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o rapidly, and the captain called for the anchor to be dropped He then ordered the ship’s lifeboat to be lowered rather than the shy Bell had used earlier with the ice floe The craft was large enough to fit all the miners and required four crewmen to row it

Over at the mouth of the frozen river stood the cluster of nal fire Bell expected theer to be off the cursed rock that had been like a prison these past reat to read expressions, but he got an impression ofleft on earth could give them joy They were in a sullen mass like veterans of the Civil War he’d seen at special homes for those who’d been shattered by what they’d seen and done

Bellto shore He needed to be there as a fa Novaya Zemlya, Bell better understood the task the miner had set for himself and his men Their efforts, noshort of herculean Bell also wanted to step onto the island as a tangible link to what the Coloradans had accomplished

Once they got coordinated, Bell and the three crewh As they neared, they could hear the slow gurgle of water under the veneer of ice covering the river The round on the pebbly beach Judging by the surf line, high tide was another foot above where the keel gouged into the water-rounded stones Even with the weight of the extra men, and the crates Bell could see they’d fashioned, they’d be able to float free in a couple of hours if they couldn’t maneuver the boat off the shore

It was only when the men spread out a bit that Bell counted theht Nine men had faked their deaths in Colorado When he looked closer, he could also see that these were the shadows ofto cover the bones Their beards weren’t what he expected Soaunt thatwhiskers Others’ beards were patchy and rough, like half-plucked chickens The ths of greasy hair poking out from under them All had red-ri corpses All of theain not unlike the dead

Whatever estimation Bell had concocted in his head of the horrors these men endured was one hundredth of the true depth of deprivation they’d actually suffered They had all volunteered for the job long before Bell became involved, but somehow he felt responsible, that he’dbrutality in the mountainous wastes of Novaya Zemlya

When he finally gave Brewster his full attention, the ed and yet the unbroken hatred of a bitter eneht fire and was spreading in a growing inferno It was thelook Bell had ever experienced and yet he would not turn away This was Brewster’s way of expressing how ed to acknowledge it After ten or fifteen more seconds, Brewster’s expression didn’t exactly soften, but it became less focused

“You ood on your word, Mr Bell,” Brewster said while Isaac Bell juunwale in borrowed rubber boots and splashed into a receding wave

Bell pointed to the ten wooden crates “And you yours, Mr Brewster”

“Thousand pounds of high-grade ore The cost was one man killed, but I don’t think the rest of us are too far behind, to be honest We’re all walking dead rave just yet”

None of the rim fate

“What happened to your man?”

“Jake Hobart? He got lost in a storm in early February and froze to death As for the rest, we think it’s the food that’s killing us”

Magnus interrupted “Mr Bell, o to ship now and talk later Ja?”

“You’re right Yes”