been four seconds, though it seemed longer, when we saw the ice fly up rapidly in three or four places half a mile from the schooner as the ball came skipping along, and, bounding off the edge of the ice-field, plunged into the sea with a sullen _sudge_, throwing up a white fountain ten or a dozen feet high, which fell splashing back.

We all felt immensely relieved.
"That didn't come within three hundred yards of us," said Kit.
"They'll give her more elevation next time," said Wade.