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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Steve Young, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Steve Young
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21372]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STEVE YOUNG ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Steve Young; or, The Voyage of the "Hvalross" to the Icy Seas, by George
+Manville Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+Steve Young is an orphan whose uncle, Captain Young, has disappeared on
+a voyage to the Spitzbergen area, well to the north of Britain.  Some of
+the Captain's friends charter a Norwegian vessel to go in search of him,
+and, much to the disgust of the ship's doctor, who thinks boys are
+nothing but a nuisance, Steve goes with them.
+
+Steve is a sixteen year old, unconscious of his own good looks, but
+needing a few hard lessons in life, which the trip provides in plenty.
+Encounters with Polar Bears, the intense cold of the arctic winter,
+gales and storms, strong currents, ice floes, the total darkness of the
+winter, and the occasional bad humour of various of the men of the
+rescue party.
+
+George Manville Fenn is a master of suspense, and in this book he
+reveals his usual talents.  All of the characters are very well drawn,
+and we are even amused by the cowardly and idle antics of a young
+Scottish Highlander, who is not at all typical of the noble and brave
+Highlander.
+
+Eventually they find Captain Young and most of his crew, and off home
+they go.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+STEVE YOUNG; OR, THE VOYAGE OF THE "HVALROSS" TO THE ICY SEAS, BY GEORGE
+MANVILLE FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+THE REASON WHY.
+
+"What do I think?"
+
+"Yes, out with it.  Don't be afraid."
+
+"Oh, I'm not afraid; but I don't want to quarrel with any man, nor to
+upset the lad."
+
+"Speak out then.  You will not quarrel with me, and I'm not afraid of
+your upsetting the lad.  I like him to know the whole truth; don't I,
+Steve?"
+
+"Yes, sir, of course," cried the boy addressed, a well-built, sturdy lad
+of sixteen, fair, strong, and good-looking, and with the additional
+advantage, which made him better-looking still, that he did not know it.
+
+For though Stephen Young, son of a well-known Lincolnshire doctor who
+lost his life in fighting hard to save those of others, stood in front
+of a looking-glass every morning to comb his hair, he never stopped
+long, and for the short space he did stay his face was convulsed and
+wrinkled, eyes red, and mouth twisted all on one side, consequent upon
+his being in pain as he jigged and tore with the comb trying to smooth
+the unsmoothable; for Steve's hair had a habit of curling closely all
+over his head; and before he had been combing a minute he used to dash
+the teethed instrument away, give his crisp locks a rub, and say,
+"Bother!"
+
+And now he, Captain Marsham, and Dr Handscombe stood on the granite
+wharf at Nordoe, high up among the Norwegian fiords, talking to Captain
+Hendal, a sturdy, elderly, ruddy-bronze giant, who acted as a sort of
+amateur consul and referee for shipping folk who came and went from the
+little hot-and-cold port, and who was now frowning heavily at the trio
+whom he faced.
+
+"Want me to speak out, do you, Captain Marsham, eh?"
+
+"Of course.  I came and asked you for your help and advice.  I know you
+to be a man of great experience, and I say once more, what do you
+think?"
+
+"Well, sir, I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself."
+
+"Why?" said Captain Marsham, smiling; and as his features relaxed, he
+looked in size, ruddy-bronze complexion, and hard, weather-tanned
+appearance wonderfully like the Norwegian consul.
+
+"Because you are going to take a boy like that up into the high
+latitudes, where from minute to minute you never know whether the end
+mayn't come."
+
+"The end come?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes, and you ought to know how: stove in, crushed, sunk, lost in the
+snow, frozen, starved, sir.  It's one big risk, I tell you.  It's all
+very well for the walrus-hunters and whale-fishers, who go for their
+living; but you're a gentleman, with money to fit out that steamer as
+you have done it.  There's no need for you to go; and if you'll take my
+advice, you'll give it up."
+
+Captain Marsham shook his head.
+
+"You've been to sea a good deal?" said Hendal.
+
+"Nearly all my life.  Almost everywhere," said the captain, while Steve
+Young listened intently to all that was said.
+
+"But you don't know our polar ocean, sir."
+
+"No; but I've had a pretty fair experience among the southern ice,
+trying to penetrate the pack there," said Captain Marsham.
+
+"Oh! oh!  Ah, then that would help you a bit.  Ice is ice, sir, all the
+world over."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"But there, you give it up, sir: that's my advice.  Take a trip a little
+way if you like, and do your bit of shooting; you can do that without
+any risks.  Then come back.  Why, only last year--let me see, it was the
+beginning of June, like this is--a well-formed, strongly built schooner
+touched here--the _Ice Blink_ they called her--from Hull, Captain
+Young--"
+
+"Yes," said Captain Marsham quietly; "and they sailed north, and have
+not been heard of since."
+
+"Eh?  How did you know?" cried the consul.  "Oh, of course, from the
+papers."
+
+"Yes, and from other sources too, Captain Hendal.  Mr Young is--"
+
+"Was," muttered the Norwegian.
+
+"_Is_, sir," said Captain Marsham sternly, "a very old friend of mine,
+and this lad's uncle.  We are going to try and find out where they are
+frozen up."
+
+A complete change came over the Norwegian, who took a step forward and
+clapped his hands heavily upon Captain Marsham's shoulders.  Then
+turning smartly, he caught Steve by the hand, shook it heartily, and
+ended by resting his left arm on the boy's shoulder as he gazed down at
+him with his keen blue eyes looking moist.
+
+"God bless you, my lad!" he cried in a deep voice, "and your expedition
+too.  Right, Captain Marsham, and I beg your pardon.  I thought you were
+going on a risky fowling trip, and it made me angry to think of your
+taking a lad like that up into yon solitudes.  But it will not be dark
+to you when the sun goes down; there's always a bright light in the
+hearts of those who go to help others in distress.  Now, then, what can
+I do to help you?  For I say God-speed to your trip with all my heart."
+
+"Thank you, thank you.  Well, you can help me in several ways.  As an
+old ice-goer you can give me many hints.  Above all, as a brother-sailor
+you know the value of a good crew.  I have some trusty men, but I want
+four more--young, strong, hearty, Norway lads, who have been well among
+the walrus, and who can tackle a whale or a bear."
+
+"Then you mean work?"
+
+"Certainly.  I will not believe my friend is lost, though I am going up
+yonder; so I make this a pleasure and hunting trip."
+
+"So as to pay expenses?" said the Norwegian.
+
+"Yes.  This special steamer and her fittings mean some thousands of
+pounds, and I think I may as well reduce the cost all I can."
+
+"Of course; and you have called your steamer the _Hvalross_."
+
+"Yes; I have used your Norse term for the sea-horse."
+
+"The name will make our lads eager to go."
+
+"Then you can get me four to go with us?"
+
+"You shall have the four finest men who have not already started, sir."
+
+"Come, that sounds better," said the little, keen-looking man who had
+not yet spoken.  "May I shake hands with you, Captain Hendal?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I like shaking hands with Englishmen," said the big
+Norwegian, holding out his great palm, the back of which was strangely
+suggestive of a polar bear's paw; and he laughed as he looked down at
+the little white hand laid in it, and then gave it a grip which changed
+its colour.  "But you're not a sailor."
+
+"I?  No, a medical man."
+
+"Name?"
+
+"Handscombe," said the doctor, smiling.
+
+"Got stuff in you, though," said the Norwegian grimly, "or you'd have
+hallooed when I gave your hand that nip.  But why are you going?  They
+won't want a doctor?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know; I may be useful.  I am a bit scientific though, and
+want to see what we can discover."
+
+"Good," said the Norwegian; "deal to learn up there, sir.  Ice,
+currents, the cold, the storms--and you'll find something beside snow;
+but you will not find the North Pole."
+
+"No," said Dr Handscombe, smiling; "we don't expect that, do we,
+Steve?"
+
+The lad smiled.
+
+"Why not, sir?  We might, you know."
+
+"Yes, my lad, you might," said the Norwegian seriously.  "It is more
+likely to be found by accident than by those who go on purpose.  Well,
+Captain Marsham, I'll see about your men at once.  Shall I find you on
+board by-and-by?"
+
+"Yes; I'll stay there till you come."
+
+They parted, the Norwegian to stride away for the little town, while
+Captain Marsham with his two companions made at once for the
+sturdy-looking vessel with its low grey funnel lying in the land-locked
+harbour, about fifty yards from the sunny shore.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+TO NORRARD.
+
+Steve Young, who was walking first, suddenly stooped down and took up a
+handful of sand, which was so hot, fine, and dry that it began to
+trickle between his fingers like that in the kitchen egg-boiler at home,
+as he trotted softly to the edge of the wharf and looked over, to find
+exactly what he expected: the boat made fast to one of the cross
+timbers, with a big swarthy man in a blue jersey asleep in the stern,
+and a rough-looking, shock-headed boy also asleep in the bows, the hot
+sunshine having a soporific effect on both.
+
+As Steve reached the edge he looked sharply back and saw that the
+Norwegian captain had returned, and Captain Marsham and the doctor had
+turned to see what he wanted.  That was Steve's opportunity, and going
+down on one knee he reached over where the shock-headed boy lay with the
+side of his head resting upon the boat's gunwale ten feet below, and one
+ear turned up as if listening while its owner slept.
+
+Steve Young calculated pretty well in trying to get his hand exactly
+over that ear, and then let a little sand trickle down.  It fell right
+into the ear, for there was not a breath of wind; but the boy slept on.
+Steve let a little more go down, and this time there was a tiny stone as
+well, which struck the open organ and made it twitch, just as a dog's
+ear does when it is tickled.  But the boy slept on, and Steve tried
+again, letting more sand fall.  This time the boy raised his hand and
+gave his ear a vicious rub.  Then the hand dropped, and he slept again.
+More sand, and a stone or two about half the size of peas, one of which
+dropped right into the opening of the ear, and resulted in the boy
+making a rapid dash with his hand past his head, as if striking at
+something.  He subsided once more with a grunt, and more sand fell in
+company with tiny pebbles.  This time the boy made three or four savage
+blows in the air, but without raising his head or opening his eyes.
+"Bother the flees!" he muttered, and Steve waited.  Then down went the
+trickling sand.  "Bother the flees, I say!" cried the boy, opening his
+eyes now, and making a few more angry strokes with his hand.  Again he
+closed his eyes, and, practice making perfect, Steve dropped a tiny
+pebble right into the boy's ear, and drew back out of sight; for this
+time the lad sprang up and looked sharply round.  Then, seeing nothing
+on the wharf overhead, he turned to the man in the stern, and said
+sharply:
+
+"That you, Hahmeesh?"
+
+"Eh?" came in a drowsy tone.
+
+"That you flecking stanes in my lug?"
+
+"Na.  Flees."
+
+"No.  Stanes and sahnd."
+
+"Flees, I tell you.  Be quiet."
+
+The boy grunted, looked round, and settled down again to sleep, for he
+was still drowsy.
+
+Steve listened till all was still, glanced over his right shoulder, saw
+that Captain Marsham was still talking to the Norwegian, and then
+quietly peered over the edge of the granite wharf again, to find the boy
+apparently fast asleep.  Then down went a tiny pebble with splendid aim.
+
+"Bother the flees!" roared the boy, springing up and sending his arms
+about like a windmill.  But this time Steve stood fast, laughing; while
+the boy stopped short, looking up fiercely, and then grinned.
+
+"I see you all the time hiding ahint the stanes!" he cried.
+
+"Come, jump up; here's the captain."
+
+The effect of those words was magical, for the man, a big,
+good-humoured-looking Scot, also sprang up and stepped to his place on
+the thwart forward, and cried to the boy:
+
+"Naw, Watty, handy there with that hitcher!"
+
+The boy caught up the boat-hook, drew the boat close to where the
+painter was fastened, and then hauled her along, after casting off, to
+where a rough wooden ladder was clamped to the side of the wharf.
+
+Both moved smartly, for, short as the time had been that they had served
+on board the _Hvalross_, Captain Marsham had drilled the men into
+something like the same habits as those of his old crew when he
+commanded a sloop in the Royal Navy, before he retired from the service
+and settled down at Dartmouth.  Since then he had amused himself with
+his yacht, till, hearing of the non-return of his old friend Captain
+Young, he determined to fit out the _Hvalross_ and make an expedition to
+the north, taking with him his ward, Stephen Young, who had long been
+importuning him to arrange for his going to sea.
+
+The boat was waiting as Captain Marsham came to the edge of the little
+granite wharf, and they had just stepped in when a strange sound came
+floating through the silence of the soft, dreamy summer air, followed
+directly by a long-drawn, plaintive howl that was almost terrible in its
+despairing tone.
+
+"What ever is that?" cried the doctor, starting up from his seat and
+shading his eyes to gaze at the anchored vessel.
+
+"It's Skene-dhu!" cried Steve.  "What's he howling at?  Because we're
+ashore?"
+
+"Pipes," said the man, who was now pulling steadily at one oar, while
+the boy tugged at the other.
+
+"Pipes?" cried the captain.  "What pipes?  They surely don't play the
+bagpipes in Norway?"
+
+"No, sir.  It's Andra McByle brought his fra Oban."
+
+"There, pull, my lads!" said the captain, frowning.  "We shall have
+plenty to depress us going north without winds of this description, eh,
+Steve?"
+
+"Yes, it's horrid," said that young gentleman; and the boy who was
+rowing looked up at him sharply with a frown on his heavy brows.
+
+And all the while the wild, weird strain grew louder, and the howling
+more piteous, till the boat reached the vessel's side, when the drone
+and squeal of the pipes ceased on the instant, and the dog's howl was
+changed to a loud, joyous bark, as his handsome head appeared at the
+gangway, the eyes flashing in the sunlight, ears cocked, and the thick
+mass of hair about the neck ruffled up.
+
+"Back, Skeny!  Stop there, boy!" shouted Steve; and his words checked
+the dog just as he was about to leap down.
+
+At that moment a frank-looking, middle-aged man came to the side, and
+looked down at them.  "Any good, sir?" he said; "or are we too late for
+them?"
+
+"All right, Lowe," said the captain.  "Four of the best men in port
+promised."
+
+"Old Hendal promise them, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then it is all right," said the new comer on the scene, to wit, Mr
+James Lowe, the chief officer, an experienced sailor in the Northern
+Seas, who had applied to Captain Marsham for a post on the vessel while
+it was fitting out at Birkenhead, joined it at Oban, and proved himself
+a thoroughly good navigator in bringing them round by the many islands
+and fast currents of the west coast of Scotland, and then across to
+Norway and up through the fiords to Nordoe.
+
+A couple of hours later, as the occupants of the _Hvalross_ lounged
+about enjoying the delicious sunshine of the short northern summer, and
+those fresh to the coast gazed admiringly at the towering cliffs,
+snow-capped mountains, and thundering waterfalls which plunged headlong
+into the pure waters of the fiord, which reflected all like a mirror, a
+heavy boat pushed off from the wharf, and Captain Hendal climbed on
+deck.  He was followed by four sturdy-looking descendants of the
+Vikings, clear-eyed, fair-haired, massive-headed men, who looked ready
+and willing to go through any danger, and who one and all declared
+themselves eager to start, on one condition--that they should not be
+expected to stoke the engine fire.  This was conceded instantly.  A few
+questions were then asked by Captain Hendal as to the stores and
+_materiel_ on board the vessel; and it being found that everything
+likely to be wanted had been thought of and provided, and that every
+possible place beside the bunkers was crammed with coal, the Norwegian
+captain took his leave with the new recruits.
+
+That evening the men were back on board with their kits; quite a crowd
+of people were about the wharf, consequent upon the new interest for
+them which the vessel possessed, and an hour later, steam being up, the
+anchor was raised, and the sturdy-looking grey vessel glided away
+through the calm waters of the fiord amidst a loud burst of cheers.
+
+Northward ho! for the region of the midnight sun.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+PREPARATIONS.
+
+"I say," said Steve some hours later, "isn't it getting late?"
+
+"Yes, very," said the captain; "go and turn in."
+
+"But it's so light, sir!  It was light enough coming up here, but--what
+time is it?"
+
+"Eleven--past."
+
+"What!  Why, I thought it could only be about eight."
+
+"I suppose so, boy," said the captain, who was looking ahead for the
+opening through which the _Hvalross_ was to thread her way out from the
+fiord into the ocean; "but where is your geography?"
+
+"At home."
+
+"Yes, yes; but I don't mean your book, my lad.  I mean the geography and
+knowledge in your head.  Don't you remember that the farther we go north
+at this time of year the lighter it becomes, till, not many miles
+farther, it will be all daylight?"
+
+"Yes, I remember now," cried Steve; "but it's rather puzzling, all that
+about the midnight sun.  Doesn't the sun really set at all?"
+
+"No," said Captain Marsham, smiling at the lad's puzzled expression.
+
+"Then what does it do?" said the lad, gazing hard in the direction of
+the north-west, where there was still a warm glow.
+
+"Keeps up above the horizon."
+
+"But that's what puzzles me," said Steve.
+
+"Well, I hardly know how to explain it to you, my boy, unless you can
+grasp it if I ask you to suppose you are standing on the North Pole."
+
+"Yes, I understand that.  Wouldn't the sun set there?"
+
+"No; but at midsummer day it would be at a certain height above the
+horizon."
+
+"Yes; but how would it be at midsummer night?"
+
+"Just at the same height in the sky, going apparently round the
+heavens."
+
+"And would it keep on like that, always at the same height night and
+day?"
+
+"Yes, for one day only.  The next day it would be nearly the same
+height, then a little lower; and so it would go on becoming a little and
+a little lower, and, as it were, screwing slowly down till it was close
+to the horizon; then would come the days when it was only half seen,
+then not seen at all."
+
+"And after that?"
+
+"Darkness and winter, Steve, till it had gone as far south as it could
+go and begun to return.  Do you understand now?"
+
+"I think so," said Steve, but rather dubiously.  "It's much too big to
+get hold of all at once.  But just tell me this, and then I'll go to
+bed, sir.  As we shan't be right at the North Pole, how long will it be
+before we see the sun in the middle of the night?"
+
+"That depends, my lad.  If this breeze keeps up, we shall hoist sail,
+save our coal, and pass round the North Cape at midnight, and then we
+shall have a good three months' sunshine in which to load our tanks with
+oil, have plenty of sport, and I hope--best of all--find our friends
+alive and little the worse for passing through an arctic winter in the
+snow.  Now that's quite enough for you to think of for one night.  Down
+below."
+
+Stephen Young left the deck after giving a longing look round at the
+lovely sky, and feeling as if he had more to think of than he could well
+manage.  Ten minutes later he was lying in his comfortable berth,
+listening to the gliding motion of the water as it lapped against the
+vessel's side.  Then he began to wonder why the constant sunshine did
+not melt all the ice and snow in the arctic circle; and lastly he did
+not wonder at all, for he was fast asleep, just as the vessel passed
+through the piled-up masses of rock which guarded the northern entrance
+to the fiord, and acted as breakwaters to keep the inner straits so
+lake-like and still.  For directly the _Hvalross_ had passed the last
+rocks there was a disagreeable heaving, and soon after the vessel had
+little waves splashing against her bows, and within an hour she was
+careening over to the full breeze, and making her way north at a rate
+which promised well for Stephen seeing the midnight sun twelve hours
+sooner than he had been told.
+
+The swilling and scrubbing of the planks roused Steve the next morning,
+and, hurriedly dressing, he went on deck to find the sun shining
+brightly, the blue sea sparkling, and a dim line that might have been
+cloud away to the right.  The breeze was just such a one as a sailor
+would like to continue, and the _Hvalross_, though not fast, being built
+for strength and resistance to the ice, was making good progress, thanks
+to the height of her spars and the grand spread of canvas she could
+bear.  The new men were all very busy with bucket and swab, just as if
+they had been on board a month; and the last traces of the coal dust,
+which had worried Captain Marsham in his desire for perfect cleanliness,
+had been sent down the scuppers.
+
+"Morning," said the first of the new men Steve encountered, giving him a
+friendly nod.  "Nice breeze."
+
+Steve stared, for he did not expect to find the new men able to converse
+in English; but in five minutes he found that they were well acquainted
+with his tongue, and also that they had visited Aberdeen and Hull
+several times in whalers.
+
+About that time the captain came on deck, had a short conversation with
+Mr Lowe, the mate, who then went below to rest, just as Steve was
+noticing the smoke which rose from the galley fire and thinking about
+breakfast.  That came in due time, and when they went on deck again the
+wind had died out and the vessel hardly had steering way.
+
+There being no immediate need of progress recourse was not had to steam,
+and a question asked by one of the Nordoe men resulted in Captain
+Marsham giving orders for the tackle to be brought on deck and
+overhauled before being re-stowed for immediate use when wanted.
+
+Steve, with a boy's interest in this fishing tackle on a large scale,
+eagerly watched the unlashing and laying out of the coils of new, soft,
+strong, tarred line, the walrus harpoons, lances with their long, thin,
+smooth, white pine poles, the white whale harpoon, and the harpoon gun.
+Every one of these implements was full of suggestive thoughts of
+exciting adventure; so, too, were the ice anchors and picks; and as all
+were carefully examined in turn the Norway men talked to each other,
+making plenty of comments as they ran the new line through their fingers
+and balanced the lances in their hands, till in imagination Steve saw
+the great ivory-tusked walrus rising out of the sea and the men in the
+boats ready to strike.
+
+He was not alone in his intense interest, for the shock-headed boy was
+staring hard too, with his mouth half open and his forehead wrinkled
+into furrows, till he saw Captain Marsham approach from the wheel, when
+he hurried forward to commence altering the coil of a rope which needed
+no touching and whose neatness he disturbed.
+
+"Well, my men," said the captain, "what do you say to the tackle?"
+
+"Very good, sir," said one, who seemed to be the eldest of the party.
+"Only wants using well."
+
+"Exactly.  But you will manage that."
+
+"Yes, sir; we'll try," said the man, and the others nodded and smiled.
+
+"What about the wind dropping like this?  Does it mean change?"
+
+"Yes," said another of the men, giving a sharp look round; "nor'-east
+before long, I should say."
+
+The man proved to be a true weather prophet, for in a couple of hours
+the wind had swung completely round to dead ahead, and after a little
+thought the vessel's course was altered and her head laid for the
+north-west.
+
+"But will not this take us quite out of our way?" said the doctor, as
+they sat that day at dinner, with a lively sea playfully patting the
+shining sides of the vessel as she glided rapidly onward.
+
+"Which is our way?" said the captain, smiling.
+
+"North, to find our friends."
+
+"Exactly; but it does not matter whether we approach the north by the
+north-east or north-west.  It is all chance as to where they may have
+wintered; and, as the wind is fair for the way north-west, let's take
+it."
+
+"And if we keep on in this direction, where shall we make?" said the
+doctor.
+
+"Greenland!" cried Steve; and the captain nodded.  "Right," he said;
+"and there is a possibility that they may have reached an island there,
+which I have often thought I should like to see."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Jan Mayen, a place seldom visited.  If the wind holds fair we'll make
+for that, try to explore it as far as the ice will allow us, and then
+sail north along the edge of the floe for Spitzbergen, without you can
+suggest a better plan."
+
+"I?  No!" said the doctor.
+
+"Can you, Lowe?" asked the captain of the mate, who had now joined them
+after a good morning's sleep.
+
+"No, sir.  It's all chance work, this sailing to the north.  We must
+search where we can.  It's of no use to say we'll go here or there; we
+must go where the ice will let us."
+
+"Exactly; and take what walrus and seal we can on the way.  Have you
+ever touched at Jan Mayen?"
+
+"No, and never could get near enough to the island for fog and ice."
+
+"But you've heard a good deal about the place?"
+
+"Yes; I've heard that it's a land of high mountains, and that there's a
+volcano at one end.  Let's see, there's a kind of seal there, too, that
+is very abundant; but the place is rarely touched at, being famous for
+fogs, currents, and ice--all enemies to navigation."
+
+"Well, we will see if we cannot have better luck, and try to get there
+in fine weather," said Captain Marsham.  "What do you say, doctor?"
+
+"That it will be a treat to land there.  Besides, we may find our
+friends."
+
+The doctor walked forward, and Steve followed, with the idea of landing
+upon an unexplored coast growing in its fascination; and as the
+naturalist leaned over the bows to peer down into the clear water, the
+lad edged up alongside.
+
+"Hullo, Steve! what are you thinking about?" saluted him.
+
+"Volcanoes."
+
+"Warm subject.  Well, what about them?"
+
+"I was wondering why it was that these burning mountains are always
+found up in very cold regions among the ice and snow."
+
+"But are they?"
+
+"Oh yes," said Steve confidently.  "There's Hecla in Iceland, and this
+one Mr Lowe talked about, and Captain Marsham says he saw a tremendous
+one amongst the ice toward the South Pole."
+
+"Indeed!" said the doctor sarcastically.  "That makes three.  What about
+the scores of others dotted about the earth in the hottest countries?
+Your theory will not hold water, my lad.  But what's that man going
+aloft for?  We can't be anywhere near land."
+
+This remark was occasioned by one of the men climbing the shrouds of the
+main-mast, making his way to the top, and then, as they watched him,
+climbing higher to the main topgallant crosstrees, where he stopped for
+some little time making an examination before descending.
+
+"Gone up to see if the ropes are safe," said Steve at last.  But this
+soon proved to be a very lame conclusion, for the other three Norsemen
+and a sour-looking Scotchman, with a little brown mark at the corner of
+one lip, were busy getting something up out of the hold.
+
+The something resolved itself into a big tub about five feet in height,
+and narrow, while it was made higher by an iron framework or ring rising
+another six inches above the open top, and held projecting like a rail
+by means of stout bars attached to a hoop.
+
+It is a bad plan on shipboard to ask questions of officers when they are
+busy, and Steve had been to sea long enough to learn this.  On the other
+hand, it is a good thing, not only at sea, but through life, to
+investigate as much as possible for yourself, and correct any errors
+into which you fall as you learn more.  "Bought wit is better than
+taught wit," the old moralist wrote; and he was quite right, for the
+things taught us are too often forgotten, while those which we have
+bought at the cost of a good deal of puzzling and study fix themselves
+firmly in the mind.  So, as soon as the tub was left standing on the
+deck, and he could conveniently do so, Steve walked up and began to
+examine it, noting principally that about half-way down there was a
+broad ledge half round the inside.
+
+"To brew something, I suppose," said Steve to himself.  "They'll lay the
+yeast, or whatever it is they use, on that ledge.  Some kind of drink, I
+suppose, to keep the men warm when we get up into the ice."
+
+He had another good look round after thrusting his head inside the iron
+rail, upon which a board was placed to slide, and then noted something
+else which quite upset his theory.
+
+At that moment the shock-headed boy came up from the hold, with a bundle
+of what seemed to be stout oaken laths under his arm.
+
+"What have you got there, Watty?"
+
+"Wud--pieces o' wud."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I dunno."
+
+"Oh, you are a clever one!" cried Steve, turning away impatiently, for
+the sour-looking sailor with the brown mark at the corner of his lip
+came up from below, where he had been to fetch a bunch of tar-twine.
+
+"Here, Andrew," said Steve eagerly, "what are they going to make in that
+tub?"
+
+"Make, Meester Young?" said the man, turning to gaze thoughtfully at the
+cask.  "Observations."
+
+"Now, no gammon.  Tell me!"
+
+The man wiped his lips with the back of his hand, and spread his face
+into a dry kind of grin, just as if something hurt him, and he was
+smiling to show people that he did not mind.
+
+"Observations," he said again.
+
+Steve gave him an angry look.
+
+"Don't you make stupid observations."
+
+Andrew McByle of Ballachulish, a well-tanned Scottish whaler, "went
+off": that is to say, he did not leave the spot on the deck where he
+stood talking to Steve Young, but he went off like a clock or some other
+piece of machinery; for he suddenly gave a jerk, and made a peculiar
+noise inside somewhere about the throat, accompanied by some singular
+contortions of the face.
+
+Steve pressed close up to him, for he had seen the contortions before.
+
+"Look here, Andy," he whispered, "do you want me to kick you?"
+
+"Na, Mr Stevin."
+
+"Then don't you laugh at me when I ask you questions.  Every one isn't
+so precious clever as you are; and look here, Watty Links, if you dare
+to grin at me I'll punch your head.  Now then, Andy, what is it?"
+
+"Dinna ca' me Andy, my laddie, and she'll tell ye.  My name's Andra."
+
+"Very well then, Andra.  What's the tub for?"
+
+"The craw's-nest."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Steve; and he walked forward to where the stout
+red-faced sailor who had pulled him aboard from the wharf was busy
+applying grease to the fore-mast.
+
+"What's that cask for, Hamish?"
+
+"Yon, sir?  For the crows," said the man, grinning.
+
+"What! do we shoot crows and salt them down in that tub?"
+
+"Oh no, sir.  They shoots themselves up through the bottom."
+
+Steve stood staring at the man for a moment, and then turned away
+impatiently.
+
+"How stupid of me," he said.  "I ought to have known.  Crow's-nest, of
+course."
+
+He walked near to the foot of the main-mast just as the Norwegian sailor
+who had been up aloft turned the tub down with its bottom forward, went
+on one knee and pushed the bottom inward, one end rising up and showing
+that the other side worked upon hinges.
+
+"She'll want a little iling," said the man; then, turning the tub
+upright again, the bottom fell into its place with a snap, and the man
+turned and took the ball of tarred twine from McByle, and walked to the
+side.
+
+"Now, boy," he said to Watty Links, "bring up that stuff."
+
+He took hold of the shrouds, swung himself on to the bulwarks, and began
+to mount the ratlines as calmly as if it were a broad staircase, though
+the vessel was careening over, and rising and falling on the swell.
+
+"Now, my lad, up with you," said the captain.  "Stop there, and hand him
+the pieces as he wants them."
+
+The boy's face wrinkled up, and he looked down at his bundle of
+many-lengthed laths, then up at the top-mast, and then at the captain.
+
+"Well, did you hear what I said, sir?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then why don't you run up?"
+
+"The wind blaws, sir, and I dinna thenk I can haud on."
+
+"What?  Why, you contemptible, lubberly young rascal, what do you mean?
+You come to sea, and afraid to go aloft!"
+
+"Na, I winna say I'm afraid to gang aloft, sir; but my heid's a' of a
+wark when I get up, and I might fa' and hurt somebody."
+
+Captain, mate, the doctor, and Steve burst into a roar of laughter at
+this; and feeling that he must have said something unusually clever the
+boy looked smiling round, letting his eyes rest at last upon Steve.
+
+"Here, this won't do!" cried Mr Lowe.  "Now, boy, no nonsense; up with
+you!"
+
+"Na," said the boy sturdily, and he shook his shock head.  "My mither
+said I wasna to rin into danger, and I didna come to sea to fa'
+overboard, or come doon upon the deck wi' a roon."
+
+"Now, boy, come along!" cried the sailor, who was high up above the top.
+
+"Do you hear, sir!  Up with you, or you'll get the rope's end!" cried
+the mate angrily.
+
+"Don't send him," said the captain in an undertone.  "The young cur may
+fall."
+
+"I'll take them!" cried Steve; and stepping forward, he leaped up into
+the shrouds and held down his hand for the bundle.
+
+The captain gave his head a nod.
+
+"Up with you then, my lad.  Shall I send a man to lash you to the
+rigging?"
+
+"Yes, sir, when I ask," cried Steve: and taking the bundle of pieces of
+wood under his arm he began to mount steadily.
+
+"Pass the word for the cook," cried the mate angrily; and as Steve
+reached the top he paused to rest a moment, and looked down to see that
+the cook had come out of the galley and presented himself before his
+officers.
+
+"Here!" cried the mate, "take this boy, cook, and set him to peel
+potatoes and scour your pots.  He'll never make a sailor."
+
+"Na," whimpered the lad, "I didna come to sea to peel potatoes.  My
+mither said--"
+
+Steve did not hear what Watty's "mither" had said, for the cook made a
+rush at him, caught him by the scruff of the neck, and ran him into the
+galley, closely followed by Skene-dhu, the dog, snapping and barking at
+their heels in a way which hastened Watty's pace and stopped all
+resistance.
+
+Half laughing, half pitying the boy, but with a blending of contempt,
+Steve resumed his climb, till, looking up, he found the Norwegian sailor
+just above him.
+
+"So you've come, eh, my lad?" he said in perfect English.
+
+"Yes, I've come."
+
+"Don't you feel scared?"
+
+"No, not yet.  I say, what's your name?"
+
+"Johannes, sir.  Well, are you going to help me?"
+
+"Yes, if you show me what to do."
+
+"Hand me the rails, my lad, one by one, shortest first, while I lash
+them across from side to side."
+
+"But what for?"
+
+"What for, my lad?  So that we can get into the crow's-nest when she's
+hauled right up and made fast yonder."
+
+"But why won't the ratlines do?"
+
+"Because they wouldn't be handy, my lad.  There, you'll soon see.  Get
+the shortest one ready," he continued, as he opened his big Norwegian
+knife by pressing on a spring at the side, and holding it upside down,
+when the long keen blade which lay in the handle dropped out to its full
+length, and the removal of the thumb from the spring fixed it in its
+place.
+
+Then the man climbed a little higher up the shrouds, so that he could
+reach to where they came to an end on the main topgallant mast, about
+one-fourth of its length below the truck and halyards, thrust one leg
+through between the ratlines, so as to twist it round and get a good
+hold, leaving his hands free; and Steve at once followed his example,
+and then loosened the shortest lath-like piece of wood.  This done, and
+the piece held ready, he had time to look about him, while the sailor
+untwisted some of his stout tarred twine and cut it into short lengths
+ready for use.
+
+Steve's first look was, naturally enough, down at the deck, which now
+seemed to be at a terrible depth below him, looking quite a hundred
+feet, though it was not more than seventy, and the first thought which
+struck him was: "Suppose I fell!"  A thrill ran through him, and in
+imagination he saw himself lying, broken and bleeding, on the white
+deck.  But the next instant he said to himself: "No; I shouldn't reach
+the deck, I should go overboard into the sea.  How deep down should I
+go?" and then he clung there staring below him, till he was roused from
+the peculiar kind of fascination by the sailor's voice.
+
+"Now, master," he said; and Steve gave a kind of gasp as he turned to
+the speaker.  "Shortest piece."
+
+Steve handed it, and the Norseman tried its length, which proved to be
+just sufficient to reach across from the starboard shrouds, to which he
+clung, to those on the port side.
+
+"Just right," he said, and resting each end of the stout lath-like piece
+on the ratlines, he proceeded to bind the starboard end fast to the
+outer shroud.
+
+This was quickly done by a few deft turns of the strong twine, and then
+the sailor descended a little.
+
+"Next size!" he cried, and another piece was passed up, this being a
+trifle longer.
+
+It proved to fit exactly, showing how accurately the bundle of pieces
+had been prepared for the object in view.
+
+"Next!" cried the man, and the piece was handed, placed in position on
+the opposite ratlines, and secured in turn.
+
+"See what these are for?" said the Norseman, smiling.
+
+"Yes; you are making a ladder, so as to get from side to side," replied
+Steve; "but you can't make it very far down, it would take tremendously
+long pieces when we get lower."
+
+"Only want ten or a dozen, my lad.  You see what they're for now, don't
+you?"
+
+"N-no."
+
+"To step on to from the ratlines, and go up into the crow's-nest."
+
+"What, that tub?"
+
+"Yes; we haul her up and lash her just above us, close to the truck
+there, above the top piece of wood."
+
+"I see now!" cried Steve; and, full of interest in the task, he handed
+the pieces till the last had been secured, when the Norseman ascended to
+the highest, took tight hold of the mast, and crossed over on to the
+port-side shrouds, where he began to make fast the other ends of the
+pieces of wood.
+
+"How are you getting on up there, Steve?" cried the captain from the
+deck.
+
+"All right, sir.  Done one side."
+
+"Good!  Feel giddy?"
+
+"Oh no, sir."
+
+"Shall I send the boy to relieve you?"
+
+Steve replied in the negative, and the captain went aft again.
+
+"Ever been up here before, sir?" said the man, as he rapidly went on
+with his task.
+
+"No, never."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated the Norseman, and he looked across at his companion
+inquiringly, but with his busy fingers working away till the last piece
+had been securely bound at the port side and a short wooden ladder
+extended from side to side.
+
+"Now, what's next?" asked Steve.
+
+"Get up the crow's-nest.  It'll want two of us for that."
+
+"Well, I'll help," said Steve.
+
+"Ay, sir, and I'd like your help; but it'll want one of my mates, with
+his strong arms, to hold her securely while she's made fast."
+
+He hailed the deck, and a man came up with a small rope, which Johannes
+took, climbed up a little higher and passed the end through a little
+block high up just below the truck, drew upon it, and sent the end of
+the line down rapidly to the deck.
+
+"Then this crow's-nest is for a look-out place?" said Steve.
+
+"That's it, sir.  Makes a nice snug cover for a man to stand in when
+we're among the walrus or seals, or seeking a way through the ice."
+
+"And this ladder is for a man to creep up and get in through the
+bottom?"
+
+"Right again, sir; you don't want no telling.  He creeps up the ladder,
+in through the bottom, shuts the door down, and there he is, able to
+look out eight or nine miles any way."
+
+Steve looked down, and could see that the men on deck were making the
+great cask fast to the end of the line.  Then, turning to the man again:
+
+"You said something about looking out for ice."
+
+"Ay, sir, I did."
+
+"How long will it be before we come in sight of any?"
+
+The sailors both looked at him and smiled.
+
+"'Bout as long as it takes to cast your eyes to the nor'ard, sir."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Look yonder," said the first Norseman, jerking his thumb over his
+shoulder.  "You can see ice, can't you?"
+
+Steve looked in the direction indicated, and shook his head.
+
+"Nonsense, sir!" said the other.  "There's ice--one, two, three
+good-sized bits floating this way."
+
+"I can't see them," said Steve sadly.  "Your eyes are better than mine."
+
+"Maybe, sir.  We've been at sea longer than you.  Try again."
+
+The boy looked, holding on by passing his arm round one of the shrouds,
+while the mast gave from the pressure of the wind, and produced a
+peculiar effect, as of swinging, now that his attention was not directed
+to the work going on.
+
+"Feel all right?" said the first Norseman.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Not giddy, sir?"
+
+"No, I think not.  I'm all right, but I can't see any ice."
+
+"Try again.  There, straight away where the sea shines in the sunlight."
+
+"N-no," said Steve; "I can see the waves breaking and sparkling miles
+away."
+
+"No, sir; you couldn't see the waves breaking and sparkling miles away
+on a day like this.  What you see is ice."
+
+"What, an iceberg?  I thought that would be like an island."
+
+"No, sir; a bit or two of floe ice going to the south'ard."
+
+"Yes, I see now; but how big are these pieces?"
+
+"Ten or a dozen feet out of the water, and perhaps a hundred feet long."
+
+"But what do you mean by floe ice?"
+
+"The ice of the sea frozen."
+
+"Well, of course!" cried Steve; "so are icebergs."
+
+"Are they, sir?" said the man, smiling.  "Have you ever seen one?"
+
+"No; but I've often read of them."
+
+"Wait till you see one, then, sir, and you won't say they're part of the
+frozen sea; they're bits of the great ice rivers that run down into the
+sea, and then break off.  Icebergs are fresh water when they're melted--
+land ice.  Me and my mate have heard them split off with a noise like
+thunder, and then they float away."
+
+"Ahoy, there aloft!  Up she comes."
+
+The little wheel in the block overhead began to chirrup and squeak as
+the men hauled upon the line, and the tub with its iron ring and rail
+began to ascend rapidly higher and higher, till it reached where the
+three clung, and was then guided to where it was to be secured, with its
+bottom resting on the place where the tops of the shrouds passed round
+the mast.
+
+"Hold on!" was shouted.  "Make fast!" and the cask became stationary.
+Then the second of the two sailors stood on the newly-made ladder, and
+held the cask while the first passed a rope round it and secured it to
+the slight mast; after which there was a little lashing above to steady
+it, and the crow's-nest hung there high above the deck, ready for use.
+
+"There you are, sir," said Johannes.  "As you've been helping you ought
+to have first try.  Up with you."
+
+"Think it's safe?" said Steve, hesitating; and a curious sensation of
+shrinking came over him.
+
+"Shouldn't ask you to try her if she warn't fast, sir," replied the man
+bluntly; and without further ado the lad loosened his grasp of the
+shrouds, and stepped on to the wooden ladder, looking up at the bottom
+of the cask.
+
+"Now, sir, just one word of warning," said the second Norseman.  "That
+ladder's to step on from the shrouds, not to go down on deck."
+
+"Of course not," replied Steve; "I know that."
+
+"Yes, sir, and so do all of those who come up; but same time, a poor
+fellow don't think, and when he lowers himself out of the tub, he goes
+on stepping down without going off on to the shrouds, and I've known men
+fall and be killed."
+
+"I say, don't talk about falling," said Steve, with a shiver; "it makes
+one feel creepy."
+
+"Only good advice, sir," said Johannes.  "Now, then, up you go."
+
+The lad mounted three of the steps, and his head touched the bottom of
+the tub.
+
+"It isn't opened!" he cried.
+
+"Never mind, sir; go on, push up."
+
+Steve obeyed, thrust hard with his head, and the bottom gave way,
+turning upon its hinges till it was vertical, and he passed up inside
+the tub, stepped on to the narrow ledge at the side, and the bottom
+dropped down into its place, forming a firm flooring, with a ring at the
+edge ready for lifting it up.
+
+The next moment Steve was standing upright, peering round in all
+directions, finding that he was in a wonderfully commanding position for
+sweeping the sea, and now, with his eyes already a little educated,
+making out the ice to the north plainly enough.
+
+There was the seat ready for resting upon; the iron rail all round for a
+rest for a telescope, and attached to this rail the broad piece of board
+which could be run round in any direction to act as a screen from the
+wind when it blew hard and was perhaps cold enough to give frost-bite to
+the unfortunate watcher up aloft.
+
+A hail from the deck put an end to Steve's sea sweeping, just as he
+fancied he made out something dark to the south, which might have been a
+boat or some large fish.  So, stooping down in his narrow cell, he
+raised the bottom, and began to lower himself down, till his feet, which
+sought for a resting-place, touched the second rail of the ladder they
+had made, and he thoroughly grasped now how necessary their work had
+been.
+
+"Steady, sir!" cried Johannes, as he stepped lower.  "Keep the door
+resting upon your head, so that it don't come down with a bang; it might
+hurt you."
+
+"All right," said the lad, obeying the instructions to the letter, while
+the two men who stood on the shrouds to starboard and port watched him
+carefully.  "That's it, isn't it?" he continued, as he stepped lower,
+and the trap-door bottom closed with a gentle tap.
+
+"Make anything out?" cried Captain Marsham from the deck.
+
+"Yes, sir!" cried Steve eagerly.  "Three pieces of ice to the north, and
+there's something dark right away south that looks like a boat bottom
+upwards."
+
+"Eh?  Look again.  What do you make it to be, my lad?"
+
+This to one of the Norwegian sailors, who placed a hand over his eyes,
+and took a long look to the south.
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?"
+
+"Small whale, I should say, sir.  But if it be," he said, after a short
+pause, "she's lying asleep in the sunshine."
+
+"My glass," said the captain; and it was quickly fetched from the cabin,
+adjusted, and he took a long look in the direction pointed out.
+
+"Yes; a small whale or a great grampus basking.  Well done, look-out in
+the crow's-nest!  Better come down now, my lad."
+
+These words sent the blood coursing to the lad's cheeks, and he began to
+descend quickly, thinking now that after all it was a risky position for
+any one high up there above the deck, and that the sooner he was safely
+down the better he would like it.  Then he took two more steps, and was
+in the act of taking another when the foot he lowered touched nothing,
+and he started so violently that the other foot glided from the smooth
+bar of wood, and he dropped with a jerk to the full extent of his arms,
+giving his hands such a sharp snatch that he felt them giving way just
+as he was hanging suspended over seventy feet above the deck.  Then they
+gave way, for, lately as it had been uttered, he had forgotten the
+Norseman's carefully given warning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+IN THE DOCTOR'S HANDS.
+
+A cry rose from the deck, and Steve Young in that brief moment felt that
+all was over, and that he was struck a violent blow in the ribs.  Next
+moment he swung against the starboard shrouds to which he clung, feeling
+sick and giddy with pain, but awaking to the fact that the big Norwegian
+sailor had gripped his jacket on the right side and taken up a little
+fold of flesh as well.  The pain was keen for a few moments, but partly
+ceased as the man thrust his other hand, by which he had held on between
+the ratlines, and took a good hold of his waistband.
+
+"Now, then, can you get round this side?"
+
+For answer Steve worked himself from the inner to the outer slope of the
+shrouds just below the cross-bars, and then thrust his legs through and
+held on, waiting for the fluttering nervous sensation which had attacked
+him to pass off.
+
+"Ahoy, there!" came from the deck in the captain's stern tones.  "I'll
+send up a line; make it fast round his chest, and lower him down."
+
+These words sent the blood flushing to the boy's cheeks, for the idea of
+being lowered down like a bale or cask sounded too degrading.
+
+"No, no!" he cried.  "It's all right, sir; I can come down.  Only
+slipped," he added.
+
+"Only slipped!" said the Norseman bitterly.  "Didn't I tell you to be
+careful, sir?"
+
+"Yes; but I forgot."
+
+"Lucky for you I was watching you."
+
+"Can you come down?" cried the captain.
+
+"Yes, sir, yes; it's all right"; and feeling more confident now, the boy
+began to descend the shrouds steadily enough, gaining confidence at
+every step till he reached the main-top, where he caught a rope, twisted
+his legs round, slid down to the deck, and laughingly faced his friends.
+
+"Steve, my lad," cried the doctor, "what a turn you gave me!  I thought
+you were gone."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Marsham in a low tone; "and instead of laughing, my
+boy, you ought to go down to the cabin and thank God for your narrow
+escape.  It was my fault, though, for encouraging you in your own
+confidence."
+
+"I'm very, very sorry, Mr Handscombe," whispered Steve, as the captain
+walked away.  "I didn't mean to treat it lightly, only to look as if I
+were not a coward."
+
+"Yes, yes, I understand, my lad," was the reply; "but it is a lesson to
+you.  I wouldn't go through those moments again for a thousand pounds.
+Why, Steve, my lad, I saw, as if in a flash, a funeral at sea, our trip
+at an end, and poor Captain Marsham going back feeling that he was to
+blame for your death."
+
+"Oh, I say, Mr Handscombe, don't talk like that!" whispered Steve.
+"Was it really so bad?"
+
+"Bad, sir!  Why, what do you think you are made of--india-rubber?  Did
+you suppose that you would drop on to the deck and bounce up again, to
+come down then on your feet and strike an attitude like a clown in a
+pantomime?  I haven't patience with you!"
+
+"I'm very sorry, sir, really," said Steve again.
+
+"Not half so sorry as we should have been," said the doctor testily.
+"But there, I don't know; it would have been a good riddance.  Boys are
+more bother than they are worth, especially consequential and conceited
+boys, like you are.  Hullo! what are you putting your hand there for?
+Not hurt?"
+
+"I--I don't know," said Steve, pressing both hands to his side.  "Yes, I
+do; it hurts horribly."
+
+"But you didn't fall."
+
+"No; Johannes struck me there, and gripped the flesh.  Feels as if he
+had broken my ribs."
+
+"How do you know, sir?  You never had any ribs broken, did you?"
+
+"No," replied Steve; "but it feels as one would suppose ribs would feel
+if they were broken."
+
+"Bah!  You don't know anything about it.  That's why I called you
+conceited.  Here, come down into the cabin."
+
+He took Steve by the arm, and the boy winced.
+
+"What!  Something wrong there, too?"
+
+"I don't know," said Steve in an altered tone.  "I don't know anything,
+only that I'm so horribly conceited.  If I did, I should say my shoulder
+was wrenched with the jerk."
+
+"Come along," said the doctor, changing his tone.  "There, my lad, I was
+a bit hard upon you; but you gave me a terrible fright, and I haven't
+got over it yet."
+
+He led the way toward the cabin; but before they reached the companion
+hatch the captain came up, looking very stern.  Then he, too, altered
+his manner.
+
+"What is it?" he said anxiously.  "Steve is not hurt?"
+
+"Not much, I think.  We're going down to see."
+
+"I hope not," said the captain quickly; and his eyes met Steve's as,
+without another word, he quietly held out his hand.
+
+It was a very simple action, but it meant a great deal; and as the lad
+felt the quiet, firm pressure given to his fingers, he grew more and
+more, as he had expressed himself, sorry for the pain he had so
+inadvertently caused.
+
+"Now, then," said the doctor, as soon as he had closed the cabin door,
+"I ought to be very much obliged to you, Steve, for giving me something
+to keep my surgical lore from growing rusty."
+
+"Oh, I say!" cried the boy, "don't talk like that, sir.  There isn't
+much the matter, is there?"
+
+"Not much the matter!  Why, you talked about broken ribs.  Don't you
+call that much the matter?"
+
+"Oh, but--"
+
+"Here, let's see, patient.  Don't; I'll do that."
+
+He pressed the boy back on to the locker, and then proceeded to make his
+examination, while Steve watched his face anxiously, trying to gather
+from the intent countenance whether he had sustained any serious injury.
+
+"Hum! ha!" ejaculated the doctor, as he went on manipulating the boy's
+chest, back, and ribs.  "That hurt you?"
+
+"Horribly, sir."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"Yes, sir; worse."
+
+"Can't help it.  Well, that?"
+
+"Oh! that's worse of all, sir."
+
+"Humph!  Now then, take a good, long, deep breath."
+
+Steve obeyed.
+
+"Now another, deeper and longer.  Draw the air well in after an outward
+breath, to empty the lungs.  Hah! that's better.  Well, there are no
+broken rib ends piercing the lungs."
+
+"Oh no, I hope not!" cried Steve anxiously.  "The ribs are broken,
+then?"
+
+"Not they.  All sound as mine are.  There, that will do; get on your
+jacket."
+
+Steve began, but the pain the act gave him turned him sick, and seeing
+this the doctor helped him.
+
+"There must be something the matter, sir," he said, rather piteously,
+"or it wouldn't hurt like this."
+
+"Hardly fair to call it anything the matter, my lad.  Your shoulder has
+had a nasty wrench from the jerk with which you were brought up."
+
+"But it hurts so much lower down."
+
+"And no wonder.  In two or three days your side there will be black and
+blue."
+
+"And why--what should make it so, sir?"
+
+"Johannes' great hand.  Why, he must have gripped you there like a steel
+claw."
+
+"Yes, he did.  I felt it like that.  He got hold of a lot of the flesh."
+
+"Exactly; and a good thing, too.  Better than letting you fall sixty to
+seventy feet."
+
+"Much," said Steve dolefully.
+
+"Humph! don't sound as if you thought so, my boy.  There, you've not
+anything serious the matter with you.  The bruises will get well of
+themselves.  But don't look at me in that disappointed way; were you in
+the hope that I should perform some serious operation?"
+
+"Ugh!  No, sir."
+
+"Oh, I see; you are disappointed because I have given you no medicine.
+Why, Steve, you are as bad as the poor people who come to a dispensary.
+They are not happy unless they have a box of pills and a bottle of
+medicine.  I'll mix you up something."
+
+"No, no! don't, sir, please," cried Steve.  "I am very much better now;
+I am, indeed."
+
+"Very well, then; lie down there for an hour or two, till the sickness
+produced by the shock has gone off."
+
+"Oh no, sir.  I needn't do that, need I?"
+
+"Well, then, come on deck."
+
+Steve rose from the locker, winced, and subsided again.
+
+"I think I will lie for a little while."
+
+The doctor nodded and left him in the cabin, where he lay back for about
+ten minutes listening to the thumping about on deck, where the men were
+evidently busy making more preparations for the adventurous cruise.  His
+shoulder ached, and there was a peculiar strained feeling about the
+muscles of his chest; but this did not trouble him so much as the
+strained sensation in his mind.  For, as he lay back there, he began to
+think about what they were saying respecting him on deck.  The doctor
+would have told Captain Marsham how he was, Mr Lowe would hear it, and
+then it would go to the men from the engineer and the four Norwegians
+downward.
+
+"And they'll think I've no more pluck than a girl," he thought at last;
+"just when I want to show that I am ready to take my part in anything.
+Why, if I'm ready to be upset like this, I shall be left on board when
+they are going on expeditions fishing, shooting, or hunting, and--Oh!
+this won't do."
+
+And to prove that it would not do he jumped up, walked up and down the
+cabin twice,--a very short journey, by the way,--found that it did not
+hurt him more than lying still on the locker, and then went on deck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+REVENGE BY DEPUTY.
+
+"Better, Steve?" said the captain, giving him a friendly nod; and
+without waiting for his answer, he went forward to where the engineer,
+who had nothing to do, was talking to the mate, and then they all went
+below into the engine-room.
+
+One of the Norway men was at the wheel, the other sailors were in the
+forecastle, and there was no one to talk to; so Steve went forward, and
+was nearly abreast of the galley when Watty Links, the shock-headed boy,
+came out bearing a bucket of potato peelings and refuse, looking sour
+and sore, but as soon as he caught sight of Steve his face expanded into
+a broad grin, and, evidently in a high state of delight, he trotted to
+the side, turned the contents of the bucket overboard, and ran back into
+the galley, keeping his head averted as if to hide his mirth.
+
+The blood flushed up into Steve's cheeks, and he turned away, walking
+aft to watch the grey gulls which seemed to have arrived all at once,
+and were flying about in quite a crowd, making darts down to the surface
+to seize some fragment that was floating, amidst querulous screaming and
+the beating of wings.
+
+It was a curious sight to see the rapidity with which a scrap of biscuit
+or fat was darted upon, and borne aloft by the hungry birds; but somehow
+in the grey cloud of feathers wheeling round and rising and falling
+above the glittering sea, Steve seemed to see the mocking face of Watty,
+who, smarting from the contempt with which he had been treated, snatched
+at the opportunity for triumphing over the other's misfortune; and he
+could not have selected a way more likely to sting him than by a display
+of derision.
+
+"Verra beautiful, Meester Young, isn't it?" said a voice, and Steve
+turned sharply to find it was the Scottish sailor who had approached
+unheard.
+
+"What, the sparkling sea, Andra?"
+
+"Nay, the burruds, sir.  Look at the pretty things.  It minds me o'
+being in Loch Fyne, coming down from Crinan in ane o' Meester
+Macbrayne's bonnie boats on the way to Glasgie."
+
+"Does it?  I've never been there."
+
+"Eh, then she ha'e lost a gran' treat, laddie.  There's plenty o' watter
+here, but never a mountain, nor a toon glinting oot o' the shore.  Look
+yonder, laddie; there's a bit of a fesh."
+
+"Porpoise!" cried Steve excitedly; "and another, and another.  Why,
+there's a regular shoal."
+
+"Ay, after the herrin', maybe, laddie.  See how they come up and turn
+over, and dive doon again.  Canny kind o' fesh a porpoise, but they're
+much finer than these in the Clyde.  I'm thenking, though, that we'll
+ha'e to shorten sail a wee.  It means wint."
+
+Captain Marsham was evidently of the same opinion, for coming on deck
+soon after he gave orders which resulted in a little of the canvas being
+lowered down, and the _Hvalross_ then steadily continued her course
+without sending the spray scattering in a brilliant shower over the
+forward part of the deck.
+
+While this was being done Steve passed the galley door again, and bit
+his lip, for Watty, taking advantage of the cook's back being turned,
+thrust out his head as if by accident, gave a sham start as if
+astonished to see Steve, burst into a silent fit of laughter, which he
+pretended to smother, and drew his head in again.
+
+"I wonder whether it would hurt my shoulder much if I were to punch his
+head?" thought Steve.
+
+He walked on, feeling that he ought to treat the annoyance with
+contempt; but even as he felt this he could not help looking back, when
+he saw that Watty was watching him, but clapped his hand over his mouth
+and drew in his head directly.
+
+This was repeated again and again that day, as if the boy found some
+satisfaction for his disgrace in annoying some one of his own years.
+Steve pretended not to heed it; but so sure as he went forward Watty's
+head was thrust out of the galley, and drawn back again, apparently to
+conceal the uncontrollable mirth from which the lad pretended to be
+suffering; while in spite of Steve's efforts all this stung him more and
+more, till he felt as if he must do something by way of revenge.
+
+It was not easy, and he knew that it was _infra dig_ even to show that
+he was annoyed, let alone attempting to "serve the boy out," as he
+termed it; but the desire to give Watty some punishment for his
+annoyance increased.
+
+The opportunity came at last; the extent of Steve's forbearance was at
+an end.  He was going forward to join the four Norwegians, who were busy
+preparing one of the boats for their first expedition against the
+walrus, so that when the time came everything might be quite ready, when
+Watty rushed hurriedly out of the galley, turned sharply upon seeing
+him, burst into one of his silent fits of laughter, and hurried back
+through the door.
+
+It all happened in a moment, and Watty's departure was hastened far more
+than he intended.  There was a bound, a kick, and the boy disappeared
+with a crash, followed by a burst of objurgations, the sound of cuffs
+and blows, and a whining voice raised pitifully in appeal and
+explanation.  But he had evidently knocked something down in his
+unceremonious and hasty entrance, and the irate cook was in no temper
+either to listen to explanations or to believe in what he immediately
+set down as an excuse.
+
+Steve stood listening to the struggle within, his anger gone, like the
+electricity in a Leyden jar, at a touch, and he was about to enter the
+galley and explain, when Watty rushed out, darted forward, and dived
+down the hatchway into the forecastle, from which place he was
+ignominiously fetched by the cook like some culprit arrested by a
+policeman; and the next time he met Steve without the faintest
+suggestion of a smile upon his countenance.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+FIRST PERILS.
+
+The next day there was something else to think about, for the arctic
+summer strongly resembled a temperate zone winter.  The wind came in
+heavy gusts from the north-east; there were snow-squalls which shut them
+in, and on passing away left the deck an inch deep in the soft white
+fur, while for a time every yard, rope, and sail was covered.
+
+"Doesn't seem much like June, eh, Steve?" said the doctor.
+
+But in the intervals between the squalls the sun came out warmly, the
+snow melted aloft, and was rapidly swept from the deck.
+
+Three days passed like this, during which careful, slow progress had to
+be made, for it was early in the year yet, and June meant a month when
+the ice was still packed heavily and had not had time to break up and
+disperse, so that in even this brief time the _Hvalross_ had sailed from
+summer back, as it were, into winter.  Then the wind dropped, the sea
+grew calm, and the vessel lay rolling slowly in the heavy swell,
+apparently with night coming on, which seemed the more strange, for
+evening by evening it had grown lighter, and but for the clouds Steve's
+great desire would have been gratified, and he would have seen the
+midnight sun.
+
+On this particular evening, as they lay rolling there, a dense fog had
+settled down upon the sea, producing the aforesaid darkness; and though
+this thick gloom was somewhat modified by what seemed to be a dim
+reflection as of light trying to force its way through, the mist was so
+dense that the fore part of the vessel was invisible from by the wheel,
+as the boy stood with the captain and Dr Handscombe waiting for the fog
+to lift.
+
+A man had been sent up to the crow's-nest; but the fog was more dense
+there than below, and he had descended.
+
+"This means ice close by somewhere, eh, Lowe?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes, sir; I've been listening for it, but my ear is not keen enough to
+pierce this fog.  Hullo! what's the matter with the dog?"
+
+For just then the big collie began to whine and sniff about uneasily,
+making little snaps in the air.
+
+"His nose is sharper than your ears, then," said the doctor.  "He smells
+something.  Can it be the land?"
+
+"No; we must be fifty or sixty miles from the nearest land," said the
+captain, and the dog barked sharply.
+
+"What is it, Skeny?" cried Steve, stooping and patting the animal's
+shaggy neck; "what is it, old fellow?"
+
+The dog looked up at him sharply, barked again, and ran forward to
+scramble up on the bowsprit, where he barked loudly, sniffing uneasily
+in the intervals.
+
+Two of the Norwegian sailors were forward keeping as sharp a look-out as
+was possible for the mist; and as Steve followed the dog he was sensible
+of a peculiar feeling of chill, as if an icy breath was blowing over
+him.
+
+Then the dog barked again a perfect volley, and in an instant Steve felt
+his heart stand still, for there was a whirring rush, which rose into
+quite a roar, mingled with the flapping and beating of wings, and the
+dog grew almost frantic.
+
+"What is it?" whispered Steve in awe-stricken tones.
+
+"Sea-birds," said one of the men, calmly enough.  "A big field of ice is
+floating by."
+
+He had hardly spoken before there was a heavy thud against the ship's
+bows, another, and then a heavy thrusting blow which made her quiver
+from stem to stern and careen over, while above where they stood there
+was the gleam of ice, a huge mass standing five or six feet above the
+bulwarks, against which it kept scraping and rubbing and careening the
+vessel over more and more.
+
+The captain shouted an order to the man at the wheel, and he rammed down
+the rudder, but there was hardly a breath of air, and the ship had no
+way on.  Then running forward, Captain Marsham shouted to the men to
+seize hitchers, sweeps, anything, to try and thrust off the vessel from
+the ice-floe, but all in vain.  Vessel and ice continued to grind slowly
+together, the ship yielding to the mighty pressure of the floe; and as
+every one had now rushed on deck, it seemed as if the next thing would
+be to lower the boats and escape before the ice rode right over the
+_Hvalross_ and sank her in the icy depths.
+
+The men toiled and thrust, but their efforts were utterly without
+effect, for the two heavy floating bodies had an attraction one for the
+other, and the grinding noise continued, till it sounded to Steve as if
+the ice would soon work its way through the stout copper and planks; but
+a few minutes later three pieces of stout spar were lowered down between
+the vessel's hull and the ice to be rubbed into shreds, while the
+_Hvalross_, after yielding and careening over foot by foot to the
+tremendous, pressure, began to right herself till she floated upon an
+even keel.
+
+If anything the fog was now more dense, making it impossible to take any
+observations.  All they knew was that they were changing their position
+as they floated steadily along in a heavy current, and that the ice
+which seemed to hold them fast was gradually revolving, till, from being
+pointed north-west, the _Hvalross'_ bowsprit was south-east.
+
+All this time, while the other sailors seemed excited and startled by
+the risk, the Norwegians were perfectly calm and cool, Johannes
+expressing his opinion that they would not hurt now, but that the vessel
+would hug the great floe till the wind sprang up.  But Captain Marsham
+was not so confident of their not coming to harm grinding against an ice
+rock whose extent, save that it was some twenty feet above the water, it
+was impossible to compute; and as soon as he had convinced himself that
+they would not have to take to the boats, he had given orders which
+resulted in the rattling of iron doors and a dull roar from the
+engine-room, while the semi-darkness grew more dense as the grey
+fog-cloud began to be pervaded by another and a blacker cloud, which
+poured out of the funnel and then spread itself around in the calm,
+dense air, till the branches, as it were, of some huge tree, of which
+the vessel's funnel was the stem, were spread overhead, giving the
+gleaming ice a peculiarly weird look.  For the engineer and his two
+assistants were hard at work trying to get up steam--a long and tedious
+task under the circumstances.
+
+Very little was said, very little heard but the roar of the furnace; but
+every now and then the pieces of spar creaked and groaned with the
+pressure upon them, and twice over there was a sharp splitting sound and
+a splash as a huge piece of the floe fell away, raising such a wave that
+the _Hvalross_ swayed over as she rose and fell.
+
+Captain Marsham paced the deck anxiously, and Steve had the doctor for
+companion, but they only spoke in whispers of the risk they ran.
+
+"What I fear is," said the latter, "that with this grinding together a
+great piece may split off and fall over upon our deck."
+
+"Not high enough," said Steve decisively.  "If a piece did break away,
+it could only give us a heavy push, and might do good."
+
+But, all the same, as he spoke he felt that he would rather that good
+were not done, and contrived that in their walks about the deck they
+should be able to peer down into the engine-room, where the men were
+stoking and raking the fire to make it roar more fiercely, knowing, as
+they did, that once they could get up steam a very few turns of the
+screw would back them away from their icy enemy and make all safe.
+
+"The first taste of the perils of the arctic sea, Steve," said the
+doctor quietly.  "What would it have been if we had been going full
+speed and struck on this mass of ice!"
+
+"We shouldn't have been going full speed," replied Steve
+confidently,--"not in a fog; and I suppose we should have had some
+warning, as we did a little while ago."
+
+"Little while ago!" said the doctor; "it was hours!"
+
+The intense excitement of the time had made it seem so short.
+
+And all the while the roar of the fire kept on, the great tree of smoke
+spread more and more over the cold mist and darkened the air, till it
+appeared as if they were going to have real night once more instead of
+the light into which they had sailed.  But still the steam was not
+available, and after one long grinding crash Captain Marsham gave orders
+which resulted in bags of biscuit, tins of meat, and casks of water
+being placed in the two largest boats; after which, as if from a sudden
+thought, he ordered some blankets to be added.
+
+"I say," whispered Steve to the doctor, after watching these proceedings
+for some time, "how long will it take us to row to the nearest port?"
+
+"To Hammerfest, my lad?  Don't ask me."
+
+There was another grinding, rending noise, as the great ice-floe
+revolved slowly in one direction and the current bore the vessel against
+it in another; and as these sounds arose Steve felt a strange oppression
+at the chest, and it ached where Johannes had seized him, and his
+wrenched shoulder began to throb.  For it was as if the ice was
+stripping the planking of the ship from the timbers, and the boy
+listened for the sound of rushing water making its way below.  But on
+going to the side and looking over, he could see the pieces of wood
+which had been lowered down between the vessel's hull and the ice being
+ground up and torn into fibres, while the ice kept splintering away from
+the edge of the floe, where in the foggy gloom the fragments looked of a
+dirty-white against the black, solid mass.
+
+Steve tried to be calm and composed, but at such a time it was
+impossible; and with the natural desire to find some one to whom he
+could talk and with whom he could find companionship, he looked round to
+see that the doctor had joined the mate, and that the captain was on the
+bridge pacing anxiously to and fro and communicating with the engineer
+from time to time.
+
+He glanced at the sailors, and they all but one were waiting to obey the
+instructions they received, and were ready with spars and ropes to lower
+fresh material down! for the ice-floe to grind up against the vessel's
+side.
+
+The only man not busy was Andrew McByle, and Steve hurried to him.
+
+"Think we shall get off safely, Andra?" he whispered, as a piece of one
+of the spars gave forth a dismal, groaning sound which vibrated through
+every nerve.
+
+"No.  She was thenking aboot my pipes, laddie.  The skipper's certain to
+mak' a fuss gin I tak' them wi' me in the boat."
+
+"Then you think we shall have to take to the boats?" said Steve
+excitedly.
+
+"Ay, laddie; what else can we do?  There's nae wint, not eneuch to turn
+a weather-cock upon a kirk, and there's nae steam.  Piff wi' all your
+talk aboot the engines to use when there's nae wint!  Where are they the
+noo?"
+
+"But they'll soon have the steam up now, Andra."
+
+"I dinna believe it.  She's fashed wi' your new-fangled rubbish; all
+weel eneuch in fine weather, but when she want it the puir feckless
+mairsheennary isn't there."
+
+"But you can hear the fire roaring."
+
+"Ay, she can hear the great flaming thing burning oop mair coal and mair
+coal; but it isna fire we want, laddie, but steam."
+
+"Yes, it is a long time," sighed Steve.  "Do you think we must take to
+the boats?"
+
+"Ay, laddie; if I were skipper I'd joost hae plenty o' food and claes
+pit upon the ice, and camp there wi' the boats hanging on aboot.  We
+could tak' to them when the ice was a' melted doon, an'--"
+
+"Here, hi! lend a hand, my lad!" shouted the mate, and Andrew trotted
+off, leaving Steve more low-spirited than ever.
+
+For it seemed so terrible, just on the threshold of an exciting voyage,
+in which he had painted to himself plenty of sport and adventure, ending
+in the discovery of his uncle and the men who had been his companions.
+All had gone wrong, and he felt that they would have to accept their
+failure, and try to get back to the nearest Norwegian port, a terribly
+dangerous journey in an open boat.
+
+And now, more than ever, he felt the want of some companionship, and,
+with a feeling of regret, he thought of the one nearest to him in years.
+
+"They're all men," he said to himself, "and I'm only a boy.  They don't
+think about me.  Wish I hadn't kicked poor old Watty."
+
+As he thought this he walked to the door of the galley and looked in, to
+find that the cook was rating the boy of whom he had been thinking.
+
+"What!" he was saying; "want to go and be ready to take to the boats?
+You stay where you are till you're wanted.  They won't leave us behind.
+Such a fuss about getting up a bit of steam; why, I'd have made that
+water boil an hour ago if I'd had it to do.  They don't know how to
+manage it!"
+
+"Ow--!"
+
+This was a dismal beginning of a howl from Watty.
+
+"Here, stop that, you miserable Highland calf!  You've got breeches on,
+so I suppose you're a boy!  Do you suppose an English lad would make
+that row?  I'll be bound to say Mr Steve Young's somewhere aft, with
+his hands in his pockets as usual, looking on as cool as a cucumber."
+
+"Na, he's a cooard!" cried Watty viciously,--"a lang, ugly cooard!
+Makking a show o' gooing up aloft, and all the time had to be held on."
+
+"You'd better not let him hear you say that, my lad, or he'll thrash
+you."
+
+"Yah! not he!" whined the boy.  "He's a cooard, that's what he is; and
+he's on deck waiting to be ane of the fust to go off in the boots, and
+I'm kep' doon here."
+
+"Stop that row!" cried the cook viciously.
+
+"I canna, I canna!  Awm thenking aboot my mither!"
+
+"Bo! you great goose!  And nice and proud your mither' must be of such a
+booby."
+
+"But I dinna want to be drooned!" sobbed Watty.
+
+"Then what are you drooning yourself for in hot water?  It don't improve
+you a bit, only shows white streaks on your dirty face.  Look here, if
+you don't stop that noise, I'll tell the captain when we take to the
+boats that you're not worth saving, and then he'll leave you behind."
+
+"Tell him to leave him behind!" whined Watty.  "He's no good."
+
+"Listeners never hear any good of themselves," said Steve to himself as
+he walked aft, and then made for the way down to the engine-room.  "But
+do I always have my hands in my pockets?"
+
+In spite of the cold, darkness, danger, and dread the boy could not help
+smiling at himself and the force of habit; for at that moment there was
+a heavy shock caused by a loose mass of ice striking the vessel just on
+her sharp stem, and startled into the belief that something terrible was
+about to happen, Steve answered the question he had just asked himself
+about his hands by snatching them from his pockets to lay hold of the
+vessel's side.  Then as he looked over and saw the piece of ice--a large
+fragment that must have been many tons in weight--grinding along by the
+vessel's side, he could not help laughing, while directly after a thrill
+of delight shot through him and the men sent up a cheer.  For a
+communication had passed between the captain and the engine-room as a
+loud hissing noise was heard; and then, as an order was shouted to the
+man at the wheel, the _Hvalross_ quivered in every timber with a
+peculiar vibration.
+
+The steam was up at last; the fans of the propeller were spinning round
+and churning up the icy water, and the _Hvalross_ backed away from the
+dangerous position.
+
+"There, Andra!" cried Steve, as he approached the man who had just
+hauled up one of the wooden fenders ground down into a mass of ragged
+fibres, "what do you say to the steam now?"
+
+"Joost naething, laddie.  I'd hae done it better wi' hairf a capfu' o'
+wint."
+
+"But there was no wind!" cried Steve.
+
+"Nae, there was nae wint.  But it's a blessing we're awa frae the ice,
+for it would hae maist broke my hairt to hae left my pipes ahint."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+THE LONELY ISLE.
+
+With the steam up the captain's task became easier; but it was dangerous
+work in that dense fog, and some hours of nervous navigation followed
+amongst the ice-floes, which gathered round them of all sizes, from
+masses which went spinning away at a touch from the iron prow of the
+_Hvalross_ to huge fields acres in extent, broken away from the icy
+barrier to the northward, to be carried by the current south into the
+warm waters, where they would gradually melt away.  So heavy were some
+of the shocks received, in spite of all watchfulness, care, and orders
+to go astern, that Captain Marsham was at one time for following the
+example of the drifting floes and going south.  But there was the
+knowledge that somewhere, not far from where they were creeping along,
+the almost unknown island of Jan Mayen must lie; and it seemed a pity to
+leave it now, when the first time the sun appeared they would be able to
+learn their position for certain; so he held on.
+
+"I've lost count," said Steve at last.  "Is it to-day or to-morrow?  The
+clock says it's eleven; but is it eleven to-night or eleven to-morrow
+morning?"
+
+"Eleven to-night, sir, if you like to call it so," said Johannes.
+"We're up so far north now that the sun never sets for months."
+
+"Never rises, you mean.  Where is he?"
+
+"You'll see soon, when the fog lifts."
+
+"But will it break up?"
+
+"Of course, sir.  Wait a bit, and it will be all hot sunshine, and
+always day."
+
+"Go aloft now, my lad," said Captain Marsham; "the fog seems to be
+thinner higher up.  You may be able to get an observation."
+
+Johannes started for the main shrouds, and Steve saw the captain's
+beard, all covered with moisture from the mist, twitch as if he were
+laughing.
+
+"At me," thought the lad; and the captain evidently divined his idea,
+for he said quietly:
+
+"Wait a bit, Steve, till you get a little more confidence.  You would be
+certain to feel nervous if you went aloft now."
+
+"I wish he'd forget all about that," muttered the lad.
+
+A minute later there was the loud snap of the cask bottom falling into
+its place, and the captain hailed the Norseman.
+
+"Clearer there?"
+
+"Just a wee bit, sir," came from up in the clouds.
+
+"Make out anything?"
+
+"Can't see the length of the ship, sir; but I can hear breakers quite
+plain."
+
+"Silence!" cried the captain, and, to use the familiar expression, a pin
+might have been heard to drop on the deck.
+
+"I can hear nothing," said the captain softly.  "Can you, my boy?"
+
+Steve listened for some time.
+
+"No, sir, not a sound."
+
+"We can hear nothing below.  Try once more."
+
+Again there was silence for a few moments, and then, sounding muffled
+and strange from the invisible man in the thick cloud, which made even
+the main-yard look indistinct, came:
+
+"Breakers, sir, quite plain, away on the starboard bow."
+
+"On ice or rock?"
+
+"So faint, sir, I can't tell yet."
+
+A couple of hours later the low, murmurous roar could be heard from the
+deck by listening attentively; but it was impossible to say whether it
+was caused by breakers on a rocky coast, which might be that of Jan
+Mayen, or by the sea beating on the vast icy barrier lying to the north,
+near which the officers felt that they must be.  So the engine was
+slowed till the rate of progress was deemed to be sufficient to keep the
+vessel from drifting south, and then they waited for the first
+breathings of the wind which would break up the dense mist that shut
+them in, chilly, wet, and horribly depressing; and night and day seemed
+to Steve always the same, just as if they had sailed into a latitude
+where everything was Welsh flannel in a state of solution.
+
+This lasted for many hours, during which time Johannes ascended to the
+crow's-nest again and again, and then one of his companions took his
+turn.
+
+He had hardly reached his lofty perch, when it seemed to Steve on the
+deck that the noise of the breakers suddenly grew louder, and he was
+about to say so when there was a shout from aloft.
+
+"Fog's lifting, sir."
+
+And then, as if it were a magical change, the mist overhead grew
+opalescent, then lighter still, as there was a warm breath of air
+sweeping over the dingy, murky sea.  At that moment the dull, distant
+murmur of water beating against an obstacle grew louder, as the fog
+rolled away from the ship off to the north, and five minutes later the
+crew burst into a loud cheer; for, flashing from the waters and dazzling
+their eyes, the sun burst through the now iridescent mist, and so
+quickly that it was hard to realise the truth that astern, and to
+southward, the sea was sparkling like some wondrous stretch of sapphire
+blue, while the yards, stays, and ropes of the ship, which were hung
+with great mist-drops, glittered like diamonds in the glorious light.
+
+The change was indeed wonderful, and, feeling as if he must climb up
+somewhere and shout, and then that he should like to run to the door of
+the galley and shake hands with Watty Links, Steve drew in long, deep
+breaths of soft, warm air.  But he neither shouted nor shook hands with
+the cook's boy, for he stood with Captain Marsham and the doctor,
+waiting for the explanation of the heavy, increasing roar which came
+from somewhere behind the vast curtain of mist which lay drifting to the
+north-west, a couple of hundred yards on the starboard bow, and rising
+up to the skies, now one glorious span of silver and gold.
+
+They had not long to wait, for the fog was gliding away fast before the
+soft, summer wind.
+
+All at once the blue water stretching from them to the foot of the mist
+began to look white, a minute later it could be seen to be in wild
+commotion, and in another minute to north and south there lay, not more
+than a mile away, a wave-beaten beach, upon which the blue waves beat
+and fell back in dazzling silver and diamond spray with a tremendous
+roar.
+
+But there was plenty yet to see; for, as the mist reached the shore, it
+seemed to grow more dense, and began to roll in great clouds up some
+vast slope, and then higher and higher, revealing a long, narrow beach;
+then a line of chaotic rocks, which had fallen from above; then higher
+and higher, cliff upon cliff, weather-beaten to a hundred hues; and up
+above these again, towering mountains; lastly, as if to give the
+culminating beauty to the scene, the clouds rolled away from one
+tremendous peak, attended by a score of minor heights, crowned with
+dazzling ice and snow, vivid and beautiful in the glorious summer sun.
+
+"That's worth some trouble to come and see!" said Captain Marsham.
+
+"Worth trouble?" cried Steve, whose heart was swelling with delight and
+the words he wanted to say.  "Oh!"
+
+That ejaculation contained all.  It was very short, but it meant
+everything; and it was some time before he woke up to the knowledge of
+what he was gazing at and what was being done.
+
+It was with quite a start that he turned on being touched upon the
+shoulder, and found Dr Handscombe at his side.
+
+"Well, Steve boy," said the doctor, "what do you think of Jan Mayen?"
+
+"Is this Jan Mayen--the island?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Beautiful! lovely!  What a place to live in!"
+
+"Delightful!" said the doctor drily.  "Not a tree hardly a green thing,
+eternal ice and snow!"
+
+"Oh, but it's dazzling, lovely!"
+
+"Yes, when the mist's off it," said the doctor.
+
+"And it is not quite off that mountain."
+
+"Yes, quite off.  That smoke you are looking at is from a volcano."
+
+"And shall we land and explore it?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"When?"
+
+"That depends on the captain.  I hope to spend a few good days there."
+
+"And do you think _they_ are here?"
+
+"Impossible to say yet," said the doctor.  "If our friends have taken
+refuge here, it will be on this southern shore, where they could get
+most sunshine; but I can see no signal flying, no sign of a wreck.  But
+there, I daresay Captain Marsham will run close in for us to explore."
+
+By this time the mist had been driven back so far that they saw, opening
+before them, white and glistening in the sunshine like a band of silver
+stretching beyond the floe, the ice of the polar ocean.  It was miles
+away to north, to east, and west, and apparently only a few feet above
+the sea, that, strain their eyes as they would, there was always the
+floe offering itself as a barrier to stay further progress in that
+direction.
+
+To their left, and extending toward the north, there was the island; but
+apparently, too, it did not go very far in the latter direction, but
+trended round, as if that were the termination of the island.  Southward
+they could not make out its extent.
+
+"Well, Handscombe, what do you say to landing and examining the wreck?"
+
+It was the captain who spoke, and the doctor and Steve both echoed his
+last word.
+
+"Wreck?"
+
+"Yes; didn't you see it.  There, high up yonder, this side of the sharp
+point which runs out to the east.  I daresay that was the cause of the
+wreck.  Here, take the glass."
+
+He handed his telescope to the doctor, who made a long inspection, and
+then passed it to Steve, who took it with hands trembling from eagerness
+to view what was in all probability the remains of his uncle's vessel,
+whose return had been so anxiously awaited all through the past winter,
+but in the spring given up as being ice-bound somewhere in the north.
+
+Yes, there was the hull of a good-sized ship fast on the rocks, and with
+decks ripped up by the waves, so that, as the vessel lay over on its
+port side, Steve could peer with the glass right into the hold between
+the deck beams.  There was the stump of the bowsprit pointing upward
+toward the stony cliffs, but the masts were completely gone, and an ugly
+gap in the port side suggested that it would not be long before the
+timbers quite disappeared.
+
+Steve handed the glass back with a sigh, and his face contracted.
+
+"No, no; don't look like that," said the captain gently; "we don't know
+that this is the _Ice Blink_."
+
+"You are saying that to comfort me," replied the boy sadly.  "It must
+be."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You said it was possible that they might have made for Jan Mayen and
+been frozen up there."
+
+"I did."
+
+"Well, there is the vessel," said Steve piteously.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+The boy looked at him almost angrily, and pointed to the wreck, as if
+there was the answer to the question.
+
+"That is not satisfactory proof.  I have been looking hard, but the
+stern is battered away, and there is no name.  It may be any one of the
+hundreds of boats that sailed north during the past ten years, or a
+derelict brought up by the current and washed ashore."
+
+But Steve shook his head.
+
+"Ah! you are determined to take the worst view of it, my lad," said the
+captain kindly.  "Even if it is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_, Steve, my
+boy, they must have had plenty of stores and timber, and we may find
+them with a snug cabin built up, and all well and hearty."
+
+"You think so?" cried Steve eagerly.
+
+"I do not say I think so, my boy.  I say it is possible, if--mind _if_--
+that is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_."
+
+"Of course," said the doctor encouragingly, as he used his glass.  "They
+may be up one of those gullies in some sheltered spot inland."
+
+"No," said the captain decisively; "I doubt very much whether there are
+any sheltered spots inland.  To me it seems as if the whole of the
+interior is one icy desert.  Look at that gully, Handscombe, there to
+the right.  A regular alpine glacier running nearly down to the shore."
+
+"Yes; but still there may be sheltered valleys."
+
+"Of course; but it strikes me that if we find our friends it will be
+somewhere along the narrow stretch of shore.  But we'll see."
+
+"What are you going to do, sir--land?" cried Steve eagerly.
+
+"Yes, when we can find a landing-place.  No boat could get ashore here.
+We'll go gently along to the north, and keep a good look-out both for
+them and a sheltered cove."
+
+And, giving the necessary orders, the _Hvalross_ began to glide slowly
+in toward the wreck, with a man in the chains heaving the lead, and
+always finding deep water till they were quite close in to where the
+surf beat heavily with its deafening roar upon the rocks.
+
+A boat was in readiness for landing an exploring party, with guns and
+spears in case of game being met with, or, as the doctor pleasantly put
+it, a polar bear should come down prepared to make game of them.
+
+Even when close in there was nothing visible about the wreck which
+indicated its name or the port to which it belonged, and, the course
+being altered, they steamed along at a safe distance from the rocks,
+carefully scanning the shore and the cliffs right up to where the ice
+and snow lay thickly.  But there was no sign of human habitation, no
+signal, no living creature but the sea-birds, which flew about the face
+of the cliffs in flocks, looking in places as thick as the flakes in a
+snow-squall, shrieking, whistling, and circling round to gaze down at
+the strange visitors to their solitude.
+
+Seen from the vessel, a more lovely spot could not be imagined; its
+beauty was dazzling; and Steve's spirits rose as he felt that if the
+captain and crew of the _Ice Blink_ had escaped safely from the wreck,
+they had found a glorious island in which to make their sojourn.
+
+He said something of the kind to Captain Marsham, but there was a
+saddened look and a shake of the head.
+
+"Heavenly-looking, Steve, my boy," he said, "with the blue sea and sky,
+the silvered rocks, and the lovely greys, reds, and browns of the
+cliffs; but don't you see why it is so beautiful?  Once this glorious
+sunshine is blotted out by a cloud, and you have before you a terrible
+spot--desolate, sterile, storm-swept.  Fancy what it must be when the
+arctic night, with its months of darkness, sets in!"
+
+Steve was silent, and his heart sank for the time, as he saw the truth
+of the captain's words; but there was hope still waiting to assert
+itself: he had his glass in his hand, with which he swept the shore as
+they steamed on mile after mile, till all at once he uttered a shout.
+
+"What is it?" said the captain, for the boy was pointing to where there
+was a perfect wilderness of rocks stretching down from the cliffs to the
+sea.
+
+"Some one!  Look!  There he goes!  He is trying to get down to the sea
+to hail us."
+
+Steve had seen the moving figure with the naked eye, and his hands
+trembled so with excitement that he could not adjust his glass.
+
+"A bear--a monster," said the captain, who was gazing through his.
+
+"A bear in an island?" said the doctor in a tone of doubt; and Steve,
+whose hopes had been cast down by this announcement, felt his spirits
+rise again.
+
+"An island?  Yes," said the captain; "but an island hemmed in on two or
+three sides by the ice.  Look, we are close to the pack which touches it
+on the north.  We can get no farther this way, and I daresay that the
+channel between the island and Greenland is one solid floe.  Yes, that's
+a fine bear; and look, there is its mate."
+
+Steve shaded his eyes and gazed shoreward, to see the second bear slowly
+rise up on its hind legs, looking in the distance wonderfully like some
+human being, watching the vessel gliding slowly along over the clear
+water.
+
+"You will land and have a try for the bears?" said the doctor; and at
+another time Steve would have felt all eagerness to be of the party; but
+he was disappointed, and his eyes were wandering over the shore, which
+suddenly ended and gave place to ice.
+
+"Where shall we land?" said the captain quietly.  "No boat can get
+ashore amongst these breakers, and we can go no farther north.  It will
+be deep water right up to the floe, so we will go close to it in case
+there is a passage between it and the land.  But I doubt it; and our
+friends yonder will save their skins unless we can land south and come
+up to them along the shore."
+
+"Then you think they have come over the ice?"
+
+"Of course; just as reindeer do from other regions hundreds of miles
+away."
+
+They steamed on, passing the bears, which, after watching them for a
+time as if feeling their security, went on searching among the rock
+pools and crevices for food.  A quarter of an hour later the engine was
+slowed; five minutes later it was stopped, and the _Hvalross_ lay in the
+crystal water at the foot of a perpendicular ice cliff ten or fifteen
+feet high, wonderfully regular at the top, and extending straight to the
+land on one side, where it met the high rocky cliffs.  On their right it
+stretched away, as far as the telescopes could help them to see, an
+impassable icy barrier, shutting off all ships from further progress to
+the north.
+
+"You see," said the captain, "we cannot land here, and we can go no
+farther till the ice breaks up or opens out in channels."
+
+"Don't you think a boat could land just there, sir, where the sea is
+calmer?" said Steve, who felt a strange attraction to the shore.
+
+Captain Marsham did not answer, but stood looking in the direction
+pointed out by Steve, where for a few moments the shore did look quiet;
+the next minute a heavy swell glided slowly in, rose, curled over, and
+deluged the shore with white water.
+
+"Do you want me to answer your question, Steve?" he said at last.  "That
+breaker was at least ten feet high.  Do you think a boat could live
+there?"
+
+"No," said Steve sorrowfully.  "But you will try to the south, sir?"
+
+"Of course, my lad," was the reply; and the engine was reversed, the
+_Hvalross_ backing away from the glittering ice cliff, in which the
+waves were working gigantic honeycombs of the most delicate sapphire
+blue, in and out of which the waters raced and made strange sucking and
+splashing sounds, peculiarly suggestive of savage sea monsters gliding
+in and out and playing amidst the icy caverns.  Then, with her head to
+the south, she glided swiftly back, retracing the ground already passed
+over, leaving the bears still busy amongst the rocks, too much engrossed
+to give them even a passing look; and soon after they were once more
+abreast of the wreck, and gliding south, but with the engine slowed once
+more and the man in the chains busy with the lead.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+DISAPPOINTMENT.
+
+There was no fear of being overtaken by the darkness of night, for the
+sun shone brilliantly, as if to make up for the long dreary time that it
+was hidden from the face of the earth; and its genial warmth had so
+great an effect upon the spirits of the men that they were all alert and
+eager for action, watching the shore intently for traces of the crew of
+the wrecked vessel, and for a break in the tremendous waves where a boat
+could get to shore in safety.  Even the dog partook of the general
+feeling of exhilaration, rushing frantically about the deck, charging at
+the sailors open-mouthed, with his frill set up round his neck, and when
+apparently about to seize them thrusting his muzzle down close to the
+deck and rolling over and over.
+
+They glided on as near to the line of breakers as it was safe, the steam
+giving Captain Marsham such complete control over the movements of the
+vessel that Steve pointed out the fact triumphantly to Andrew McByle.
+
+"Ay," he said, "she's ferry goot in her way, the hot watter, but gie me
+sails.  Where wad she pe if ta fire went oot?"
+
+"And where wad she pe if ta wind went doon?" cried Steve, out of
+patience with the man's obstinacy.
+
+"Tat's ferry pad language, Meester Steve Young, sir.  Ton't you try to
+imitate ta gran' Gaelic tongue, pecause she can never to it.  She'd have
+to pe porn north o' Glasgie to speak ta gran' Gaelic tongue proper."
+
+"Then you shouldn't be so obstinate," said Steve, somewhat abashed.
+
+"Call that dog down, my lad," cried the captain, "or he'll be
+overboard!"
+
+For Skene had leaped up on the bowsprit, made his way from there on to
+the bulwarks, and was running along the top wherever it was clear of
+rope or shroud, barking with all his might at the astonished birds which
+came wheeling round the ship, swooping so low at times that they nearly
+brushed the dog with their long grey wings, making him snap at them
+vainly.
+
+But the intense excitement produced by the change to warmth and sunshine
+seemed to border on a kind of rollicking madness; and bubbling over with
+fun Skene turned quite mutinous, barking as if derisively in response to
+every call, and evading Steve as he chased him, the boy running along
+the deck and making dashes at the dog, who avoided him by his superior
+activity, till, getting at last quite close, Steve made a snatch at his
+quarry's hind leg and grasped it firmly.  Almost at the same instant
+Skene made a bound, dragged his leg away, and came down in a double
+astride upon the top of the bulwark, tried to recover himself, got upon
+his legs, again slipped, nearly went overboard, but saved himself by
+another leap, and came down upon the deck flop.  Before he could get up
+Steve was upon him, holding by the long hair of the animal's neck.  Then
+there was a sharp struggle, in which the boy won, and Skene turned his
+head round, looked up in his master's face, and uttered a pitiful howl,
+the cry and the way in which it was uttered seeming so wonderfully human
+and so thoroughly to express the dog's ideas, "Oh, what a shame, when I
+was enjoying myself so!" that Steve burst into a fit of laughing.
+
+"C'ssss!  Bite him then," came from the door of the galley, and Steve
+looked sharply round to see Watty's head just outside the door, and the
+movement made him slacken his hold of the dog.
+
+_Wuph_!
+
+One deep utterance, half growl, half bark.  Skene was free, and Steve on
+his side, while the dog charged right at Watty, striking the door
+heavily with his fore paws, as the cook's new assistant snatched his
+head inside and pulled the door to.
+
+"Serve you right!" muttered Steve, gaining his feet.  "Quiet, Skeny!
+Down!"
+
+For the dog was gazing up at the spot where Watty's head had
+disappeared, and growling fiercely.
+
+The next moment Watty appeared at the window.
+
+"I'll tell the skipper ye sat the tyke at me!" cried the boy.
+
+"If you don't behave yourself I will!" retorted Steve; and then patting
+Skene's head he walked away, the dog, quite sobered now, following him,
+muttering in growls, and looking back now and then at the galley, whose
+door was softly opened, and a hand protruded holding a piece of cold
+salt meat.
+
+Skene saw it, and hesitated.  Then he stopped short, and Watty whistled
+and wriggled the piece of meat about.  That was too much for any animal.
+Meat is meat after all, and to keep him healthy Skene had been dieted a
+good deal upon biscuit.  He was only a dog, and rushing back, he
+snatched the piece in his trap-like jaws.
+
+"Poor fellow, then; poor old Skene!" whispered Watty.  But he might as
+well have whispered his soothing words to the winds, for the dog only
+uttered a low growl and trotted back to his master, who was once more
+eagerly scanning the coast.
+
+But it was always very much the same: heavy breakers tumbling over to a
+chain of rocks--foaming, rushing, falling back, and swinging to and fro
+till fresh help came from the tide, and they gathered themselves for a
+fresh assault.  Beyond the waves a more or less narrow line of shore,
+and then cliff, and above that mountainous heights glittering with ice
+and snow, and here and there in some opening a frozen river looking as
+if it were rushing headlong down to the sea, but hanging there solid,
+save for a little rill which trickled forth from a cavern of celestial
+blue at its foot.
+
+They steamed on for hours quite slowly, rounding the southern shore, and
+then further progress was stayed, for, once more, there before them was
+the low cliff of ice, extending apparently right up behind the island,
+and connecting it with the mainland.  Ice everywhere now, and another
+mountain, emitting a faint film of smoke.
+
+"No sign of human being on the shore: all that journey southward for
+nothing," said the doctor.
+
+"One can hardly call it for nothing, eh, Steve?" said the captain.  "We
+have satisfied ourselves pretty well that our friends are not here."
+
+"But they may be inland beyond those cliffs, sir!" cried the boy.
+
+"Maybe, Steve, my lad," said the captain sadly; "but as far as we can
+make out there is no chance for a human being to exist there.  Any one
+wrecked in such an inhospitable place would certainly have taken to a
+sheltered spot under the cliffs, where he would be protected from the
+coldest winds.  Aloft there!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!"
+
+"What do you make out over the cliffs there to westward and north?"
+
+"Ice and snow, sir," came for answer from the crow's-nest.
+
+"No good land?"
+
+"No, sir.  All ice and snow piled up higher and higher.  There's that
+frozen river goes winding up right into the mountains."
+
+"No place for a camp?"
+
+"No, sir; not as far as I can see."
+
+These were the quiet, sober words of Johannes, who was aloft once more,
+armed with a telescope.
+
+"Any opening where we could land on the ice-floe?" cried Captain
+Marsham.
+
+"No, sir," came back after a time; "nothing here.  Any boat would be
+stove in directly."
+
+"What shall you do now?" said the doctor; and Steve listened eagerly for
+the reply.
+
+"'Bout ship and coast up again, then follow the edge of the ice away to
+the north and east.  But we'll keep close in, as we know the water is
+deep.  We may, perhaps, find a landing-place which we have missed coming
+down."
+
+Another look round was given, and they began to steam north once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE WRECK ASHORE.
+
+A coast could never have been more eagerly scanned than was that of this
+island, for every man of the crew was longing for a run ashore in search
+of some little adventure to break the monotony of the life on board; and
+again and again, as a seal was seen to slip off the rocks after staring
+at them for a while with its peculiar, half human countenance, or a
+flock of sea-birds was passed, the men looked disappointed that no
+efforts were made to harpoon the one or shoot the other.  But as far as
+landing was concerned, the heavy waves which foamed among the craggy
+masses thoroughly precluded that, and at last they neared the wreck once
+more, looking as grim and desolate as ever.  Steve had just turned his
+glass to examine the snow near the top of the volcano where the smoke
+was issuing, and was wondering why it did not melt, when Jakobsen, the
+principal harpooner of the Norwegian party, gave a shout and pointed
+shoreward and forward.
+
+"Yes, what is it?" cried Captain Marsham.
+
+"Landing-place, sir."
+
+There it was, surely enough, hidden from them as they came south, but
+plain to view now at the back of a huge mass of rock which acted as a
+breakwater; and there, in quite a recess, was a patch of yellow sand,
+over which the sea glided gently, while behind the rock the water seemed
+to be deep and still.
+
+Five minutes after the engine was stopped, the boat lowered, and the
+captain, doctor, Steve, and a strong crew jumped in, leaving Mr Lowe in
+charge, the dog leaping in last of all.  A short row, for the most part
+balanced on the top of a great roller gliding shoreward to break on the
+rocks, and then a smart pull to the right, and they were behind the
+great rock, riding gently on deep crystal-like water.  Fifty yards
+farther the boat was beached on the thick sand, drawn up, and the party
+set off, climbing over the tumbled-together rocks to reach the more
+level ground and make straight for the wreck, which lay some quarter of
+a mile to the north.
+
+The captain took a sharp look round, and then suggested loading the
+heavy double guns he, the doctor, and Steve carried, the right bore with
+the heaviest shot, the rifled barrel with bullet.
+
+One of the men carried a spare rifle, and Johannes and Jakobsen each
+shouldered a heavy walrus lance, a terrible weapon in the hands of a
+strong man, with its stout pole about nine feet long and keen
+leaf-shaped blade, so that they felt themselves more than a match for
+any polar bear which might show itself in front.
+
+"Gun heavy, Steve?" said the captain.
+
+"Eh?  Yes--no!  I don't know," he replied; "I had not thought about the
+weight."
+
+"Which means, I suppose, that you were thinking of having a shot at a
+bear."
+
+"Well, yes, sir; I was thinking of something of the kind," said Steve,
+colouring.
+
+"You must be careful, then.  I will not say do not fire, my lad; but a
+gun is a dangerous weapon in unskilled hands, as dangerous sometimes for
+the people round as for the quarry in front."
+
+"I'll take care, sir," said Steve, in a tone full of confidence.
+
+The captain turned and looked at him sharply.
+
+"I'd rather you had said, `I'll try to take care.'"
+
+"Snubbed," thought Steve.  "Why, of course I shall take care.  Does he
+think I shall shoot one of the men?"
+
+He had other things to think of a few minutes later, for there before
+them, as they toiled on over the rocks and sand, with the breakers
+thundering away just to their right, lay the wreck, making them all
+hasten their pace, which gradually increased until it was a run, Steve
+at last leading, in spite of the weight of the heavy gun, and reaching
+the stranded vessel many yards in front of the doctor, who was next.
+
+"I forgot all about the bears," said the latter, giving a sharp look
+round with his gun ready.
+
+But there was nothing in sight but a great gull floating gently along
+over the breaking waves, and looking down eagerly for anything edible
+cast up by the sea.
+
+Then the rest came up, and they looked round the vessel, lying quite
+firmly wedged in the rocks, one of them having pierced its bottom,
+making a gap, through which the sand had made its way till it was half
+filled.
+
+The bows were examined and then the stern, but everything bearing the
+vessel's name and the port from which she sailed had been swept away,
+save two letters--two E's on the starboard side, just below the stern
+cabin window.
+
+"Do you think it is the _Ice Blink_, sir?" said Steve in an awe-stricken
+whisper; for in spite of the bright sunshine and dazzling blue of sea
+and sky, there was something so weird and grim about the loose, torn,
+shattered wreck that the boy felt as if it were impossible to speak
+aloud.
+
+"No," said the captain decidedly; and in an instant the sight of the
+torn timbers seemed less terrible, and the pictures Steve was calling up
+of his uncle and crew lying somewhere about buried in the sand faded
+away.
+
+As the captain gave vent to that decisive utterance he climbed on board,
+and stood up on the stones and sand which filled the angle between the
+bulwarks and the sloping deck.
+
+"What do you say she is, Johannes?" cried the captain to the sturdy
+Norseman, who stood leaning on the shaft of his great spear.
+
+"Whaler, sir, and been here for three or four years," replied the man.
+
+"Yes, I thought it was not a last season's wreck.  E--E," he said
+thoughtfully; "where can she be from?"
+
+"Dundee!" cried Steve quickly.
+
+"Good.  Of course, a Dundee whaler," said Captain Marsham.  "That brings
+to an end all idea of the _Ice Blink_ coming to grief here.  But let's
+see; we may find traces of the poor fellows who were wrecked;" and after
+a look at the remains of the broken masts, the huge cavern-like hollow
+ripped in the deck, where tons upon tons of sand were lying as it had
+been tossed in during storms, he led the way aft to the cabin; but there
+was little to see there.  The windows had been battered in by the stones
+and pieces of rock hurled at them by the waves; but two of the
+dead-lights, which had been evidently closed during the storm in which
+the vessel was wrecked, were still held in their places.  As for the
+cabin itself, the contents had been torn and beaten away through a huge
+gap on one side of the rudder, which reached upward to the deck, and
+nothing remained of locker or berth that could give any trace of the
+crew.  From here they went forward to the forecastle, the hatch of which
+gaped widely open; and as they stood below it at the bottom of the
+sloping deck, Steve felt a strange sensation of shrinking, and as if he
+would prefer to leave any secrets which the cabin might hide in peace.
+Captain Marsham felt, too, something of the kind, and he said a few
+words in a low voice to the doctor.
+
+"Yes," replied the latter, "perhaps so, poor fellows; but we ought to
+see."
+
+That was enough to suggest to Steve the possibility of the remains of
+the crew being below, just as they had died of cold, perhaps of
+starvation.  The desire to leave the deck increased, but he tried to
+brace himself together, and listened as the doctor said:
+
+"Shall I go?"
+
+"No," replied the captain; and taking hold of the hatch he drew himself
+up to it and peered down; then handing his gun to Steve, he lowered
+himself down feet first and disappeared, while the rest stood watching
+the square opening and listening intently.
+
+"Rather dark," came up from the forecastle, and they heard the sharp
+scratching sound made by the striking of a match.
+
+"No one here.  Plenty of sand drifted right in."
+
+Another match was struck, and then, after the short period one of the
+little tapers would take to burn out, the captain's hands appeared and
+he climbed out.
+
+"Nothing whatever," he said.  "No trace of a soul, and everything has
+been cleared out; not so much as a blanket left."
+
+"That looks as if the crew must have stripped the vessel, and built
+themselves a place somewhere inland."
+
+"Or on the shore," said the captain.  "No; I fancy that this vessel was
+forsaken long ago.  Her crew must have taken to the boats, and let us
+hope that they all escaped across to Hammerfest, or some other port."
+
+"Will you search any further?" asked Steve.  "There is nothing to search
+for here, my boy," replied the captain; "but we will have a tramp
+forward, and see if any traces have been left of hut or signal-post,
+though I feel certain that no one is here."
+
+The doctor looked doubtful, and Steve felt glad, for he thought the
+captain was taking matters too coolly.
+
+"Well," continued that gentleman, turning to the doctor, "supposing that
+it was your misfortune to be cast ashore on this desolate place, what
+would be the first thing you would try to do?"
+
+"Try to get away," replied the doctor, smiling.  "Exactly; and if you
+had no means of getting away, would you not hoist a flag on some
+prominent place where it would be seen by a passing vessel?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Where is the spar, then, hoisted on the cliff?"  The doctor shook his
+head, and Steve gazed up and along the top of the long, level height,
+which looked like a mighty rampart at the foot of a snowy pyramid.
+
+"Here, what do you say, Johannes?  You have had plenty of experience of
+sea life.  Where is the crew of this schooner?"
+
+The man shook his head and smiled.  "Who knows, sir?" he said.  "I don't
+think they ever landed here.  It was a deserted ship when it came
+ashore."
+
+"Why do you say that?" said the doctor sharply.  "I see nothing, sir: no
+timbers or spars dragged up the beach; not a sign of anything having
+been moored."
+
+At that moment the dog, which had followed them, quietly waiting for the
+first shot to be fired, when his task of retrieving the game would
+begin, uttered an uneasy whimper and cocked his ears.
+
+"Quiet, Skeny!  What is it?" said Steve, stooping to pat him.  "Only
+getting impatient."
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "and we may as well move on.  No, doctor, there
+is nobody to search for, so let's take a tramp for a few miles, try and
+pick up a few wild fowl, and get back on board.  Eh? you have something
+to say, Jakobsen?" he continued, as he caught the second Norwegian's
+eye.
+
+"Only that I think as Johannes does, sir, that you are right.  She was a
+forsaken vessel when she struck there."
+
+"Forward, then," cried the captain, shouldering his gun; and they
+dropped down on to the drift of sand below her, walked round by the bow,
+and, keeping a sharp look-out for game, tramped away northward, but
+bearing for the cliff, where at one point a glacier came right down, and
+at its foot the snow lay in a long slope; not soft, flocculent snow
+fresh fallen, but a collection of hard pellets, more resembling a
+gigantic heap of the remains seen after a very heavy hail-storm.  But it
+was suggestive to Skene of the mountain-side far away beyond the Clyde
+at home, and with a sharp bark he dashed at it, thrust his nose in the
+cool, rounded fragments, and then cast himself upon his side to plough
+his way through them, sniffling and snuffling the while, as if he were
+trying to find snow-buried sheep after a winter's gale.
+
+"Goot tog, goot tog," muttered Andrew, who carried the spare rifle, and
+he shifted it from one shoulder to the other.  "Ah, laddie," he
+whispered to Steve, "how it 'minds me o' bonnie Scotland."
+
+They tramped on, noting flock after flock, thousands upon thousands in
+fact, of sea-birds, sitting in rows upon the ledges of the cliffs many
+of them, while others flew seaward, wheeling round and retiring; so
+plentiful were they--auks, puffins, guillemots, and tern--that the men
+might easily have been loaded with the spoil.  But these birds were not
+tempting from a food point of view; and though Steve was anxious for a
+trial, the captain had no mind to stop while the boy ran risks by
+climbing to the ledges in search of the eggs that no doubt were there in
+thousands; so they kept on, looking vainly for ducks or geese.
+
+"There," said the captain at last, "we have nothing to gain by tramping
+along here.  We know that if we keep on we shall come to the ice cliff,
+and be turned back.  It is impossible to get up here and go inward
+without chipping a way up that glacier, to find more snow, so let's go
+back."
+
+"Without a single bird?" cried the doctor in a disappointed tone.
+
+"Well, another hundred yards or so, then," said the captain; "but I
+don't think we shall get anything.  We want the mouth of a river or a
+lagoon from which the ice has just melted."
+
+"What's the matter with the dog?" said Steve suddenly, after they had
+walked on for another ten minutes; for Skene had suddenly seemed as if
+he had conceived it to be his duty to turn himself into as near a
+resemblance to an arctic wolf as he possibly could.  His ears were laid
+back, his eyes lurid, his teeth bared, and the thick ruff above his neck
+and shoulders set up, bristling and waving as if swept by a strong
+current of air.
+
+"Look out, gentlemen; he scents game," whispered Johannes.
+
+"Stop!" said the captain.  "It was near here that we saw the bears."
+
+"No, no, a mile farther," said the doctor.
+
+At that moment Skene growled savagely, and from behind a pile of grey
+rocks some fifty yards to their right a large animal suddenly rushed
+out, turned and stared at them for a moment or two, and then shuffled
+off at a lumbering trot, going rapidly over the rough ground in the
+direction of the ice.
+
+"Don't fire! don't fire!" cried the captain.  "A stern shot would only
+injure without killing the poor brute.  Let him go."
+
+"My word!" cried the doctor as he lowered his gun; "but he is a fine
+one."
+
+Steve, too, had eagerly raised his double gun to fire, and felt quite
+resentful at being ordered not to draw trigger; and he stood now
+watching the great, thick-legged creature with its long, silky,
+cream-coloured fur hanging low down, the animal being as big in body as
+an ox, but with small, sharp, ferrety-looking head.
+
+"But if the gentleman fires and hits, sir," said Jakobsen eagerly, "it
+will stop him and make him angry; then we can kill him with the spears."
+
+"Look out!" cried the captain; "the other.  Hah!  Good dog!"
+
+For, unnoticed by them as they watched the retreating bear, Skene had
+rushed off round the pile of rocks and put up the second bear, a monster
+certainly bigger than the first, and it rushed into sight before the
+party from the _Hvalross_, pursued by the dog, which was barking loudly
+now and snapping at its heels.
+
+After shuffling along a little way without noticing the men, the bear
+seemed to think that it was extremely undignified and cowardly to run
+from a fierce little animal something like the dogs it had probably seen
+in the Esquimaux sledges, and, stopping short, it faced round to look
+wonderingly at its pursuer.
+
+This was the opportunity the collie sought, and without hesitation it
+sprang right at the bear's muzzle, but so quickly that the act was
+hardly perceptible; the bear raised one paw, gave a tap with it, and
+poor Skene went flying, rolling over and over, and then lay for a few
+moments motionless, with the bear walking slowly toward him, but
+stopping short as it became aware of the presence of the party from the
+ship.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+URSA MAJOR AT HOME.
+
+Those were exciting moments, as in the perfect silence which reigned the
+sharp clicking of the gun-locks sounded loud and strange.  Directly
+after a low whine was uttered by the dog, which lay as if half stunned,
+what seemed like a light pat from the bear having been a tremendous
+blow.  In answer, as it were, began a chorus of wailing cries, screams,
+and snapping sounds from the birds which came now wheeling round, a few
+at a time, till there was a perfect cloud.
+
+The captain, doctor, and Steve held their pieces ready waiting to fire,
+but the two former hesitated, thinking that they could get a better
+opportunity; while Steve wondered whether he would be able to hold the
+heavy double gun steady, for it was visibly describing all kinds of
+figures with the muzzle, and felt moment by moment more weighty.  The
+two Norsemen stood ready with their great spears levelled; and the bear,
+there in front, remained watching them, its head lowered and swung up
+and down, from side to side, with its nose at times almost touching the
+ground.
+
+"Take care, Steve," said the captain, without taking his eye from the
+bear.  "Be ready to get behind one of the rocks.  You, Johannes, stay by
+him."
+
+"Yes," said the Norseman in a low tone.
+
+"Shall we fire?" said the doctor huskily, as the bear stayed in its
+place, swinging its head about, making no sign of either attack or
+retreat.
+
+"Not yet," replied the captain.  "Wait till we can get a shot at the
+shoulder; a head shot is bad."
+
+But the bear did not seem disposed to offer the side for the purpose of
+being shot, and turned first one eye and then the other to them--strange
+reddish-looking eyes, which looked them over in a furtive way, as the
+regular swinging motion of the head was kept up.
+
+"Will it charge, Johannes?" said the captain.
+
+"Don't know.  I think it will begin to run.  Be ready.  It is sure to
+charge when it is wounded.  We'll take it then on the spears."
+
+At that moment there was a diversion, and the bear raised its head a
+little to look beyond them.
+
+Steve glanced sharply round to see what the animal was looking at, and
+became aware of the fact that Andrew McByle was stealing away on
+tip-toe.  This raised Steve's ire, for the thought flashed through his
+brain that if anybody had a right to run it was he, the boy of the
+party; and he wanted to make off very badly, but, paradoxical as it may
+sound, he at the same time did not want to run, but to help shoot the
+bear.
+
+"Here! hi!  Stop!" he shouted angrily; "don't run off with that gun!"
+
+"Ahm only going to tak' oop a fresh poseetion ahint the stanes," said
+Andrew hurriedly.
+
+No more was said, for the bear now shook itself, making the beautiful
+thick hair stand out, and giving the huge animal the appearance of
+growing rapidly in size.  It uttered a low, fierce growl now, and its
+eyes flashed in the sunshine.
+
+"You'll have to fire, Handscombe," said the captain in a low voice;
+"it's going to charge.  No, stop!"
+
+For just then the bear swung its head round to the right and glanced
+toward the ice, as if looking out for a way of retreat.
+
+"It's going to run," said Jakobsen.
+
+Hardly had the words left his lips than the bear made a rush right at
+the centre of their line.
+
+_Bang_--_bang_--_bang_!  Three shots were fired almost simultaneously,
+but they did not have the slightest effect, the bear rushing on, and the
+next minute the doctor was gathering himself up, and the bear was
+shuffling along the shore, apparently in pursuit of Andrew McByle, who
+ran on yelling, and fired twice in the air, as if sending the charges of
+the gun he carried right ahead, where he wished to be.
+
+"Hurt?" cried the captain anxiously, as he held out his hand to the
+doctor.
+
+"Only the wind knocked out of me," was the panting reply.  "Come on."
+
+They re-loaded as they followed the bear at a trot, and to Steve's great
+delight, there was a sharp barking, for Skene leaped up as the bear
+passed him, and, apparently without much the matter, followed the great
+beast.
+
+"I don't think we touched him," cried the captain.
+
+"Yes," said Johannes simply, as he ran by Steve's side with his spear at
+the trail.  "Blood."
+
+He pointed to the ground, but Steve said nothing as, full of excitement
+now, he kept pace with the others in the pursuit.
+
+"Quick!" cried the captain; "fire anywhere now, or the brute will
+overtake that man."
+
+"Serve him right for being such a coward," muttered the doctor.
+
+The bear was some fifty yards before them, and Andrew McByle another
+fifty, but with the bear gaining upon him fast, it being astonishing how
+rapidly the great unwieldy animal could shuffle over the rough ground.
+
+Just then Andrew looked back over his shoulder at his pursuer, uttered a
+wild yell, threw away the rifle, and with his hands in the air ran on
+faster.
+
+"I can't fire for fear of hitting the man," panted the captain; and then
+he uttered a cry of satisfaction, for, in his alarm, Andrew had made for
+broken ground, tripped over a rock, and fell heavily, whilst the bear
+uttered a fierce roar.
+
+"Halt!" shouted the captain, bending on one knee, as Andrew disappeared,
+having plumped himself behind a huge block of stone.
+
+Steve followed his leader's example, and fired directly after, aiming as
+carefully as possible at the running beast.
+
+"Missed!" muttered Steve.
+
+"I think that touched him!" cried the captain, hurriedly opening the
+breech of his piece and thrusting in another cartridge.
+
+"Yes, that stopped him," said the doctor, as the bear swung round and
+bit viciously at a spot somewhere about the centre of its back.
+
+Then the doctor fired, but his shot had no effect save to draw the
+animal's attention to its pursuers, and it came at them at once, showing
+its teeth now viciously, while the two Norsemen placed themselves on
+either side of the little party ready for the attack.
+
+The captain took careful aim now, and fired, making the bear jerk its
+head; but the bullet had made little impression, for the brute came on
+till Skene made a dash at its nose, when the animal swung round just as
+the captain was re-loading.
+
+"Fire, both of you--now!" cried the captain excitedly; but only the
+doctor drew trigger, hitting their quarry somewhere about the hip.
+Steve did not fire; he could not have told why, but knelt on one knee
+with his piece ready, and conscious of the fact that one of the big
+Norsemen was at his right shoulder with the great lance held presented
+over his head.
+
+Skene kept on harassing the bear and taking off its attention; but a
+bullet now struck it in so sharp a way that it ignored the dog, and came
+rushing toward its enemies open-mouthed, blood and foam making its white
+teeth look horrible, and in spite of another shot came close up, rose on
+its hind legs, towering above the kneeling men, with its paws separated
+to strike, when almost together both barrels of Steve's piece were fired
+right into the animal's chest, and as it uttered a savage roar the
+lances of the two Norsemen were driven into it and rapidly withdrawn.
+
+The effect was instantaneous: the monster threw itself over and lay upon
+its back, tearing at the air for a few moments, and then subsided slowly
+on to one side--dead, Skene leaping upon the carcass to give vent to a
+triumphant burst of barking, while the captain shook hands with the
+doctor, and then clapped Steve on the shoulder.
+
+"Well done!  Bravo!" he cried.  "Splendid shots, just at the right
+moment; couldn't have been better."
+
+"Couldn't it?" said Steve, speaking feebly, for he felt rather ashamed
+of the praise, and at the same time a kind of regret for having played
+so prominent a part in the death of the animal.
+
+He must have shown this in his face, for the captain said:
+
+"It's quite right, my lad.  These bears are dangerous, destructive
+beasts, and would have given us no mercy.  Besides, we must get a cargo
+to take back."
+
+A hail brought up the sailors, who were sent back in the boat for the
+other two Norsemen, while Johannes and Jakobsen, after carefully
+cleaning the blades of their lances, laid them against a rock, took off
+their jackets, rolled up their sleeves, and then, taking out their
+knives, began to skin the great bear.
+
+At this time Andrew came up limping.
+
+"Well, brave man!" said the doctor; "wounded?"
+
+"Ah, she can be brave eneuch when there's ony occasion, sir," said
+Andrew.  "But she never war grand at fechting bear, and she thocht she'd
+get oot o' the way o' the shooting."
+
+"And you did," said the captain contemptuously.  "There, go and fetch
+that piece you threw away."
+
+"Nay, it slippit oot o' my fingers, sir.  It was after she'd fired it,
+though."
+
+"The least said the soonest mended, McByle," said the captain coldly.
+"You had better hold your tongue, and go and find that rifle.  I may as
+well tell you, though, that my opinion of your bravery is not very
+high."
+
+"Nay, sir, dinna be hard upon a puir mon.  Ye dinna ken a' aboot me the
+yet."
+
+"I know enough.  Don't talk, man; go and find the rifle, and then come
+and help the skinning here."
+
+"She will, sir; but, doctor, is her _leg_ brukkit?"
+
+"Eh?  Bah! no.  A bit sprained at the ankle joint.  When you fell, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Ay, sir.  Ye see she had to try so hard to save her head, she couldna
+attend to her legs and feet," said Andrew, with a cunning look at the
+doctor, as he limped off in search of the rifle, leaving the rest
+examining the magnificent animal lying motionless among the stones.
+
+It was an enormous beast, with a coat of long, silky, cream-coloured
+fur, which hung down from its sides, and hid the claws when its feet
+were spread out.
+
+"No wonder he could stand the polar winters with a great-coat like that,
+eh, Steve?" cried the doctor.  "Why, my lad, you must have that skin
+carefully dressed, and use it as an ornament for your drawing-room when
+you have one."
+
+"_I_?" cried the boy.
+
+"To be sure; it was your shot that brought him down, eh, Marsham?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the captain; "he gave the finishing stroke."
+
+The conversation was getting so personal that Steve walked away to where
+Skene crouched in a soft, sandy place, his ears cocked up and his eyes
+intent upon the actions of the two Norsemen, who were working away at
+the skinning; and as every now and then their tugging at the tough hide
+gave a slight movement to the left fore leg of the bear, the dog kept
+jumping up, uttering a fierce growl, ruffling up the hair about his
+neck, and showing his teeth as if about to attack.
+
+"Down, Skeny! down, boy!" cried Steve, as the dog made one of these
+demonstrations.  "Let's have a look at you.  Where are you hurt?"
+
+He knelt down by the dog, patted him, and then took hold of one of his
+legs; but Skene threw up his muzzle and made so piteous a cry that the
+leg was immediately released and laid a short distance farther away by
+its owner.
+
+"Then you are hurt, old chap.  Shall I fetch the doctor?"
+
+The dog yelped.
+
+"What does that mean, Johannes, yes or no?"
+
+"Only his way of saying thank you, sir," replied the Norseman.  "He's
+hurt, but not badly; because, as you saw, he could run at the bear.
+He's a good deal bruised, and he'll be a bit sore for days; but animals
+soon get well again.  They lick themselves right when they are hurt."
+
+"But oughtn't he to be examined?"
+
+"I did look at him, sir.  He's only hurt in the shoulder and ribs, where
+the bear struck him.  There isn't a trace of blood.  Let him lie, sir;
+he'll curl up when we get him on board."
+
+As the dog appeared to be in no pain and was intent upon the skinning
+process, he was left alone; and the little party followed the dog's
+example, till Johannes suddenly looked up.
+
+"I don't know, gentlemen," he said; "it's hardly likely, but I'd post
+somebody to keep a look-out.  The bear's mate might come to look after
+him, and they are savage brutes at times."
+
+"I'll get on that stone and keep the look-out myself," said the captain.
+"No; here comes McByle with the gun.  He shall go up on the rock and
+keep watch.  He doesn't seem to limp much now."
+
+This was the case, and a few minutes after Andrew was perched up on a
+pile of rocks some twenty feet above the ground.  He accepted the duty
+most willingly, for the top of the rock seemed to be a particularly safe
+place; and as soon as he heard the object of his task he scrambled up so
+rapidly that the captain laughed.
+
+"We need not fidget about McByle's hurts," he said; and then he shouted:
+"Keep a sharp look to the northward, McByle!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, she will," replied the man; and they saw him gaze intently
+toward the spot where the other bear had disappeared.
+
+Then all attention was directed to the prize, which by rough measurement
+was nearly three yards in length, and as ponderous-looking as some huge
+bull, while another rough measurement showed that it had been a long way
+on toward five feet in height as it stood.
+
+The boat soon after returned from the ship, with the other two
+Norwegians, who set to work at once to help, and by their united efforts
+the great, heavy skin was stripped off and carried by one of the men to
+the shore.
+
+The head was cut off by means of an axe, so that it might be preserved
+with its large, grinning, ivory teeth; and then the men busied
+themselves over the rather disgusting operation of cleaning off all the
+fat from the body, genuine bear's grease being a valuable commodity.
+This, too, was borne to the boat for rendering down in the caldron fixed
+in the fore part of the ship, in connection with a steam-pipe from the
+engine-boiler.  In the course of the proceeding the bear was opened, and
+the sight that presented itself went a long way toward satisfying Steve
+that the slaying of a polar bear was not so unnecessary a work after
+all.
+
+"Much better for the seals of the neighbourhood," said the captain
+grimly, as Johannes pointed out the fact that their quarry must have
+killed and eaten a good-sized seal that day, the unfortunate animal
+having been chopped into big fragments by the bear's tremendous teeth,
+the food they had seen it searching for being probably taken just as an
+amusement--_pour passer le temps_.
+
+The huge piles of muscle laid bare upon the neck and shoulders of the
+animal told of such great strength that the wonder was that the dog had
+not been killed; but there he crouched so little the worse, that all of
+a sudden he made a dash by Johannes, stuck his teeth in the still warm
+flesh, and gave it an angry shake--that is to say, held on and shook his
+own head and neck, for the ponderous mass of flesh was pretty well
+immovable.
+
+The piles of fat had all been cleverly removed and sent on board, and as
+no one evinced any desire to partake of bear-steaks or sirloin, the
+sailors announced their work as done just as Andrew uttered a shout of
+warning--"Look out!"
+
+"What is it?" cried the captain, who had been vainly trying to get a
+shot at a bird or two tempting enough for supper.
+
+"The bear coming."
+
+"Where away?"
+
+"Three points on the port bow, sir!" cried Andrew, who treated his rocky
+look-out place as a ship.
+
+The captain took out his little binocular glass and swept the shore, to
+make out the second bear away in the distance, walking slowly along on
+the top of the ice-floe which shut them in to the north.  It was raising
+its head on high, and evidently on the look-out for its mate.
+
+"What do you say, Handscombe?" said the captain; "shall we tackle it?
+There is a good chance if we can approach the animal unobserved."
+
+"For my part, I say no," replied the doctor, as the Norwegians, who had
+been ridding themselves of the traces of their unpleasant task, picked
+up their spears.  "I have had enough bear for one day, and should like
+some beef.  It's past twelve."
+
+"Oh, it must be later than that!" cried Steve.  "Why, we've been hours
+and hours ashore.  I should have thought it was six o'clock."
+
+"No," said the doctor, smiling.  "My watch keeps good time.  I say a
+quarter to twelve."
+
+"Then we'll go on board," said the captain.  "I, too, had no idea it was
+so late."
+
+"Early?" suggested Steve.
+
+"Why, Steve!" cried the captain, clapping him on the shoulder, "don't
+you know where we are?  This is the land of the midnight sun."
+
+The boy stared at him in astonishment, then due north at the sun, which
+was shining with a softer and less piercing light than usual, while the
+captain and his friend the doctor exchanged glances and looked amused at
+the boy's confusion.
+
+He now looked round him, toward the ship and the ice; and then, as if
+struck by a happy thought, he thrust his hand into his pocket and took
+out a little compass, which he carefully placed level on a block of
+stone, watching it till the needle had ceased to vibrate.
+
+"Well?" said the captain, smiling.
+
+"That's the north," said Steve, with his forehead wrinkled.
+
+"Of course; we knew that before."
+
+"And the sun looks as if it were just going to set in the wrong place,
+sir."
+
+"Yes, my lad; but it is not going to set.  In another quarter of an hour
+it will be at its lowest point, and then begin to rise higher and travel
+apparently eastward to the south.  You wanted to see the midnight sun.
+There it is; but I hope you'll see it to greater perfection when we get
+farther north."
+
+"Yes; but won't it set at all?" cried Steve.
+
+"No; we shall have what will seem like endless day for the rest of the
+summer."
+
+"And shan't want lamps?"
+
+"No, not for a long time to come."
+
+"But, then, shan't we want to go to bed and sleep?"
+
+"Oh yes," said the doctor, laughing; "and I shall be very glad to get my
+dinner--supper, I mean--and then go.  So let's get back on board."
+
+But Steve did not move for a minute or two.  He stood staring at the
+sun, beneath which the ice was glittering, while the snow upon the
+mountains flashed and looked more beautiful than ever.  At last he
+shouldered his gun.
+
+"I'm very stupid, I suppose," he said at last, as he looked from one to
+the other.  "I learned all about it at school, and I suppose I knew all
+this; but now I'm right amongst it everything seems puzzling.  I can't
+understand how this can be night; but it will all come right by-and-by."
+
+"Of course," said the captain, smiling; "but it looks as if the dog
+understands what puzzles you."
+
+Steve looked round.
+
+"Why, he's asleep."
+
+"Yes; and look about you.  Where are the birds?  I don't see one on the
+wing."
+
+"There are thousands up yonder on the ledges," said Steve, pointing to
+the lines of black-backed and white-breasted puffins and grey gulls.
+
+"Yes, my lad; but they're all roosting," said the captain.  "All ready,
+my lads?  Now, then, for the boat."
+
+"Here, Skeny, wake up, old chap!" cried Steve, forcing a laugh.  "Sorry
+to disturb you in the middle of the night, but you'll be able to see."
+
+The dog did not stir till his master bent down and touched him, when he
+started into wakefulness, got up stiffly, shook himself and made his
+ears rattle, and then yawned in a very human way.
+
+"Come along, then," cried Steve, starting to follow the rest, and the
+dog wagged his tail and began to trot to his side, but in a lame, stiff
+fashion.
+
+Just then, though, he caught sight of the great carcass of the bear.  Up
+went the hair about his throat and neck; he gave a fierce growl, forgot
+his lameness, and dashed at the bear's throat, stuck his teeth into it,
+and tried to give it a shake; then, loosening his hold reluctantly, he
+followed his master to the boat, which soon after reached the side of
+the _Hvalross_, where the cook announced the meal to be in perfect
+readiness, and to it tremendous justice was done.
+
+"Seems nonsense to go to bed now, doesn't it?" said Steve, as they
+returned on deck to see the island beginning to grow distant as the
+vessel steamed slowly north-north-east, about a mile away from the solid
+blue-and-silver wall of ice on their left.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor quietly; "but we must have rest.  All this has
+come upon you so suddenly, because we have been shut up so long in that
+terrible fog."
+
+"But we're leaving Jan Mayen for good, then?"
+
+"Yes; there was nothing to stay for."
+
+"And if we keep right on like this, where shall we go to next?"
+
+"Come, come," said the doctor playfully; "you ought to know the chart.
+I can tell you that."
+
+"I know I ought to be able to say," replied Steve, with his brow
+wrinkled again; "but I'm puzzled, sir.  I don't seem to have grasped it
+yet.  Where are we making for?"
+
+"Well, if the ice would let us get up there, we are going pretty
+straight for the North Pole; but I expect this great wall will keep us
+more to the east, and before long, if the weather keeps fine, we shall
+be sighting the land of peaks and mountains."
+
+"Spitzbergen?" cried Steve.
+
+"Well done; you have not forgotten everything."
+
+"No, not quite.  And we shall be amongst the walrus, seals, and
+reindeer, and--"
+
+"To-morrow morning, boy!" cried the doctor.  "It's rather soon after a
+heavy supper."
+
+"But isn't it to-morrow morning to-day--I mean to-night--I mean--?"
+
+"Bed, Steve, bed!" cried the doctor.  "Come along, and I'll set you the
+example.  Your head will be clearer after a good rest, and you won't be
+so ready to make bulls."
+
+"Very well," said the boy, "I'll go; but I'm sure I shan't sleep a wink.
+It's impossible, with the sun shining so bright and clear."
+
+But it was not, for in a quarter of an hour he was soundly off,
+breathing heavily, and too thoroughly tired out to dream about the
+encounter with the bear.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+THE WHITE WHALE SHOAL.
+
+"_What_ a horrid smell, Hamish!  What is it?" cried Steve, going
+forward.
+
+"Bear's grease, sir.  They're chust cooking the fat we got yesterday.
+Like to ha'e some in a pot for your hair?"
+
+"What?  Nonsense!"
+
+"Mak' your whiskers grow, sir," said the man, grinning.  "Look yonder;
+Watty Links has been for some.  Leuk at his head."
+
+Steve did look, to see that the boy's red hair was streaky, gummy, and
+shining, as he had been applying the grease wholesale--that is, with
+more liberality than care.
+
+For the bear's fat--some three hundred and fifty pounds' weight--was in
+the great caldron surrounded by steam, which hissed beneath it from the
+engine-boiler as the _Hvalross_ glided slowly along about half a mile
+from the low, regular ice cliff, which stretched away apparently without
+end, glittering and displaying its lovely delicate tints of pale blue
+wherever it was shattered or riven at the edge.
+
+"It does seem rum," said Steve to himself, "for the sun to be always
+up--let's see, what do you call it?--above the horizon."
+
+As he reached the caldron he found Jakobsen, with his sleeves rolled
+above his brawny elbows, busily at work superintending the rendering
+down, and he looked up and gave the boy a friendly nod.
+
+"Well, opposition cook!" cried Steve, laughing; "breakfast ready?  What
+is it, bear-soup?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man seriously, "only the fat."
+
+"Ah, well, I won't taste that," said Steve; and he went on to where his
+comrades Andersen and Petersen were busy over the great outstretched
+bear's skin, which they were cleaning and dressing so that it should be
+perfectly preserved.  Johannes was seated on a stool with a keg between
+his legs, the little tub being turned up to form a table, on which
+rested the great grinning head of the slain animal, whose skull he was
+carefully cleaning from every particle of flesh and fat, throwing the
+scraps overboard to the great cloud of sea-birds which wheeled and
+darted and pounced down upon every morsel thrown into the sea.
+
+"Ugh! what a disgusting job!" said Steve.
+
+"Think so, sir?  Oh no, it's clean enough--quite fresh."  And he threw
+over a handful of bear-flesh, after cutting it in small pieces.
+
+"Why did you do that?" asked Steve.
+
+"To give all the birds a chance."
+
+"Oh!  I say, how hungry they seem!"
+
+"Yes, they do, sir.  I often wonder how they live at all in the stormy
+times."
+
+Steve watched till the last scrap had been snatched from the crystal
+clear water, and then looked round as the Norseman flung in some more
+fragments which he had scraped from the massive skull.
+
+"Seems only fair, sir, eh?  The bears get fat on the young birds when
+they can reach them on the cliffs, and now the birds can get fat on the
+bear."
+
+"Why, it's like making cannibals of them," said Steve, "eating their own
+children second-hand."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Johannes, pausing to whet his curious knife; "but
+that's how things are.  One lives upon another.  Birds, beasts, and
+fishes, they're all alike.  But this will make a noble head when the
+skin's dressed, and a pair of glass eyes put in, and the whole stuffed
+out a little.  It will make you think about killing it when you get
+home."
+
+"I don't want to think about killing the poor brute," said Steve
+shortly.  "Here, where's my dog?  Skeny!"
+
+There was a sharp bark in answer, but no dog appeared.
+
+"Where is he?  Here, Skeny, Skeny!"
+
+The dog answered with another sharp bark, and, directed by the sound,
+the boy advanced to find the collie curled up on a tarpaulin right
+forward under the bowsprit.
+
+"Hullo, old chap! why don't you come out?" cried Steve; but the dog only
+gave his tail a few short raps on the tarpaulin without moving his head,
+his eyes twinkling up from the furry hair in which his nose was buried.
+
+"Not ill, are you?" continued Steve, bending down to pat his companion,
+but eliciting a whine, as if the caress had given pain.
+
+"He's only trying to sleep it off, sir," said Johannes, scattering some
+more food to the gulls, which dashed at it screaming.  "I felt him over
+this morning.  He's a good bit bruised, but no bones broken."
+
+"Did he let you--didn't he try to bite?"
+
+"Oh no," said the man with quiet confidence; "a dog won't bite you when
+he's hurt, if he knows you want to do him good.  We're friends, aren't
+we, Skene?"
+
+The dog rapped the tarpaulin with his tail, and then lay curled up a
+little closer, perfectly still.
+
+"It's wonderful, sir, how soon animals mend up again without doctoring.
+A few licks, a little going on short food, and plenty of sleep, and they
+soon come round.  One may do worse than imitate them sometimes."
+
+Steve made no reply, for the simple reason that he had nothing to say;
+but he could not help wondering what Mr Handscombe would think, as he
+got up on the bowsprit just where it passed out over the vessel's prow,
+held on by the rigging, and had a good look round.  But on his left
+there was nothing but the long, low ice cliff; on his right the
+glittering sea, flecked with grey sea-birds floating above or calmly
+sitting on the blue water.
+
+He leaped down, gave Skene a pat, promised him some breakfast, and was
+going aft toward the galley, but just then Johannes had turned the skin
+back over the bare skull, pretty well restoring the shape of the head,
+and he held it up.
+
+"Make a grand ornament, sir, when it's done.  Fine ivory teeth, hasn't
+it?"
+
+"Yes.  Lend it to me a moment."
+
+He took hold of the head, and at that moment became conscious of the
+fact that Watty's greasy shock head was thrust outside of the galley,
+and that the lad was watching him with a sneering grin upon his
+countenance.  There was not the slightest occasion to take any notice,
+but these derisive grins made Steve feel hot, and as if he must punch
+that head as hard as ever he could, for if he did not he told himself
+that the annoyance would grow worse.  He paid no further heed to the boy
+then, but carried the heavy head to where Skene lay curled up to try the
+effect upon the dog.  That was visible directly in the ruffling up of
+the thick frill and a low, deep growl; but the next minute Skene gave a
+short bark, and curled his tail over his nose again, as if quite
+satisfied that he was only being played with, and Steve bore back the
+trophy.
+
+"Knows better," said Johannes, smiling in his grave way; "dogs have got
+more sense than we think for."
+
+"Cooks' boys haven't," said Steve shortly, as he heard a low, jeering
+chuckle, and saw that Watty had been watching him all the time, and now
+drew in his head for a few moments, but thrust it out again to indulge
+in another grin, which made Steve writhe and show his annoyance so
+plainly that the Norseman said quietly:
+
+"Don't take any notice of his sauce."
+
+"No, I won't," said Steve shortly, as the head was withdrawn.  But the
+next moment--the cook being apparently too much engaged to notice the
+conduct of his help--Watty thrust out his head again, and, seeing the
+annoyance he gave, uttered another low, derisive chuckle.
+
+Steve, unable to control himself, made an angry gesture, and the boy
+withdrew his grinning face.
+
+"He'll do it again directly," thought Steve; and, acting on the impulse
+of the moment, he caught up the bear's head, ran sharply the few steps
+to the galley door, stood ready close up to the side waiting; and as
+Watty thrust out his face again grinning, it was into another so fierce
+and horrible-looking that he stood for a moment petrified, and then
+uttered a loud yell, darted back, and slammed to the door.
+
+Steve felt better after that, and hurriedly returned the bear's head
+prior to seeing about breakfast, for another odour saluted his nostrils,
+that of frizzling bacon--so suggestive a smell to a hungry lad that he
+made for the cabin at once, to find the captain, Mr Lowe, and Mr
+Handscombe just gathered for their morning meal.
+
+The breakfast was hardly over when there was a hail from aloft, where
+Andrew McByle was occupying the crow's-nest.
+
+"There she spouts!" he cried; and Steve was the first on deck to see the
+whale, for he knew the meaning of the sailor's cry.
+
+Running to the main-mast he mounted the shrouds for some twenty feet,
+and then, with his arm thrust through the ratlines and embracing one of
+the taut stays of the mast, he stood gazing in astonishment at the sight
+before him.  For he had hurried on deck fully expecting to see one of
+the great dark Greenland whales diving down after food, coming to the
+surface again to blow, and then throw its flukes high in the air with a
+flourish as it dived once more.  But, instead of a single whale, the sea
+appeared to be alive with them, playing about in the water, gambolling
+on the surface or diving under.  Then they were up again, making the sea
+foam as they flourished their tails, uttered a strange, faint, snorting
+sound as they blew and whistled, and dived down once more.  But it was
+not playing, for they were in chase of an enormous shoal of small fish,
+upon which they were feasting.
+
+There was quite an excitement amongst the men, who, without waiting for
+orders, saw to the tackle in the boats, Johannes and Petersen hastening
+to add white whale harpoons to the rest of the implements.
+
+"Well, Steve, my lad," cried the doctor, "what do you think of the
+shoal?  You ought to have brought your fishing-rod and line."
+
+"Nonsense!" said the lad shortly; "but I say, Mr Handscombe, you don't
+call these whales?"
+
+"What, then, my lad?  They're white whales."
+
+"Young ones?  Then that's why they are white."
+
+"No, my lad, old ones.  Look; plenty of them have got their two young
+ones with them."
+
+"Oh, but surely these are not full-grown whales!  Why, the biggest can't
+be sixteen feet long."
+
+"Quite right; about fourteen, I should say.  Come down; you'll want to
+go in one of the boats.  Look; they've got in the lines."
+
+Steve looked down, and saw that the men were carefully stowing two tubs
+in the fore part of the boats, each tub containing, in carefully
+laid-down rings, about a hundred and fifty yards of strong line.
+
+"But surely they're not going to harpoon those baby whales like they do
+the big ones?"
+
+"Yes, just the same, lad.  Come down if you want to have some of the
+sport."
+
+The captain stepped into one boat, and Steve followed, the doctor going
+off in the other with Jakobsen and the crew.
+
+The next minute the word was given to sit fast and be silent, and the
+boats were rowed rapidly toward the great shoal, which must have
+numbered a thousand or fifteen hundred, while the water was one mass of
+foam.
+
+"Are these good, these white whales?" said Steve to the captain, as the
+boat cut through the water, and Johannes stood ready with his harpoon, a
+very different implement from that provided for the walrus, being barbed
+so as to form a kind of hook, and, once through, could not be withdrawn
+from the gutta-percha-like side, of which it would take up a loop tough
+enough to hold the stoutest sea-horse they could strike.  The harpoon
+used for the white whale was lighter, and had a head which somewhat
+resembled a half-moon, fitted to work at the end of the shaft, and
+slight, so that one point of the half-moon would stand in a line with
+the pole, while the other was secured by a band to the shaft.  When the
+harpoon was driven into the whale, the band which held the second point
+of the head down to the pole was pushed off in passing through the skin
+and flesh, while at the first tug upon the line attached to the harpoon
+the loose head would be drawn crosswise, forming instead of a spear a
+double barb, which was strong enough to hold in the flesh without being
+drawn out.
+
+The captain was too intent upon the shoal to answer Steve's question,
+which he repeated.
+
+"Good, my lad?  Yes.  The oil is the purest and best to be had, and very
+valuable; but of course not to be obtained in such quantities as are
+procured from the larger whales.  I hope we shall get three or four,
+though.  They will help to fill up our tanks."
+
+"I wish he'd think more of finding the _Ice Blink_ than of filling the
+tanks," thought Steve; but the next moment he, too, was thinking of
+nothing but the shoal of fish, as the men called them, though they were
+air-breathing animals instead; for now the chase became exciting.  The
+belugas seemed to take no notice of the boats, but they were going
+rapidly through the water in chase of their prey, and when a fine one
+was selected it dived and went away swiftly beneath the water, so that
+it was difficult to tell where the creature would rise again.
+
+Johannes gave his orders to the men, so that they might row toward the
+spot where the whale was likely to rise, and so give him a chance to
+hurl his harpoon before the animal had time to dive again.  But this was
+not easy.  Whether the curious blunt-nosed, white-skinned, active
+creature, with its back clear of all fish-like fin, was on the alert for
+the coming harpoon or for the meal it was seeking it is impossible to
+say, but certainly it showed a remarkable activity in keeping just out
+of reach.  It would rise just exactly where not expected, and the whole
+business of the chase had to be gone through again and again.
+
+Steve was too much occupied with the efforts of their own harpooner to
+pay any heed to what was going on aboard the other boat, and divided his
+time between watching the tall, active Norseman and the spot where it
+was anticipated that the whale would rise.
+
+At last, after hard pulling, fortune favoured the men's efforts.  They
+had had a long tug, and there being no sign of the quarry they sought
+Johannes bade the rowers rest, while he stood with one foot resting upon
+the gunwale expectant.
+
+"It's of no use," said the captain; "it must have gone right on.  Look,
+Steve, how plentiful they are yonder.  That's where we ought to have the
+boat."
+
+He pointed to where pretty well a hundred of the great creatures were
+flapping in and out of the water; but Steve shook his head.
+
+"Be too dangerous," he said.  "Ah, look!"
+
+He started to one side, for at that moment something of a creamy-white
+suddenly shot out of the water close to the bows of the boat, rose high
+with a graceful bend, and was curving over to make a plunge down into
+the depths, when--_whish_! _thud_!--the harpoon was thrown; it stuck a
+short distance behind the creature's head, and then with one blow the
+water was sent flying over the occupants of the boat, while the line was
+running rapidly out of the tub as the white whale disappeared from
+sight.
+
+Like its relative the leviathan, of fifty or sixty feet in length, which
+boasts of a mouth big enough to hold a jollyboat and crew, who would
+doubtless find their quarters exceedingly uncomfortable on account of
+the forest of whalebone hanging down from the roof, the white whale
+cannot keep under water long without coming up to breathe; but the one
+Johannes had so cleverly struck nearly carried out the whole of the
+line, which Steve watched darting out ring by ring over the bows, till,
+in spite of the riskiness of the proceeding, the second Norseman seized
+the end which lay outside the tub, and gave it a hitch round a block in
+the bows left for the purpose.
+
+"Be ready for a ride, Steve," said the captain, "if he does not pull us
+under before they can cut the rope; in that case be ready for a swim."
+
+"The first for preference," thought Steve; but neither event occurred,
+for the rope suddenly ceased running, and as Johannes armed himself with
+one of the great lances which lay along the thwarts, his companion
+rapidly hauled in the slack line and laid it in rings once more.
+
+Practice had made the man wonderfully perfect in this duty, and fathom
+after fathom was laid in, while the whale remained under so long that
+the captain shouted to Johannes:
+
+"Has the harpoon come out?"
+
+"I don't know yet, sir; I'm afraid so," was the reply.  "These fish are
+so tender; they are often lost in this way."
+
+And all the time the second man kept on hauling in the line, and the
+others lay on their oars, for the rope came up straight out of the deep
+water.
+
+"Yes, sir, he has gone, I fear," said Johannes.
+
+"No!" cried the other, for the slack line suddenly tightened and was
+jerked out of his hand; then the water parted about a dozen yards from
+the boat, the head of the whale appeared, and then the whole of the
+creature, as it rose higher, curved right over, and descended head first
+again, its tail giving a peculiar wave in the air before it disappeared,
+while all had a glimpse of the harpoon shaft, which directly after was
+seen floating on the surface of the water.
+
+"Gone this time!" cried Steve in disappointed tones.
+
+"Yes, he has gone almost straight down."
+
+"And we have lost him?"
+
+"I hope not, sir," said Johannes, leaning over the side, as the boat
+glided on, and picking up the long shaft of the harpoon.
+
+"And you've lost the head of the harpoon, too."
+
+"Oh no, that's fast to the line," replied the man; "the shaft is meant
+to come out, so that it shall not be broken."
+
+"I did not understand that," muttered the boy, as the line that had been
+recovered now began to run out again as rapidly as before, hissing over
+the gunwale, and judging from the speed looking as if the last ring
+would soon be out and the whale dragging at the boat.
+
+The captain was evidently of the same opinion, for he spoke to Johannes,
+who was standing like a statue with his lance ready.
+
+"Will he snap the line, do you think?"
+
+"No, sir.  If he runs all out, we shall have a sharp tug; but the rope
+will hold."
+
+"He won't pull us under water, will he?" cried Steve.
+
+"Oh no, sir; no fear of that.  He'll swim near to the top after this
+run, and keep on coming up to breathe.  He may give us a ride.  Here he
+comes again."
+
+For the rope ceased running once more, showing how accurately the length
+of line was calculated for giving the creatures the full extent of their
+rush and no more.
+
+Once more it was rapidly hauled in, and laid down in rings in the tub;
+but before half was recovered there was a movement, which was seized
+upon as a signal how to act, for the whale was not to have more line,
+the latter being rapidly twisted round the block, after which there was
+a tremendous jerk, and the boat's head was dragged down till it seemed
+as if it must admit the water, but the next minute it was rushing
+rapidly along sending a line of foam on either side.  This lasted for a
+time, and then ceased, the whale rising and curving over once more,
+flourishing its tail in the air, and then apparently diving straight
+down.
+
+More line was gained and ringed this time, when the tension ceased, and
+again the whale appeared, curved over, and dived down again.  Then once
+more there was the shock, and the boat was dragged along again.  But
+this was by no means so sturdy a tugging as the last, and before long
+the rope slackened, the whale came up for breath, and dived slowly.
+
+In a few minutes more there ceased to be any idea of danger, for the
+captive was nearly exhausted, and the end was coming; for each dive was
+shorter in depth as well as time.  The whale then tried fresh tactics,
+rising to the surface and rolling over and beating the water heavily
+with its tail; but all in vain: it could not rid itself of the deeply
+plunged harpoon, and lay for a few moments perfectly quiet.
+
+All at once it seemed to become aware of the fact that the boat which
+was approaching it rapidly had something to do with its trouble, and
+diving suddenly it made a rush for it; but the oars were cleverly
+managed, and its aim frustrated, while as it passed close by the bows
+Johannes' great lance struck it full, penetrating deeply before it was
+snatched out, and the next minute the whale was a dozen yards astern
+lashing the water with its tail.
+
+An order or two rapidly executed, and the boat was pulled to within safe
+distance; Johannes made two tremendous lunges with his lance, and the
+whale turned slowly over and lay quivering for a few minutes; then it
+was still, and the men gave a cheer.
+
+"Poor whale," thought Steve, who was far from being hardened over such
+matters; but he tried to think that this capture meant so many gallons
+of beautifully clear oil, and money for defraying the expenses of their
+search, and he now stood up to have a good long look at their prize,
+which was fully fifteen feet long and proportionately heavy.
+
+And now, the excitement of the chase being over, the question arose
+where was the _Hvalross_, and where was the other boat?  These questions
+were answered by the two vessels, which formed with them a triangle,
+whose sides were about a mile in length; while, to add to the
+satisfaction of the adventure, the other boat was showing a signal, and
+they could see that it was towing something astern.
+
+Meanwhile Johannes and his fellow-harpooners were busily securing a rope
+to their prize and drawing in and laying up their line.  Next the
+harpoon was carefully cut out from where it was deeply imbedded in the
+animal's back; and then the boat's head was turned for the ship, which
+was steaming slowly towards them as they rowed on towing their carefully
+secured prize astern.
+
+"I'm glad they've had good luck, too," said Steve; "but, I say, what has
+become of the shoal?"
+
+"Gone right away, sir," replied Johannes.  "We startled them, and they
+smelt danger.  We may catch up to them by-and-by."
+
+"Not to-day," said Captain Marsham quietly.  "Pull, my lads;" and he
+steered so that they might get nearer to their companions' boat and the
+_Hvalross_ be reached by them both at once.
+
+"You are right, sir," said Johannes in his quiet, independent, but
+respectful manner; "we shall not see the whales again to-day, and we
+must make haste if we are to reach the ship before it comes."
+
+"Before what comes?" said Steve, wondering at the man's manner.
+
+"Look," he said, pointing to the north-west.
+
+"What at?" replied Steve; "the long line of ice?"
+
+"No," said Captain Marsham.  "Look right beyond the ire.  Another of
+those pests--troubles of arctic voyaging, my boy," he continued,
+correcting himself.
+
+"What, that silvery-looking cloud over the ice?  Does that mean wind?"
+
+"I wish it did, Steve, so as to save our coal.  No, boy; it means
+another of those dense mists.  I hope only a passing one; but you have
+had a taste of what an arctic fog can be like.  We must make haste;
+these mists creep on so swiftly.  Make a signal, Johannes.  The
+_Hvalross_ must come on and pick us up, or we shall have to cast off our
+fish."
+
+The next minute a little flag was hoisted in the bows to the end of one
+of the lance-poles, with the result that there was soon after a cloud of
+black smoke rolling out of the steamer's funnel and an increase in the
+white water at her stern; but the boat went no faster, for the white
+whale was heavy, although the men pulled with a will.
+
+"They ought to see the fog coming on in the other boat," said the
+captain impatiently.  "Of course if we are shut in we shall be able to
+reach the _Hvalross_.  We could do that by listening for their signals,
+which they would be sure to make; but I hate unnecessary anxiety, Steve,
+and it is very awkward to be caught by one of these dense mists--
+everything is so puzzling."
+
+He ceased speaking, and sat watching the other boat making, like
+themselves, slowly for the same point.  And now, seeing the urgency,
+Johannes and his brother Norsemen seated themselves and put out spare
+oars to help on the speed.  But the whale they were towing seemed to
+anchor them in one place; and at last, just as the steamer was still
+quite half a mile away, a peculiar change came over the sea.  The sun
+was still shining brightly, but the other boat grew dim and
+enlarged-looking, as if it were magnified and set in a bluish opal.
+There was the long range of ice cliff, but it was curiously blue and
+undefined.
+
+"I say," cried Steve suddenly, "what's the matter with the _Hvalross_?"
+
+He started from his seat as he spoke, for the steamer was no longer upon
+the blue water,--there was no blue water,--but apparently twenty feet up
+in the air, and gradually rising higher till it was double the height,
+while the funnel, masts, and hull looked soft and swollen out of all
+proportion.
+
+"An optical illusion, my boy," said the captain quietly.  "Sit down.
+You have heard of refraction.  It is a peculiar state of the air.  I
+daresay we look the same to them.  Pull, my lads.  I'm afraid the mist
+will be down upon us before we can reach the ship.  Look at that."
+
+Steve was already looking at the peculiar way in which their companion
+boat was dying out of sight, till it was perfectly invisible; and yet it
+was clear about where they were, only for a few minutes, though.  Then
+there was a faint, gauzy film close by, into which they rowed, and as
+they passed completely in, the _Hvalross_ was almost hidden; five
+minutes later it was not to be seen.
+
+The mist was upon them, thickening each moment, and a curiously
+depressing chill came over the boy.  It was as if the cold were
+attacking his mind as well as his body, and he quite started as the deep
+voice of Johannes said, the words sounding muffled:
+
+"Keep your helm fast, sir.  We mustn't miss the ship."
+
+"Mustn't miss the ship," thought Steve, with a strange sense of dread
+creeping over him now like another and darker mist.  "If we did miss
+her, what then?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+A STRANGE PERIL.
+
+It seemed hard to believe, so rapidly had the change taken place.  Only
+a few minutes before, and they were gliding along with the blue sky
+above and the air perfectly clear; now everything was shut out, even
+Johannes in the bows of the boat looking indistinct from where Steve and
+the captain were seated in the stern.
+
+Captain Marsham made no verbal reply to the warning of the Norseman, but
+his right arm which held the steering oar grew rigid, and he did not
+stir from his position.
+
+Steve was no experienced sailor, but he had seen plenty of the last fog,
+and as he sat there growing anxious the following problem presented
+itself to him after the fashion of the mathematical studies at school,
+and based on the difficulty of making a way through what was little
+better than black darkness.  Let A, B, and C represent the points of a
+triangle.  If three parties start together from those points to reach a
+common centre, and travel at different rates of speed, when will they
+meet?
+
+"It looks as if the answer is--never," thought Steve.  "Why, the
+_Hvalross_ is steaming faster--we saw her; and she'll go right on and
+leave us behind.  This fog, too, may last for days."
+
+"Keep cool, my lad," said the captain in a low voice; "we shall soon be
+on board.  Listen, and try if you can hear the beat of the propeller."
+
+Those words sent a hopeful thrill through the boy, just as his spirits
+were getting very low indeed, and he leaned over the boat's side
+listening, but the regular dip, dip of the oars was all he could
+distinguish.  He did not speak; there was no need.
+
+"Steady!" cried the captain suddenly, and his voice sounded as if it
+were shut in.  "Lie on your oars for a few moments.  Listen for the beat
+of the steamer."
+
+There was dead silence then, and Steve began to realise for the first
+time in his life the meaning of the word "lost."
+
+But no sound came to their ears from out of the mist which now
+surrounded them, and seemed to arch them in as if they were in a dark
+grey cell just big enough to hold the boat.
+
+"Had we better cast off the fish, sir," said Johannes at last, "and pull
+hard?"
+
+"No," said Captain Marsham; "matters are not so desperate as that.
+Here, Steve boy, your voice is the youngest and most likely to pierce
+the mist; give a good ahoy."
+
+"Ahoy!" yelled the boy, and again, "Ahoy! ahoy!" but the hail sounded as
+if he were shouting with his head closely shut in a box, and all felt
+that it was useless to listen for a reply.
+
+"You hail, Johannes, as you would do if alone."
+
+The Norseman rose up, placed his hands to his mouth, and uttered a
+bellowing roar.  But though this was repeated again and again there was
+no reply.
+
+"Give way!" cried the captain, and the oars began to dip, the men rowing
+steadily without a word, trusting themselves entirely to their captain
+as the one who must know best under the circumstances; while Steve, who
+felt that he ought to be perfectly calm and cool, knew that moment by
+moment he was growing more nervous and uncomfortable, haunted as he was
+by the idea that they might never reach the _Hvalross_, and be left
+alone in that icy solitude, without weapons or provisions, to try and
+reach Jan Mayen, and find the refuge they had thought possible for the
+others.
+
+"There is the wrecked ship," he said to himself, as thoughts came
+swiftly; "it would do for a shelter, and we should have to live on
+sea-birds, unless we could find that after all there are some stores
+buried in the ship's hold under the sand."
+
+"Steady!" cried the captain just then, interrupting the flow of his wild
+thoughts; and the men rested on their oars again, while shout after
+shout was sent up, but with no reply.
+
+"We must have come far enough," muttered Captain Marsham; and he
+hesitated as he vainly tried to pierce the dense medium which surrounded
+them.  "We'll lie on our oars and drift a little while," he said aloud;
+"the fog will pass over soon.  What do you say, Johannes?"
+
+"One never knows, sir," replied the man gravely; "but it is of no use to
+go on rowing; we must have passed the ship, for there is a strong
+current here."
+
+"Well, we shall see."
+
+They sat listening till, growing fidgety, Steve turned to lean over the
+stern and take hold of the rope which held the beluga.  The great
+fish-like creature yielded to the drag and came close up, but its head
+was hardly discernible, and it looked so weird and strange that the boy
+loosed his hold with a shudder, expecting that it would float away.  But
+it remained stationary for a few moments, and then, urged by the
+current, rubbed heavily against the boat's side, imperceptibly altering
+its position by dragging round the stern.
+
+After listening patiently for some time, the captain drew a little
+compass from his pocket and placed it beside him on the thwart, waiting
+till it was steady, when he exclaimed in quite a startled tone:
+
+"Which way were we pulling, my men?"
+
+"About due west, sir."
+
+"But the boat's head lies south, and we have been going right away from
+the steamer.  Here, pull hard starboard, backwater port!" he cried; and
+as the oars dipped he bent down and watched the compass till he found
+the boat's head pointing north-east, when he shouted, "All together:
+give way!"
+
+It was a relief to feel that something was being done to extricate them
+from their awkward predicament, and the men pulled hard for the next ten
+minutes or so, when, at a word from Captain Marsham, they easied, and a
+fresh howl was sent forth to penetrate the fog.  But this had no better
+result than the last, and once more the order was given to pull and
+obeyed with fresh vigour, when Steve suddenly leaped up.
+
+"I heard it then," he said.
+
+"Hold hard!" cried Captain Marsham, and the oars hung dripping over the
+side.  "Heard what, my lad?"
+
+"The steamer's whistle, quite plainly."
+
+There was a dead silence at this as all listened, but not a sound
+reached them but the drip, drip, drip of the water from the blades of
+the oars.
+
+"Mistaken, I'm afraid, Steve, my lad," said the captain.  "Any one of
+you hear the whistle?"
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Give way, my lads."
+
+Splash went the oars, and at that moment Steve cried excitedly:
+
+"There it is again, right astern!"
+
+"Nonsense, boy!" said the captain;--"imagination.  We should have heard
+it too.  Pull, my lads, pull."
+
+The men dragged at their oars, and Steve sank down in his place feeling
+abashed, but perfectly certain all the same that he had heard the
+whistle.  At the end of a few minutes the captain said kindly:
+
+"It's very easy to be deceived, my lad, and to fancy we hear that which
+we wish to hear.  Johannes, come aft here, and cast off this little
+fish.  We shall have enough to do without towing it."
+
+"Cast it off, sir?" said the man as soon as he had passed the rowers,
+and he opened his great knife slowly.
+
+"Yes; it is too heavy to drag.  Well, why do you hesitate?"
+
+"I was thinking, sir."
+
+"Well, think afterwards.  Don't cut the rope; you can untie it."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man slowly; and in a voice which did not reach the
+others, "but had I not better tell you what I was thinking first?"
+
+"Well, go on," said the captain shortly.
+
+"We might want the whale--for food."
+
+Captain Marsham gave quite a start, for there was so much meaning in
+those few words, suggestive as they were of their being starving in the
+open boat, and he sat there gazing full in the man's eyes.
+
+"You think, then, that we may not find the ship?" he said in a whisper.
+
+"The good God only knows," said the Norseman, taking off his cap.  "We
+are in His hands; but it is our duty to provide for the worst."
+
+"Yes," said the captain slowly, "you are quite right, my man; let the
+fish stay."
+
+"There!" cried Steve, starting up again.  "I'm sure I heard it then!"
+
+"Steve!" cried the captain angrily, as he turned sharply on the boy.
+
+"Yes, I heard it then," said Johannes slowly, as he held his hands
+behind his ears and leaned toward the stern.
+
+"You heard it?"
+
+"Yes; there again.  Listen, captain."
+
+"I hear nothing."
+
+"No, it has stopped now."
+
+Captain Marsham made an impatient gesture.
+
+"There!" cried Steve excitedly.
+
+"Yes, there!" said Johannes.  "You heard it then, sir?"
+
+"No," said the captain after a few moments' listening.  "You must both
+be mistaken."
+
+"No, sir," said the Norseman gravely, "I am not mistaken; that was a
+steamer's whistle."
+
+"Then it cannot be ours."
+
+"Perhaps not, sir; but it was a steamer's whistle, a signal, and it is
+dead astern.  Shall we run back?"
+
+"Yes; we must get on board something as soon as we can.  This may be
+some whaler caught in the fog.  Pull, my lads, and I will steer you
+round."
+
+Captain Marsham looked down at the dimly seen compass on the thwart
+beside him, and gradually got the boat's head south-west.
+
+At the end of half an hour's pulling the captain suddenly exclaimed:
+
+"Yes, I heard it then!  Did you?"
+
+"I have heard it several times since we changed our course," said
+Johannes quietly.
+
+"Indeed! and you, Steve?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I've heard it, too."
+
+"Then why didn't you speak?"
+
+Steve was silent, and the captain listened again.
+
+"Yes, that is a steamer's whistle undoubtedly, and perhaps not very
+distant."
+
+"She can't be very far away, sir.  If she were, we could not have heard
+her at all."
+
+The men were cheery now, and pulled with a steady stroke, making but
+little way on account of the heavy load they were towing; but the fact
+of their hearing the vessel, of which there was no doubt now, inspirited
+them.
+
+"Stop!" said the captain suddenly.  "Now, Steve, hail!"
+
+As the boy sent forth as loud an ahoy as his lungs would allow there was
+a dull, smothered wail off astern, very near at hand, evidently, one
+moment, and the next sounding distant and far away.
+
+"Hail again!" cried the captain; and this time Johannes gave forth one
+of his hoarse, deep roars, the sound seeming to return upon them, but
+there was no reply.
+
+"Hail again, Steve," and the boy shouted; but still without result.
+
+Then Johannes sent forth another of his sonorous roars, and all laid on
+their oars and listened, when, so softly as to be almost imperceptible
+as the men held their breath, there came a low hail, which grew fainter
+and fainter and then died away.
+
+"That was the _Hvalross_, I'm sure!" cried Steve excitedly, as the
+boat's course was altered once more.
+
+"Yes; and she's hanging about to find us," said the captain.  "Cheer up,
+my lads.  She won't go far without trying back; she can't be far away."
+
+The men tugged at their oars, but there was no answering cheer; even the
+great Norseman was silent, while, as Steve settled down in his place
+once more, he felt as if they were to be left to take their chance on
+the outskirts of the region of ice, for, after signalling till they were
+weary, the _Hvalross_ must be steaming right away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+OCCUPANTS OF THE DEEP.
+
+Saddened faces met the gaze of the occupants of the stern sheets, as the
+men steadily tugged away at their oars hour after hour, with the heavy
+beluga hanging from its rope behind.  Then all at once, when the mist
+was most dense, the silence perfect, and a feeling coming over all that
+it would be impossible to go on rowing much longer, every one loosed his
+oar and joined in a loud cheer; for from quite close at hand--so near,
+in fact, that the mist swayed with the concussion--there was the dull,
+heavy roar of a cannon.
+
+"The _Hvalross_!" cried Steve.
+
+"Yes, our signal-gun," replied the captain.
+
+A faint cheer like the distant echo of that from the boat was now heard,
+the men bent to their oars with renewed vigour, and ten minutes later,
+guided by shout after shout, the boat suddenly glided under the counter
+of the vessel.
+
+"Why, we thought we had lost you!" cried the doctor, leaning over from
+the gangway.
+
+"Then you got back?"
+
+"Yes, hours ago.  The ship came right upon us, nearly running us down.
+But what a fog!"
+
+"Yes," said Captain Marsham drily, "what a fog!  You seem to have been
+more fortunate than we were.  Save your fish?"
+
+"Oh yes; they've got it towing alongside.  And you, did you cut yours
+adrift?"
+
+"No; it is alongside, too."
+
+All were too tired to make an attack upon the whales that day, and after
+a good meal the watch was set, and those at liberty sought relief from
+their weariness in sleep, leaving the ship lying to and with the fires
+going sufficiently to enable the engineer to get up steam at a very
+short notice and take the ship out of danger if any came near.
+
+Steve awoke after many hours' sleep to find that a light breeze had
+swept away the mist, and that they were lying about ten miles away from
+the ice, toward which they had partly drifted, partly steamed, during
+the heavy mist.  It was another example of the difficulties of
+navigation in the north, another of the risks to which sailors are
+exposed.  But now that the trouble had passed it was almost forgotten,
+the men being eagerly at work cutting up the two whales and transferring
+their thick blubber to the caldron, from which a clear, sweet oil was
+soon after being drawn off and emptied into one of the tanks that
+henceforth would be reserved for this particular kind of oil.
+
+The trouble of the past day was forgotten, and the men were ready to
+make light of it all, save the Norwegian sailors, who shook their heads
+when the others laughed and bantered them about getting lost; they knew
+the reality of the danger better, and said nothing either to make much
+or light of it.
+
+The rendering down of the bear's fat and the boiling of the whale
+blubber into oil rather disgusted Steve; but he contented himself with
+making a face when the doctor talked about it.
+
+"Must take the rough with the smooth," he said.  "The bear-hunt was very
+exciting and the whale-fishing grand.  I think I shall get Johannes to
+let me try harpooning."
+
+"You mean," said the doctor, "that you must take the smooth with the
+rough."
+
+"Why?  I don't understand you," replied the boy.
+
+"The smooth oil with the rough work of capturing."
+
+"Oh, I see!" cried Steve.
+
+"And you mean to try harpooning?"
+
+"Why not, sir?  I tried shooting."
+
+"Wait till you have some more muscle on your arm, Steve," said the
+doctor, laughing; and then, after a look round at the sunlit sea, on
+which they were gliding easily along with plenty of canvas spread, as
+there was a favourable wind, he went below.
+
+"Wait till I've got more muscle," muttered Steve.  "I've got as much as
+most fellows of my age.  Yes, as much as you have, Mr Watty Links; and
+I'll show you that I have one of these days," he added, as he caught
+sight of the boy watching him with a supercilious smile on his face.
+"No, I won't," thought Steve, as the boy disappeared.  "Nice blackguard
+I should look fighting with a fellow like that.  Why, he might lick me,"
+he added after a few moments' thought.  "I'm not afraid of him, but he's
+bigger and stronger than I am, and he might.  I should never forgive
+myself," he said half aloud.  "Yes, I should," he muttered, smiling at
+his fresh idea, "when I had had another try and licked him.  Bother!  I
+didn't come to sea to fight.  Here, Jakobsen, where's Johannes?"
+
+The man smiled and pointed upward.
+
+"What do you mean?  Oh, I see; in the crow's-nest."
+
+"Yes, with the captain's spy-glass."  Steve had not been aloft since the
+day when the tub was fixed to the main-mast, and without pausing to
+think of anything that was said upon that occasion he climbed on to the
+bulwarks, seized hold of the shrouds, and began to mount slowly and
+steadily, enjoying the soft breeze blowing by him, and noticing how
+different the sails looked aloft from what they did from the deck.  The
+main-mast was passed, and he rested in the top for a few minutes to have
+a look round at the glittering sea, so brilliant now in the clear
+atmosphere.  Then he had a look upward, and began to mount again
+quietly, and in an easy, effortless way, as if he enjoyed the task.  He
+paused again, holding on by the shrouds as he looked up once more, to
+see that the Norseman was intent upon something in the distance, resting
+the large telescope he had taken up on the ring or rail of iron raised
+above the top of the cask, just at a convenient height for the purpose,
+and in perfect ignorance of the presence of visitors.  Steve smiled as
+he climbed higher, and paused once more as he reached the stout
+cross-bars which they had placed that day when the crow's-nest was
+built.
+
+"Ahoy there, Johannes!" he cried.
+
+The man gave a violent start, and turned to look over the edge of the
+cask.
+
+"Mr Young!" he cried, "you there?"
+
+"Look's like it.  I've come to see you.  Got any room in your nest?"
+
+The Norseman laughed.
+
+"Well, I daresay you could creep in.  But did the captain give you leave
+to come aloft?"
+
+"No; I only just made up my mind to come.  Open the door; I'm coming."
+
+"Take care, my lad!" cried the Norseman warningly.  "There's no one to
+catch you if you slip."
+
+"I won't slip this time," said Steve merrily; and climbing from the
+shrouds on to the wooden ladder, he went up from bar to bar till his
+head and shoulders passed into the cask, and the next minute the hinged
+bottom fell to again, and he had just room to stand in company with the
+sailor.
+
+"I say, rather a tight fit," said Steve, laughing.  "Wouldn't do for two
+people to quarrel packed together in a barrel like this."
+
+"But why have you come up, sir?  Did the mate send any message?"
+
+"No, I tell you," cried Steve.  "I only saw that you were up here, and
+thought I should like to come up for a chat."
+
+"Very good of you, sir," said the man quietly.  "Got over the scare of
+the fog?"
+
+"Oh yes, now.  It's of no use to worry about things when they're over.
+It was dangerous, though, wasn't it?"
+
+"Very, sir," said the Norseman gravely.  "Three poor fellows from our
+town rowed away from their ship with three Swedish men.  They were after
+walrus.  One of those fogs came on, and they were never seen again."
+
+"No?  What became of them?"
+
+Johannes shook his head.
+
+"The great sea is wide, sir," he replied.  "The fog confused them, and
+they must have rowed in the wrong direction, been caught in one of the
+strong currents, and then tried to reach home as they could not find
+their ship.  There are terrible losses out here in some summers."
+
+"Was it near here that they were lost?" said Steve, after a few minutes'
+silence, during which he pictured the sufferings of the despairing
+boat's crew.
+
+"No, sir, more to the east, by Novaya-Zemlya."
+
+"How horrible!" said Steve with a shudder.  "Tell me about something
+else."
+
+"Yes, sir; I don't want to what the English sailors call spin yarns;
+that seemed to come naturally after our escape."
+
+"Yes, of course; but tell me this, Johannes.  Next time we go off after
+one of those shoals of white whales--"
+
+"What, sir! you would go again?" said the great amiable-looking fellow,
+smiling.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And run risks?"
+
+"Oh, I hope there would not be any risk; but you wouldn't have me play
+the coward always because we were in danger once?"
+
+"No, no, sir, of course not," said the Norseman, patting the boy on the
+shoulder.  "Well, what if we go after the white whale again?  I was
+trying to make out a school with the glass when you spoke and made me
+jump.  Their oil is so fine and valuable."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Steve impatiently; "but if we do go after a school
+again, I want you to let me try and harpoon one."
+
+There was not much room to move, but Johannes, as he smiled in his big,
+solemn way, managed to take hold of the boy's arm, and gave the biceps a
+firm grip.
+
+"Shut your hand tight and double up your arm," he said; and Steve
+obeyed.  "Good; that will do.  Now take hold of mine."
+
+He imitated the boy's action, and Steve imitated his, taking hold of a
+huge mass of muscle that stood right out like a partially compressed
+ball.
+
+Steve coloured a little at the man's quiet way of showing him the
+tremendous difference between them in the point of force.
+
+"Well," said Johannes, smiling, "do you still think that you would like
+to try?"
+
+"Yes.  I know I'm only a boy, and can't pretend to have a man's
+strength; but I should like to try.  Don't laugh at me, please."
+
+"No, I was only smiling, my lad.  Why should I laugh at one who is young
+because he wishes to try to be brave and manly and shows a desire to
+learn?"
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried Steve eagerly; "that is what I do feel, but
+people are so ready to banter and laugh at me."
+
+"It is foolish of them," said Johannes, "unless it is when a boy is what
+you call conceited and self-satisfied, and thinks that he is a man too
+soon."
+
+"I don't do that, indeed!" cried Steve.
+
+"You need not tell me so," said Johannes; "I can see that in your eyes,
+and I know it, my boy, from your words."
+
+"And you don't think it absurd of me to want to try and use the
+harpoon?"
+
+"Oh no.  It is not so much an act of strength to dart a harpoon into a
+soft thing like a white whale, but of practice and knack.  The shaft of
+the harpoon is so long and heavy, that if it is directed well and with
+good aim it curves over and falls with its own weight as well."
+
+"Then you will let me try!" cried Steve eagerly.
+
+"If the captain is willing, of course you shall.  I could sooner teach
+you to strike a whale than one of your sailors--Hamish or Andra."
+
+"Why?" said Steve eagerly.
+
+"Because you are young and pliant, and eager to learn.  You would throw
+it with your head as well as with your arm.  They would throw it with
+the arm, and trust only to their strength."
+
+"Here, give us the telescope!" cried Steve.  "I want to find a shoal and
+begin at once."
+
+"I daresay," said the Norseman, smiling; "but oil-fishing is not so easy
+as that, or people would soon make fortunes.  I have been on the
+look-out for hours, but there is nothing in sight."
+
+"But there'll be plenty of walrus when we get to Spitzbergen?"
+
+"Perhaps.  I have been there when we could load our boat in a very
+little while, and I have been there when all through the season we have
+hardly seen a walrus."
+
+"Oh, but if there are none at Spitzbergen, and we don't find the _Ice
+Blink_, we must go somewhere else."
+
+"If," said the Norseman, smiling.  "If?  If what?"
+
+"If we can.  The ice may stop us."
+
+"What, for a day or two?"
+
+"For a season or two seasons.  One can never tell, sir.  The ice is king
+up here, and has its own way."
+
+"Yes, but kings are conquered sometimes," said Steve merrily; "perhaps
+we shall master, find the _Ice Blink_, and go right up to the North
+Pole, where the open Polar Sea lies."
+
+"No open Polar Sea lies up there, young gentleman," said Johannes
+gravely; and as he spoke he gazed northward with a curious far-off look
+in his eyes.  "I have heard all of that before, but after you pass the
+southern edge of the floe it is all ice, ice right away.  I know there
+is land here and there, for one year, eastward of Spitzbergen, we came
+upon a rocky piece of coast; but whether it was an island or a great
+country running for hundreds of miles, no one yet knows."
+
+"Well, but how grand to land there and find out," said Steve eagerly.
+"I should like that.  Would Captain Marsham sail there?"  Johannes
+smiled.
+
+"It does not depend on Captain Marsham," he replied.  "Look," he said,
+pointing northward, "there is the edge of the floe.  Suppose you knew
+that there was land two hundred miles northward, how would you sail
+there?"
+
+"Of course you could not for the ice."
+
+"That's right," said Johannes; "and so it is year by year.  By about
+August the floe has broken up, and part of it is melted, and one can
+sail a little way farther north, not very far some years, at others for
+a long distance; but the time always comes when the ice is solid and the
+ship cannot pass, and then at nights it begins to freeze again, and you
+have to hurry back for fear of being frozen up."
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Steve, for the Norseman suddenly raised his
+spy-glass and directed it eastward, where the sea looked to be one
+dazzling sheen of damasked silver.
+
+There was no answer for some moments, and then the man turned to the
+glass.
+
+"Look yonder," he said, "about a couple of points away to the south of
+the ship's jib-boom."
+
+Steve seized the glass, and gazed through it, carefully sweeping the sea
+far and wide.
+
+"Can you make it out?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Try a little more to the south."
+
+"Can't see anything.  Yes, I can; a ship's boat bottom upward miles
+away.  It must be a big boat.  Why, it's a small ship capsized."
+
+"Watch it," said Johannes quietly.
+
+"Yes, I've got it right now.  You can see the copper of the bottom
+shining in the sun, and--oh, she's sunk! she's gone down quickly, head
+first, and--why, it was a whale!"
+
+"Hah! you were a long time getting to it, sir.  Yes, a whale, a right
+whale, and a big one, too."
+
+"Well, quick!" cried Steve excitedly.  "Why don't you hail the deck, and
+tell them?  We must have that."
+
+"How, sir? with a hook and line?"
+
+"Nonsense!  Do you think I don't know?  Have out the boats and harpoon
+it, the same as you did the white whale."
+
+The Norseman laughed softly.
+
+"No, no," he said quietly; "you can't kill right whales like that, sir.
+You want proper boats with crews, and harpoons with long lines suitable
+for the work.  Why, that fish would run away with all our lines in a
+minute at the first wounding.  We must be satisfied with looking at it.
+Has it come up again?"
+
+"Oh yes, and I can see it swimming about and playing in the water."
+
+"Nice little thing to play, sir.  That must be seventy feet long."
+
+"But are you sure that we could not tire it out?"
+
+"Quite, sir.  I once went for a voyage, and pretty well know what
+whale-fishing is.  Hail the deck now and tell the captain; there he is.
+He's using his glass; I fancy he has made it out."
+
+At that moment the captain looked upward.
+
+"Who's aloft there?" he cried.
+
+"I am, sir--Johannes!"
+
+"There's something out in the sunshine on the starboard bow; try if you
+can make it out."
+
+"We have, sir!" cried Steve; "it's a large whale."
+
+"Hullo! you there?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Are you going to try for it?"
+
+"Hah!  I can't quite make it out from here.  Eh?  Try for it?  No, my
+lad.  We are not Greenland whale-fishers.  Mind how you come down."
+
+"Yes, I'll take care," replied Steve; and the captain made no reference
+to the last ascent, but walked away.
+
+"You'll remember your promise, Johannes?" said Steve after a few
+minutes.
+
+"Oh yes, sir; never fear.  Only give me the chance, and you shall
+harpoon a white whale and catch your fish."
+
+But that chance did not seem as if it would come, as the _Hvalross_
+sailed on over a calm sea day after day, the wind serving well, and the
+coal-bunkers remaining well charged ready for the days when the cold
+weather was returning--that was, if they had not already achieved their
+aim.
+
+Here and there, as they kept along a mile or so from the floe, it began
+to show signs of breaking up, for at times loose fields of many acres in
+extent were passed, and at others detached fragments, imperceptibly
+gliding southward to dissolve slowly from the combined influence of the
+sunshine and the warmer sea into which they drifted.
+
+"I say, Mr Handscombe," said Steve one evening, when the sun in the
+north-west was shining with a softened radiance which turned the distant
+ice-floe into gold, "isn't this getting to be a little tame and--and--"
+
+"Monotonous?" said the doctor, finishing the boy's sentence, for he had
+begun to hesitate.
+
+"Yes, I meant something of that kind.  I thought we were going to have
+all kinds of adventures, and it's always blue sea and the ice away there
+to the left."
+
+"Oh, I see," said the doctor; "you want a bear every day, with a bit of
+whale-fishing, being lost in the mist, and a few wrecks discovered
+thrown in."
+
+"No, I don't," said the lad pettishly; "but I don't want to be always
+sailing along like this, doing nothing.  If you go up in the crow's-nest
+there's ice and sun, and if you stop on deck it's always the same.  I
+want to be doing something.  Look at Skeny here, growing quite fat."
+
+"Shall I ask Captain Marsham to see if we can't find the sea-serpent for
+you?"
+
+"There, now you're laughing at me."
+
+"Then don't be so impatient.  Why, you stupid fellow, isn't it wonderful
+enough to be sailing along here in what looks like constant summer save
+for the floating ice, and with that glorious sun going round and round
+in the sky without setting?  Is not this constant daylight alone worth
+the journey?"
+
+"Ye-es," replied Steve; "only it does seem a bit wasteful."
+
+"Wasteful?"
+
+"Yes.  What's the good of having the sun shining when you are asleep?
+It would be ever so much better to have some of it in the winter, or
+else for us to be so that we did not want any sleep for months in
+summer, and did not want to be awake for months in the winter, when it's
+dark."
+
+"I say, Marsham!" cried the doctor, laughing, "come and listen.  Here's
+our philosopher going to set nature right and improve the whole world."
+
+"Oh, I say, Mr Handscombe, don't," whispered Steve, flushing.
+
+"What does he propose doing?" said the captain as he joined them.
+
+"He wants to keep awake all the summer and sleep all the winter; he says
+it would be better."
+
+"Well, he has only to take lessons from the bears and practise
+hibernating.  But, like them, he would no doubt be very hungry when he
+awoke."
+
+"He's getting out of patience, too; wants something to do.  Can't you
+rig him up a line, and let him try for a shark?"
+
+"No sharks up here," said Steve promptly.
+
+"Plenty," said the captain, looking at Steve with a peculiar smile,
+which made the lad wince, for it seemed to say to him, "Don't be so
+conceited, my lad; you don't know everything yet."
+
+"Greenland shark, I think it is called.  The Finland people fish for it.
+I say, Jakobsen, could we catch sharks anywhere hereabouts?"
+
+"I don't know about here, sir," said the Norseman gravely.  "There are
+plenty near the Greenland shores."
+
+"How do you catch them?"
+
+"Oh, easily, sir, with a long line and winch to reel it up quickly.  You
+let down a big hook with plenty of bait on it, right to the bottom, on
+some bank, about two hundred fathoms down."
+
+"Yes," said Steve eagerly.  "That's rather deep, though."
+
+"Yes, sir; but that's where the sharks lie."
+
+"Are they very big?"
+
+"Yes, sir, all sizes--eight and ten and twelve or fourteen feet long."
+
+"Well, what then?" said Steve impatiently.
+
+"Oh, then, sir, you wait for a bite."
+
+"Of course, I know that!  You wait for a bite in all fishing.  But do
+you fish from a small boat?"
+
+"Oh no, sir.  You go, six or seven of you, in a decent-sized smack, and
+fish till you've loaded her--if you're lucky."
+
+"But what do you do with the sharks?  People don't eat them."
+
+"Make isinglass of their skins?" suggested the doctor.
+
+"Oh no, sir," continued Jakobsen.  "I've been out two or three times,
+and very good trade it is, gentlemen.  You sail out to the Greenland
+banks, and if the weather's good you're all right, for the sharks bite
+very freely, and as the line's very thin you can soon reel it up on a
+big winch."
+
+"But don't they fight desperately?" said Steve eagerly.  "Sharks are so
+strong."
+
+"No, sir; they're cruel fish, sharks, but a Greenland shark's about the
+stupidest, most cowardly fish there is.  He could break away easily
+enough, but when he's hooked and feels the line tight up he comes as
+quietly as possible, just as if he came to the top to ask what we wanted
+by hooking him like that."
+
+"And do you tell him?" said the doctor, laughing.
+
+The Norseman shook his head.
+
+"No, sir, we don't play with him.  As soon as the bit of chain appears
+that's fastened to the bottom of the line on account of the shark's
+teeth--because, if it wasn't for that, he'd bite through the thin line--
+some of us stand ready with a big hook at the end of a pole like a
+spar--a good sharp hook with a rope that runs through a block up aloft
+rigged to the spar; then, as the shark comes to the top--_click_!--the
+big hook's into him, the rope's tightened, he's hoisted on board, and
+before he has time to struggle much he's whipped up on to the deck,
+where two of us are ready for him."
+
+"And what do they do?" cried Steve,--"kill the shark?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and pretty quickly; for when the sharks are biting there's no
+time to spare.  One of us gives him a crack on the head with a
+handspike, and the other cuts open his side with a big knife and drags
+out his great liver; then we use the pipe."
+
+"Yes, go on," said Steve.
+
+"And blow the dead shark full of wind and throw it overboard."
+
+"To keep it from sinking?"
+
+"Yes, sir, that's quite right; for if we didn't he'd sink, and all the
+other sharks would begin feeding on him and wouldn't bite any more at
+our bait.  Then we get the hook ready, and down it goes again, while the
+sea-birds get a good feast of shark instead of the fish."
+
+"All that to get only the liver?" said Steve.  "Yes, sir; but then the
+livers are very large, and from some they get quite a barrel of oil,
+only that's from the very large sharks."
+
+"What do you bait with?" said Steve.  "Pieces of shark blubber, sir."
+
+"And isn't the flesh good for eating?"
+
+"Poor people eat it sometimes, sir, for it's nice and white; but we
+sailors never care for it.  It's fine fishing, though, for you get your
+hold full of the livers, and take them back to port to be boiled down.
+Barrel of oil's worth as much as seven pounds, sir."
+
+"What do they use it for, lamps or machinery?"
+
+The Norseman stared.
+
+"I thought you knew, sir.  It's a very fine, tasteless oil, and supposed
+to be very good for sick people.  They make cod-liver oil of it."
+
+Captain Marsham burst into a hearty fit of laughter at the puzzlement
+and chagrin in his friend's countenance.
+
+"Stop a moment!" cried the doctor angrily.  "Do you mean to tell me that
+this shark oil is used for--I mean, is sold for cod-liver oil?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I believe so," said the Norwegian.
+
+"Disgusting!  Shameful!" cried the doctor.  "What a miserable piece of
+trickery!  The people who do it ought to be exposed."
+
+"Nonsense!" said the captain.  "As Jakobsen says, it is very good for
+sick people.  Why, my dear sir, the good effects of cod-liver oil do not
+depend upon its being extracted from a cod, but upon its being a rich
+fish oil, strongly impregnated with the peculiar salts, or whatever you
+call them, found in sea water.  I daresay the oil of any fish liver
+would be as good."
+
+"And quite as nasty," suggested Steve.  "Right, my lad, quite as nasty,
+and would do for doctors to trim the wick of the lamp of life when it is
+burning low."
+
+"Humph! perhaps you are right," said the doctor thoughtfully.
+
+"Can't we have some shark-fishing, Jakobsen?" cried Steve eagerly.
+
+"Why, you don't want your lamp trimmed, Steve?" said the captain.
+
+"No, sir; but Mr Handscombe might like some of the oil," replied Steve,
+with a laughing look at the frowning doctor, who was evidently thinking
+deeply.
+
+"Eh?  No, my lad, I don't want any.  But I've been thinking that perhaps
+this shark oil may be good."
+
+"Couldn't catch sharks here, sir, unless we found a bank."
+
+"Wait a little longer, Steve," said the captain, "and I daresay we shall
+find you something better than fishing for sharks."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+THE LAND OF PEAKS.
+
+"Here, Steve!  Hi, my lad, wake up!"
+
+"Eh?  Yes!  What is it, whales?" cried the boy, hurrying into his
+clothes.
+
+"Come and look.  You wanted something fresh."  It was the captain who
+roused him up the very next morning, and on reaching the deck he was
+perfectly astounded at the scene before him.  There was no more monotony
+in the view, for there before him and spreading to right and left was as
+lovely a land as the human mind could conceive.  It was twenty or thirty
+miles away, and as Steve Young gazed it was at peak after peak rising up
+toward the skies, all dazzling with ice and snow, and dyed by the
+distance, of the most lovely tints of amethyst and sapphire blue, while
+the icy pinnacles were fretted with silver and gold.  Upon the slopes of
+the lower hills there were even patches of a dull green, made beautiful
+by the brilliant sunshine, while the steeper mountains were of rich
+orange and brown or of a clear, pure grey.
+
+"Is this Spitzbergen?" asked Steve.  "Yes, and well named," said the
+captain, who was using his glass; "the land of mountain
+points--_spitzes_ as they call them, or _piz_ in North Italy among the
+mountains there."
+
+The wind still favoured them, and they rapidly glided on toward what
+seemed for hours to be fairyland, and so lovely that Steve spent nearly
+all the time upon deck, scarcely allowing himself enough to obtain the
+necessary meals.  At last he came to the conclusion that he must be
+tired and surfeited with the view, for somehow it did not appear to be
+so beautiful as at first.  The dazzling peaks of glittering ice shrank
+lower and lower, till they disappeared behind hills which had hardly
+been seen before, and now rose apparently higher and higher, with every
+ledge deep in snow, and the steep slopes and perpendicular precipices
+that in some places ran down to the sea looking grim, grey, or black as
+they were granite or a dark shaley slate.  Not a tree was visible, only
+in places traces of dry-looking heathery stuff and patches of what
+looked to be moss.  In places the water seemed to be foaming down from a
+great height inland to the sea; but in a short time, as they neared the
+land, the cascades proved to be ice, and Steve woke to the fact that the
+place was far more beautiful at a distance, when its rugged asperities
+were softened and seen through a medium which tinged everything of a
+delicious blue.  That he was not alone in this way of thinking was soon
+proved by the doctor's remark as he joined him.
+
+"What a land of desolation, Steve!" he said.
+
+"I thought you said it was beautiful?"
+
+"Yes, at a distance, my lad.  But close in: look at it--ice, snow,
+rocks, everywhere.  I suppose we are too early in the summer for
+anything green and bright to be seen."
+
+"Here's Johannes," said Steve, as the big Norwegian came by.  "I say,
+what shall we find here, Johannes?  It looks to be a very bleak spot."
+
+"Not for a visit, sir," replied the man.  "It is a grand place for
+game."
+
+"Game?  What game?"
+
+"Reindeer, sir.  A good fat buck will be a pleasant addition to the salt
+and preserved meat."
+
+"Of course; and what else?"
+
+"A kind of grouse, sir; abundance of wild ducks.  Then, for the use of
+the ship for cargo, there should be an abundance of seals, and no doubt
+before long we shall encounter the walrus, if other people have not been
+before us and scared them away.  Lastly, sir, I think it very likely
+that we shall find your friends in one of the sheltered fiords along the
+coast."
+
+That was enough.  Steve glowed with excitement, and when, later on, the
+vessel was steered slowly in between a couple of great grim headlands
+and quitted the heaving sea for still water, his eyes began to search
+the shore on both sides for a signal-staff or some signs of occupation.
+
+But at the end of half a mile sails had to be lowered, for a barrier of
+ice extended right across the fiord, and any further search would
+require to be performed on foot.  But no one repined at that.  It was
+delightful after being cooped up on shipboard so long.  A boat was
+lowered, guns and ammunition placed therein, the four Norwegians took
+their places with the walrus lances, and, very much to Andrew's disgust,
+he was not selected to act as gunbearer, Hamish being taken instead.
+
+"We don't want to be left in the lurch again, Steve," said the captain,
+"if we do happen to meet a bear.  What do you say, Johannes?  There are
+bears here, I suppose?"
+
+"For certain, sir.  You never know where you may meet them.  But this is
+hardly the place.  You see, there are not likely to be any seals here.
+Where there are seals there are pretty sure to be bears."
+
+"What are we likely to get, then?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Deer, sir.  If we go cautiously up the valley yonder, we shall see the
+deer where the snow has melted off the slope.  There will be moss
+there."
+
+But a long and tedious tramp over exceedingly tangled ground followed
+their landing, and they trudged along among stones, over snow, and
+through swampy patches, where there were wild fowl; but these were left
+in peace in the hope of a more substantial addition to the larder being
+found.
+
+Snow was all around them, but the sun poured down with so much power
+that they were all pretty well exhausted when the captain proposed that
+they should endeavour to make their way back by another valley,
+separated from the one they were in merely by a lofty hog-back-like
+range of rocky hill.
+
+"I saw wild fowl going in that direction, and we must direct our
+attention to them now."
+
+Jakobsen gave his opinion that such a course was quite possible, and
+leading the way he struck along a narrow gulley, which evidently
+connected the two valleys at the end of the range.
+
+The walking was worse than ever there, and Steve was beginning to lag
+and wish that some one else would carry his heavy gun, when Jakobsen,
+who had passed out of sight behind a chaotic mass of rocks, suddenly
+came hurriedly back.
+
+"He has seen deer," whispered Johannes, who was close beside Steve, and
+seemed to look upon himself as the boy's bodyguard.
+
+Jakobsen held up his hand to make the party stop, and the next minute he
+was close up.
+
+"Reindeer," he whispered.  "Four just round the point yonder feeding on
+the moss.  Come."
+
+"Stay back, the rest of you," said the captain in a low voice.  "You can
+come, Steve, my lad, and you, Johannes, be cautious."
+
+Then the novel kind of deer-stalking commenced, Jakobsen leading and
+taking advantage of every block of stone, turning round at times to make
+sure that his companions were keeping out of sight, and at last coming
+to a stand at where the defile they were threading opened out into a
+plain.
+
+He was behind a mass of rocks whose hollows were filled up with ice; and
+when all were together he whispered to them to be ready, and then
+clambered up till he was high enough to peer over cautiously before
+descending.
+
+"They are very wild and cautious," he whispered; "but they have not
+moved.  Go forward now, creeping from rock to rock, and you are sure of
+one or two."
+
+"Come, Steve," whispered the captain.  "Don't fire unless I tell you.
+Be ready to hand me your gun if I miss."
+
+He went off to the right of the pile of rocks, and the doctor took the
+left, all stooping and sheltering themselves till the end of the stones
+was reached; and upon raising himself a little so as to peer round the
+last, there, not fifty yards away, and grazing or tearing up the moss
+with their feet, were four deer, with their peculiarly shaped, branching
+antlers, and all apparently in perfect ignorance of danger being so
+near.
+
+"Can you see Mr Handscombe?" whispered the captain, drawing back to
+speak.
+
+"No, he is not in sight."
+
+"I'll wait, then, so as to give him a chance of getting within shot as
+well.  It will steady my hand, too."
+
+"What's that?" whispered Steve, as a sound like one stone being thrown
+against another reached his ear.
+
+The captain reached forward again, and uttered an exclamation which
+brought Steve close up just in time to see the four deer bounding away,
+and to have his ears half deafened by the report of the piece, for the
+captain fired directly.
+
+"Gone!  Lost them!" he cried, as the deer tore on.
+
+"Fire again."
+
+"With small shot?" said the captain.  "No use, my lad.  And I should
+have been so glad to have got a brace of these deer.  It would have been
+such a good change for the men."
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Steve.  "One's down!"  For all at once the foremost of
+the deer stopped short, then staggered on a few yards, stopped again,
+and fell.
+
+At that moment a rifle shot rang out from their left, and the last of
+the flying deer pitched headlong amongst the stones and lay kicking.
+
+"Well done, doctor! and a very long shot, too!  Ahoy, Johannes!
+Jakobsen!" he shouted as he placed a fresh cartridge in his gun.  Then,
+as the men came up, "There you are!  We'll get back to the boat with the
+fresh provisions.  What shall you do, cut them up here?"
+
+"No, sir; tie their legs, and carry them on the lance-poles.  We are
+enough to manage them."
+
+In a very short time the two deer were being borne, hanging head
+downwards, over the rough ground till the ice was reached, and finally
+the boat, the welcome supply of fresh meat being greeted with a cheer as
+it was hauled up over the side to the deck of the _Hvalross_; and that
+evening the cook had a busy time, while, as Steve remarked, the smell of
+that kind of cooking was far better than that which prevailed when the
+Norsemen were busy rendering down the oil.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+A TALE OF THE WINTER COLD.
+
+The shore looked more attractive the next morning, probably from the
+fact that all on board the _Hvalross_ had had a most enjoyable supper of
+fresh meat, and afterwards a long--what Steve called day's--night's
+rest; so that every one was on the alert and eager to carry out the
+captain's orders.
+
+So as not to lose time steam was got up at once, and Captain Marsham
+explained his intentions, which were to go up the west coast until
+stopped by the ice, and on the way search the different fiords and bays
+for signs of the lost party.  Failing to find them, he said that they
+would return to their starting-point, and then proceed in the same way
+southward, and round to the east coast, and ascend that.
+
+"I don't think it is a question of scouting along the land in the
+search," said the captain, "but of being here, for it must be a matter
+of accident our finding them.  We shall of course build up a cairn
+wherever we touch, with a paper in it telling when we landed and the
+direction we take, in case they come here after we have gone."
+
+"And you will go on hunting and fishing as we touch at place after
+place?"
+
+"Certainly, until we have filled the tanks.  That will enable me to
+prolong my journey, and, if necessary, repeat it next year."
+
+Steve looked at the captain in horror, but said nothing; and directly
+after a cairn had been built at the most conspicuous point of the
+entrance to the fiord, and a letter left in a meat canister inside, the
+_Hvalross_ slowly steamed out, and advanced northward, entering fiord
+after fiord, and searching vainly.  There were always the same
+forbidding cliffs capped with snow, masses of ice piled up, and the
+ravines filled with glaciers, and here and there inlets whose entrances
+were completely frozen up, and not likely to be open for a month.  But
+there was no sign of cairn or signal-post.  No human being had left a
+trace of landing there, and the journey north was continued.
+
+"Why, Johannes," said the captain on the second evening, after they had
+spent about a couple of hours in shooting wild fowl to replenish the
+larder and keep the men in good health with plenty of fresh provisions,
+"I thought as soon as we reached this wild region we should find deer,
+bears, and walrus in abundance; and here we have been touching at place
+after place for two days, and not seen a single animal since we shot the
+deer."
+
+"No, sir; it is a matter of accident," replied the Norseman.  "There are
+plenty; but every year they get farther away, for they are hunted so
+much that they shun the places where vessels come."
+
+Their words came plainly to where Steve was busy with a glass; for,
+after the shooting was over, and the men in one of the boats had
+collected all the slain to hand over to the cook, who immediately made
+Watty Links discontented by setting him to pluck the birds, the lad had
+ascended to the crow's-nest to have a look round.
+
+It was very wonderful, that outlook to Steve; but it seemed to him awful
+and depressing.  It was so silent and so strange that at times even the
+continuous daylight caused him to feel a sensation of shrinking,
+especially when seen through the telescope; for there were moments when
+he felt as if he were passing into some far-off, weird wonderland, a
+land of solemn silence, where life could not exist; and at such moments
+he would take his eye from the glass, and look down at the men on deck
+and see signs of human creatures being near to carry off the strange
+sensation.
+
+He had just been passing through one of these fits; for it was evening,
+and though broad daylight, with the sun shining, there was a peculiarity
+in the sky to northward, a something he could not well have explained,
+which made him feel that night was at hand.  And as he leaned against
+the side of the crow's-nest he listened to what was said on deck, and
+then once more gazed to the northward, following the line of coast, and
+then giving a start; for a few miles only from where they were gliding
+onward he saw unmistakably that their journey in that direction was at
+an end.
+
+He carefully adjusted the glass so as to make sure, and found that it
+was so: the icy barrier was jammed tight on to the land, and on
+following it to the westward it extended in one solid wall right away
+till it was lost in the distance.
+
+Sweeping back to the coast, he searched carefully to see if there were
+any opening or fiord by which they could pass onward; but there was not
+a sign, and he was just about to announce his discovery, when he caught
+sight of something about a mile away, standing out plainly on a low
+headland, with the black face of a large cliff behind to throw it up so
+clearly that he wondered why he had not seen it at the first.
+
+Steve Young.
+
+"At last!" he said, with his heart beating violently and a curious
+choking sensation rising to his throat.  For there, looking dim now as
+he glanced through the glass once more, was a wooden cross, evidently
+set up as a signal, the first trace of human occupation of that solemn,
+solitary land; and it was some moments before his emotion would let him
+hail the deck.
+
+"Ahoy there!" he shouted; then exultantly, but in a tone of voice which
+did not sound like his own, "Ice right ahead, and a signal showing about
+a mile away!"
+
+"What!" shouted Captain Marsham.  "Stop a minute; I'll come up."
+
+He ran to the shrouds, and began to climb rapidly and as actively as
+either of the men till he was close beneath the great cask.
+
+"Don't stir, my boy," he said; "I'll find room for both.  Now then," he
+continued, as the trap beneath their feet was closed, "where's the
+signal?"
+
+"Follow the coast-line for about a mile," cried Steve eagerly, as he
+handed the glass, "and you will see a great black cliff with hardly a
+scrap of snow upon it.  Then, low down on a piece of level ground--"
+
+"I have it!" cried the captain; "a large post."  His tone of eager
+satisfaction changed to one that was very solemn and grave: "It is a
+cross, Steve," he said.
+
+"Yes, a great wooden cross.  Don't you think they set it up there as a
+signal?"
+
+"I think some one set it up there as a sign, my boy," said Captain
+Marsham gravely.
+
+"And that some one is living there?" cried Steve.
+
+The captain did not answer, but changed the direction of the glass.
+
+"Yes," he said; "there is the pack, fast for another month, unless we
+have a storm to break it up.  We'll go on a mile or two, and then turn
+back.  Come along down."
+
+He began to descend at once, and Steve followed, wondering at his
+manner, and feeling sad now; for he concluded that, from his experience
+and knowledge of such matters, the captain felt that they had reached
+Spitzbergen too late to save their friends alive.
+
+As soon as the deck was reached orders were given to increase the speed
+a little, Johannes joining the captain on the bridge to keep a careful
+look-out for danger where there was none, for the water was perfectly
+clear of rocks and deep right up to the cliffs; so that a quarter of an
+hour later they were abreast of the cross, a boat was lowered, and
+Captain Marsham was rowed ashore.
+
+Steve was the first to leap upon the rocks, and then the little party
+made their way up a slope to the level patch on which stood the rough
+sign, and, in addition, two more, which had not been perceived till they
+were close up; while of greater interest still, close under the
+perpendicular black cliff, some four or five hundred feet high, was a
+low, square, wooden hut, built up of old ship's timbers.  They made at
+once for this, leaving the singularly shaped wooden crosses; and once
+more a feeling of awe crept over Steve, and he whispered to the captain
+asking him if he thought it was their friends.
+
+"Oh no," was the quick reply.  "Didn't you understand?  The remains of
+some Russian party.  The crosses told that."
+
+Steve felt relieved, and curiosity had begun to take the place of the
+shrinking sensation he had felt on seeing that the woodwork was grey and
+mossy, much of it greatly decayed, and that the rough door had fallen
+away from its hinges and lay across the opening which it had been used
+to close.  The timbers had been caulked with moss, and no doubt had had
+snow piled up against them, to keep out the penetrating cold, while the
+nearly flat roof was covered with stones.
+
+All this was seen almost at a glance as they paused by the door, and
+then the captain stooped his head and entered the low, cabin-like place,
+followed by the doctor and Steve.
+
+The place was fairly extensive inside, and fitted up with a long, low,
+stone bench, upon which lay quantities of dry sea-weed, the whole having
+evidently been used for the occupants' bed.  In the middle of the hut
+was an arrangement of stones, with a roughly contrived flue, which had
+formed a kind of stove for heating and cooking, and in it still lay a
+quantity of ashes and some charred fragments of oak that must have been
+bits of ships' timber.
+
+That was all visible at first; but in the darkest part of the hut,
+farthest from the door, the low, bench-like erection was piled with
+sea-weed apparently, till they drew closer and found that there were
+several mouldy bear-skins, from which the hair had rotted, and which
+came away in fragments upon being touched.
+
+It was Steve who gave a tug at one of the skins, and, throwing the
+pieces down, he was about to drag another one right off, when the
+captain checked him.
+
+"Let him rest," he said gravely; and Steve started back as he realised
+the fact that he was disturbing the resting-place of the dead.
+
+He looked at the captain in horror as if to question him with his eyes,
+and the answer came.
+
+"Yes, some unfortunate Russian party, evidently left to winter here, and
+they died off one by one.  Let us go and look at the crosses."
+
+It was with a sensation of relief that they all stood out once more in
+the soft, bright sunshine, and breathed the clear, cold air, which came
+fresh from the ice-fields; and soon after they stopped before the
+crosses, beneath which were the resting-places of five unfortunate men.
+
+"There is the history written plainly enough," said Captain Marsham in a
+low voice, as if talking to himself.  "These were the party of six left
+here to collect skins during the winter, to be fetched away the next
+season.  One man died, and his kindly-hearted companions laboriously
+made that rough, wooden coffin, and dug a few inches into this icy rock
+for its reception.  They covered it with these stones to guard it from
+wild beasts, and put up this elaborate timber with its three
+cross-pieces, cut in Russian characters as we see.  Then another died,
+and his four companions treated him nearly the same as the first; there
+was as much care taken to bury him, and the cross is nearly as grand as
+the first.  The third man died, and the survivors were not able to do so
+much; the grave is more shallow, the coffin rougher, and there is only
+one cross-piece.  Then we have here the fourth man's resting-place--very
+shallow, and only an upright post, with his initials, two letters
+roughly scored by a feeble hand, by one of the two survivors.  Then look
+at this."
+
+He took a few steps to where Steve shrinkingly saw a hollow in which,
+barely covered by small pieces of rock and ice, lay the remains of a
+man, from which all turned without a word.  For it wanted no words to
+tell how he had pined and died, and been dragged to his last
+resting-place by his feeble companion, the last of the party, so
+helpless now that he could not chip out a grave, but was fain to lay his
+dead companion in a natural rift, and slowly pile over him little pieces
+of the stone and ice around; then crawl back into the hut to lie there,
+covered by the skins, waiting for the dawn to come after the long, long
+wintry night, and bring with it the hopes of rescue which came too late.
+
+The Norseman who had stood by the graves with his cap in his hands went
+softly away on tip-toe to the boat, and the captain said sadly: "There
+is something very awful as well as grand up here in these solitudes.
+Poor fellows!  What a history they have left behind!  Steve, lad, it is
+a painful sight for you."
+
+"Yes," said the boy huskily, and his voice shook as he looked up
+apologetically at the speaker.  "I can't help it--makes me feel quite
+ill and weak; for when I think of it all, and of those who must have
+been hoping they would return like some one we know, I feel as if I
+could sit down and cry."
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated the doctor; and as the others looked at him he sharply
+turned away his face.
+
+"Yes, it is very sad," said the captain briskly; "but we will not take
+that view of the case, my lad.  Let's only be thankful that you were
+wrong in your ideas.  Our friends would be better provided than these
+poor fellows were, and I have always a strong feeling that we shall find
+them alive and well."
+
+An hour later they had been right up, pretty close to the barrier of ice
+which stopped further progress to the north; and as there was a pleasant
+breeze from the north-east, sail was set, the fires damped, and away
+they went southward toward the fiord where the deer had been shot in the
+valley.
+
+This was reached late the next evening, and they landed to try for more
+deer, an adventure attended with so much success that on the following
+day, when they began to sail southward, they had twelve fine, fat deer
+lying in the hold in ice, and another in the hands of the cook for
+present use.
+
+"Seems rather wholesale, doesn't it?" said Steve to the doctor.
+
+"Yes, my boy; but meat will keep for years in this climate if once
+frozen; and," he added with a laugh, "you must make your hay when the
+sun shines."
+
+"And freeze it afterwards," said Steve, smiling.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+BATTLE ROYAL.
+
+Days and days were spent exploring the coast southward, the party
+landing wherever there was an opportunity offered by a likely spot; but
+the most southern point of the mountain land was reached without a sign,
+and several walrus boats were spoken by way of obtaining news, but
+without result.  Then, as the ice was densely packed, preventing any
+attempt being made to search the eastern shore, a course was laid for
+the great neighbouring island, the _Hvalross_ sailing steadily
+north-east a short distance from the pack.
+
+They had had a good evening's shooting the night before, and to the
+great delight of Andrew, Hamish, and the cook quite a load of fine ducks
+had been brought on board by the boat; but as Steve was going forward to
+take a favourite position of his by the bowsprit, he found that another
+member of the crew was not so highly pleased, for Watty was seated
+outside the galley door with a goose in his lap and a bucket by his
+side, busily plucking out the feathers and down, which, partly from the
+angry energy with which he was working, partly from the breeze, were
+flying in all directions, and especially all over his blue jersey and
+into his shock hair, which had been well anointed with the bear's grease
+he had carefully saved up from the day when the fat was boiled.
+
+When Steve approached Watty seemed to be singing as he plucked, for
+there was a mumbling, burring noise, and Steve turned to Andrew, who
+happened to be close at hand seated upon the deck, fastening a line to
+the edge of a sail.
+
+"Why, Andra," he said, "do you hear that?"
+
+"Oh ay, she hears it," replied the sailor.
+
+"Do you know what it puts me in mind of?"
+
+"Na, she dinna ken, Meester Stevey.  A coo waiting for the lassie with
+the milk-pail, maype."
+
+"No," said Steve; "it's just like the drone of your pipes heard in the
+cuddy with the hatch on."
+
+"Fwhat?  Na, na, she'll not pe a pit like tat.  Ta pipes is music--coot
+music, Meester Stevey; for there's na music like ta pagpipes--ta gran'
+Hielan' pagpipes.  But she kens she's chust cracking a choke with me."
+
+"No, I'm not.  Listen; it does sound just like it."
+
+"Na, na, laddie," said Andrew after a pause to listen; "she's mair like
+ta collie tog when she sees a cat, or maype it's mair like ta
+bummel-bees among ta heather upo' ta hills in bonnie Scotland."
+
+"Well, it sounds very comic whatever it's like.  Look here's Skeny
+coming up to see what's the matter; look how he's cocking his ears."
+
+"Oh ay, she thinks it's a coo wants driving hame."
+
+"No, he knows it's Watty.  Look at him."
+
+"Ay, she can see ta tog.  An' it's a fine tog, eh, Skene?  Come alang,
+and I'll gie ye a pinch o' sneeshin'."
+
+"No, no, don't tease the dog!" cried Steve, as Andrew took out an old
+snuff-mull, opened it, and held it out to the dog.
+
+"Nay, she'll na tease the tyke.  Skene hasna larnt to tak' ta sneeshing.
+But it's ferra coot for ta nose, Skeny."
+
+And all the while Watty's peculiar burring sound kept on and increased,
+the dog looking hard at him with his ears up, and finally giving a
+short, sharp bark.  "Do you hear that, Watty?" said Steve.
+
+"Ay; she heart ta tyke."
+
+"Skene wants the second verse of the song."
+
+"Then he'll ha'e to wait," said the boy; and he went on again with the
+monotonous burring sound which had first attracted Steve's attention.
+
+"What's the matter with him, Andra?"
+
+"She's making up a lang story spout ta cook.  She's been retty to fecht,
+and ta cook said she'd ding her het again' ta galley if she tidn't pick
+ta goose."
+
+"Ay, but she'll mak' my ploot poil pefore she's tone," cried Watty
+fiercely, and scattering a handful of feathers so that some of them and
+the down flew on to Steve.
+
+"Make your ploot poil?" cried Steve, laughing.
+
+"Ay; and it poils now!" cried Watty, scattering some more feathers
+purposely, so that they should adhere to his trousers.
+
+"There, I told you he was singing, Andra.  His ploot poils, and he was
+singing like a kettle."
+
+"My mither sent me to sea to learn to pe a sailor, and ta skipper's made
+me ta cook's poy!" cried Watty vehemently.
+
+"Then you shouldn't have been such a coward, Watty.  There, don't be in
+a temper, and I'll speak to the captain to let you come back to the
+other duties."
+
+"Hey, put she's a puir feckless potie, and dinna ken the when she's well
+off.  She wishes ta captain wad pit her in ta galley, to get ta fairst
+wee tasties of all ta gravies and good things ta cook potie mak's."
+
+"But he's tired of it now, Andra.  I say, Watty, look here; you're
+smothering me with that fluff!"
+
+"Then she should get ower to ta ither side of ta fessel."
+
+"I'll knock you to the other side of the vessel if you're saucy!" cried
+Steve hotly.  "See if I speak to the captain for you now!"
+
+"She dinna want ye to speak.  She can speak her ainsel' when she wants,
+and she ton't want; for she'll stop in ta galley the noo till we get
+pack to Glasgie and goo pefore ta magistrates aboot it.  There!"
+
+This last word was accompanied by a handful of down thrown in the air so
+that it might be wafted right over Steve.
+
+This was too much for the boy's equanimity, and, hot with passion, he
+snatched a handful of the down from the pail and rubbed it in Watty's
+shock head, to Andrew's great delight.
+
+"Weel tone, laddie!" he cried; "tat's ponnie.  Gie her anither handfu'
+of the saft doon."
+
+Now, for some time past Watty, for reasons best known to himself, had
+been nursing up feelings of the nature that would, in other conditions,
+have developed into a regular Highland feud.  He was jealous of Steve in
+every way.  It annoyed him that a boy younger than he should be dressed
+better, work less, and live in the cabin, while he had to share the
+meals of the men when the cook did not make him eat in the galley.  In
+addition, after long brooding over what he called his "wrangs," and in
+his dislike to the lad who had shown himself to be more plucky, and
+brought him, as he called it, to shame, he had nursed up the idea that
+Steve was only a coward at heart, that all his acts were put on for
+show, and that if he could only find a chance he would risk getting into
+trouble if it should reach the captain's ears, and give the object of
+his dislike a good thrashing.
+
+And now the opportunity had come, and there was plenty of excuse.  Steve
+had dared to rub all that down into his sacred, well-greased, red locks;
+and springing up and looking as if his "ploot really tit poil," he swung
+round the goose he was plucking, and, using it as if it were an elastic
+war-club, he brought it with excellent aim bang against Steve's head.
+
+More blood began to boil now, for, with a cry of rage at what,
+forgetting his own provocation, he looked upon as a daring insult, Steve
+ran two or three steps--ran away, Watty thought; and exulting in his
+imaginary triumph, he followed to strike his adversary again with his
+absurd weapon; but to his utter astonishment, before the blow could
+fall, Steve, who seemed to be stooping to avoid the attack, sprang up,
+and, raising both hands, struck downward.
+
+The result was curious.  As Steve struck downwards Watty, in delivering
+his blow, leaned forwards, placing his head just in the proper position
+to receive the weapon and its contents with which the English lad had
+armed himself.  That weapon was the bucket full of feathers, and Steve's
+anger went off like a flash, for he had completely extinguished Watty,
+who staggered back, dropping the bird, blinded, half suffocated by the
+down, and so confused for a few moments that even when he had thrust off
+the bucket from his head he stood coughing and sneezing, staggering
+about in his blind endeavours to escape.
+
+"Weel done, laddie; tat's prave.  Gie it ta saucy callant again.  She'll
+sweep up ta feathers when she's tone," cried Andrew in ecstasy.
+
+But now Watty's blood boiled right over, and as soon as his eyes were
+clear he rushed at Steve with an angry yell, fists doubled, teeth set;
+and, regardless of the goose hurled in his face, he continued his charge
+right home and up to his adversary's guard.
+
+The next minute they were fighting hard, blow succeeding blow in the
+most unscientific way; but the end was not to be then, for Andrew cried
+in a hoarse whisper:
+
+"Rin, laddie, rin!  Here's ta skipper."
+
+Watty heard the terrible words--words awful to him--and he did "rin."
+
+Not far.  The galley door was open, and close at hand.  Into it he
+darted like a fox into its hole, and Steve stood alone, covered with
+feathers, to face the captain and Mr Handscombe, who, hearing the
+scuffling forward, hurried up to see the cause.
+
+"Highly creditable, upon my word!" cried Captain Marsham, frowning.
+"Could not you find anything more sensible to do than to get into this
+disgraceful quarrel with the ship's boy?"
+
+Steve stood breathing hard, flushed with anger and mortification.
+
+"I'd try a sweep next time, Stephen," said the doctor sarcastically; "he
+would not come off worse upon you than this fellow has done."
+
+"He insulted and struck me," stammered Steve.  "You would not have had
+me stand still and submit to that, sir?"
+
+"I don't want to hear anything about it," said the captain sternly; "it
+is disgraceful, and I gave you credit for knowing better."
+
+The captain walked back to the companion hatch and descended to the
+cabin, leaving Steve, the doctor, Hamish, and Andrew looking at each
+other.
+
+"Well, sir," said the doctor, "you've done it this time.  Have you any
+idea what an object you look?"
+
+"No," said Steve, in a tone of voice which told of his mortification.
+
+"Go to your cabin, then, and look in the glass.  I should prescribe a
+little water, too!"
+
+"Hadn't I better jump overboard for it, then?" cried Steve bitterly.
+
+"Bah!  Rubbish!  Don't talk nonsense!" cried the doctor, catching the
+lad by the arm.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" said the mate, coming up hurriedly.
+
+"Oh, nothing much.  We've had an accident, and spilt some feathers about
+the deck, and it has made the captain angry about the way in which it
+was done.  Have them cleared up, man.  Come along, Steve lad; and don't
+look like that," he whispered, as he half dragged the lad away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+MORAL SURGERY.
+
+"How easy it is to get into trouble!" said Steve; "and what a watch one
+has to keep over one's self!  There I was, as happy and contented as
+could be, only a little while ago, and now everything's miserable.  I
+wouldn't care if the captain had not spoken to me like that."
+
+"Go and tell him you're sorry," said the doctor.
+
+"I can't."
+
+"But you must, my lad.  You were in the wrong, weren't you?"
+
+"I don't think so.  It was all a bit of fun.  I never expected that the
+boy would turn like that."
+
+"Well, wasn't it foolish of you to go making a playmate of such a rough,
+common lad?  I'm not snobbish, Steve, but I think people get on better
+who make friends in their own class; and if your poor father could have
+seen you fighting a--"
+
+"Oh, don't, don't!" cried Steve, "pray!  I know I behaved like a
+blackguard, and it served me right."
+
+"There, now you're behaving like a human donkey, my lad, and talking
+nonsense.  Put it aside now.  You're hot and excited.  Let me give you a
+sedative draught."
+
+"Oh, Mr Handscombe!" cried the lad passionately.  "To talk of physic at
+a time like this!"
+
+"There you go again!" cried the doctor, unconsciously using Watty
+Links's expression.  "You've made your blood boil, and it wants cooling
+down."
+
+"Then I'll drink some water or suck a lump of ice," said Steve bitterly.
+"I can't take physic now."
+
+"Nonsense, you excitable young donkey!" cried the doctor.  "I meant a
+mental sedative draught.  I want you to hear reason, if you will listen
+to me."
+
+"I don't want to listen; I only want to be alone, sir."
+
+"Yes, to get into a stupid, morbid state, when a little bit of brave
+surgery--moral surgery--on your part would set all right."
+
+"There _you_ go again, sir!" cried Steve querulously.  "One minute you
+want to give me pills and a draught, the next you want to begin cutting
+me to pieces."
+
+The doctor burst out laughing.
+
+"That's right," cried Steve, "laugh at me; I deserve it;" and at that
+moment he wished that he was a little child again, so that he could go
+and hide himself away, and relieve his feelings by crying fit to break
+his heart.  But he did not say to himself "cry"; he put it as "blubber
+like a great girl."
+
+"Be quiet, my lad; and, believe me, I can feel for you and want to help
+you.  I'm a doctor, and I talked metaphorically, as, of course, you
+know.  By moral surgery I meant one brave bit of mastery over self, and
+cutting the trouble right out.  There's no hiding the fact; you, as a
+gentleman's son, ought not to have been found fighting with the ship's
+boy, and under such ludicrous circumstances; now, ought you?"
+
+"No, I suppose not," replied Steve; "but--"
+
+"Never mind the `buts,' my lad.  You own that you are in the wrong?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then go and wash your face and brush all that fluff off your jacket.
+Then pluck up, and like a man go in to the captain; keep cool--you'll be
+cooler by that time--and tell him exactly how it all was; say you are
+sorry, and--Don't keep on shaking your head like that, sir; you'll be
+doing some injury to your spinal column."
+
+"But I can't go and tell him that, after the way in which he looked and
+spoke to me."
+
+"Yes, you can, sir."
+
+"No."
+
+"There you go, shaking your head again.  Tell him you were in the
+wrong."
+
+"That I'll be a good boy, and won't do so any more."
+
+"Well, is there anything to be ashamed of in that, sir?"
+
+"I couldn't do it--I wouldn't do it."
+
+"Then you're a coward."
+
+"No, I'm not," retorted Steve angrily.
+
+"You are--a miserable moral coward; and I thought you had more pluck in
+you--more of the honest, manly pluck of an English boy who is brave
+enough to own to a fault."
+
+"I'm not a coward," muttered Steve.  "I'd show you if there was any
+occasion," and he stood frowning.
+
+"Bah!  Any big, strong, stupid fellow, with no brains to boast about,
+can jump overboard to save any one or do anything of that kind.  I want
+to see you act like a brave fellow who is ready to make a bit of
+sacrifice of his own feelings, and behave in a manly way.  Come, I'm
+giving you good advice.  We shall have bad weather enough to deal with
+out in the open; we don't want any moral bad weather in the cabin.  Go
+to the captain, and speak out frankly.  Do you know what he will do?"
+
+"Look at me, as he did just now."
+
+"That's insulting a brave man and my friend, sir," said the doctor
+sternly.  "I know Captain Marsham better than you do, then.  He will do
+nothing of the kind.  He will listen calmly and dispassionately to all
+you have to say, and then perhaps point out a few things."
+
+"To humiliate me!" cried Steve.
+
+"There you go again, blazing out.  No, hardly to humiliate you; but,
+even if he does, who the salts of tartar are you, sir, that you are not
+to be spoken to and humiliated a bit when you have gone wrong?"
+
+"Oh, I'm nobody," said Steve bitterly; "I'm a donkey and an ass."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor quietly, "but that is rather running wild; a
+donkey and an ass are the same thing, Stevey, my lad.  If the captain
+says a few things to cut your comb a little, they will do you good; and
+I am as certain as that I am sitting here that he will end by saying,
+`There, my boy, then, that's an end of it.  Let it be a lesson to you.
+Now shake hands.'"
+
+"He wouldn't say that.  He'd send me out of the cabin feeling more
+miserable than I feel now."
+
+"I know better than that, my lad.  You're punishing yourself."
+
+"Then, if a boy strikes me I'm not to strike him again?" cried Steve.
+
+"Humph!  Well, I did not say that, my lad, exactly."
+
+"What was I to do, sir?  Was I to let that miserable, disagreeable young
+rascal, who has been insulting and sneering at me ever since we started
+from Nordoe, knock me about, and I not retaliate?"
+
+The doctor looked puzzled.
+
+"Go in and shake hands with the captain; he's in his cabin."
+
+"No, he isn't.  I heard him go on deck, sir.  But you didn't answer me."
+
+"I told you that you couldn't fight with a boy like that.  Look at your
+clothes."
+
+"Oh yes, I know, sir.  I'm all over feathers; but you don't say anything
+about what I asked: was I to let him knock me about and crow over me?"
+
+"Well--er," said the doctor, "you might have kicked him."
+
+"And that would have been cowardly, and he would have kicked me again.
+It's worse to fight with the feet than it is to fight with the hands."
+
+"Humph!  Well, yes, I suppose it is," muttered the doctor; "but never
+mind that.  Go on deck as soon as you're decent, and talk to the captain
+there."
+
+"I can't, sir."
+
+"Then will you go to him when he comes down?"
+
+Steve shook his head, and the doctor began to grow warm.
+
+"Now, don't be absurd and obstinate, sir," he cried; "do as I advise
+you, and let's get this miserable trouble out of the way.  The cabin's
+too small, and we all want to help one another too much, for our little
+commonwealth to be at sixes and sevens.  Come, pitch all that shame and
+cowardice overboard."
+
+"Do you mean to say, sir, that I did wrong in pitching--I mean in
+hitting that hot-headed Scotch boy again when he hit me?"
+
+"I did not bring you down here to argue out questions of that kind,
+sir."
+
+"But you might answer me, sir.  I want to know whether I really was in
+the wrong."
+
+"Take it that you were," said the doctor.
+
+"No, sir, I can't.  I don't feel convinced.  If you had been in my
+place--"
+
+"I'm not going to answer any such questions, Steve, and you have no
+right to put them to me.  I tell you I am not going to be cross-examined
+by you, sir, on all kinds of pros and cons.  This is a matter that I
+want settled at once for both of your sakes--there, for all our sakes.
+Now go."
+
+Steve shook his head again.
+
+"I don't feel as if I can."
+
+"Then you're a more stubborn fellow than I took you to be; and I can
+assure you, Steve, I feel that, with a lad whom I have always tried to
+make my friend.  Now, have I not?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then do as I say, Steve.  Come, like a man."
+
+"I can't now."
+
+"There you go again, repeating this obstinate can't, can't, can't, when
+all the time you can."
+
+"But tell me this, sir.  Supposing--"
+
+"Look here, boy, am I your doctor, or am I not?"
+
+"No, sir, I haven't been ill," said Steve drily.
+
+"You're ill now.  Your nerves are all jarred, your head's in an unwonted
+state of excitement, and your pulse is going--though I have not felt
+it--far above its normal rate.  You are ill, sir, bodily and mentally,
+in a regular peevish state of excitement; and as your doctor, speaking
+perfectly honestly and straightforwardly, I say to you that the medicine
+you require is mental; that you have only to go to the captain and have
+a few words based on my advice, and you will be well again directly."
+
+"I'm not ill," said Steve coldly.
+
+"You are, sir; and mental illness is worse than an ordinary bodily
+ailment.  Now, will you go?"
+
+"Will you answer me this one question, sir, first?"
+
+"No.  Well, yes, I will, if it's a sensible one; and then I shall expect
+you to go at once to make yourself tidy and see the captain.  Now, then,
+it's very weak of me, but I'll do it this once.  What is it?"
+
+"Suppose, sir--"
+
+"Oh, hang your supposes; let's have facts!"
+
+"Suppose, sir," continued Steve, watching the doctor intently the while,
+"you were a boy like I am."
+
+"What nonsense!  Well, go on, boy."
+
+"And a big rough-headed Scotch lad, after annoying you in all kinds of
+ways, hit you in a most insulting manner.  What would you do?"
+
+"I'd try and knock his head off!" cried the doctor hotly.  "I--that is--
+I mean--I don't approve of fighting--I--hang the boy!  How stupid of me!
+I mean I think I should have complained to the captain, and asked him
+to have the fellow flogged."
+
+"Captains on board ships like this can't have the boys flogged," said
+Steve drily.
+
+"Punished, then."
+
+"You said what you would do, sir, at first, and then turned it off.  I
+did the same, and you've been blaming me."
+
+"Well, well; yes, yes, Steve, I did; but let's leave that question
+alone, my lad.  It's one that has never yet been thoroughly settled on
+account of its difficulty.  I don't approve of fighting, but there are
+times when--that is--you see it's a very awkward question that we had
+better leave.  I spoke hastily, and I'm afraid that I have done more
+harm than good.  Come, you'll shake hands with me?"
+
+Steve eagerly held out his.
+
+"That's right," said the doctor, gripping the extended palm.  "And
+you'll take my advice?"
+
+Steve shook his head.
+
+"I can't yet, sir."
+
+"Steve, my boy, you send quite a chill through me," cried the doctor
+angrily.  "I'm as cold as if the weather had suddenly changed and a
+biting wind were coming off the ice."
+
+"My head's quite hot, sir; but it does feel as if it were cold."
+
+"Of course.  Nerves, Steve, nerves; unwonted excitement.  Hah!  Here's
+the captain coming into the cabin.  Now's your time."
+
+Steve shook his head.
+
+"You must go now.  Here, I'll run and tell him you want to speak to
+him."
+
+"No, sir; pray don't."
+
+The door opened, and Captain Marsham came in quickly.
+
+"Come on deck, Handscombe," he said, as he stood at the door putting on
+a pea-jacket.  "You had better have a coat, for there is a remarkable
+change.  The wind has turned nearly due north, and I'm afraid we are
+going to have a heavy snow-blast.  Quick! the change is worth seeing."
+
+He did not even glance at Steve, but turned away, and the doctor
+followed, to stop at the door.
+
+"There, go and wash yourself, my lad.  It has turned cold, but let's get
+this over; we have no time for quarrelling here on board ship."
+
+He hurried out, and left Steve in the cabin alone with his bitter
+thoughts.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+NATURE IN THE NORTH.
+
+"All this trouble about nothing," muttered Steve, as soon as he was
+alone; and he mechanically went to the little washing-sink to remove the
+traces of the fight.
+
+His actions were slow for a few moments, but they soon grew quicker, for
+he could hear Captain Marsham giving orders in a sharp, peremptory way.
+
+There was an icy wind blowing through the open window and a peculiar
+whistling sound in the air, and as he hurriedly washed he knew by the
+rattling noises, faintly as they reached his ears, that the men were
+getting the furnace going and shovelling on coals.
+
+By the time he was fit to be seen he had heard order after order given,
+and the men hurrying about, so that when he went on deck he was not
+surprised to find that they had shortened sail and were reefing those
+which were left.  But the next instant he was startled by the change
+which had taken place since he went below.
+
+Away to the north beyond the ice cliffs all had been bright and
+dazzling; now the sky was overcast, the sun had disappeared, and though
+a little blue sky was visible to the south it was a dingy kind of blue,
+fast becoming grey.
+
+The whistling he had heard below had gone on increasing till the wind
+sang through the cordage, and made the canvas tug and strain at the
+ropes which held it.  Then it died away to a faint whisper, like a sigh
+of weariness at the exertion.
+
+The ice to the north was only dimly seen after a few minutes, for a
+thick haze appeared to be gathering in that direction, but high up, and
+not in any way resembling the fog which had come down upon them twice
+and appeared to be resting on the sea.
+
+Steve had hardly grasped the state of affairs when Captain Marsham
+caught sight of him.
+
+"Here, Steve, my lad," he cried, quite in his old manner, "you had
+better get on your fur cap and mackintosh if you are going to stay on
+deck.  Sharp! we shall have the storm upon us in a few minutes."
+
+Those words were quite cheering, and the lad hurried down to make the
+change suggested, noting, before he went into the cabin, that their
+course was altered, and the _Hvalross's_ head lay to the south-east.
+
+"He doesn't want to be near the ice in a storm," thought Steve; and,
+strange enough as it appeared to him, he felt comparatively happy, a
+big, real trouble making the petty affair over which he had felt so
+despondent begin to fade away.
+
+When he reappeared Captain Marsham was forward seeing to the extra
+lashing of the boats, which were drawn on board, and a glance showed him
+that Johannes and Andrew were at the wheel--that is, one was holding the
+spokes, while the other had been ordered there ready to render aid if it
+were required.
+
+"Going to be much of a storm, Johannes?" asked Steve.
+
+"Yes, sir, a fierce, heavy snowstorm, with a great wind from the north."
+
+"Ay, awm thenking she'll have ferry dirty weather for twa or three days,
+Meester Steve," added Andrew.  "Well, lad, ye've got rid of all ta
+feathers, hey?"
+
+"Yes," said Steve shortly, as if he did not want to hear any allusion to
+the morning's trouble.  "But tell me, Johannes, can't we get into any
+sheltered bay till the storm has passed?"
+
+"Not without running a great deal of risk of being caught in the ice,
+sir.  We couldn't beat back to the west coast with this wind rising; and
+even if we could, I fear that the ice would be drifting down and
+stopping us."
+
+"Ay, she'd never get roond the cape this weather," grunted Andrew.
+"Look ahint ye, my lad.  She's hat some ferry douce weather lately; now
+she's coing to have some ferry pad weather.  But she's a coot poat, and
+she can ride oot the gale if she ton't go to ta pottom."
+
+"Well, you're a pretty sort of a Job's comforter, Andra," said Steve,
+trying to be cheerful under depressing circumstances.  "But I say, if we
+do take to the boats, mind and not forget the pipes."
+
+"Ta pipes, Meester Steve, sir?  She needna have anny fear apoot tat.
+They shan't pe trooned."
+
+"What do you say, Johannes?" cried Steve, laughing.
+
+"The captain knows his business, sir," said the man gravely, "and he has
+a good crew.  He is having the steam got up so that we can get right
+away from the ice.  With plenty of room the _Hvalross_ will not hurt."
+
+Every one was busy now save the doctor and Steve, who, being the
+non-combatants in the fight about to take place with the coming storm,
+felt both of them rather in the way; and as birds of a feather are said
+to flock together, they, after their fashion, flocked; in other words,
+they naturally joined company to talk about the outlook.
+
+"Glad you and the captain are all right again, Steve," said the former.
+"Matters look too serious now for petty troubles, eh?"
+
+"It did not seem to be a petty trouble to me, sir," replied Steve
+quietly.
+
+"No, no, of course not; but that's all over now.  I'm afraid we are
+going to have a bad storm."
+
+"Think so, sir?"
+
+"Look at the captain.  He does; or he would not be taking all these
+precautions.  I suppose we can do nothing?"
+
+"Only get out of the way," replied Steve.  "Every one looks as if he
+wishes we would go below."
+
+"Then every one will be disappointed," said the doctor shortly.  "If I'm
+to be drowned, it shall be from the deck.  I'm not going to be battened
+down under hatches, nor you neither, eh?"
+
+"No, I shall stop on deck," said Steve stoutly.  "How dark it's
+getting!"
+
+"Yes, my lad.  It looks very beautiful in the bright sunshine, with the
+ice and snow glittering; but Nature certainly seems to have drawn her
+line up here in the north, to show us that this part of the world was
+never meant for ordinary human habitation.  If ever the North Pole is
+reached it will only be a scientific feat, and no valuable result can
+follow for enterprising man.  Whew!" he added with a shiver; "did you
+feel that?"
+
+For an icy puff of wind struck them suddenly and then passed on, leaving
+the air as calm as it was before its coming.
+
+"No one could help feeling it," said Steve, buttoning his mackintosh
+tightly.
+
+"Part of the advance-guard of the storm, my lad.  Yes, we're going to
+have it soon.  Let's see, you thought one day that it was horribly hot
+down below, didn't you?"
+
+Steve nodded.
+
+"I'm thinking that we shall be glad to go down and visit the
+engine-room, and not be above turning stokers."
+
+Another icy blast put an end to the doctor's remarks; and as it passed
+on toward the south, after making the ship heel over and then race
+onward, the captain gave sharp orders for reducing the small amount of
+sail even more, Johannes giving one of his fellow-Norsemen a satisfied
+nod of the head, which Steve read to mean:
+
+"All right; he knows his business."
+
+And all the while the men were busy below, hurrying on the furnaces and
+adding to the darkness astern by making the low, wide funnel send out a
+great black cloud of smoke, which, instead of trailing astern like a
+plume, gathered together and followed the vessel, shutting off the view
+northward, save when one of the chilling blasts dispersed it, driving it
+onward and leaving all clear.
+
+"Getting snug by degrees," said the captain, joining the two idlers for
+a few moments before hurrying off in a fresh direction.  "If it will
+hold up another quarter of an hour, I think we shall be ready to say to
+it, `Do your worst.'"
+
+"Oh, it will last that time."
+
+The captain did not answer, but went to where the men were furling a
+sail, and he had hardly reached them when a puff of wind seemed to dash
+down and seize the portion of the great fore-and-aft canvas unsecured,
+fill it out balloon-fashion, and swing round the heavy yard, which was
+about to be laid along the top, level with the boom below.
+
+Two men went backwards on the deck.
+
+"Two more hands here!" roared the captain.  "Lay on to it, my lads;" and
+as two of the Norwegians sprang to help, and the two men who had been
+sent sprawling on the deck regained their feet, Steve shouted, "Come on,
+Mr Handscombe!" and ran and climbed on to the swinging yard to help
+bear it down.
+
+Five minutes' hard fight, and the sail was bound down with its yard
+firmly on to the great boom which lay horizontally level with the
+bulwarks, and a stout rope was passed round and round and made fast
+before the next puff came.  For these began to succeed each other more
+rapidly now, following the advance-guard of the boreal enemy like a band
+of skirmishers trying to make an easy way for the main army close upon
+their track.
+
+The sail reduced, all but that which was absolutely necessary, and
+which, small as was its surface, was sufficient to make the _Hvalross_
+race along during the time the blasts endured, the captain directed his
+attention to the hatches' battening down, spreading tarpaulins, and
+having them nailed over, till at last he turned to where the doctor and
+Steve stood gazing astern at the grim, black wall, which appeared to be
+following about a mile away.
+
+"There," he said, "I think we are ready for the fight now.  A pretty
+good lesson this in having everything shipshape, so as to be prepared
+for emergencies."
+
+"I think it has been wonderful," said the doctor.  "How well the men
+seconded you!"
+
+"Yes; not forgetting the doctor and Steve.  That was very brave of you,
+my lad.  A sailor of twenty years' experience could not have done
+better."
+
+"What, in getting astride of that yard to bear it down?  Why, it seemed
+just the thing to do!"
+
+"Exactly; but it was the doing it speedily, before it did any mischief."
+
+"Perhaps we shall ride on before the storm now, and not be much affected
+by it," said the doctor tentatively; but the captain shook his head.
+
+"We shall have it directly.  Look how the water is beginning to foam
+away yonder!  What I fear is that it may not keep on from the north, but
+veer about and change.  We want more sea room."
+
+"But we have come miles away from the ice already."
+
+"Yes; but I should like to be another fifty.  Hark!"  The command was
+not needed, for those he addressed listened awe-stricken to a deep,
+crashing roar which now came from astern.
+
+"Thunder?" asked Steve.
+
+"Wind, and breaking up of the ice," said the captain quietly.  "If we
+had stopped in one of the bays of Spitzbergen, we should have had
+shelter, found the way open after the gale is over, and been able to get
+round the north of the great island."
+
+"Here it comes!" cried Steve, as there was another of the fierce rushes
+of wind, this time so heavy that the air smote him in the face, and he
+had to turn away, panting, to breathe.
+
+"Yes, we have it now!" cried the captain.  "Stand fast there, you two by
+the wheel!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" came in a deep growl from Johannes, as he and Andrew
+grasped the spokes side by side.
+
+"And now," said the captain to his companions in a low voice, "you two
+had better go below."
+
+"No!" cried the doctor and Steve at one and the same moment.
+
+"Very well.  Get under shelter of the bulwarks, then.  The fight has
+begun."
+
+He was right, for the storm was upon them with a wild, shrieking,
+hissing, deafening roar that nearly took Steve off his legs, and sent
+the doctor staggering forward to clutch at the nearest object that would
+offer a hold.  In an instant the deck was white with a fine, powdery
+dust that bit and stung and filled the hair, penetrating to the skin.
+Voices were inaudible, but there was a weird chorus from the ropes and
+stays, and then a loud report as one of the storm sails burst into
+ribbons and was torn piecemeal out of the bolt ropes.
+
+Steve turned to see what effect this had upon the captain, and to learn
+whether it meant danger; but the blinding snow hid him from sight, as
+well as the men at the wheel; and all he knew was that no one stirred
+save the doctor, who had crawled to the shelter of the bulwark, and
+crouched down by his side, to grasp his arm, and place his lips close to
+his ear and shout:
+
+"What do you think of this?"
+
+Steve made no answer, for the noise, the rush of the snow, the swaying
+motion of the ship, and the darkness combined to stun his senses.  All
+he could do was to struggle for his breath, gasping, glad to get his
+hands over his mouth and nostrils as he realised how easily any one
+might be suffocated in such a storm.
+
+The _Hvalross_ was almost on her beam ends for a few minutes; then she
+righted and tore through the water, which was nearly smooth, the
+hurricane cutting off the tops of the waves, to mingle with the
+snow-dust in a spray which froze instantly, and beat against everything
+it encountered with painful violence, or covered the masts, sails, and
+ropes with a thick coating of ice.
+
+Then all was darkness and confusion, deafening, bewildering, and
+strange.  The captain made his way to the wheel, and the rest clustered
+forward, sheltering themselves in front of the galley, for nothing could
+be done then.  The only men who could do anything for their safety were
+those at the wheel, and the engineer and fireman, who, sheltered in the
+warmth below, worked on to get up a head of steam ready against it was
+wanted; but that did not seem probable for some time to come, the vessel
+racing on under almost bare poles into a continuation of the
+semi-darkness which surrounded them.
+
+And now Steve thoroughly realised how helpless man, with all his
+ingenuity, became in the midst of such a storm.  Absolutely nothing
+could be done but trust themselves to the hands of God, and wait
+patiently for the end.
+
+As soon as the lad could collect his thoughts, he began to wonder what
+the consequences would be if they overtook some other unfortunate
+vessel.  Again, how far it was to the Siberian coast, toward which they
+were being driven; and whether Captain Marsham would be able to tell in
+the midst of that deafening clamour and blinding darkness of the
+elements how far they might go before being able to turn ship and try to
+hold his own by the help of the steam in the teeth of the gale.  Then,
+suffering an intensity of cold such as was perfectly new to him, he
+crouched there, stunned, bewildered, and unable to move.
+
+He was conscious, after a space of what must have been hours, that some
+change had taken place, for the vessel appeared to be struck again by
+the storm, but from the other quarter, and just then the wind seemed to
+pluck and drag at him, as if to tear him from where he crouched, while a
+short time after the _Hvalross_ heeled over again to such an extent that
+she seemed as if she would never recover herself.
+
+At last Steve became conscious of some one touching him, grasping his
+arm, and shaking him; but he could hardly move.  Then he felt himself
+dragged over the ice--for it did not seem like the deck--to the way down
+to the engine-room, and heard a voice shouting, "No, it would be
+dangerous--cabin!"
+
+How he was helped down he did not know, but he revived a little to the
+fact that the doctor and captain were by him, and in spite of the din it
+was possible to hear what was said.
+
+"Is he frost-bitten?"
+
+"No, I think not."
+
+"Keep him down here, then, and stay yourself."
+
+"Are you going back on deck?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"But one moment.  Tell me--I felt a shock.  Are we running right for the
+coast, due south?"
+
+"I wish we were," said the captain gravely.  "No; the storm seemed to
+swing round, and is blowing almost in a contrary direction.  We are
+running north-east, and unless I can get her head to wind and the steam
+well up we shall soon be amongst the drifting ice."
+
+He hurried out of the cabin and closed the door after him, while the
+doctor hastened to get Steve's mackintosh from his stiffened body and
+arms, and helped him to put on a fur-lined coat.
+
+"That's better," said the doctor.
+
+Steve nodded.
+
+"How are your feet--numbed?"
+
+"No," said Steve, rather faintly, "I think they are all right.  I was
+crouched together sitting on them."
+
+"And your hands?"
+
+"They were in my breast.  There's nothing the matter now.  I only felt
+confused, and as if I could not think or do anything."
+
+"I felt the same, my lad.  It is very awful.  I never thought such a
+storm was possible.  Do you think you can venture to go on deck again?"
+
+"Oh yes, I'm ready.  I shan't feel the cold so in this coat."
+
+"Then come and help me.  I want to do something to comfort the men if I
+can.  Let's make our way to the galley."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I want to get the cook to make a quantity of hot tea.  The poor fellows
+must have something, or they will perish."
+
+"I'm ready, sir," cried Steve; "come along."
+
+"Wait a minute.  Which will be the best way?"
+
+"Get to the bulwarks at once, and creep along till we're opposite the
+galley.  It will be easy enough then."
+
+"I doubt it, my lad."
+
+Then the door was opened, for a blinding cloud of powdery snow to rush
+in; and as they stood together out there once more in the wild shrieking
+and yelling of the storm, while the ship shivered and creaked and
+throbbed, they had hard work to close the door after them before making
+their way on hands and knees through the thick snow to the weather
+bulwark, and along by this they crept till abreast of the galley without
+coming across a soul.  They paused here for a few moments, and then
+Steve placed his lips to the doctor's ear.
+
+"Come on!" he said; and leading the way once more he crossed to the end
+of the galley in a blind struggle against the wind, which seemed to
+pounce upon him and try to tear him away.  But he crept on, with the
+doctor close to him, and became aware that he was touching something
+cold, which moved and then seized him with a hoarse:
+
+"Wha's this?"
+
+"I, Hamish!" shouted the boy.  "We want to get into the galley."
+
+"Gang below, laddie.  Ta fire's oot, and there's naebody there."
+
+"Come back," said the doctor in Steve's ear; and the boy followed, too
+much stunned and confused by the wind and driving ice powder to propose
+any other plan.  But as he turned to follow the doctor he became aware
+that several men were huddled together there in the slight shelter
+afforded by the cook-house, and this confused him more, for the men were
+at the wrong end, and not where he knew they had taken refuge before.
+
+And now he recalled the sudden change which had taken place, and grasped
+the fact that they were head to wind, or nearly so, while a vibration
+beneath his feet told him that the engine was hard at work.
+
+The next minute--how he did not know--they were by the way down into the
+engine-room, the doctor's snowy figure being visible in a misty light
+which struck upward as he descended, Steve following breathless and
+panting, to find in the glow shed by the fires the cook on one side and
+Watty Links on the other, while even here the snow-dust was whirling
+down and melting at once into a rain, which ascended as a thick steam.
+
+"Hadn't you better have kept in the cabin, sir?" said the engineer to
+Steve; and then he turned to the doctor, "Come down for a warm, sir?"
+
+"No!  I wanted to try and get some hot drink to the men on deck--some
+hot coffee."
+
+"Couldn't be done, sir," said the cook.
+
+"Let's say that when we've tried and failed," cried Steve.  "You can get
+hot water here; I'll fetch coffee and sugar."
+
+"Very well, sir, I'll try; but how are we to get it to them on deck?"
+
+"Bottles, man, bottles!" cried the doctor.  "Where there's a will
+there's a way."
+
+The energy displayed by the new-comers, aided by the warmth, had its
+effect upon the man; the engineer remembered that he had two clean
+bottles in a locker, and Steve and the doctor fought their way again
+over the slippery, snowy deck to the cabin, from which they emerged
+again well laden, and in another quarter of an hour they were on their
+way first to the wheel, holding on tightly to prevent their being swept
+heavily across the poop, and they felt, more than saw, the two men, and
+by them the captain and mate.
+
+They did not speak their mission, but told it dumbly by pressing a
+bottle of hot coffee in each man's hand, waiting while it was consumed,
+and then returning to get the bottles refilled, their thanks being a
+warm, hearty pressure and a shouted warning from the captain to take
+care as they turned to creep back under such shelter as they could get,
+Steve having hard work once to save himself from being driven forward by
+the wind, which seemed to come from all quarters at once.
+
+The men huddled forward on deck were now relieved in the same way, this
+taking two journeys, after which they joined the engineer in partaking
+of the hot, steaming compound, and prepared to return on deck.
+
+"Hadn't you better stay below here, sir?" said the man; "there's nothing
+to be done on deck."
+
+"We'll come down again," replied the doctor.  "Why, Steve," he cried,
+"Captain Marsham is on the bridge!"
+
+For at that moment there was a sharp ting upon the gong just overhead,
+which the engineer responded to by seizing the lever and altering the
+number of revolutions per minute of the screw.  The next moment he
+staggered, and would have fallen but for his grasp of the lever, the
+doctor staggered up against the side, and Steve caught hold of the
+engineer, while Watty Links was pitched from his seat on to the iron
+flooring, and evidently uttered a yell, though it was not heard in the
+terrific noise of the storm; neither did they hear a tremendous crash;
+but all knew that they had struck something, for there was a fearful
+shock, and a peculiar thrill ran through the vessel just as if she were
+being shaken to pieces and her timbers were about to fall apart.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+IN THE GRIP OF NATURE.
+
+The doctor seized and pressed Steve's hand in silence as he hurried up
+on deck to struggle aft to the captain, fully expecting that they were
+going down.  But he was invisible in the driving snow.  They made out
+somehow, though, that he was on the bridge in company with the mate;
+and, unable to reach and question him, they crept together right aft to
+the wheel, where Steve found himself at Johannes' feet.
+
+The big Norseman did not wait to be questioned.  He knew why the lad had
+come, and, bending down, he roared in his ear:
+
+"Ice--struck bows!"
+
+That was all, and the man stood immovable once more at his post.
+
+"Come away!" cried the doctor.  "We have no business here."
+
+Closely as his lips were pressed to Steve's ear, the words were hardly
+heard; but the movement he made was suggestive, and though he longed to
+stay there by the big Norseman, he felt that it was right, and he
+followed his companion, stopping just under the bridge, and, unable to
+resist the desire, he began to creep up the steps.
+
+The wind pressure was fearful, and everything he touched was coated with
+ice; but he persevered till he could touch the captain's leg.  In an
+instant he had stooped down to the boy, to shout, as loudly as he could:
+
+"Go down!"
+
+It seemed hard to the boy, when the touch only meant a desire to show
+that he was thinking about the man so bravely facing the fierce storm;
+but he obeyed, and, somehow or other, he hardly knew how, reached the
+cabin, where the doctor, after several tries, lit the lamp.
+
+As the light shone out Steve stared in wonder at his companion, and then
+around him at what should have been the snugly furnished cabin.  Now all
+was changed; the white snow had penetrated through door-cracks and the
+ventilator, covering everything.
+
+But they could breathe and talk here as they rubbed the snow from their
+faces and hair; though their coats were like so much armour, and were
+too stiff to bend.
+
+"Awful, Steve, my boy!  Awful!" shouted the doctor.  "What a fearful
+storm!"
+
+The noise increased just then, for the door was quickly opened, but as
+quickly shut, and a white figure stood before them; and for the moment
+they thought it was the captain; then the icy helmet upon the man's head
+was with some difficulty taken off, revealing the face of Mr Lowe, the
+mate.
+
+"The captain says you are not to run such a risk again, my lad.  You can
+do us no good, and it troubles him when he wants all his energy to save
+the ship."
+
+"Then we are in great danger?" cried Steve.
+
+"Yes, my lad, I think so," was the reply; "but the captain will save us
+if it is to be done."
+
+"What was that awful crash?"
+
+"Ice beneath our bows.  We have it all round now, and it is impossible
+to avoid it.  All we can do is to keep her head to the wind, and drift.
+We can make no headway with full steam on, and we dare not if we could."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Can't stop," was the reply; "going forward to the men;" and the mate
+replaced his ice-laden cap and passed out into the storm.
+
+"The captain was thinking of your safety, Steve, my lad; but we must
+think for him and the crew.  Exposure such as they are going through is
+murderous.  Let's wait for a bit, and then take them all some more hot
+drink."
+
+He led the way out of the whitened cabin, and they struggled back
+through the driving snow to the engine-room, down into whose warm glow
+they crept just as there was another blow, which jarred the whole ship.
+Then the gong sounded.
+
+"Slower," said the engineer, as he moved the lever.  "There, that's
+about as little as we can do.  Just enough to give her steering power."
+
+No more was said, and Steve looked round, as he warmed his numbed hands,
+to see that Watty was lying with his face in his hands, close to the
+side.
+
+"Asleep?" said Steve, with his lips to the cook's ear; but the man shook
+his head.
+
+"Fright!" he replied.
+
+A few minutes later one of the Norwegians and three of the crew came
+down all covered with ice, and one of the furnace doors was opened to
+send out a genial glow, lighting up the whole place, which was now
+dripping wet with thawed snow, and the stream rose up to float out
+through the hatch.
+
+"Mate sent us down for a warm," said one of the men.  "To stay half an
+hour, and then relieve some more.  We can do nothing on deck."
+
+"Let's leave them," said the doctor in Steve's ear; and after warning
+the cook to be ready with the refreshment in half an hour, they made
+their way back to the cabin.
+
+Those refreshments were not taken to the men on deck, for in turn all
+were sent down to the engine-room for warmth and food; and at last, to
+Steve's great delight, the captain entered the cabin, to reply to the
+grips of the hand given him, and then drink with avidity the hot coffee
+ready on the table.
+
+"I don't like leaving the deck," he said cheerfully; "but I must have
+coal and water for my engine, or I cannot work.  No, no, don't question
+me; I have no news.  We are in an awful storm, and are being carried
+with the drifting ice, Heaven only knows where."
+
+That storm lasted forty-eight hours--hours of as great trial as man
+could go through, and live.  Steve had borne up till, in spite of the
+danger, his eyes would keep open no longer, and then he had slept a
+troubled nightmare-like sleep to dream of shipwreck and struggling with
+the wind and waves.  Every now and then he would start awake suffering
+from cold, and draw the great skin rug in which he had nestled closer
+round him, and drop off again into what was almost a stupor.
+
+There was one time, or else he dreamed it--he never quite knew which--
+when he crept all about the deck again, to find it deeply encumbered
+with snow.  Then he was back in the cabin lying on a locker, and he
+opened his eyes and saw the captain rolled up in a blanket lying asleep
+on the table.  The next minute he was looking about again, to find that
+the captain had gone, and that the doctor only was there.  Once it was
+Mr Lowe, but he, too, disappeared, and then all was blank, till he
+started into wakefulness, to find that the deafening rush and roar had
+ceased, and that a peculiar weird light was forcing its way into the
+cabin; while at intervals there came a curious grinding, cracking sound,
+followed every now and then by a loud, rending crash.  The ship was
+rolling slowly upon a heaving sea, and steaming slowly, for the
+vibration of the screw made the things in the cabin quiver.  Then there
+was more light in the cabin, for the door was opened with a crackling
+sound, as of moving broken ice, and the captain, glistening and white,
+entered the cabin.
+
+"Awake, Steve?" he said in a low, weary voice.
+
+"Yes, I'm so ashamed.  Then the storm is over?"
+
+"Yes, my lad," said the captain, sinking down on the locker with his
+great oil-skin coat crackling loudly; "at last, thank God!"
+
+There was a deep, heartfelt ring in Captain Marsham's voice as he
+uttered those words, and for some moments Steve was silent, conscious
+now that the doctor was lying on the cabin floor sleeping soundly.
+
+"And we ought to have been on deck to help you, sir," said Steve at
+last.
+
+"No, my lad, I sent word for you to stay below; man or boy could not
+help us then.  We could only wait."
+
+"But we are safe?"
+
+"For the present, yes."
+
+"And where are we?"
+
+The captain smiled faintly.
+
+"Where are we?" he said.  "That's more than I can tell.  In the ice,
+Steve, and for aught I can tell, right up somewhere toward the North
+Pole."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+NO MAN'S LAND.
+
+The cold pierced Steve through and through, as he hurriedly shook
+himself together; and his first thought now was to help Captain Marsham,
+who was utterly prostrate from anxiety, want of sleep, and long
+exposure.
+
+"I shall be all right, my lad," he said kindly, "as soon as I've had
+some hot tea and a nap.  It was a long fight, but the storm is over.
+The wind swept round, and we've been carried north with the ice, which
+has been ripped up into endless lanes of clear water.  As soon as I can
+take an observation we shall see where we are."
+
+Their talking roused the doctor, who sprang up to reproach himself after
+Steve's fashion.
+
+"I am so ashamed, Marsham!" he cried warmly.
+
+"For doing your duty as a non-combatant man?" replied the captain,
+smiling.  "Nonsense!  You did me the greatest service you could by
+keeping out of my way."
+
+In a short time the sailor who acted the part of steward appeared, to
+show that the routine of the ship, interrupted by that fearful storm,
+had been resumed, and that the cook had his galley fire going; for a
+good breakfast was spread upon the table, after which Steve hurried out
+on deck, leaving the captain to have an hour or two's rest.
+
+He gazed about him wonderingly, his eyes dazzled by the brilliant light;
+for the sun was shining brightly, and flashing and sparkling from the
+ice and snow floating in every direction and in motion in the water,
+which appeared by contrast absolutely black.
+
+The _Hvalross_ was under steam, for the ropes and sails were thickly
+coated with ice and snow; but the aim of the man who was now on the
+bridge was not to attempt progress so much as to avoid coming in contact
+with the masses and fields of ice which from time to time threatened to
+close in around and crush her like a shell.  For there were masses of
+ice from the size of one of the boats right up to detached fields that
+were hundreds of yards across; and feeling as if they had escaped a
+horrible danger, and in perfect ignorance of the fact that their
+position was as perilous as ever, Steve feasted his eyes on the glorious
+spread of fantastic beauty before him, and felt as if he had just
+awakened in a world where everything was silver, even to the vessel in
+which he sailed.
+
+There were no towering icebergs such as are encountered floating in the
+Atlantic, for the ice here consisted of the broken-up surface of the
+frozen sea, the largest pieces not being twenty feet in height, and
+looking, from their irregularity, as if one field had been forced over
+another by the rushing waters, which ripped and tore and broke up the
+ice barrier at whose edge they had so often sailed.  But these pieces
+exhibited every shade of lovely blue, side by side with the glittering
+as of crystallised silver, for their inequalities were in places covered
+with soft powdery snow such as three of the men were scraping up and
+brushing from the deck and tops of the deckhouses where it lay piled.
+
+Forward the sturdy Norsemen were standing armed with hitchers and poles,
+which they held ready to try and ease off the floating masses of ice, to
+keep them from driving hard on to the ship's bows, with the result that
+generally the _Hvalross_ was spared a heavy concussion, and the blocks
+went scraping along the sides.  Every now and then there was a loud
+crushing up of the smaller pieces between the larger, some being
+shivered to atoms, while others were forced upward one above another,
+explaining the noises heard in the cabin; and soon after Steve had
+another startling experience in the splitting across of a great field of
+ice, which, consequent upon the undulating motion given by the sea,
+snapped with a noise like thunder; and this was followed by crashing and
+splitting of a nature that gave appalling evidence of the power of
+nature under circumstances like these.
+
+"Well, Mr Steve," said the mate, as the lad mounted to the bridge
+beside him.  "Mind; it's very slippery here."
+
+"I've found that out," said the boy merrily; for he had hurt his shin in
+climbing the icy steps of the ladder.
+
+"Yes, it is awkward.  Well, what do you think of this?"
+
+"Wonderful!  Grand!" cried the boy.  "Never saw anything so beautiful
+before."
+
+"Oh yes, very beautiful," said the mate grimly; and Steve saw how
+haggard and weary he looked.  "But I could do with a little less beauty
+and more open water, my lad."
+
+"Yes; it is awkward to steer amongst all this."
+
+"Very," said the mate drily, as there was a sharp concussion against a
+great floating piece of ice, which the strong prow of the _Hvalross_,
+cased with iron to meet such contingencies, cut in two as if it had been
+snow.
+
+"You like it, then?" said the mate.
+
+"Like it!  Why, it's grander than anything I can imagine."
+
+"Yes; grand enough to crush up the _Hvalross_ like an eggshell,"
+muttered the mate.
+
+"Yes; but you'll take care it does not!" cried Steve, smiling.  "She
+would go to pieces on rocks, but you and the captain will mind that she
+does not."
+
+The mate's grim, weary face brightened into a smile, and he clapped one
+of his fur-gloved hands on Steve's shoulder.
+
+"Bravo, boy!" he said.  "It's a fine thing to be your age, full of hope
+and confidence.  Yes, we'll do our best not to get crushed; but it's a
+very awkward position to be in."
+
+"Why?" said Steve.  "The storm's over."
+
+"Yes, the storm's over; but look where we are drifting north with all
+this.  Suppose we come to the stationary ice, with all these great floes
+behind us?"
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"What then?" said the mate, with a laugh at this questioner's innocence.
+"Why, the drifting ice behind us, pressed forward with a power of
+millions of tons, will force us against the fixed ice, and then we shall
+either be lifted right out of the water, or go, as I said, like an
+eggshell."
+
+"Ah! but that's only what might happen," said Steve.  "I say, though,
+Mr Lowe, whereabouts are we?  Not up by the North Pole?"
+
+"No," said the mate, smiling as he gave a look round, shading his eyes
+with his hand; "I don't see it sticking up out of the snow.  We're not
+anywhere near the North Pole, but I can give a pretty shrewd guess as to
+where we are."
+
+"Can you?"
+
+"We've been driven right through the opened-up ice somewhere a long way
+east and north of Spitzbergen.  I should say about where land was
+sighted in one of the expeditions up beyond Gillis Land, toward where
+the Austrians saw a coast which they called Franz Josef."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I don't say that's it; but we're somewhere thereabouts, and--"
+
+He stopped short to use his glass for a few minutes, Steve watching him
+impatiently.
+
+"Yes," he said at last, "there's land yonder."
+
+"Where? amongst that ice?"
+
+"Yes; look," said the mate, handing the glass; "right in the nor'-east
+yonder.  There's land miles away.  Quite mountainous.  See it?"
+
+"I can see a glittering pyramid of ice; yes, and a big, heavy mass
+beside it."
+
+"That's right; that's it."
+
+"But it's ice and snow, not land."
+
+"The land's under it, my lad," said the mate.  "The ice and snow don't
+pile up like that without something to stand on.  The captain ought to
+know this; but he's so done up I wouldn't wake him.  He could do no good
+if he came on deck."
+
+"Then shall you make for that land?"
+
+"Yes; there's nothing else to be done.  We must go forward now, as
+there's open water.  All astern is ice, where we should certainly be
+nipped.  That's safety for us if we can steam there, for we should be
+sure to find some cove or fiord, and shelter from the pressure of the
+ice."
+
+"But suppose we should get into a fiord, and the ice blocked us in, what
+then?" said Steve, more anxiously.
+
+"Why, then we should have to wait till it opened again and let us out."
+
+"But it might be a long time."
+
+"Perhaps so; but that's better than getting our ship crushed, eh?"
+
+"Of course," said Steve; and soon after he went down to talk to the
+Norsemen forward, the momentary depression at the idea of being shut in
+having passed away.
+
+There was a low, whimpering muttering as he neared the galley, the door
+of which was ajar, and he heard the cook say angrily:
+
+"Look here, sir, if you don't stop that snivelling, I'll stand you
+outside to let the tears freeze.  I'm not going to have you turning on
+the rain here.  Do you want to put my fire out?"
+
+"Aw canna help it," said Watty piteously.  "Aw was thenking aboot my
+mither."
+
+"Thinking about your `mither,' you great calf!  Well, other people think
+about their `mithers,' but they don't go on blubbering when they've got
+some potatoes to wash.  Hullo!  Tut, tut, tut!  They'll have to go
+overboard.  Here, take these from close by the stove.  Those others are
+frozen."
+
+"She never meant me to come oop here in the cauld to be starved to
+death."
+
+"What?" cried the cook.  "Eh?  Oh, it's you, Mr Steve.  How are you,
+sir?  Managed to get you a good breakfast this morning."
+
+"Yes, thank you.  It was grand.  What's the matter with Watty Links?"
+
+"Why, sir, he had a lot of biscuits and fried bacon an hour ago, and a
+quart of hot coffee to wash it all down, and now he says that his
+`mither' never meant him to come up here to be starved."
+
+"I didn't!" cried Watty angrily.  "I never said a word aboot eatin' and
+drinkin'.  I said `starved wi' the cauld.'"
+
+"Hey, but you're a poor, weak, sappy kind of a fellow," cried the cook.
+"There's precious little solid meat on you, I'm afraid.  Going, Mr
+Steve, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I must be off."
+
+"Right, sir.  Roast venison for dinner to-day.  The deer meat will be
+prime."
+
+Steve nodded, and was turning away, when his eyes encountered those of
+the boy, who had evidently forgotten all about his "mither," and was
+grinning at him derisively, and in a way which made Steve's fingers
+tingle to tighten up into a fist and teach the lad a lesson.  But he
+went out and shut the door, before going forward to where the four
+Norwegians were fending off the ice.
+
+"Morning," he cried; and the great, sturdy fellows greeted him with a
+pleasant smile on their grave faces.
+
+"Glad to see you out and well, Mr Steve," said Johannes; and the others
+uttered something which was evidently meant as acquiescence in their
+companion's greeting.
+
+"Oh, I'm all right," said Steve, "only a bit cold; but I say, have all
+you chaps had plenty of breakfast?"
+
+"Plenty, sir, plenty!" they cried, as they levelled their poles to meet
+the charge of a great block which was coming on to them.
+
+The concussion staggered them a little, but the mass of ice was turned
+aside, and they had a few minutes' respite.
+
+"What an awful storm!" said Steve.
+
+"Yes, sir, it was.  The worst we were ever in," replied Johannes; "but
+it's brought us close up to a grand land for hunting."
+
+"What, that land over yonder?" cried Steve, pointing.
+
+"Yes, sir.  It's many years since any one reached that land, if it ever
+was reached, and we're thinking all of us that the walrus will be there
+in herds."
+
+"But did Mr Lowe tell you that was land yonder?"
+
+"No, sir; we saw him pointing with his glass, and Jakobsen there has
+wondrous eyes; he could see the tops of the mountains when he looked.
+There's good coming out of evil, sir; and you'll see we shall load up
+with oil when we get there."
+
+"But do you really think we shall find the sea-horses there.  I want to
+see a walrus."
+
+"We feel sure of it, sir, because they have been hunted and driven back
+farther and farther every year of late; and we all felt that they must
+have retired to somewhere farther north, and by a great stroke of good
+fortune the ice has opened enough for us to get there."
+
+"Then the storm was all for the best, Johannes?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I hope so," said the man, joining another in sending off a
+great block as he spoke.
+
+"But I say," said Steve anxiously, "suppose we get frozen up there, and
+can't get back."
+
+"We don't talk like that, sir, at the beginning of summer out here,"
+said the Norseman.  "If it was September, it would be different.  We've
+got nearly three months for the ice to keep on melting and breaking up."
+
+"Yes, I see, and a better chance for exploring and searching for the
+_Ice Blink_!"
+
+"Yes, sir, of course," said the man, with a slight change in his voice;
+and Steve left them to go and talk to Andrew and Hamish, who were both
+aft, the latter being at the wheel.
+
+"They don't think we shall ever find the poor fellows," thought Steve
+sadly.  "I could see it in their looks when I spoke.  But they can't
+tell any more than I can; and, for all we know, they may be frozen-in,
+waiting for the ice to break up.  Yes; as it has broken up, so that we
+may come across them at any time."
+
+Just then he encountered the doctor in a heavy sheep-skin coat.  He had
+been in the cabin.
+
+"Captain's sleeping like a top," said the doctor.  "I've been to see.
+Couldn't you and I relieve Mr Lowe here?"
+
+He looked up as he spoke, for they were just below the bridge, and the
+mate leaned over and spoke.
+
+"No, thank you, gentlemen," he said.  "I can stand it for a couple of
+hours longer, and then the captain will wake up and relieve me.  You
+could not con the vessel through this ice, and there's only one man on
+board to whom I'd give up my place--the captain."
+
+"We seem very helpless people here.  Let's go and talk to our two Scotch
+friends.  But look here, my lad, hadn't you better get on a fur coat?"
+
+"I'm not cold," replied Steve; and they went on to the man by the wheel,
+where Andrew greeted them with a grin.
+
+"The pipes are a' recht, Meester Steve," he said.  "She'll like to hear
+them the noo?"
+
+"I don't believe they'd go."
+
+"She ton't pelief they'd go?"
+
+"No.  The potatoes were frozen in the cook-house, and I'll be bound to
+say they're spoiled."
+
+Andrew McByle's face was a study as he looked from the speaker forward,
+and then turned hastily to Hamish.
+
+"She'll mind ta wheel her nainsel," he said huskily, "while she goes to
+see aboot her pipes."
+
+He turned to Steve again, and saw the twinkle in the lad's eye.
+
+"She's lairfin'!" he cried.  "The pipes are quite safe a' wrapped oop in
+her auld plaidie"; and he shook his head and laughed heartily.
+
+"Look!" cried Hamish excitedly, pointing to their right.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"A seal.  Ay, there's twa bonnie laddies.  Look at them watching us, and
+looking like twa bodies after having a swim."
+
+Steve did not see the animals at once, for a piece of ice intervened.
+The next moment, though, they came into sight, where they lay upon the
+snow, and raised their round heads to gaze at the ship.
+
+"No wonder that some of the old mariners who first saw these large seals
+fancied that there were mermen and mermaids at sea," said the doctor, as
+they watched the peculiar semi-human faces of the creatures gazing at
+them with their great, soft eyes.
+
+"You might almost fancy, if you saw one of them looking over a rock at
+you at a little distance, that it was some kind of savage."
+
+"Yes, but it would have to keep its body out of sight."
+
+"She has never seen the walrus, then?" said Andrew.
+
+"Only a stuffed specimen."
+
+"Nay, she tidn't say a stuff spessaman; she said ta walrus, sir."
+
+"No, I never saw a live walrus," said the doctor, smiling.
+
+"Then she'll just wait a wee till she sees a big bull walrus lift her
+het oot o' ta watter and look, and she'll say tat she's seen a chiant
+having a swim."
+
+The captain came on deck about an hour after with the haggard, drawn
+look gone out of his face, and he mounted the bridge at once to the
+mate, who handed him the glass, and Steve saw him take a long look to
+the north-east before closing the telescope.  Directly after Mr Lowe
+descended and fetched the instruments to take their observations, with
+the result that soon after the mate went below for a rest, leaving the
+captain to direct the movements of the vessel.
+
+There was so much open water around them now, and so direct a channel
+toward the land, while all the rest of the space about them was hemmed
+in with ice drifting northward, that to go to the north coast was the
+least perilous course.
+
+"I should like to get an observation from the crow's-nest," said the
+captain, looking upward, "but everything is so coated with ice and
+slippery that I hardly like to send a man aloft."
+
+"I'll go!" cried Steve eagerly.
+
+The captain shook his head.
+
+"Too dangerous, my lad," he said.
+
+"But you did not tell us where you made out we had been driven," said
+the doctor, as Steve stood looking up at the ratlines thick with ice,
+and the glassy look of shroud and stay, while great icicles hung from
+the tops and yards.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the captain.  "I was thinking of the land
+yonder.  I make out that we have been driven right up to 82 degrees
+north latitude and about 45 east longitude."
+
+"But what does that mean?" said Steve, laughing.
+
+"Not very far from being as near to the North Pole as any one has
+reached in this direction," said the captain, "and that we are close to
+land that in all probability man has never set foot upon yet."
+
+"Hooray!" cried Steve excitedly.
+
+"We have come north at an exceptional time.  Generally the icy barrier
+stops all progress.  This year that storm has broken it up in masses,
+and it is quite possible that we may be able to penetrate farther yet."
+
+"To the North Pole?" cried Steve.
+
+"No," said the captain, smiling.  "My dear boy, you have North Pole on
+the brain.  Would you be ready to go with me if I said that I would try
+and penetrate the ice as far as I could?"
+
+"Of course," cried Steve.  "But you have no confidence in me, sir."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You will not let me go up even to the crow's-nest to use the glass."
+
+"Yes, I will, my lad," replied the captain.  "Take the glass and go up.
+But warily, mind.  No excitement.  You will be quite cool?"
+
+"Yes," cried Steve, snatching at the glass and starting for the
+main-mast shrouds.
+
+"Stop!" cried the captain.  "Come here."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+AMONG THE NATIVES.
+
+Steve walked back to the captain looking puzzled, and feeling damped by
+this sudden change, while his eyes gazed questioningly in his leader's.
+
+"What did I say to you?" cried Captain Marsham.
+
+"I was to go up to the crow's-nest and make observations," replied the
+boy.
+
+"Coolly, warily, and without excitement, because you were going to make
+a dangerous ascent, over what is ten times as slippery as glass."
+
+"Yes," said Steve; "and I was going."
+
+"Going!" cried the captain angrily.  "Yes, just as if you were about to
+run up somebody's carefully sanded steps to the front door."
+
+"But I should have been as careful as could be as soon as I started,
+sir."
+
+"It looked like it.  What do you say, doctor?"
+
+"That he seemed to me as if he would have given me a job to mend some of
+his bones before he was half-way to the main-top."
+
+"Oh, Mr Handscombe!" cried Steve reproachfully.
+
+"It's a fact, sir," said the captain sternly.  "I dare not let you go
+about so serious a task in that jaunty way.  There, give me the glass."
+
+Steve slowly handed the glass, in so despondent a fashion that the
+captain spoke more quietly.
+
+"I can't help it, my lad.  I regret checking you; but you see the state
+of the rigging, and that a slip might be fatal.  I dare not let you go."
+
+Steve said nothing, but glanced up at the crow's-nest, which glistened
+like silver in the sunshine; and he noted again how the rope ladders
+were all coated with ice, and he found it hard to imagine that he had
+been jaunty and careless; he told himself he had only been eager to do
+what was required, and hence it seemed to be doubly hard.
+
+"I did mean to be very careful, sir," he said at last.
+
+"I know it, my lad," replied the captain quietly; "but I was wrong to
+think of it, and your quick, eager way showed me the risk, and made me
+wiser."
+
+"But I don't think it is so dangerous, sir," cried Steve.  "Let me try."
+
+"I do think it dangerous," said the captain.  "There, you shall hear
+another opinion.  Johannes!"
+
+The Norseman answered the hail, and came quickly aft, after laying down
+his pole.
+
+"Can you get up to the crow's-nest, and make a few observations?"
+
+The man looked up at the ice-hardened rigging, and his eyebrows
+contracted a little.
+
+"Yes," he said.  "Shall I take a glass?"
+
+"There!" cried Steve quickly.
+
+"You shall go," said the captain.  "I will send him instead, Johannes."
+
+The man's quiet, stolid manner passed away in an instant.
+
+"It is dangerous for the boy, sir," he said.  "The rigging is all ice."
+
+"Yes, but I'm going to be very careful, Johannes," cried Steve.  "Let me
+see; can't I sling the glass somehow?"
+
+"Don't take that," said the captain.  "Go to the cabin and fetch my
+large binocular in its case.  You can sling that over your shoulder."
+
+Steve made a dart for the cabin, but stopped short, turned, gave the
+doctor a quick look, and then walked slowly to the cabin door,
+disappeared, and came back quite deliberately, adjusting the strap of
+the glass over his arm.
+
+"Yes, that will be powerful enough for the purpose," said the captain
+quietly.  "Now listen: what I want to know is in what directions the
+lanes of open water lead.  You will have an excellent view from up
+there.  Try and make out whether there is open water right up to the
+land."
+
+"Yes, I see," said Steve quietly; and he was about to take off his
+gloves.
+
+"Stop!  What are you going to do?" cried the captain.
+
+"Take off my gloves.  I can hold on so much better."
+
+"And perhaps leave the skin of your hands on the ropes.  You do not feel
+the cold much now because the air is perfectly still and the sun shining
+brightly; but the mercury is very low, and it is growing colder.  Keep
+your gloves on, and be slow and careful.  Now go."
+
+Steve started once more, reached the main shrouds, swung himself up on
+to the bulwark, and instantly had his first lesson in the peril of his
+task, for all at once a foot glided along the top of the bulwark, and
+then went off and downward.  But he had taken a good grip of the shrouds
+and saved himself, otherwise he must have gone overboard, and a curious
+sensation of heat came over him, as he at once began to climb with the
+ratlines feeling hard and thick like the staves of a ladder, while his
+hold upon he icy ropes was awkward and strange.  And now he began to
+awaken to the fact that the job was a much harder one than he had
+imagined it would be, and felt more and more the necessity for the
+greatest of caution.  Glancing down as he heard talking in a low,
+earnest voice below, he saw that Johannes was speaking to the captain;
+but it did not occur to him that it was about him till he had reached
+the main-top, where he paused for a few moments, holding on by the
+ropes.
+
+"Hadn't I better kick some of these icicles and this snow down, sir?" he
+cried.
+
+"Yes; all you can, my lad," replied the captain.
+
+"Stand from below!"  Steve shouted.  And then there was the rattle and
+crackling of the pieces of ice he broke away, till he had made some
+clearance; and he was then about to start upward, when he became aware
+of the fact that Johannes was three parts of the way up to the top where
+he stood.
+
+"Hullo!" he cried, "what do you want?" and as he spoke he saw that the
+man had a little coil of line over one arm.
+
+"Only coming to keep you company, Mr Steve," he said, drawing himself
+up the last few feet and reaching the boy's side.
+
+"Oh, but it's too bad!" cried Steve hotly.  "It's treating me as if I
+were a child.  You've brought this line up to tie me on."
+
+"I've brought the line up because it may be useful, sir," said Johannes
+gravely; "and I've come up because the captain thought the way aloft was
+very dangerous."
+
+"And so did you, and asked him to let you come?"
+
+Johannes was silent.
+
+"I knew it!" cried Steve.  "I do wish you people wouldn't treat me as if
+I were a baby."
+
+"Yes, I did ask him to let me come, sir," said the Norseman; "for it's
+more dangerous than even he thinks.  I saw you make that slip when you
+started, though he did not; and I felt that if you made a slip higher up
+I might be handy to help you."
+
+"Yes, but--" began Steve.
+
+"And he gave me leave to come up."
+
+"Then you'd better go and make the observations, and I'll go down," said
+Steve sulkily.
+
+Johannes looked pained.
+
+"You shall not do that," he said gravely.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it would not be like what I, a Norseman, would expect to see in
+an English gentleman's son."
+
+"Oh, I say," cried Steve, "that's hitting foul.  But it's too bad,
+Johannes, and I hate it.  I might just as well be pulled up by the
+halyards."
+
+"When you have been as long at sea as I have," said Johannes, with a
+calm, grave smile lighting up his fine, manly face, "you will not think
+it a hardship in a dangerous task to have a man at your side whom you
+can trust, and whom you can feel is ready to help you as long as he has
+a bit of strength."
+
+"Come along," said Steve quickly; "the captain will be wondering why I
+don't go up, and thinking I am afraid."
+
+"Oh no," said the Norseman, smiling, "he will not think that of you,
+sir.  There, I'm glad to be with you, Mr Steve; for it is bad climbing,
+and a slip up here would be very, very risky."
+
+"Yes, it is bad climbing," said Steve, as he slowly mounted higher and
+higher, warning his companion, who kept close below him, when he was
+going to kick down some of the ice which encrusted the ropes.
+
+And so the top-mast was passed, and with the main topgallant mast they
+came to the ice-covered cross-spells, which had been lashed on, and
+directly after Steve was beneath the cask raising his hand to push open
+the hinged bottom; but, to his surprise, it did not yield.
+
+"It's frozen!" he cried; and he made effort after effort to move the
+trap, but in vain.
+
+"You'll have to let me come, sir," said Johannes quietly.  "I'm thinking
+that the nest is full of snow."
+
+Steve moved off the spell on which he stood, and held on to the shrouds
+upon the other side, leaving room for the Norseman to take his place.
+
+"Well?" said Steve, as the man exerted his huge strength without effect.
+
+"More than I can do, sir," said Johannes quietly.  "Let's try it a
+little at a time."  And, taking tightly hold, he began to thrust with
+one shoulder up and up, until the trap began to crack and give way
+little by little.
+
+Then a little powdery snow began to crumble out, and the Norseman paused
+to rest.
+
+"You see I am useful," he said, smiling.  "I don't think you could have
+moved that."
+
+"Aloft there!  Can't you get in?" came from below.
+
+"Crow's-nest full of ice and snow!" cried Steve.
+
+"Knock up the bottom, and let it fall through."
+
+"Well, that's what we are doing," said Steve to himself; and then he
+watched as the Norseman toiled away till he could get one hand through
+the opening he had made.
+
+"Mind!" cried Steve.  "Put on your glove, or you'll take the skin off."
+
+"No," said Johannes gravely, "not yet awhile.  It does not freeze in
+that way now; that is when the colder weather sets in.  The sun is
+warming the air too much everywhere.  Look, there are drips forming."
+He worked as he spoke, and now sent the snow and ice showering down from
+the cask, till at last there was quite a little avalanche, after which
+he drew himself up inside, let the door close, and scraped and worked
+away, throwing out consolidated portions, and then sweeping the
+snow-dust till he could open the trap partially and shuffle it out with
+his feet.  "Warm work, sir," he said at last, as he looked over the edge
+and down at Steve.
+
+"Let me come and have a turn, then, for it's horribly cold here."
+
+"Come along, then," said the Norseman; "there's room now."
+
+There was an unusual sensation of numbness in Steve's arms as he climbed
+back on to the wooden spells, and he knew that he had been motionless
+quite long enough; and he could not help feeling that if he had remained
+there another hour clinging to the icy shrouds he would not have been
+able to live.  But the circulation began to return as soon as he exerted
+himself, and, after a little effort, he squeezed himself up through the
+bottom of the cask, the trap fell into its place, and he dragged the
+case of the glass round to the front so as to get at the double
+telescope.
+
+The scene from the deck had been wonderful, but from the interior of the
+crow's-nest the wonder was vastly increased, and Steve could have stood
+there for hours, sweeping with the glass in all directions, gazing with
+delight at the floating ice-islands of every form and size, from the
+little block that could be thrust aside with a boat-hook to the field or
+detached floe a mile across; and all in motion, drifting with the
+current toward the north-east, and rising and falling on the heavy swell
+left by the storm.  There was an incessant cracking roar, too, from all
+around, as the blocks came in contact and ground together; while from
+time to time, consequent upon undulation of the surface, a field split
+right across with a tremendous report.
+
+But there was no time to study the beauty of the surroundings, and Steve
+had to leave all contemplation of the silver islands floating upon a
+black sea, to try and trace the open water from where they were right up
+to the land.
+
+Twice over he was at fault, as he supposed, for he followed with the
+glass a broad, canal-like line of clear water quite a couple of miles,
+and then it appeared to be blocked up with ice.  He said so to Johannes;
+but the Norseman shook his head.
+
+"The water goes round behind those blocks, sir," he said.
+
+"But can you tell that with the naked eye, Johannes?"
+
+"Yes, sir, clearly."
+
+The result was that a clear way was well traced out for the _Hvalross_
+right up to the rugged land with its mountains, not more than eight
+miles away, so that navigation would be perfectly easy at that moment.
+What it would be with the vast army of ice blocks advancing to invade
+the shores of the unknown land, it would be impossible to say.
+
+All these facts were communicated bit by bit to the deck, with the
+consequence that the speed was increased, and the vessel went gliding on
+in and out amongst the floating fields of ice, while Steve stayed with
+his companion, who kept pointing out objects worthy of notice.
+
+"Seals yonder," he said, pointing to one low flat of snow-covered ice;
+and Steve brought the glass to bear upon the cluster of animals huddled
+up together.
+
+"Yonder's a bear, too," said Johannes after a time.
+
+"What eyes you have!" cried Steve.  "I had not even seen that with the
+glass.  Why, he's on quite a small island of ice, all to himself.  How
+easily we could get to him with a boat!"
+
+"Yes, easily enough, sir; but this is no time for hunting," said the
+Norseman.  "While we are drifting onward with all this ice the danger is
+not great; but if we lay to while boats were out fishing we should soon
+be fast, and it might be months before we got free.  There is only one
+thing to do now: get the ship into a safe haven.  Then we can talk about
+hunting."
+
+"How long will it take us to get there?"
+
+"Little more than an hour if we do not meet with a check," said
+Johannes, as the _Hvalross_ glided round the edge of an ice-field into
+quite a winding river of black water, more open than any they had passed
+since the storm, and along which the vessel now made good way, while the
+land ahead began to grow more rugged and wild, looking grand, desolate,
+and apparently very much broken-up by jutting promontories and deep
+inlets.
+
+"Yes," said Johannes, after a long inspection through the glass; "there
+are plenty of shelter havens there, if we are not shut off from them by
+the ice."
+
+All these observations were duly communicated to the captain, who
+directed the course of the vessel by the instructions he received as to
+the lay of the water.  And as Johannes had said, the places where Steve
+had imagined the open water to end proved to be quite clear, so that
+mile after mile was passed, and at last the boy gave his opinion upon
+the state of the navigation.
+
+"Why, it's easy enough," he said; "any one might go right on like this
+to the North Pole."
+
+"It's too easy, sir," said Johannes, smiling.  "How would you get back?"
+
+"Wait till the tide turns and the ice is going the other way."
+
+"Yes, that would be a capital plan," replied Johannes drily.
+
+"Cold?  Want to come down?" cried the captain from below.
+
+"No, sir; quite warm shut up here," replied Steve.
+
+"Stay up then, for you're making the navigation quite easy.  All clear
+ahead?"
+
+"Yes, sir; nothing but a few floating blocks of no consequence; and
+there are more openings farther on."
+
+"That's right.  Now look out, both of you, for a good deep inlet.  That
+is what we want next."
+
+Johannes held the glass at this time, and he said to Steve, as the
+captain turned away:
+
+"There are two fiords that appear to be just right if we can reach them;
+but I cannot make out anything for certain yet.  Have a try, sir?"
+
+Steve took the glass, rested his arms on the rail, and began to try and
+make out the inlets by following the course of the open water from just
+ahead right up to the piled-up mountainous land.
+
+"It looks like a bit of my own country," said Johannes, "and does not
+seem to be an island, for there is high ground as far as I can see."
+
+"More seals," said Steve; "good big ones, too!"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Away to the left of that big ice-field, right on its edge.  Why, there
+must be fifty of them.  See 'em?"
+
+"Yes," said Johannes gravely; "more likely a hundred, sir; and, as you
+say, very fine ones indeed.  The captain will not have any difficulty in
+loading up with oil to take back."
+
+"Not if we can catch the seals," said Steve, with his eyes glued to the
+glass.  "There, I think I can make out one of the fiords now.  I say,
+isn't it rather funny that west coasts should be so much alike?"
+
+"I don't understand you, sir."
+
+"Why, all broken-up into fiords, as you call them.  Ireland is, and
+Scotland, and Norway; then Spitzbergen was, and now this place seems to
+be the same."
+
+"Yes, sir; I suppose it's the beating and washing of the sea."
+
+"But places like Spitzbergen and this can't be much beaten by the sea,
+because they are so much frozen-in.  Yes, I can see the inlet now, and
+the other one, too.  North of it, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; those are the two, and there is plenty of open water."
+
+"Plenty.  Shall we tell the captain now?"
+
+"He's forward talking to the men," replied Johannes.
+
+"Then we'll wait.  But, I say, about these seals?  We shall have to
+shoot them, I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir, harpoon them; but they are not seals."
+
+"Nonsense!  I saw them myself quite plainly; one of them was dragging
+itself out of the water."
+
+"Yes, I saw several do that.  It is quite a large herd; but these are
+walrus--our sea-horses, sir."
+
+"Oh!" cried Steve, turning the glass in the direction of the herd.
+"Why, so they are.  I can see the big tusks."
+
+"Yes, sir; there are some very fine ones among them.  I thought they
+must have a haven somewhere up here, if it could be found.  The captain
+has done well, and we shall have a tremendous hunting season."
+
+"Well?" came from the deck, "see any opening, Steve?"
+
+"Yes, sir, two; and we're not above a mile away from a great herd of
+walrus."
+
+"Seals, my lad--the little Jan Mayen seal."
+
+"No, sir," said Johannes quietly; "they are walrus, and we've made our
+way up to their home.  I have just seen another herd nearer the land."
+
+The men below heard this announcement, and gave a cheer, for the news
+promised work, excitement, and plenty of profit for all on board.
+
+Just then there was a loud barking from Skene, who was up in his
+favourite place on the bows, just where he could look out well ahead.
+
+"Look at old Skeny," said Steve.  "Any one would think he was the master
+of the ship.  Why, there's a walrus!"
+
+He was quite right, for there in the black water, staring hard at the
+excited dog, was a peculiar round head with great soft eyes, a bristling
+moustache, and a pair of long white tusks sweeping down from its upper
+jaw in graceful curves.  There was nothing visible but the head, and
+that only for about a minute; for the sight of the vessel gliding
+swiftly along startled the huge beast, so that it made a plunge and
+disappeared.
+
+A sharp look-out was kept for others, and several were seen, but always
+at a distance; and they were forgotten directly in the excitement of the
+navigation which followed as they neared the land.
+
+All had gone on well so far.  The _Hvalross_ had had to turn and double
+to avoid huge masses of the ice-floe; but there had always been plenty
+of open water, and this had grown wider as they neared a vast pile of
+rocks forming a promontory, to the north of which lay the fiord which
+the captain had marked down, becoming more and more satisfied with his
+choice as they drew nearer, till they were about a mile away; for it
+offered complete protection from the ice, which would be turned aside by
+the rocky buttress till such time as a change of wind and the subsidence
+of the heavy rocking swell should come.
+
+All at once, with marvellous rapidity, there was a change.  Beyond a
+little grinding and scraping they had suffered no harm from the ice,
+which had been floating with or following them; but now, as if the crowd
+of blocks and fields in motion possessed a feeling that the vessel was
+about to escape them and take refuge where it would be safe, there was
+an increase of speed in their movements; they were more agitated, rising
+and falling and crashing together, and appearing as if they were
+crowding along to crush the vessel before the refuge was reached.
+
+This had not been noticed from the bridge, and in an excited tone
+Johannes hailed the deck.
+
+"We're just entering a swift current, sir, which is caused by the great
+point ahead.  The ice is crowding up into it, and goes north with a
+heavy rush."
+
+"Yes, I see!" cried Captain Marsham; and he issued a few clear, sharp
+orders, which were as promptly obeyed.
+
+"Stay aloft there, both of you," he cried next, "and mark the other
+water ahead!"
+
+There was a dead silence for a minute on deck, but all around a
+condensation of the grinding, cracking, and rending of the ice which
+they had heard more or less all day.
+
+Then, as Steve's eyes met Johannes' stern gaze--for the lad was fully
+awake to the peril--the Norseman sang out:
+
+"Turn her astarn, sir!  The ice has closed up ahead."  The captain gave
+the order without question, the speed was checked, and the _Hvalross_
+began to glide back, when Johannes' voice rose again in hoarse command.
+"Stop!  There is no way back."
+
+"Look again!" roared Captain Marsham.  "There must be.  Quick!"
+
+"No way out astarn, nor to right or left, sir!" cried Johannes; "the ice
+is closing in upon us."
+
+"But forward--is it not opening?"
+
+"No, sir; and we're in the current, too."
+
+The captain gave his orders again; but those which reached the
+crow's-nest had nothing to do with the navigation of the ship; they were
+to the men to stow provisions as rapidly as possible in the boats.
+
+"Johannes, what does this mean?" whispered Steve, aghast.
+
+"That the captain means to have the boats ready, if we can use them; if
+not, to have provisions to heave on to the ice when we take to it."
+
+"When we take to the ice?" cried Steve.
+
+"Yes, my lad; look!" said the Norseman, pointing to the narrow limits of
+the water in which the _Hvalross_ lay; and as the boy gazed downward
+with dilating eyes, he could see that on one side there was a wall of
+ice almost stationary, while on the other the masses were grinding
+together, the smaller being forced upward above the larger to form a
+chaotic ridge, which was coming toward them with swift, irresistible
+power.
+
+"Quick!" said the Norseman sternly.  "In another five minutes we shall
+be crushed in the ice.  We must be on deck so as to have our chance of
+escape with the rest when they take to the floe."
+
+"Ahoy! there aloft!" roared the captain, as the steam whistle began to
+utter its deep-toned yell, which sounded strangely amidst the roar and
+crack of the ice in motion.  "Down with you both--quick!"
+
+"Do you hear?" cried Johannes excitedly.  "Down, my lad, quick!"
+
+Steve made a movement to stoop and raise the trap on which he stood, and
+he stopped short and gazed despairingly in the great Norseman's face.
+
+"Well, why do you stop?" said Johannes.  "Draw up the trap, and go
+down."
+
+"I cannot stir," said Steve faintly.  "I did not know it before.  It's
+the cold, I suppose.  My legs and feet are quite numbed."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+ON THE BRINK.
+
+"Do you hear, aloft there?" roared the captain.  "Down with you!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" cried the Norseman, as he grasped to the full their
+perilous situation.
+
+"Go down, Johannes," said Steve faintly; "never mind me."
+
+The Norseman uttered a low laugh.
+
+"Yes, sir; go down and leave you here!  Of course!"
+
+But his hands were busy.  He thrust the glass into the case slung from
+Steve's shoulder, and taking the line he wore like a baldrick from his
+own, he hung it on one arm while he made fast the end round the lad's
+chest.
+
+"You can use your hands?" he cried.
+
+"Yes, I think so."
+
+"Then keep yourself clear of the yards and stays as I lower you down.
+Don't cling anywhere.  I'll let you down safely."
+
+"Are you coming?" roared the captain.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir.  Below there!" shouted back the Norseman; and with one
+rapid movement he whipped Steve out of the crow's-nest, and, grasping
+the line, began to lower him rapidly, till he caught first here and
+again there, over and over again, for there was the rigging to pass
+through; but in a very few seconds the boy was on deck, and the line
+dropped after him.  Then the trap was snatched up, Johannes lowered
+himself through, stepped down the spells, caught hold of one of the
+ice-covered stays, and slid down, to catch another lower, and reach the
+deck in turn.  He joined the men in getting together biscuit, tinned
+meat, and flour bags, ready to cast upon the ice when the terrible nip
+should come, and either crack the ship's timbers like an eggshell or
+force her up on to the surface, to go on drifting north, while the ice
+by the great pressure consolidated into a dense block.
+
+The captain and doctor had in turn been busy, and brought up guns,
+rifles, and ammunition; and both now, in spite of the impending peril,
+had then devoted themselves to the task of restoring circulation to
+Steve's lower limbs, and to so good an effect that he soon struggled to
+his feet.
+
+"Don't--don't mind me," he cried; "I--I will be better now."
+
+"Let him be," said the doctor in a low voice; "it will do him good to
+exert himself."
+
+"I will stand by the lad, and help him," said a voice behind the doctor;
+and he turned sharply to find that Johannes was standing there.
+
+"Yes, sir," he said; "and I will try to help as well."
+
+These words were hurriedly spoken in whispers, with the lips close to
+each listener's ear, for their terrible position filled them with awe,
+and they spoke with bated breath, listening the while to the hideous
+crashing and creaking of the ice which moment by moment came nearer,
+while the huge fragments towered up on their right, and--slowly now--
+came on to crush the _Hvalross_ against the cliff-like floe some fifteen
+feet in height on their left.  For there was that difference in the
+walls of their prison: they had been gliding along by the side of a vast
+field whose movement had grown slower, while the smaller fragments on
+their right had increased in speed, and at times raced along as if in a
+flooded river of enormous size.
+
+And now no man spoke, but all stood with blanched lips gazing at the ice
+cliff on their left, as if measuring its height, the crew dividing
+naturally into three parties--one to the shrouds of each of the three
+masts, ready to ascend and leap from the ratlines on to the surface of
+the ice, some of the more daring making up their minds to make for the
+top, and run out on the great yard of the big square-sail, and drop from
+that if there should be time.
+
+Only one thought was common to all, and that was to reach the ice.  The
+provisions which had been hastily brought on deck lay where they had
+been placed amongst the remains of the powdery snow which had not melted
+in the sun's rays; and even then in those terrible moments--so strangely
+are little petty things mixed up with the most momentous in our lives--
+Steve thought to himself that when the two sides of their rapidly
+narrowing canal did come together, crushing the ship, not a man would
+stop to pick up anything to help keep himself alive.
+
+"Mr Steve--doctor!" said Johannes suddenly, "there will be a rush for
+the shrouds when the nip comes, and it will be every man for himself."
+
+"Yes, of course," said Mr Handscombe.
+
+"Let them go that way; you both follow me."
+
+"Where?" said Steve huskily.
+
+"For that boat;" and he nodded toward the one swinging from the davits
+on the port side.
+
+"What for, man?" said the doctor coldly.  "The boat must be crushed,
+like the ship."
+
+"Not before I have had time to reach the top of the ice from it.  I have
+been measuring the distance, and I can do it and reach down to lend you
+both a hand up."
+
+"Hah!  Yes!" exclaimed Steve, forgetting the cold and numbness now in
+the excitement of seeing a way to escape.  "But the captain--tell him."
+
+"There is no need," said the Norseman; "he is cleverer than I, and will
+know what to do.  Besides, he will not stir till every man is safe; an
+English captain never does."
+
+"But--" began Steve.
+
+"Don't talk, sir; do as I say," said the Norseman sternly.  "You will be
+helping the captain to escape if you leave him free to act by saving
+yourself."
+
+"I will do as you say," replied Steve; but even as he spoke he felt as
+if it would be cowardly to leave Captain Marsham alone in the wreck.
+
+Every man was now on deck, the engineer and his fireman having come up,
+leaving the steam blowing off with a shriek which minute by minute grew
+more horrible as it was confined between the two walls of ice, now not
+fifty yards apart.
+
+The water looked wilder than ever where it was not covered with small
+fragments of ice, which came rushing up as if driven by the current
+beneath the towering masses on their right; and as they literally darted
+up they rushed on to hit against the cliff on their left, some of them
+striking the sides of the _Hvalross_ blows which made her jar, and shook
+the ice and snow from the rigging, to come rattling down upon the deck.
+
+"It can't be long now," thought Steve; and he glanced up at the boat,
+and then at the captain, who stood perfectly calm upon the bridge; and
+just then there was a sharp, whimpering bark from by the bowsprit,
+followed by a perfect roulade, the dog catching sight of a seal.
+
+"Oh, poor old Skeny!  We must not leave him," muttered Steve; and he
+called the dog loudly.
+
+The collie came with a rush, and crouched at his master's feet.
+
+"Johannes," whispered the lad.  "My poor dog,--I can't leave him.  He
+could not get up to the boat."
+
+The great calm-looking fellow turned and gave Steve a pleasant smile.
+Then, stooping down, he lifted the dog in his arms, reached up and
+placed the paws well over the side of the boat, where he hung a good
+seven feet above the deck.  The dog whined, and seemed disposed to
+struggle to get free; but at a word from his master he made a scrambling
+effort, received a good thrust from Johannes, and the next instant was
+in the boat barking at them as he stood on the thwart and looked over
+the side, as if asking them to come there as well.
+
+"Is it quite hopeless?" whispered the doctor.
+
+"Who can say, sir?" replied the Norseman.  "It is very hard now that we
+are so near a safe harbour.  If the ice does join we must be crushed,
+for it is too high above us to lift us up."
+
+"And if the ship is crushed," whispered Steve, "will it sink?"
+
+"The minute the ice loosens its grip, sir, she must go down."
+
+The walls were not forty yards apart now, and the unfortunate crew could
+pretty well pick out the rugged prominences on their right which would
+just touch and drive them against the smooth, cliff-like mass on their
+left.  More awe-inspiring still, they could see that as soon as the
+shock came vast pieces of piled-up ice must lose their equilibrium and
+topple down on the deck, crushing everything they touched; and onward
+still the terrible line came till it was not twenty yards away.
+
+"The ice cliff is not moving," said Johannes, "and the crash will be the
+greater.  Be ready, gentlemen; in another minute the blow must come.
+Great heavens! what is that?"
+
+He looked astern, as a terrible rushing noise was heard; and as all
+followed his example, struck by the sound, there, about a hundred yards
+behind them, the water was foaming and rushing toward them in a wave
+laden with fragments of ice.
+
+It was plain enough: the pressure of the ice behind was driving the
+water compressed between those narrow walls forward, like some cataract,
+which looked as if it would sweep the deck before the two cliffs joined.
+
+"Ready!" shouted the captain.  "But don't stir till the crash begins.
+The vessel will be at its closest to the cliff on this side."
+
+"But ta watter will sweep us awa', captain!" yelled Hamish.
+
+"Silence; the wave will pass under us!" roared the captain, his voice
+being hardly heard.  "Wait till I give the word."
+
+And in those brief moments the space between the walls had grown
+narrower, till the yards nearly touched on either side, and the loose
+fragments that fell from the rugged masses on the right kept on
+splashing the water up on to the deck.
+
+Just then Skene uttered a fierce bark at the coming wall, Johannes gave
+Steve a sharp look, and laid his hand upon the gunwale of the boat,
+drawing it down, the men stepped close to the shrouds, and the captain
+darted a sharp glance from the bridge at the top of the floe, which was
+to be their asylum.
+
+Then, roaring loudly, the ice-laden wave struck the poop with a
+tremendous crash, lifted the vessel, and bore her onward on the breast
+of the furious cataract, onward and onward along the narrow passage,
+which seemed to open out before the rushing water.  The yards scraped
+here and scraped there along the cliff-sides; the ice pounded them, and
+gave forth a peculiar, hollow, echoing roar, but, swiftly almost as an
+arrow, they were borne along, with the steam whistle shrieking as if the
+unfortunate boat were in agony.
+
+A minute.
+
+It seemed to all an hour of horror too terrible to be borne, and then
+the captain, with both hands to his mouth, roared:
+
+"Engineer! below! stop that escape of steam!"
+
+The man darted to the engine-room hatch, and disappeared, just as the
+walls behind them closed in with a deafening crash as of a thousand
+thunder peals, the water rushed by them as if shot from some gigantic
+pipe, and the _Hvalross_ was borne forward at a speed such as she had
+never half achieved before.  Then, as the walls behind continued to
+close, the vessel glided into open water, which grew clearer and clearer
+right ahead, where it was running like some mighty mill-race a mile wide
+northward, between the ice and the great promontory, which jutted out
+from the land.
+
+"Steve!" said the doctor, with his lips to his young companion's ear;
+"and they say the days of miracles are past!"
+
+Without another word he went below into the cabin, and Steve felt his
+hand grasped from above.  He looked up to see that it was Johannes
+leaning down from the boat.
+
+"We are saved, my dear lad," he said in a voice deep with emotion; and
+as if he, too, could participate in the general feeling of thankfulness,
+Skene burst into a joyful fit of barking and leaped right down upon the
+deck.
+
+The sun shone more brightly than ever, the snow crystals glistened like
+diamonds, and the cliffs and mountains towering up on their right above
+the blue fiord were glorious to behold; but everything to Steve Young
+looked misty, and he could only see Captain Marsham as through a veil
+when that gentleman followed the example of Johannes and reached down
+from the bridge to grasp the boy's hand.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+AFTER STORM--CALM.
+
+There was plenty of floating ice in the open water running rapidly
+northward; but the task of avoiding this was easy, for the engineer had
+followed out the captain's instructions, and there was a sufficiency of
+steam for navigating the vessel.
+
+It was needed, too; for though they had escaped from the terrible trap
+in which they had been caught, the peril was not far away.  A few
+minutes' observation showed that the great body of ice was closing in
+upon the land, and that if before long the _Hvalross_ was not placed in
+a safe anchorage she would certainly be crushed, the only difference
+being that she would be crushed between ice-floe and rock, and not
+between ice and ice, the doctor saying that they would have jumped out
+of the frying-pan into the fire.
+
+There was the danger still coming on as they steamed northward between
+the moving ice and the perpendicular cliffs of the great headland on
+their right.  But the fires were humming and roaring away below, the
+rattle of stoking implements and shovel was heard on the iron stoke-hole
+floor; and as the engine worked and panted away, and the propeller shaft
+made the after part of the vessel thrill, there were divers hissings and
+snorts which told that there would soon be plenty of steam for the
+captain's purpose, as he stood on the bridge with his binocular scanning
+the opening on the right to see if it would give them the security he
+sought.
+
+"Up aloft again, Johannes!" he cried.  "Take a glass and see if you can
+con a way round and through those rocks."
+
+Steve started, and took a step forward; but the captain shook his head.
+
+"Not this time," he said.
+
+The boy shrank back feeling disappointed, for this observing from the
+crow's-nest seemed to have become partly his work; but he said nothing,
+for he felt that he had not distinguished himself very highly aloft upon
+two occasions, so he contented himself with watching the grand coast
+they had reached.  He gazed at the towering cliffs a couple of hundred
+yards upon his right, streaked in every crevice with snow, which crossed
+these streaks again, lying as it did upon every ledge, and forming a
+gigantic network on the black rock.  Higher up the streaking and netting
+ceased, for the rocks were not so perpendicular; and here they were
+coated with dazzling ice.
+
+The sea-birds circled about the vessel by hundreds, while thousands must
+have been seated in rows upon the ledges, from which, as they came and
+went, throwing themselves off as if diving into the air, and taking a
+flight before resettling, they disturbed the newly-fallen, powdery snow,
+which fell in showers, glittering in the brilliant sunshine like diamond
+dust, and at times forming tiny rainbows, which came and went as the
+_Hvalross_ glided on.
+
+"We shall not starve here, Steve, in spite of the cold," said the
+doctor, who now joined him.  "This must be nesting time, and the storm
+has disturbed the birds and invaded their nests.  How grand it all seems
+now one can look around without feeling one's heart in one's mouth, and
+thinking that the next minute may be our last!"
+
+"Then you felt frightened, too?" said Steve.
+
+"Frightened?  Why, my good lad, do you think any one could face peril
+like that we have gone through without feeling frightened?"
+
+"I should have thought brave men would."
+
+"I should like to see the man who could pass through what we did
+unmoved.  Perhaps I'm wrong, my boy, but I don't think he has been born
+yet.  There, don't let's talk about it.  Come and watch the man heaving
+the lead."
+
+They went forward to where Andrew was standing in the forechains busy
+with the lead, casting it from time to time, for there were rocks all
+about the entrance of the inlet or fiord they were making for; but the
+lead always went down and down into deep water, and was rapidly hauled
+up again, for all that was wanted was to know whether there was
+sufficient depth for the vessel to pass along in safety.
+
+"We're getting a lesson in arctic navigation, Steve," said the doctor
+quietly.  "People who sit at home at ease, as the song says, little know
+how difficult it is."
+
+"Ah! they don't know, indeed," said Steve.  "Any one would think that
+all we had to do was to steam right on till we were opposite the fiord,
+and then turn to the right and go in at once."
+
+"Which does not sound very nautical, Master Steve, and would result most
+likely in landing the vessel upon the rocks.  Water cold, Andra?" to the
+man, as he hauled in the lead.
+
+"Ferry, sir, ferry cauld inteet.  She feels as if she hadna got any
+fingers left.  But it's a coot chop to do when she tidna know her way."
+
+"Keep heaving more quickly!" cried the captain; and he then signalled to
+the engine-room for more speed, while the Norsemen in the bows went on
+fending off the pieces of ice through which they were now passing, the
+surface being quite white with fragments.
+
+The next moment there was a horrible crashing noise from astern, and
+fresh orders were sent down into the engine-room, the gong sounding
+quite faintly now.
+
+"Whatever is that?" whispered the doctor.  "Are we on a rock?"
+
+"No; the propeller is beating on the pieces of ice.  We must go softly,
+or one of the blades will be broken."
+
+In fact, the speed was checked so that the propeller was kept barely in
+motion, just sufficient to give the vessel steering way, and all the
+time a glance to the left showed that the ice-floe was closing in upon
+them fast, while they were some distance yet from the opening.
+
+Meantime, Johannes hailed the deck from time to time, enabling the
+captain to direct the man at the wheel, so as to avoid dangerous rocks,
+invisible from the bridge, but quite plain from the commanding height
+aloft.
+
+And thus the position was growing to be one of extreme peril once more,
+and it became evident to those who, as non-combatants in this fight with
+the grand forces of Nature, could only look on, that, unless the captain
+risked the breaking of the propeller, they would be crushed by the ice
+against the rocks and rendered a hopeless wreck long before they could
+round the southern point of the fiord.  Even if they could reach the
+inlet, it might prove to be so encumbered with rocks that they could not
+enter; but it was their only hope now.
+
+Fortunately the current ran swiftly, and as the ice neared more swiftly
+still, and just when the position was growing most perilous, the surface
+became clear of floating fragments, such as would injure the screw.
+
+Steve's heart was sinking again, for the great ice wall was getting very
+close, and he had given many looks at the huge cliff to see whether it
+would be possible to climb up, when once more the sinking spirits rose
+with a bound, for, in the nick of time, Johannes shouted, "All clear
+ahead!" the gong sent forth its notes to order full speed, and the water
+was churned into a foam as the propeller began to spin round.
+
+"Stand away with that lead!" shouted the captain; and Andrew coiled up
+the wet line with a sigh of relief.
+
+"He's going to risk the rocks now," whispered Steve.
+
+"Yes; I suppose it's our only chance," replied the doctor; and they both
+went as far forward as they could get to join the Norsemen who were on
+the look-out for danger.
+
+They had about a quarter of a mile still to go, but now their speed was
+greater than that of the closing-in ice, and the men at last burst into
+a cheer as, in obedience to a motion of the captain's hand, the spokes
+were spun round, and the _Hvalross_ glided along in a sharp curve right
+in between two towering walls of rocks facing each other at a distance
+of some sixty yards.  Then the engine was slowed down, and they passed
+more quietly along a rugged channel which went straight in for a short
+distance, and then bore sharply round to the left.
+
+They were none too soon, for, long before they reached this curve, the
+ice-floe touched the headland they had passed, and there arose a
+crashing roar mingled with thunderous sounds that were deafening.  It
+was as if the huge fields of ice were about to be swept right over the
+land, and the perpendicular rocks, as they bore the brunt, echoed the
+terrible volleying noise.  The sight was awful in its majesty: one floe
+ploughed up another, and vast fragments fell over and over, to fall with
+a crash upon others, or into the waters of the inlet, churning them up
+as if in some furious tempest, driving billows up against the rocks on
+either side, and making the _Hvalross_ rock and roll as she sped slowly
+on.  And all the while, driven by the almost irresistible force behind,
+the ice-floes came on and on, filling up the inlet, and roaring with
+fury as the vessel they seemed to be pursuing kept still beyond their
+reach.
+
+The lead was out again and rapidly heaved, but the water kept of a great
+depth, and the channel was clear of scattered rocks, so that the opening
+where it bore off to the left was reached with ease, and the _Hvalross_
+bore round in answer to her helm, and began once more to make for the
+north.
+
+Ten minutes later the whole of the inlet that ran so nearly straight in
+was jammed right up with mountainous masses of ice, which ran right
+across the angle where they had turned off to the north, and then the
+ice came on, mounting over that which was below, grinding, crackling,
+and pressing it solid, deafening the ears of those who listened for a
+few minutes, and then dying off into a more and more distant sound.
+This soon grew fainter, heard as it seemed to be from the other side of
+the cliffs on their left, while the water in the fiord, which had been
+tremendously agitated, rushing on past the _Hvalross_ and leaving her
+rolling and the crow's-nest in which Johannes stood describing a long
+arc in the air, began to subside, the billows ceased to leap up the
+cliffs, the loose fragments of ice to eddy and rush together, and the
+vessel floated upon an even keel.
+
+The peril was at an end, for the floes, after completely choking up the
+entrance to the fiord to the height of at least fifty feet, were now
+grinding and crushing their way onward outside, and the vessel lay in
+perfect safety.  But, unless there was a way out at the other end of the
+fiord, they were completely sealed in by ice that, from all appearances,
+as it towered up from side to side, seemed as if it would take years to
+melt, while as likely as not it would go on consolidating and increasing
+in bulk till time should be no more.
+
+No one spoke, though a strange silence gathered round them, the roar of
+the ice-floes upon the cliffs of this unknown land sounding hushed and
+strange.  Every eye was fixed upon the dazzling white wall which, with
+its thousands of tons of ice, had been built in a few minutes right
+across the opening by which they had entered the now fast calming fiord.
+For that piled-up mass was indescribably grand as it glistened in the
+sunshine, every crack and depression being of the most lovely blue, from
+the palest sapphire to the deepest amethyst.  It was magnificent, it was
+grand; and all started at something which was terribly incongruous; for
+a great flock of the northern gulls suddenly came sweeping down over the
+ice into the narrow fiord, shrieking, crying, and uttering sounds which
+were like mocking laughter, to break the solemnity of the scene.
+
+Worse still, his duties having been interfered with in no way, and too
+busy to take any note of the fresh peril, the cook suddenly appeared
+from the galley, whose fire had been roaring away for the past two
+hours, and, walking under the bridge, he looked up to the captain and
+said loudly:
+
+"Capital haunch of venison, roasted to a turn, sir.  If you are at
+liberty, you can have the dinner in now."
+
+The grandeur, the solemnity, the thoughts of this fresh miraculous
+escape, all passed away on the instant.  The men made a movement toward
+the forecastle, looking inquiringly at the mate, for they knew that
+their meal would be ready too, and Steve turned to the doctor so
+comically perplexed a face that the latter smiled.
+
+"Hungry, Steve?" he said.
+
+"I--I didn't know it before, sir," he replied; "but I suppose I am."
+
+"Well, _il faut manger_, as the French say.  Come along."
+
+He led the way to the bridge, where the cook was still waiting, for the
+captain had not spoken.
+
+"Can you come down, Marsham?" said the doctor.  "It is many hours since
+we have broken our fast."
+
+"Eh?" came back.  "Yes.  Ahoy, there, Johannes! that will do.  Come
+down, Handscombe?" said the captain thoughtfully.  "Yes, we may as well
+have something to eat, for we shall have plenty of time."
+
+He pointed to the huge rampart of ice right across the inlet, and said
+quietly:
+
+"A man needs to be well educated in the ways of nature in the north to
+navigate his ship.  Our only hope now is--"
+
+"Let's talk of that when we have studied nature's daily wants," said the
+doctor, smiling.  "We are safe, are we not?"
+
+"Oh yes," said the captain bitterly, "we are quite safe now."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+THE NORTHERN PRISON.
+
+As the doctor said, _il faut manger_, and, in spite of all they had gone
+through, their appetites were so sharp-set that they made a most hearty
+repast, and were ready to declare themselves prepared to encounter
+anything.
+
+Steve thought that this was rather boastful, and due in a great measure
+to the fact that they all, himself included, felt that, for the present
+at any rate, they had no danger to encounter, but he said nothing.
+
+In fact, when they returned on deck the noise of the ice had died away
+into a distant murmur, and the fiord, with its smooth, blue water, huge,
+nearly perpendicular walls, and shattered rocks of dark stone made
+brilliant with ice, looked so beautiful that their position appeared to
+be more a cause of congratulation than complaint.  Certainly they were
+blocked in; but ice that shut them up so quickly might, by another
+movement, likely enough set them free; and, besides, most of these
+northern fiords were like those on the Norwegian or Highland coasts--
+channels inside islands; and consequently, for aught they knew to the
+contrary, there was a way out to the north which might not be closed.
+
+But the captain had no intention of making a long exploration on that
+day.  He was content to run on a short distance, to anchor in what
+looked to be a snug berth behind a jutting mass of the rocky side which
+sheltered them from the north wind in case it should come tearing down
+the channel, and faced the sunny south.  The fires were then raked out,
+and that night, after the watch was set, those who were free indulged in
+a long and much-needed sleep.
+
+Steve rose the next morning bright and cheerful, to find the others the
+same.  The intense cold which accompanied the storm had passed, and
+there in the sheltered fiord the air felt, by comparison with that which
+they had gone through, quite salutary.  The change must have taken place
+directly they had gone to rest, for the warm sunshine of the night had
+thawed the icy rigging to a great extent, so that ropes and stays had
+resumed their customary aspect, and the snow, which had penetrated the
+furled sails, was coming away in drips.
+
+It was a wonderful and cheery change, and Steve eagerly waited for the
+captain's first proceedings in this unknown land--unknown as far as any
+one there could say.
+
+Watty Links was sunning himself as if in imitation of Skene, who was
+comfortably basking at the galley door, his head resting upon his paws,
+and his figure suggesting that he must be on very friendly terms with
+the cook.
+
+The dog seemed to be fast asleep, but one eye opened a little as Steve
+approached, and his tail was raised to give three solemn raps on the
+deck; then, at a word, Skene sprang up, yawned, stretched himself, and
+followed his master.
+
+Steve gave Watty a word, too; but that gentleman only grunted, and the
+lad went on to where the men were busy finishing the brushing and
+scrubbing of the deck.
+
+Here he encountered Mr Lowe, the mate, who had been round the vessel in
+the dinghy to examine the hull as regarded damages.  But she had been
+too well prepared for her journey into ice-land with a casing of tough
+wood as a kind of partial outer skin, and this had only been rubbed and
+channelled a little by the blocks which had tried to plough her sides,
+so that he had nothing but good to report to the captain, who had been
+about for an hour looking bright and eager for the long day's work.
+
+Breaking away from them, Steve joined the Norwegians, who greeted him in
+their frank, grave way.
+
+"Well, Mr Steve," said Johannes, "I suppose we shall begin hunting
+directly; there is plenty of game about.  You and I must go and get some
+eggs from the shelves."
+
+"Eggs? there'll be no eggs," said Steve; "they would all be blown away
+by the storm.  Don't you know that these sea-birds lay their eggs on the
+bare stones generally?  Oh, but of course you knew that," he added
+hurriedly, as it struck him that the Norseman must know ten times as
+much as he.
+
+"Yes," said Johannes quietly.  "I know that, and I have also noticed how
+wonderfully they stay on those shelves in spite of the great winds that
+blow.  No doubt many were blown off in the storm; but many would stay."
+
+"Why, do the sea-birds stick them down tight?"
+
+"No," said Johannes, smiling.  "But you have seen the strange shape of
+many of the eggs of sea-birds.  They are not like those of other fowls."
+
+"No, they're thick at one end and very thin at the other, going off
+quite straight instead of being rounded."
+
+"That is why they stay on the rocks," said the Norseman: "when the wind
+strikes them the light, thin end flies round, and they begin to spin so
+fast that you can hardly see them turn."
+
+"That's curious," said Steve, who looked hard at Johannes, as if ready
+to think that the man was telling him a travellers' tale.  But the
+Norseman was the last man who could be expected to indulge in fiction,
+and the boy hastened to ask about their prospects.
+
+"We all feel satisfied that this place abounds with game," said
+Johannes.  "Jakobsen here saw a couple of bears, the seals are
+plentiful, and we passed yesterday enough of the walrus to feel sure
+that there must be plenty more."
+
+"Here, Steve!" cried the captain just then; "breakfast!  I am going up
+the fiord in one of the boats directly after.  Do you care to go?"
+
+"Care to go!" cried Steve.  "Oh, I say, Captain Marsham, don't leave me
+behind in any of your trips."
+
+The captain did not seem to hear him, but went to where some of the crew
+were busy now, unfurling and shaking out the jib preparatory to hoisting
+it to dry, while other men were busy with the stay-sail.
+
+The lads brightened up at the order given, and the result was that an
+hour later the largest boat, well manned, and prepared for any
+emergencies in the way of meeting game, from walrus to wild duck, pushed
+off from the ship's side, leaving her floating as snugly and as
+motionless as if in a dock.
+
+The morning was glorious, and as they rowed north the various turnings
+of the fiord soon shut out all view of the _Hvalross_.  After a while
+the huge towering cliffs, which had risen up nearly sheer from the
+water's edge, began to retire, becoming less precipitous, and leaving a
+shore which, from being a mere ribbon, rapidly increased till there was
+a wide stretch of level land on either side, showing patches of green
+here and there where the snow had melted away; and soon after a narrow
+valley opened off to the right, but not going far, its upper end being
+choked by a glacier of great extent.
+
+The men rowed as if glad of the chance to stretch their muscles, and
+soon after another valley was passed, and again another, but both on the
+right, the left side of the fiord being formed by a long, rocky and icy
+ridge, showing no gap whatever or means of getting through it toward the
+sea.
+
+The valleys they still kept on passing, away east, gave plenty of
+promise of deer, so that, even if kept prisoners for some time, there
+did not appear to be any lack of food; but the other side was the more
+eagerly scanned by the Norsemen, who had the walrus harpoons, ropes, and
+lances lying ready to hand, and who longed to wield them again.
+
+The party did not attempt to land, but travelled on for miles, and
+always through plenty of water, passing at last a likely-looking chasm
+on their left, through which ran a narrow, zigzagging, deep-looking
+canal; and in the hope that this might prove to be a way through to the
+west coast, it was left for the time being, while they pushed on for a
+mile or two farther.  Here they came upon an unmistakable passage
+through a rocky defile, whose bottom was clear, dark water, going right
+on as far as they could see, while, leaving this too so as to finish the
+exploration of the main fiord first, they rowed on once more.  At last,
+turning a headland, they came suddenly in view of a magnificent sight
+from the point of view of a lover of nature, but a terribly damping one
+to a captain whose ship was caught in a trap; for there, about a mile
+away, and spreading from side to side of the fiord, whose blue waters
+touched its foot, was another grand glacier, which looked from the
+distance like a frozen cataract, flowing down from high up in the
+mountains, to empty its solid waters into the fiord.
+
+"No way out," said the captain, after a few minutes' examination of the
+great glacier with his glass; and he handed it to the doctor, who was
+fain to confess that the fiord was sealed up there as effectually as at
+the other end.
+
+"It's very grand," he said with a sigh, "magnificent; but rather a dash
+to your hopes."
+
+"Back again!" said the captain, after Steve had had his survey as well,
+and longed to be rowed close up to the blue ice grottoes he could see at
+the foot of the glacier, beyond which many peaks towered up while the
+land was scored with valleys.
+
+The oars dipped again in the blue water, and they rowed back to the
+rugged defile they had left to explore on their return.
+
+Here the prospects were more cheerful as far as the boat was concerned;
+and they rowed at once into a chasm which seemed to be one vast rift
+through the mountain, as if torn open by some convulsion of nature.
+
+There was plenty of room for the boat, and the water looked, from its
+blackness, of great depth; but there was room for the boat only in
+places, their oars almost touching the perpendicular rocks on either
+side, these rising so high that they almost shut out the light.  There
+was a trace of motion, too, in this water, which soon satisfied the
+captain that it might be possible to pass through to the sea.  And so it
+proved, after about an hour's winding in and out, for the most part in
+twilight; for all at once the gloom gave place to a burst of sunshine,
+which struck in like sheaves of rays of light, and a little farther on
+the chasm opened out, and they were on the western side of the ridge
+which had divided them from the sea, while on either hand were rocks,
+and before them the piled-up masses of ice-floe, evidently a part of the
+army of floating masses which had been forced up all along the shore.
+This stopped further progress, and they sat with oars balanced gazing
+before them at a chaos of ice, where the previous day all had been open
+water.
+
+At first all looked beautiful, but utterly devoid of life.  Only,
+though, for a short time.  Before long something was seen to move a
+short distance away; and upon the boat being paddled round an
+intervening block of ice, there was a sight which sent a thrill of
+excitement through the Norsemen, a feeling which the others shared; for
+there, in ample supply, they saw that which they had come for one thing
+to seek--a herd of the arctic sea-horses, offering themselves as a ready
+aim for the Norsemen's harpoons and lances, as well as for the rifles of
+the captain and doctor.
+
+"Will you try for one to-day, sir?" asked Johannes respectfully.
+
+"It would be waste," replied Captain Marsham.  "I do not want to destroy
+the creatures if we cannot utilise the oil."
+
+"We can, sir," said Johannes quietly.  "The ship must come up to the
+other end of the fiord, and we can hunt here and cut up the walrus, and
+carry the oil out to be boiled down as easily as we could take it
+elsewhere."
+
+"Yes, you are right," said the captain.  "But how will you reach the
+animals?"
+
+"You gentlemen will reach them with your guns," said the man quietly.
+
+"Stalk them?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes; creep up very cautiously, for they may be shy.  Try and get
+between them and the sea."
+
+So the boat was rowed close up to the edge of the forced-up ice, and the
+party landed for their first walrus hunt, Steve shouldering his rifle
+with the rest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+THE WALRUS' FOE.
+
+To stalk or crawl up to an animal within shooting distance upon a level
+prairie, where there is no sign of bush or tree, not so much as a big
+clump of grass, is a difficult task which it takes a Red Indian to
+achieve, with his peculiar powers of creeping along the ground almost
+like a caterpillar, moving, as it were, upon his crooked fingers and his
+toes; but out upon a rocky shore, among piled-up masses of ice, many of
+them big enough to hide a couple of hundred men, the stalking appeared
+to be simplicity itself, and the three bearers of firearms stepped
+jauntily along toward the walrus herd, screening themselves behind the
+masses of ice with more than one slip and stumble.
+
+The scene was brilliant in the extreme, with the sun's rays darting from
+the broken fragments so lately deposited by the ice pressure, which was
+all that remained of the terrible convulsion of nature in which the
+expedition so nearly came to utter destruction.  Saving the cries of the
+sea-birds and the ripple of the waves on the shore, there was not a
+sound to be heard.  The water had regained its balance, so to speak, and
+to right and left, as far as they could see, there was a dark, open
+space of about a quarter of a mile wide on an average between the rugged
+ice-piled shore and the pack, with comparatively few fragments, flashing
+with light as they glided along in the now gentle current.
+
+In their passage in the boat through the gloomy chasm the cold had been
+intense; but a few minutes' climbing over the ice in the clear sunshine,
+carrying a heavy rifle and ammunition, resulted in a pause behind a huge
+mass of piled-up ice, where flat piece after flat piece had been thrust
+one above the other, and a declaration that it was very hot.
+
+"Hist!" whispered Johannes, who, with Jakobsen, was their companion on
+land once more.  "A sound may alarm the walrus."
+
+"But I should have thought they would be tame enough up here," said
+Steve.  "They can't have seen men before.  Couldn't we walk up to them
+boldly?"
+
+The Norseman shook his head.
+
+"They have other enemies beside man, sir, and they are suspicious of
+anything strange which they see moving.  Look," he continued, pointing
+downward from the height to which they had climbed.
+
+"What at?  More walrus?"
+
+"No, sir; that shining water.  We need not have left the boat.  It is
+the continuation of the passage we came through, and you can trace it
+from those great blocks of ice right away in and out to the sea."
+
+"All but in that one place not so very far from where we left the boat."
+
+"Yes; the ice-floe was thrust right over it there.  It may have choked
+it up, but perhaps there is a way under the ice.  Great floes like that
+in motion yesterday would easily be thrust right over such a narrow
+canal.  Look what has been done here."
+
+"Then, if we can row right through to the sea that will be grand," said
+Steve; "because it will make it so easy if we can explore along the
+coast in the boat."
+
+"Yes, sir, and so much better for the seal and walrus-hunting.  Shall we
+go on now, gentlemen?"
+
+"Yes," said Captain Marsham.  "Where do you make out the herd to be
+lying now?"
+
+"About a quarter of a mile from the other side of this pile, sir,
+straight away toward the sea.  Be careful to keep out of sight."
+
+The stalk was resumed, and slowly and carefully all crept along in
+single file, keeping to the depressions and rugged passages between the
+masses of ice.
+
+It was a most laborious struggle, for the necessity of keeping out of
+sight forced all to go down in the most difficult places, and at times
+to lie flat and crawl and drag themselves over the higher portions which
+they had to cross.
+
+But the excitement kept them well to their work, and in almost perfect
+silence they progressed till a sheltered nook was reached behind a ridge
+formed by the tilting of one of the ice-fields which had been forced
+ashore.  Here they paused again to regain breath and steadiness of hand,
+for the exertion was great to reach this advantageous spot, just beyond
+which the walrus lay, the sea being close at hand.  There was only a
+rough slope formed by the edge of the floe now lying at an angle of
+about thirty-five degrees for them to mount, rest their rifles on the
+edge, take aim each at the one he selected, and fire.
+
+Johannes had directed the captain on the course taken, he seeming to
+know, as if by instinct, the way to bear and regain the straight line
+marked out when they had been turned aside by an obstacle; and now,
+after pointing out to the leader where to take his place, and then by
+signs only indicating the doctor's, he turned to Steve, placed his lips
+to the boy's ear, and said:
+
+"Creep up slowly without a sound, slip your gun over, and take aim at
+one of the walrus that is side on to you.  It is of no use to shoot
+anywhere; it must be straight behind the eye, and about six inches away,
+just where it looks all thick neck.  They're waiting; go on."
+
+Steve glanced to right and left, as Johannes crouched down beside
+Jakobsen, each man with his lance ready; and then the captain waved his
+hand, and they started together, crawling up slowly and silently till
+they were within a yard of the level ridge, where all paused as if
+animated by the same spirit, thrust the barrels of their pieces toward
+the top, and began to seek for the next places to plant their feet so as
+to peer over the edge together.
+
+Steve's heart beat with great throbs, and a curious nervous sensation
+came over him; but he was in position first, saw that the captain was
+ready the next moment, and then turned to the doctor, for it was of
+course necessary that all should fire together.
+
+Steve was just in time to hear a sharp ejaculation, and see the doctor
+slip and roll down the ice slope, his rifle rattling after him with
+plenty of noise; and, knowing that if he were not quick there would be
+no shot, he raised himself up with rifle ready, thrust it over the ridge
+at the same time as the captain, and then stopped there staring.
+
+"Fire! fire!" came in a whisper from Jakobsen.
+
+"What at?" replied Steve, and the captain laughed good-humouredly.
+
+"Hurt yourself, Handscombe?" he said.
+
+"Hurt myself!  Of course I have.  I shall be all bruises," grumbled the
+doctor.  "Why didn't you shoot?"
+
+"How can you ask that when you made noise enough to frighten away all
+the walrus in the arctic circle?"
+
+"Are there none there?" said Johannes, who had crept up to Steve's side.
+
+"Not a sign of one."
+
+"Don't say I scared them all away," said the doctor.
+
+"Oh no, sir," replied the Norseman, looking about searchingly.  "They
+must have seen us ten minutes ago; they're yonder on the ice a quarter
+of a mile away.  We were very careful, too."
+
+"I am glad I did not frighten them," cried the doctor, rubbing one of
+his elbows.
+
+"But it's so disappointing after all that trouble," grumbled Steve.
+
+"Wait a bit, sir," said Johannes, as he watched the herd; "you will have
+plenty of chances yet.  There are sure to be some disappointments in
+walrus-hunting.  We must be more careful next time.  There are some,
+grand bulls there, though," he added thoughtfully; "look at that one's
+tusks, Mr Steve--that one drawing himself up out of the water."
+
+"Yes, I was looking at it," replied Steve.  "What a monster!  It looks
+like an elephant without a trunk, and his tusks turned wrong way on."
+
+For there, swimming about, or climbing on to a great mass of ice a
+quarter of a mile away, but which looked half that distance in the clear
+air, was the herd in perfect safety.  They were of all sizes, from
+calves not half grownup to unwieldy cows and the huge massive bulls.
+Some floated quietly, others were gambolling about, and the rest lay in
+various attitudes as if basking or sleeping in the warm sunshine; while
+one great fellow had dragged himself on to the highest point, raised
+himself on his fore flippers, and, with head erect, was looking about in
+different directions.
+
+"That's the sentinel," said Johannes quietly.  "He'll warn them of
+danger, and he must have seen us."
+
+"No," said Jakobsen; and he pointed to their right.
+
+Johannes laughed.
+
+"Right," he said.  "No wonder you did not get a shot, gentlemen; there
+was some one stalking them first."
+
+"Some one?" cried the captain.  "Who? where?"
+
+Johannes chuckled, and pointed to where the water was being parted by
+something swimming.
+
+"I see it," cried Steve; "a bear!"
+
+"Yes, sir; he has been trying to get one of the young calves, but they
+were too sharp for him; and now he has gone down to the water, and is
+swimming across to the floe to have another try.  If you watch him, Mr
+Steve, you'll see some fun."
+
+"Have a look, Steve," said the captain, drawing the small double glass
+from its case and passing it to the boy, who carefully laid down his
+heavy rifle, and focussed the binocular upon the bear, bringing it, as
+it were, almost to his feet.  He could see the long, cruel-looking head,
+with its pointed nose just clear of the water, the eyes the same, and
+the whole body so nearly submerged that there was nothing visible but
+the long hair, waving like a streaky ripple as the bear swam steadily
+on.
+
+"It's not going after the walrus," said Steve.
+
+"Wait a bit, sir.  I think it is," said Johannes.  "That's the bear's
+cunning.  If it went straight at them they would all plunge into the
+water, and swim and dive away.  You'll see the antics directly; those
+beasts are as cunning as cats."
+
+In effect, as Steve watched, he saw the bear swim right away to the ice,
+a couple of hundred yards apparently from the walrus herd, climb out on
+to the surface, shake itself to get rid of the water two or three times,
+and then move away from the edge a little and lie down in the sun, while
+the walrus herd paid no more attention to it than it apparently paid to
+them, the calves wallowing about and playing on the ice, and the rest of
+the herd gradually drawing themselves up to bask in the warmth.  In
+fact, though it was interesting to examine the huge beasts through the
+glass, Steve began to think it time to commence inspecting something
+else, or try to shoot something useful to the ship's cook.
+
+"Old Johannes don't know everything," he said to himself; but the
+thought had hardly crossed his mind when the object thereof touched his
+arm.
+
+"Look," he said.
+
+"I was looking," replied Steve, whose glass was fixed upon the walrus
+herd.  "What fat, comical creatures the young ones are!  They seem to
+have no shape at all."
+
+"No, no; look at the bear.  He's hungry, that fellow, and wants a good
+feed."
+
+Steve turned the glass upon the bear, and saw that it had risen to its
+feet, and was licking itself, with its head turned away from the walrus,
+and then, lying down, it rolled over two or three times before beginning
+to lick and paw itself again for a time, but always shuffling backward a
+little as it attended busily to its toilet.
+
+"See what he means, sir?" whispered Johannes.
+
+"Yes, it's trying to get nearer to the young walrus."
+
+"That's it, sir.  Now, you watch."
+
+Steve's attention was taken now, and he eagerly scanned the action of
+the great Polar bear, which appeared to be in quite a playful mood, and
+had another roll and gambol on the ice before beginning to preen and
+clean its long, soft, whitish fur again as if it were feathers.
+
+This went on for a long time; but it was so cleverly and artfully
+managed that it took the others' attention, and they all lay there on
+the ice in the warm sunshine, watching the cunning animal as it
+continued to get nearer and nearer to the herd, while the old bull, with
+his head erect and his white tusks curving away sat up in the most
+stupidly stolid fashion.
+
+"Why, the silly great bull will let the bear get close up to him!" cried
+Steve at last, after looking at one of these evolutions.  "He managed
+quite six yards then.  Why doesn't the creature give the alarm?"
+
+"Not so stupid as you think, sir," said Johannes.  "I've watched these
+animals many times before, and you'll see that he'll give the word
+before long; I mean he'll do something to start them all off."
+
+All the same, it did not appear as if the huge walrus realised the
+danger approaching so steadily, for every now and then, while performing
+some antic, the bear continued to lessen the distance between it and its
+prey, while simulating the greatest innocence and assuming to be
+thinking of anything but making an attack.  So playful a creature,
+enjoying itself thoroughly in the sunshine, could never have approached
+a walrus herd before.  Now it was rolling legs upward, and giving itself
+a peculiar wriggle, as if to scratch its back; then it was sitting up
+like a cat, and reaching round to have a lick at the part of its person
+which had just been rubbed in the ice.  A minute later it was on its
+flank, with all four legs stretched out, and its muzzle in the snow; and
+all these changes were made with the most extreme deliberation, and as
+if the animal was intent only upon its own enjoyment, and was as
+sportive as the unwieldy fat calves rolling about near their mothers a
+short distance away.
+
+"It's all over," said Steve suddenly; for the animal had shuffled a
+little nearer to the herd, and then lain down with its head from them,
+and apparently gone to sleep.
+
+The doctor and Captain Marsham, tired of watching the bear, had started
+off with their pieces, leaving Steve with the two Norsemen, so that the
+lad's last remark was addressed to his companions.
+
+"No," said Jakobsen, smiling; "the sport has hardly begun."
+
+"Right," said Johannes.  "Why, Mr Steve, you do not think that
+treacherous great brute would take all that trouble for nothing, do
+you?"
+
+"I don't know, I do not understand bears," replied Steve; "I only say
+look at him.  Why, Johannes, if we had had the boat through, what a
+capture we might have made--the bear and plenty of walrus!"
+
+"Perhaps, sir," replied the Norseman drily.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"We might have failed to get within shot."
+
+"And if we had, lost the walrus all the same," said Jakobsen.
+
+"Yes," said Johannes, "you are never sure of one of those great beasts."
+
+"Well, let's follow the captain," said Steve; "I'm getting a little
+cold."
+
+"Won't you stay and see the end of the bear's game, sir?  He has
+finished his nap, and has begun to have another roll."
+
+The man was correct, for the bear had rolled itself over, turned, and
+had another roll over, bringing itself apparently within some twenty
+yards of a couple of the smallest calves, which were stretched out in
+clumsy bulk close to the edge of the ice, where it was about ten feet
+above the glistening water.
+
+"Now for it," said Jakobsen; "he means mischief at last."
+
+But never was there a more innocent, playful-looking bear.  It turned
+half away, and began to haul up the snow as if to make its bed there
+upon the floe, gazing across at the land the while; then with a swing,
+as if it were on a pivot, it swung round.
+
+"Now!" cried Johannes; but there was no need, Steve's eyes were fixed
+intently upon the animal as it made a sudden rush.
+
+So did the bull walrus, and the snow rose in clouds, torn up by the
+animals making for the sea, which was churned up into foam as first one
+and then another of the monstrous, shapeless creatures threw itself in
+with a tremendous splash.
+
+So great was the disturbance of snow and water that there was quite a
+mist; but Steve was able to see that the two fat calves rolled over into
+the sea in time enough to avoid the bear's rush; and almost at the same
+moment the bull charged it, and caught it with its head in the flank as
+it stood with outstretched muzzle and grinning teeth reaching over the
+water, uttering a low, deep roar indicative of its disappointment.
+
+So intent was the bear on the prey which it had missed, that it paid no
+heed to the approach of the bull, which, after bustling across the
+surface of the snow, struck the bear right in the side and tumbled it
+off into the sea with a tremendous splash, following directly after with
+a turmoil in the water which was more extensive still.
+
+It was impossible to see what happened then, for the calm, smooth water
+seemed now to have been smitten by a storm, but only to calm again, as
+Jakobsen pointed along the edge of the floe, where the bear could be
+seen swimming steadily away.
+
+"He has got off," said Johannes, "for a wonder."
+
+"Why?" asked Steve; "the walrus couldn't fight a savage beast like
+that."
+
+"But they do, sir, sometimes, in defence of their young; and then the
+walrus can be a savage beast, too.  Think of what tusks they have!  I've
+seen them thirty inches long, but say there are eighteen or twenty
+inches standing out, firm, hard teeth with which the animal can strike
+like lightning."
+
+"Straight down, I suppose?" said Steve.
+
+"Straight down, sir?  Any way,--side ways, and even upwards; for big,
+heavy creatures as they are, they can twist their heads round like a
+kitten.  I daresay a walrus would get the worst of it on the _ice_, if
+the bear could once get a good hug; but when a bull has got a bear in
+the water, though he can swim splendidly, he is not at home there like a
+walrus, and this one must have had better luck than usual to get away."
+
+"And where is the herd now?" said Steve, looking curiously after the
+bear.
+
+"Ah, gone far enough by this time, sir.  The bear scared them, and they
+go on swimming away for miles till they forget all about the danger, and
+then get on the ice again."
+
+A hail from the captain took them to his side.  He was examining the
+narrow rift which made its way amidst the piled-up ice, the rocks on
+either side having prevented its being filled up, and, following this,
+they made their way toward the boat, and wherever it was possible they
+managed to trace it pretty well, till, as Johannes had surmised, they
+came upon a place where the channel through the rocks was covered in,
+but fortunately not choked, being completely arched over for about a
+hundred yards.
+
+"We must try and find our way to this in the boat to-morrow," said
+Captain Marsham; "there must be a way, though we did not find it
+to-day."
+
+"It is hidden somewhere by the rocks, sir," said Johannes: "shall we
+search?"
+
+"No; they will be getting uneasy on board.  I am satisfied with to-day's
+work.  We have found another road to the sea, one which is not blocked.
+But," he added in a low voice to the doctor, "not a way out for the
+ship."
+
+They reached the boat a short time after, and plunged from the brilliant
+sunshine into the chill and gloom of the weird rift, along which they
+were rowed, listening to a good deal of splashing and echoing in the
+darkest part.
+
+"Fish?" whispered Steve, for the strangeness of the gloomy chasm had an
+effect upon his spirits, and before he asked that question he had been
+busy with his imagination conjuring up all manner of strange-looking,
+dangerous creatures as being likely to inhabit the dark depths over
+which they were riding, so he turned to Johannes and said, "Fish?"
+
+"Seals," replied the Norseman laconically.
+
+An hour later they were out in the sunshine once again, with the
+magnificent glacier which filled up the northern end of the fiord
+looking more lovely than when they saw it first, a fact due; perhaps, to
+their having been threading a gloomy passage which at times was like a
+huge cavern.
+
+Then came a long row past the valleys which ran inland, and down one of
+which the doctor declared that he saw a reindeer; and in due time the
+fiord contracted, the rocks on either side towered up with their ledges
+displaying row after row of sea-birds ready to take flight and utter
+their wild clamour, as in the distance they resembled a snowstorm of
+which the great flakes were parti-coloured.
+
+At last the _Hvalross_ was seen floating on the clear water, looking
+welcome and bright in the sunshine; and so clear was everything that as
+they neared her she looked doubled, one vessel keel to keel with
+another, whose funnel and masts lay low in the depths of the fiord.
+
+"Dinner's quite ready, gentlemen," said the cook as they reached the
+deck; and that night, in spite of the soft glow of the sun, Steve slept
+as soundly as if it were as dark as any that he had ever known at home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+THE DOCTOR'S SHOT.
+
+Captain Marsham had given his orders over-night, and hence the steam was
+up by breakfast time, and directly after that meal the vessel was
+gliding northward with her propeller churning up the deep water into a
+silvery foam, while two ever-extending waves ran toward the sides of the
+fiord, and broke upon the perpendicular rocks which ran down into deep
+water.
+
+Steve felt a little regret at quitting their anchorage, till he recalled
+that there was an equally beautiful one at the foot of the frozen fall;
+and he had just come to the conclusion that it was a very wise change,
+for it suggested imprisonment to be shut in on three sides by the
+towering rocks and the piled-up ice-floes, when the captain said to Mr
+Handscombe:
+
+"This will be a wonderful change for the better."
+
+"But you will not go on loading the vessel with oil now?" said the
+doctor.
+
+"Why not?  We shall have grand opportunities to do that, and make
+expeditions inland as well, on the chance of finding that our friends
+may also have been driven up here."
+
+"But the vessel--we can never extricate her, so why load her?"
+
+"Because the chances here are so many.  It looks at the first blush as
+if the vessel is bound to stay here till she has rotted and the engine
+rusted away, but we are not going to despair.  Who could, in weather
+like this, eh, Steve?"
+
+"Of course not," said the boy.  "Why, we can set to work and build a
+ship big enough to carry us back to Norway out of the planks, if the ice
+behind us does not melt."
+
+The captain nodded, and then he resumed his task of keeping a sharp
+look-out forward in search of rocks, but his search was vain, for the
+water was immensely deep and clear, and they reached the open part of
+the fiord, and cast anchor a short distance away from the mouth of the
+black chasm and in full view of the glacier.  This promised to give them
+shelter from the first northern gale which blew, though one of the
+lateral valleys looked threatening, and as if the wind could rush along
+it like a blast roaring through a pipe; but as that was below their
+anchorage, it was not likely to affect them much.
+
+The anchor then went down in deep water, and as if they had only to sail
+out up the fiord at any time they liked, the captain had two boats
+lowered, and giving the mate charge of one, he led the way in the other
+to the mouth of the chasm, while the men, with their lances and harpoons
+on board, tugged eagerly at the oars, ready and willing for their first
+attack upon the oil-yielding animals of the northern seas.
+
+Success attended them on getting to the more open water at the end of
+the chasm, for, after a little searching, the continuation was found
+right at the back of a huge mass of rock, and, clearing this obstacle,
+the men rowed on, to plunge into brief darkness again beneath the long
+stretch of ice arches.  Then came a good, steady pull and a cheer, for
+the boats were out in clear water in the wide channel which ran up
+between the ice-bound shore and the floe.
+
+As they rowed out in the open water the men looked disappointed, and
+Steve, who was in the bows of the first boat with Johannes and Jakobsen,
+had to listen to the Scotch sailors' banter, spoken to the Norwegians
+sometimes, but more often at the lad himself.
+
+"Hahmeesh laddie," said Andrew McByle, "if she hadna baith hands at the
+oar, she'd get out ta sneeshin'.  Gie me a pinch.  Hah!  Ferry goot,
+laddie, ferry goot," he continued, after helping himself to a pinch of
+snuff, and being able to use his hands for that.  "She'll hae chust ane
+more wee bit.  Hah!  Tak' the box back, as she'll pe for finishing it
+a'."
+
+They rowed on for a little while, with Hamish staring about and Andrew
+giving an occasional snort of contempt.
+
+"See annything, Hahmeesh?"
+
+"Na, naething."
+
+"Naething it is, laddie.  Hech!  And I thocht after a' she'd heard tell
+tat the sea was chust alive wi' the walrus and seal, and bear lived a'
+along like wee birdies on the rocks."
+
+"Hey, to hear a' they said," grumbled Hamish, "she'd think sae.  Ant
+there's as many walrus coos and bulls here as ye see in ta Firth o'
+Clyde if ye gang oop ta Glasgie."
+
+"Ye're recht, laddie," said Andrew, "chust as many.  Why, it's petter in
+ta Clyde, for she can see a porpoise pig, and there's naething here but
+watter and ice.  Wha are we gaen?"
+
+"She canna tell," said Hamish.  "She's thinkin' it's to pring the lang
+tyke oot for a ride."
+
+"If you call my collie a `lang tyke,' Hamish, I'll set him at you.
+Here, Skeny.  Css!"
+
+The dog started up from where he had been lying in the bows, looked in
+his master's face, and uttered a low growl.
+
+"Na, she wadna set the tog at a man, Hahmeesh," said Andrew with a sly
+grin.  "Not that there's muckle bite spout the tog.  What made ye pring
+her to sea at a', Meester Steve?"
+
+"To bite impudent people's legs," said Steve gruffly.
+
+"Na, she wadna dae tat," cried Andrew.  "Put, Meester Steve, wha' are a'
+the walrus gane tae?"
+
+"To sleep, perhaps."
+
+Andrew chuckled.
+
+"Look here, laddie, she winna say a wort to anny one, but ye'll chust
+tell the truth to a man.  She tidna see anny walrus yesterday at a'?"
+
+"I'm not going to try and make you believe if you don't care to," said
+Steve.
+
+"Put she chust wants to know.  Come noo, ye tidna see anny, and it was a
+chust flim-flam and mak'-believe."
+
+"There were plenty here yesterday," said Steve.
+
+"Then where are they gane the?"
+
+"Why didn't you bring your pipes and play?  You'd have soon seen where
+they were."
+
+"Ay!" said Andrew seriously.  "Chust a wee lilt o' the pipes might pring
+the creatures oot o' their holes.  There was a man ance, Apollo they
+ca'd him, as played on the pipes, an' a' the bit beasties cam' roond to
+listen; and she'll pe thenking that a' that time back the pipes would pe
+ferry safage like, and a mon like tat not aple to play like we play the
+noo."
+
+This was said so innocently and in such good faith that Steve could
+hardly keep his countenance.
+
+"Chah!  She's ferry sorry she tidna pring the pipes.  There was plenty
+room in ta poat."
+
+"But there's no room out here for the noise," cried Steve, laughing.
+
+"Tid she hear tat?" said Andrew, turning his head to speak to Hamish.
+"She ca'd the music noise.  Ah, laddie, ye'll ken mair spout the music
+when ye're a muckle bit more auld.  It's a ferry crant thing the music,
+and she'll pe ferry sorry some tay that she crinned at the pipes."
+
+"R-r-r-r-ra!" growled Skene, leaping upward so as to place his paws on
+Steve's shoulders; and then he barked loudly as he gazed at the ice-floe
+on their left.
+
+"Keep that dog quiet, Steve," said the captain; "he'll scare the
+walrus."
+
+Andrew's head went down with his chin upon his breast, and he gave Steve
+an exasperating, sly look as the lad tried to quiet the dog.
+
+"Do you hear?  Keep him quiet!  We ought not to have brought him."
+
+"She winna skear ta walrus," whispered Andrew, "for there are nane."
+
+"The dog sees something yonder," said Johannes.  "Yes, there!  He sees a
+bear close up in that break in the ice."
+
+"A bear!" cried the captain excitedly.  "Well done, dog!  We should have
+passed it."
+
+The rifles were seized, and their eyes shaded to catch a glimpse of the
+white-furred animal hiding in one of the crevices of the ice cliff until
+the boat had passed.  But the glitter of the snow made the task
+difficult till they were much nearer, and then it was seen to be lying
+at full length just clear of the water, and with its head well up,
+apparently enjoying the warm sunshine and seizing a favourable
+opportunity for a good sleep.
+
+Rifles were held ready for a shot as the men rowed in till they were
+within a hundred yards, without the bear, which was a monster, taking
+the slightest notice of the boat, and then the captain said:
+
+"Cease rowing the moment I hold up my hand.  Johannes, Jakobsen, have
+your spears ready; the brute may swim off and attack the boat when it is
+wounded."
+
+"We are quite ready, sir," said the Norwegian in a whisper; and he and
+his companion gently raised the heads of their spears from where the
+weapons were lying along the thwarts.
+
+"Good.  Now, Steve, we'll get in another fifty yards if we can, and then
+rest on our oars.  You shall have the first shot.  Do you know where to
+aim?"
+
+"About six inches behind his eye, sir."
+
+"Nonsense, boy!" cried the captain sharply.  "Fire right at the brute's
+shoulder, sending the bullet through the shoulder-blade to the heart."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Steve; and he turned to Johannes.  "You told me to
+shoot six inches behind the eye," he whispered.
+
+"At a walrus, sir; not at a bear."
+
+By this time they were about fifty yards away from the bear, which had
+not stirred.  The captain raised his hand, and the men ceased dipping
+their oars, the boat gliding forward a short distance, and then coming
+to a stand.
+
+"Now, Steve!  Quick!"
+
+"I--I don't care to fire," whispered the lad.
+
+"Bah!  What do you mean?"
+
+"The bear's asleep, and it seems so cowardly."
+
+"I'm not so particular about a dangerous beast," said the doctor; and,
+kneeling in the stem of the boat, he rested his elbows on the gunwale,
+took a long aim, and fired, the bullet striking the bear's shoulder with
+a dull thud.
+
+"Well done! splendid shot!" cried the captain.  "Right to the heart.
+The brute hardly moved."
+
+But, all the same, as the smoke rose he stood ready to send another shot
+at the monster if it should prove only to be stunned.
+
+"Here, doctor," he said, "give him the other barrel, so as to make sure.
+I don't want any one to be clawed."
+
+The doctor, nothing loth, took aim again, and fired his second
+cartridge, this bullet also taking effect; but the bear did not move.
+
+"Dead enough," said the captain.  "Give way, my lads."
+
+The men pulled, and the boat was rowed right up to a tiny valley in the
+ice, which just gave them room to land and group round the monstrous
+bear, the gentlemen with their guns ready for a shot, the two Norwegians
+with their spears over their shoulders.
+
+The doctor's eyes sparkled with delight, for this bear also was a
+magnificent specimen, with enormously long, fine hair, decidedly whiter
+than the coat of the brute they had destroyed at Jan Mayen.
+
+"I did not know that you were such a shot, Handscombe," said the
+captain.
+
+"Oh, a mere accident," said the doctor modestly.  "Wasn't it a pity you
+let your chance go, Steve?"
+
+"Oh, I don't mind," said the lad, planting his foot on the bear's
+shoulder, and stooping to look for the wound.  Then he started, and
+glanced at Johannes, who, like Jakobsen, stood leaning on his spear.
+
+He read confirmation in the man's quiet eyes, and he turned round
+excitedly to his companions.
+
+"Why, the bear's dead!" he cried.
+
+"Of course it is," said the captain, laughing.  "We should not be
+standing here if it were not."
+
+"But I mean dead before Mr Handscombe fired!"
+
+"What!" cried the doctor, flushing red, while the captain went down on
+one knee to raise a paw.
+
+"Yes," he cried, "and frozen stiff.  It must have been dead for many
+hours, eh, Johannes?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man, kneeling down to part the fur, "many hours.
+Yes, here it is!  Look! in the chest.  The walrus got his tusk well
+home."
+
+"Eh?  What?" cried the captain, as the Norseman pointed to a great
+gaping wound; from which the blood had been washed by the sea.  The
+wound was in the upper part of the animal's chest, in a position where a
+dagger-like stroke would penetrate to the heart; and the bear had
+evidently swum for some distance, crawled there, and, after drawing
+itself up, quietly died.
+
+"But I don't quite understand," said the captain.
+
+"It is the walrus we saw tumble the bear off the cliff into the sea
+yesterday."
+
+"What!" cried the doctor excitedly.  "Then I did not kill it?"
+
+"No," said the captain, laughing.  "You cannot kill a dead thing."
+
+"But--but--" stammered the doctor.
+
+"You see, doctor, your profession is curing, not killing," cried the
+captain, laughing.  "Never mind: better luck next time."
+
+"But it is so absurd.  The idea of shooting at a dead beast!"
+
+"I'm glad I didn't, Mr Handscombe!" cried Steve merrily.
+
+"Now, look here, don't you begin to joke me, sir," said the doctor,
+"because I will not have it."
+
+He spoke laughingly, but he was evidently greatly chagrined.
+
+"So utterly ridiculous," he said.  "I say, Johannes, you ought not to
+have let me waste ammunition over a dead beast."
+
+"I'm very sorry, sir, but I did not know till you fired the first shot,
+the animal lay so naturally.  Then I began to think it was our bear
+wounded.  Of course, sir, I would not have let you fire if I had known."
+
+"Never mind," said the captain, laughing.  "But I say, Steve, my lad,
+your scruples saved you from a--from a--"
+
+"There, say it; don't hesitate," said the doctor.  "Saved him from a
+very ridiculous action.  I don't mind."
+
+"Well, we have got a magnificent bear anyhow," cried the captain.  "His
+skin is finer than that of the other, and he is tremendously fat."
+
+"There'll pe plenty more pear's grease for Watty's hair," whispered
+Hamish; and Andrew uttered a dry laugh, which sounded like the rattling
+together of pieces of wood.
+
+"I don't think there can be any tide to rise here and sweep the animal
+away," said the captain, "so we'll leave it till we return."
+
+He led the way to the boat, leaving the bear untouched, and the next
+minute they were rowing north, with the whole party keeping a sharp
+look-out for the walrus, which seemed to have forsaken the coast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+THEIR FIRST WALRUS.
+
+But they were not kept waiting long.  A quarter of a mile farther on the
+coast trended round to the east, and there the open sheet of water
+became encumbered with masses of ice, upon several of which Jakobsen,
+whose eyes were wonderfully good and admirably trained, pointed out
+walrus asleep or on the watch with head thrown back.
+
+That was enough.  Andrew uttered no more gibes, but tugged at his oar
+with the rest, and as silently; for all knew how much depended upon
+their surprising the wary beasts.
+
+"Have you ever shot walrus, sir?" asked Johannes suddenly.
+
+"Never," replied the captain; "but I think I shall be able to hit one."
+
+"Of course, sir.  What I meant was, that as soon as you have hit one it
+will make for the water and sink.  So do not be surprised after you have
+shot if I harpoon the beast to save it from being lost."
+
+"They do sink, then?"
+
+"Yes, sir; fat as they are they go right down.  I have seen many a one
+lost after being shot."
+
+"But they are so fat," said the captain.  "An animal laden like that
+with blubber ought surely to float."
+
+"You would think so, sir," replied the Norseman, who had now replaced
+the spear along the thwarts and taken up a harpoon; "but they do not
+float."
+
+"Well, don't let us lose any if you can prevent it," said the captain;
+and Johannes smiled, and then answered Steve's questions, as he busily
+made ready for the coming fight by thrusting the lance heads well up
+into the box which protected them from injury right up toward the bows,
+and then examined the harpoon head and shank round which the line was
+firmly secured.
+
+"How long is the line, Johannes?"
+
+"About fifteen fathoms, sir."
+
+"Oh, but isn't that too short?  Suppose the walrus comes to the end of
+the line after being harpooned.  It would pull the boat under."
+
+"No, sir," said the man, smiling, "because then we should cut the line."
+
+"But that would be a pity.  Why not have it longer?"
+
+"Because it would only be in the way, sir.  A walrus seldom takes out
+fifteen fathoms when it dives after being struck."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"Before it has run out that much it has to come up again to breathe."
+
+"I see.  But suppose it swims away along the surface?"
+
+"Ah! you'll see then, sir," said Johannes, smiling, "if I am lucky
+enough to harpoon one."
+
+Steve was silent for the time as, in obedience to the captain's orders,
+the men rowed gently toward a huge bull which lay on the ice, displaying
+a magnificent pair of tusks.  But suddenly something took the boy's
+attention, and he seized the Norseman's arm.
+
+"Look!" he cried.  "How lucky I saw!  That harpoon is not fastened to
+the shaft."
+
+"No, sir.  It ought not to be."
+
+"But why?  Won't it come off when you throw it?"
+
+"I hope so, sir; we don't want it broken.  Don't you see that the line
+is fastened to the head?  We want the shaft to come out and float on the
+water, so that we can pick it up and use it again.  It is almost the
+same as with the harpoons for the beluga."
+
+"Oh, I see.  But wouldn't they be better if they were made thicker?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man, giving the harpoon head a twist and taking it
+easily from the pointed end of the light pine shaft and replacing it.
+"That is just right, sir."
+
+Steve gave the Norseman a droll look.
+
+"I say," he whispered, "what an ignorant fellow you must think me!"
+
+"No," said the man, smiling.  "You did not understand the things that
+long experience has taught us are the best; but they are very simple,
+and you know them now."
+
+"Yes, I know now.  But tell me one more thing, and then I will not
+bother you any more."
+
+"Quick, then," said the Norseman good-humouredly.
+
+"I want to know how near you have to get before you throw."
+
+"We don't throw the harpoon at all if we can help it," replied Johannes,
+"but get close enough to thrust it into the seal, give it a twist to
+entangle it in the tough hide, and draw out the shaft."
+
+"Oh, look!" said Steve in a disappointed tone; for, when they were about
+a hundred yards away, the big bull raised his head, stared at them, and
+then shuffled off the block on which he lay, gave two or three heavy
+flops, and slid down softly into the water.
+
+"Never mind, sir," said Johannes calmly; "there is another yonder with
+finer tusks--that one to the left; and you can steer the boat so that it
+will be out of sight till we are quite close."
+
+The captain's face, which had looked gloomy, brightened, and he followed
+out the instructions given; while Skene, after twice over being on the
+point of barking loudly at the huge beasts scattered about amongst the
+icefloes, appeared as if he grasped the position and the meaning of the
+talking-to he had received, and stood there with his feet upon one of
+the thwarts well out of the way of the harpooner and his line, and
+watched the walrus with his ears quivering and playing about, taking
+evidently as much interest in the proceedings as his master.
+
+This time the boat passed several of the heavy animals, which stared at
+them stupidly, but did not attempt to stir, so that there would have
+been no difficulty twice over in striking and making fast; but the huge
+fellow with the grand tusks was the one they aimed for, the walrus they
+passed having shorter or broken teeth.
+
+"How is it so many have their teeth damaged?" whispered Steve.
+
+"No dentists up here to attend to them," said the doctor, who had heard
+the query.
+
+"Some break them fighting," said Johannes seriously, for he did not
+comprehend Mr Handscombe's allusion; "but very often they snap off the
+points through digging, them into the ice."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To drag themselves up out of the water," replied Johannes with a look
+of surprise.  "Now, hist!"
+
+Steve was silent, and sat with his rifle across his lap watching the
+animals, several of those swimming about being young of various sizes,
+great, fat, shapeless creatures, more like inflated india-rubber sacks
+cut short than anything else.
+
+And all this time the boat and men kept well behind a large piece of the
+ice-floe, which screened them effectually from the great bull.  But now
+the time had come when they would have to row round into sight, and the
+captain sat ready with his piece cocked, the doctor also being prepared
+to follow if necessary; and, seeing this, Steve softly raised the
+hammers of his own rifle, and sat prepared.
+
+Johannes noted his action, and gave an approving nod.
+
+The boat glided round the end of the floe, and there, some sixty yards
+away, lay the massive bull.
+
+The huge animal had no idea of their approach till now, when they
+learned the fact that it was evidently the sentinel of the herd, for it
+drew itself right up with a look of surprise, and the captain raised his
+piece.
+
+"Not yet, sir!" cried Johannes.  "Closer, closer!"
+
+The men pulled, and they saw the bull go through some singular
+evolutions, as if it were kicking at something beyond and out of sight.
+It was so, for instantly three more walrus started into sight and
+plunged into the water, and, the alarm being spread, the occupants of
+other masses of ice and the edge of the principal floe slid and splashed
+heavily in, their leader having evidently cried, "Danger!  Every one for
+himself!"
+
+As soon as the grand old sentinel had done his duty, he prepared, with
+an activity not to have been expected, to take care of himself, all of
+this having been the work of half a minute; but the boat was now within
+thirty yards, and gliding nearer, when the captain fired two shots
+rapidly one after the other.
+
+"Pull!" roared Johannes, and the men dragged at their stout ashen
+blades; and as the bull, which did not seem even staggered by the heavy
+bullets, plunged down from the side of the floe, the Norseman reached it
+and drove the harpoon right into its back, giving a twist with his
+wrist, and drawing back with the thin pine shaft, as the line ran
+rapidly out over the bows, following the walrus which had disappeared.
+
+"No, missed!" cried one of the Norsemen from the second boat; and as
+Steve glanced in that direction he saw that they were pulling hard,
+apparently after nothing, for not a walrus could be seen.
+
+Then, with Johannes erect in the bows, armed with his great lance, the
+boat was pulled in the direction in which the line was running out, and
+for a moment Steve was startled, for all at once a hundred heads almost
+together appeared above the surface some distance before them, there was
+a burst of sniffs and snorts as the animals took breath and instantly
+dived down again, their flippers appearing above the surface, and then
+they were gone.
+
+The great bull appeared, too, and dived once more before the line was
+run out; and when the herd, after which the other boat was in full
+chase, had appeared in the same way two or three times, breathed, and
+dived again, Jakobsen began to manipulate the line so as to get a pull
+on the frightened beast, in whose tough hide the harpoon held fast.  The
+consequence was that, while the mate was urging on the men in the other
+boat, the captain's was being towed and the men lying on their oars.
+
+Just then there was a shout from the other boat, for the last of the
+flying herd had been overtaken by hard pulling; and, watching his
+opportunity so as to pick out a finely tusked head, the Norse harpooner
+there had made a successful thrust, and they, too, were fast in a great
+bull.
+
+The end for the poor beast first struck was now near; it was growing
+tired of trying to overtake the flying herd, which appeared and
+disappeared with wonderful regularity and exactness.  It had the boat to
+drag as well as to force its mighty carcass through the water, and
+Jakobsen drew upon the line again and again, so as to get within
+striking distance when the animal ceased to make efforts to dive down.
+
+"Let me come forward and send a bullet through it," said the doctor.
+
+"Better not, sir.  It may charge us, and we can stop it better with our
+lances.  If it got its tusks over the side, we should either have a
+plank ripped out or be overturned."
+
+"Do it your own way," said the captain; and the words had hardly left
+his lips when Jakobsen stooped and rapidly picked up his lance, for the
+head of the walrus appeared above the water with its great six-inch
+bristles standing out above the gleaming tusks.  And now it seemed as if
+it were determined to fly no more, but to wreak its vengeance upon its
+pursuers.  With a loud, snorting noise it made a rush for the boat, its
+eyes looking wild and red, and the whole aspect of the great visage
+threatening to a degree.
+
+Steve's heart seemed to give a bound, for he was close to the bows, and
+only a few feet from the terrible-looking monster.  Involuntarily he
+raised and presented his piece; but Johannes uttered a warning growl
+that sounded exactly like that emitted by Skene, who backed away amongst
+the men, snarling and showing his teeth, as if saying, "I've got plenty
+of fight in me, but it isn't fair to expect me to tackle an arctic
+sea-elephant like that."
+
+Then the huge beast was close up, with head raised, and the gleaming
+tusks about to strike the boat's bows, when, _whish_! _crish_! two great
+lances were driven into its breast.  The recoil thrust the boat away
+from where the water was tossed wildly about, the animal struggling
+frantically, and recovering itself sufficiently from the two terrible
+thrusts, which dyed the clear water with crimson, to make another charge
+at the boat, but only to be met in the same way.
+
+There was another desperate struggle, the poor creature scattering the
+water with its great flippers, and the next minute, to Steve's great
+relief, it was dead and beginning to sink; but Johannes seized the line,
+and deftly threw a ring round the walrus's neck, gave it a few twists,
+and made the monster fast, in case the harpoon should after all give
+way, as it had with the other boat, which was now returning
+disconsolate, it being impossible to overtake the swimming and diving
+herd.  Then all at once the animals turned, for something happened which
+brought them tearing back through the water as rapidly as they had tried
+to escape; and now, as they came swimming back, it was without any
+diving, but with serried front, eyes flashing, and tusks gleaming, in a
+grand charge upon the boats, and with a force sufficient to tear them
+into matchwood and drown their occupants in the first rush.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+STEVE'S NEW PET.
+
+The reason for the change of front from flight to a brave attack was
+this.  As the second boat was returning with her disappointed crew, they
+drove back a member of the herd that had been left behind in the shape
+of a calf, which, to escape this second boat, swam and dived with such
+bad choice of direction that, unseen before, it all at once popped its
+droll-looking head out of the water close to where Steve was sitting
+looking at their huge prize.  Possibly it was the dead walrus which had
+attracted the young one and brought it so close.
+
+Skene was the first to see the absurd-looking little creature, and,
+planting his feet upon the gunwale, he barked himself into a state of
+terrible excitement, driving the young walrus into hiding beneath the
+water, but only to come up again from time to time to breathe.
+
+The young walrus could not understand the remarks made about its
+personal appearance, or else in all probability it would have swum away;
+for the shapeless creature was dubbed "bladder of lard," "skin of oil,"
+"prize pig," and the like, though Steve stuck to the notion of its being
+like a short india-rubber sack, blown full of wind, so little did head
+or flippers project from the blubber-distended body.
+
+"Oh, I say, Johannes, couldn't you catch it?" cried Steve.  "The poor
+thing believes that is its mother."
+
+"Yes, sir, and will not go away till we begin to row."
+
+"Couldn't you catch it?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, I could catch it, I daresay," replied the Norseman, "if
+the captain wishes."
+
+"But I do not wish," said Captain Marsham.  "What do you want with a
+young walrus?"
+
+"To bring up and tame," replied Steve, with the impression the while
+that he was saying something rather absurd.
+
+"Have a big one," cried the doctor, "and let's form a zoological
+garden!"
+
+"I don't see anything to laugh at," said Steve.  "It would be very
+interesting to watch the habits of the curious animal, and we've driven
+its mother away.  What would become of it, Johannes, if it is left?"
+
+"Bear," said the Norseman laconically.
+
+"There!" cried Steve, looking at the captain.
+
+"Try and catch it," said the latter quietly; and, giving Steve a smile
+and a nod, the Norseman took hold of the end of a coil of line, made a
+noose, and, watching his opportunity, threw it cleverly over the head
+end of the calf.
+
+"Hurrah! got him first throw!" cried Steve.  "No: gone!"
+
+For the rope on being tightened glided over the slippery hide and came
+away, while the calf dived, turning over like a round cork float,
+showing its hind flippers, and then it was out of sight.
+
+"There's nothing to catch hold of, sir," said Johannes good-humouredly,
+as he stood there with the noose gathered up in one hand, the coils of
+line in the other; "but he'll be up again directly."
+
+Johannes stood so quick and watchful that, as the calf's head popped out
+of the water again, a ring of rope fell round it and was tightened at
+once, but with no better fortune.  Again and again the Norseman tried;
+but the little creature was too slippery, and gave way, so that it was
+like trying to lasso a huge egg bobbing about on the surface.
+
+"Give it up," said the captain at last; but it was just as the ring of
+line fell once more round the plump, swimming and diving object, and
+Steve's feeling of disappointment gave way to delight, for fortune
+smiled upon the Norseman's efforts at last, or else the little walrus
+threw one flipper over the rope and hugged it to its fat side, with the
+result that the line was tightened with a snatch, and its egg-like body
+was suddenly compressed into a dumb-bell shape.
+
+"Got him!" cried Steve joyfully, and Skene nearly jumped overboard in
+his excitement, barking the next minute furiously, while his master
+stopped his ears; for the calf, as it was dragged toward the boat, first
+set up a whimper, and then broke out into a series of snorts, barks, and
+squeals, which gave it a strong resemblance to a pig being coerced into
+quiescence while undergoing the ornamentation to its nose known as
+ringing.
+
+At the first dismal squeal, but unnoticed by the occupants of the boat,
+the walrus herd stopped its retreat, at the second it turned, and at the
+third it came rushing back as fast as it could tear through the water.
+
+But little heed was paid to this in the excitement of dragging the heavy
+calf over the side; for it "gave" in every way.  There seemed to be
+nothing to grasp or of which to get a good grip, while to have hauled
+the animal in by the thin line looked like trying to cut it in two, as a
+shopkeeper does soap or cheese.  But at last Andrew "got a han'," as he
+called it, of one hind flipper, Jakobsen of one of the fore flippers,
+Steve hauled in the line, and Johannes reached over and caught the other
+fin-like projection.  Then there was a haul all together, and the
+squealing and snorting object rolled over the gunwale and down into the
+bottom of the rocking boat with what Hamish called "a squelch."
+
+By that time a warning cry was heard from Mr Lowe's boat, and the party
+with the captain gazed in dismay at the fierce-looking herd charging
+down.
+
+"Quick! oars!" cried the captain, and the men scrambled into their
+places with a scared look on their faces.
+
+"It's the youngling's cries has brought them down," said Johannes
+calmly.
+
+"You know these brutes of old," said the captain.  "Will they attack
+us?"
+
+"They'll come close up, sir; but I don't think there's anything to mind,
+or I would say throw the calf overboard."
+
+"Yes, that might be the best thing to do."
+
+"But I would not yet, sir.  We'll see.  These things look very big and
+fierce, and sometimes they can fight, but it's mostly bully and noise."
+
+The rifles were ready, and the two Norsemen seized their lances, ready
+to repel any savage attack; while for a time the position of the party
+appeared to be one of extreme peril.  But in this case it proved that,
+strong as was the desire of the animals to help and protect one of their
+young in trouble, it did not go far enough to make them run much risk.
+The Norsemen in both boats were ready to add to their take by lancing
+any aggressive individual; but the herd kept at a safe distance, calming
+down when the pig-like creature in the boat was quiet, and bursting out
+into furious snortings and shows of attack whenever the unhappy little
+creature remembered its trouble and burst forth into a wail.
+
+"There!" cried Johannes at last; "there is no danger.  A few splashes of
+the oar will keep them off.  Shall we harpoon another?"
+
+"No," said the captain; "we will be content with what is done.  We have
+the bear to get as well, so there is plenty of work."
+
+The second boat threw a line on board, which was made fast, and with
+this help and the stout arms in their own boat, the dead walrus was
+towed along the open waterway to where the bear had been found.  Then
+busy hands went to work skinning and flensing with such good will that
+at last, with both boats most unpleasantly loaded, as the doctor called
+it, they rowed back to the chasm and reached the ship in safety, well
+satisfied with their day's work.
+
+There was no aggressive walrus herd to make its appearance now, for, in
+spite of an occasional wail from the captive, none of its relatives
+attempted to enter the passage through to the fiord, and so the
+tremendous uproar which arose as soon as an attempt was made to get the
+captive on board the steamer, and which echoed loudly from the sides of
+the cliffs, was laughed at merrily, the men thoroughly enjoying the task
+of hoisting the slippery, yielding creature on deck.  This was achieved
+by laying a tarpaulin in the bottom of the boat, rolling the cub over,
+lashing the corners together, and hoisting and hauling it up to the
+gangway, where a little more snorting and barking of a pig-like nature
+resulted in the little animal settling down in the bows penned up by a
+couple of gratings, and going to sleep in the warm sun, evidently
+thoroughly appreciating the dry nature of its new bed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+THE HEALING OF A FEUD.
+
+Upon the principle of making hay while the sun shone, the little
+imprisoned party worked hard amongst the walrus, and with so much
+success, that there seemed to be no doubt about the cargo defraying the
+expenses of the expedition, and, if it should prove necessary, paying
+for a second voyage the next year.
+
+"If we can get out," said Steve one day, when the subject was being
+discussed in the cabin.
+
+"We must take that for granted, my lad," said the captain.  "There are
+many reasons why it is possible for the mass of ice at the bottom of the
+fiord to give way.  The outside must always be weakening, and the
+pressure on the inner increasing by the constant flow of water into the
+fiord, which is rising day by day.  That passage does not take off half
+as much as appears to come in somewhere from the rocks, and sooner or
+later this must break through the ice.  If it comes to the worst, we
+must turn engineers and block the passage by blasting down stones in
+that narrowest part till we have dammed the way out.  We should then
+turn this fiord into a lake, which would, sooner or later, burst down
+its southern bank."
+
+There was a little talk that evening, too, about the sun, whose career
+above the horizon was coming to an end, the height at noon being far
+less, and at midnight so close down to the horizon that it ceased to
+shine down into the glen, the rays being hid by the glacier.  This fact
+brought forth serious thoughts, for it suggested the time when the brief
+summer would be drawing to a close, and the approach of that long period
+during which the arc described by the sun grew lower and lower until it
+ceased to appear at all, and then came the worst of the wintry time--
+that when, saving the rays of the moon, stars, and aurora, there was no
+light.
+
+"I don't want to suggest difficulties," said the doctor suddenly; "but
+suppose, when the time for fine weather to be at an end comes, there is
+no chance of our escape--always supposing that we have seen nothing of
+the _Ice Blink_ people--what then?"
+
+"In plain English," said the captain, "we must make up our minds to pass
+the winter here."
+
+"The winter?" cried Steve.
+
+"Yes, my lad.  Why not?  We have snug, warm quarters, which we can make
+warmer, for I saw traces of coal up yonder in the valley close to the
+glacier.  Food is plentiful, and what men have done before men can do
+again."
+
+"If there is no help for it, we must submit," said the doctor.
+
+"Better submit than venture to sea in these two boats," said the
+captain; "and in case of the first emergency, I propose that we begin
+exploring the land now.  We have thoroughly examined all the coast that
+we could reach north and south."
+
+"And hunt as we go?" said the doctor.
+
+"And hunt as we go, so as to lay in a good store of fresh meat.  This
+will freeze and keep any length of time.  I don't think our prospects
+are so bad--that is, for seamen."
+
+"I thought we should have found some trace of our friends," said the
+doctor; but the captain shook his head.
+
+"It is all the merest chance," he said; "we have nothing to guide us.
+They might have been at Jan Mayen, or up on the north coast of Greenland
+or the coast of Spitzbergen, or they might be here in the next valley,
+or north or south where we could not penetrate.  On the other hand, they
+may be in Novaya-Zemlya, or in some region of the far north never yet
+penetrated by others.  Feeling all this has made me think that it will
+be by accident we shall meet our friends more than by searching; but we
+shall go on searching all the same."
+
+"Then you will make a start to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, as soon as the carpenter has knocked together a few bars, to make
+a contrivance that I mean to be a hand-barrow for four or eight men when
+the ground is rough, and a sledge when it is smooth enough for them to
+pull it, or on snow."
+
+"Which way shall you go?" said Steve.  "Couldn't we try the valley up by
+the glacier?"
+
+"That is where I mean to go first," said the captain, "so as to examine
+more fully those traces of coal; so let's go to rest in good time and
+start early."
+
+Steve went on deck to see to his dumb companions before retiring for the
+night, and found Skene and the young walrus comfortably asleep together
+forward; for four weeks of imprisonment had sufficed to make the new
+acquisition so tame and friendly with the dog that Skene quite
+appreciated his new companion, treating it as a kind of huge
+india-rubber cushion, over and about which he had a right to stretch
+himself wherever and whenever he pleased.
+
+But a word roused up the dog, who leaped off the walrus, waking it in
+the act; and seeing its master it, too, advanced, not like the dog in
+capers and bounds accompanied by barking, but in a curious shuffling
+fashion, with plenty of whines and whimpers suggestive of its
+satisfaction and demand for caresses.
+
+"Good old Skeny!" cried Steve.  "Long walk to-morrow, old man, hunting
+and bear and all sorts."
+
+The dog uttered a cheery bark at every announcement as if he understood
+every word, and leaped up at his master, certainly comprehending that
+there was something on the way.
+
+"Hullo, Blub!" cried Steve, stooping to give the walrus some sounding
+slaps, which were evidently appreciated.  "Rum old chap, ar'n't you?
+Why, you always feel as if one ought to sit on you, or roll over you,
+don't you?"
+
+For answer the curious-looking object made a barking kind of grunt, and
+thrust its curious, neckless head over the lad's shoe, peering up to
+him, and evidently enjoying the company of one who talked to and
+favoured it with plenty of slaps and pats, all of which appeared to be
+thoroughly appreciated, and missed as soon as the lad moved away, the
+animal shuffling after him in the most absurd way, and to the great
+delight of the crew, which joined in petting the uncouth beast in the
+intervals of being free from some busy task.
+
+All this while the stock of oil had rapidly augmented, and one portion
+of the hold had been set apart for the reception of the great solid
+tusks, which were carefully extracted from the walrus skulls by
+Johannes, who never seemed happier than when engaged in some task
+relating to the capture or storing of the produce of one or other of the
+arctic animals.
+
+The next morning the party bound for the search and hunt for fresh food
+started quite early, the boat landing them very near to the side of the
+great glacier, with its wonderful bluish tints in the chasms and hollows
+about its feet.  At Steve's request Watty was one of the party, for
+several times lately he had noticed the longing eyes the lad had
+directed at them when they were bound on an expedition; and now at last,
+when he was to have a run on shore and see the shooting of the reindeer,
+his excitement seemed to bubble over, and he could hardly contain
+himself as he tramped on by the side of Andrew McByle.
+
+A brief glance was given to the grand glacier, and then the party bore
+off to the right along the valley, finding, to Steve's great delight, as
+they reached the warmer and more sheltered position, where the ground
+was protected from the sea breeze and from the icy currents which blew
+from the north, quite an abundance of flowers, though there was a
+perfect absence of trees.  They were dwarfed and ordinary-looking
+plants, saxifrages and other alpine growths, and so insignificant, that
+in another part of the world they would have been looked upon as paltry
+weeds, but here they were rushed after by both the lads, Watty being
+down on his knees directly to pick a handful.
+
+"Leuk at her," said Andrew contemptuously.  "She always thocht the
+callant had a bee in her bonnet.  She's gane daft aboot the bit weeds."
+
+But Steve was quite as "daft"; and in the course of their searching for
+fresh blossoms they came in contact over a tuft which each had espied
+from a distance, and paused a yard apart, with eyes glistening from
+eagerness and hand outstretched, the other holding a spare rifle over
+the left shoulder.  Neither spoke for a moment or two, and then Watty
+broke the silence and looked quite friendly at his young superior; while
+Steve waited, expecting to hear some unpleasant remark, or to see some
+annoying gesture, on the lad's part.
+
+"I dinna want them," said Watty at last.  "She'll find plenty mair.
+Hey! but it does the hairt good to see the bonnie bit floores ance mair.
+Peck them and come alang, Meester Stevey, and we'll be finding
+bilberries oot yonder on ta brae."
+
+"There's plenty for both, Watty," said Steve; and, in the most friendly
+way brought together by the tiny blossoms, the lads gathered each a
+handful, Steve sticking his in his breast, and Watty taking off his
+flat, Celtic, worsted bonnet, laying the flowers carefully therein, and
+then replacing it upon his bear's-greasy, shock head.
+
+"She'll pit them in watter when she gets back," he said.  "Hey! but it
+does her hairt good to rin amang the floores again."
+
+Their party was well on ahead, and they trudged after them together
+along the valley, with the mountains running steeply up on either side,
+in places up and away to where the dull green moss and tufty growths
+gave way to bare patches of stones, and still up and up to where the
+loose stones were succeeded by rock sheathed and netted with snow.  Just
+above this was the eternal, glittering ice, dazzling in the soft glow of
+the sun, whose light looked cold and calm, and gave the wondrous
+landscape a saddened aspect; for, in spite of its beauty and the variety
+of tint of the mountain-side, Steve felt that there was a something
+mournful about the valley, though why he could not explain.
+
+It was singular, but every step impressed his more thoughtful companions
+on ahead that this was no haunt for human beings; and as they tramped
+on, following the windings of the valley, the impression grew stronger
+and stronger that theirs were the first, possibly might prove to be the
+last, human feet that had ever traversed this stony desert.
+
+"She dinna see nae heather," said Watty suddenly, "an' she dinna see nae
+bluebell; but it's verra bonnie oot here, Meester Steve.  Will ta
+captain be gaen far awa?"
+
+"Oh yes, a long way yet, Watty.  We've got to shoot some deer to take
+back."
+
+"Eh?  Shoot the deer an' tak' back!  But she'll be hungry sune, and when
+she's shot a teer she'll mak' a fire and roast her.  For she's a fine,
+gude cook now, and wad like to stay ashore now and build a hoose and
+shoot and hunt.  Wait a wee, and she'll mak' a bonnie fire."
+
+"What of?" said Steve, laughing.  "We haven't shot our deer yet; and if
+we had, there's no wood here."
+
+"Thenk o' tat," said Watty, cocking his bonnet on one side to give his
+head a scratch.  "Nae wud!  She's nane sae fine a countrie as bonnie
+Scotland, then.  Nae wud!" he continued, looking round.  "But she'll
+find a forest over yonder?"
+
+"No, there are no trees here."
+
+"Then she'll mak' a fire o' peat.  She'll find plenty o' turves doon
+alangside o' ta bilberries."
+
+"Yes, you may find turf, and perhaps coal; but we shall see."
+
+They had to hurry a little to overtake the party, and this was soon made
+easier from their halting about a mile farther inland, where the captain
+was gazing up the stony slope of the mountain to their left.
+
+Steve looked up, expecting to see some particular plant or perhaps bird;
+but he was soon undeceived by the doctor handing his rifle to Andrew and
+climbing up a little way to kick off some masses of something and throw
+them down.
+
+"What has he found, Captain Marsham?" said Steve; "gold?"
+
+"What is far more valuable to us, my lad--coal.  Yes," he added, as he
+examined the specimen which he had picked up, "and good, soft,
+bituminous coal, too.  Why, Steve, this is going to be a land of plenty
+for us.  A coal vein cropping out of the cliff-side, ready for us to
+come with picks, sacks, and sledges to carry off as much as we like."
+
+"She's pit petter coal than tat into the galley fire," said Watty, who
+had followed the example of the others and picked up a piece to examine.
+"Leuks brown, Meester Stevey.  Does she thenk it wud burn?"
+
+"We'll try as soon as we get a deer to roast, Watty."
+
+"Hey, leuk at tat!" cried the lad, as a shadow was cast upon the rock
+wall, and a huge owl floated by on its soft pinions, staring hard at the
+human visitors to its solitude with its large round eyes, and then
+proceeded to perch upon a ledge high above their heads, and strip and
+devour a speckled bird which it had in its claws.
+
+"Hey, look at tat!" cried Watty, whose excitement bubbled over at every
+fresh thing he saw.  "She got ta white speckled grouse fra off the
+mountain-side.  She's seen ta grouse like tat on Ben Cruachan."
+
+"Ptarmigan, Handscombe," said the captain, as the white and browny-grey
+plumage of the unfortunate bird came floating down from where the
+eagle-owl was preparing its meal.
+
+"Yes, ptarmigan, sure enough," said the doctor.  "Come along; we must
+knock over a few of these if we don't find any deer.  Shall I shoot the
+owl?"
+
+"No, let it rest; we can't eat it, and we are too busy to care for
+preserving specimens.  Make a note, though, of our having seen these two
+birds to-day.  I want to make out how wide the coal seam is, and whether
+it would be easy to work.  Here, my lad, give some one else that gun,
+and climb up and tell me how wide that coal is.  You can get up there."
+
+"She got oop and teukit an eagle's nest ance by Ballachulish," replied
+the boy; and readily enough he climbed from stone to stone, with the
+huge owl ceasing its preparation of its dinner and glaring down at him.
+
+"Their tameness is shocking to me," quoted the doctor, as he saw Watty
+climb and the owl watch him come nearer and nearer, till all at once the
+great white-and-grey-plumed bird dropped the ptarmigan, made a rapid
+silent stoop unseen by the lad, struck at his head with claws and wings,
+and sailed away again silently, leaving the bonnet with its flowers
+falling more quickly than Watty, who lost his hold, and came rolling,
+scrambling, and tumbling down, till, scratched, bruised, and breathless,
+he fell quite at his companions' feet.
+
+"Wha' did tat?" he shouted furiously, as he sprang up with his eyes
+flashing; and he gazed from Steve to the doctor and back, as their
+anxious look changed now to one of mirth on finding that the boy was not
+much hurt.
+
+"Did what?" cried Steve in suffocated tones.
+
+"Threw a big lump of turf and knockit off her bonnet."
+
+"Haud your whisht, laddie," growled Andrew.  "Naebody threw a turf, for
+there isna turf to throw."
+
+"But ta turf hit her an ta lug, and knockit off her bonnet."
+
+"Haud your whisht, laddie; naebody threw a turf.  It was the great grey
+geuse bird teuk her for a lamb.  Hey! here she comes back."
+
+In effect the great owl came sailing up, stooped and picked up the
+ptarmigan it had dropped, and went off to a ledge of the mountain higher
+up.
+
+"She's spoiled a' the bonnie floores," muttered Watty, picking up his
+bonnet, and climbing up again to report that the coal seam was "sae
+wide," this measure being indicated by touching the face of the rock in
+two places about a foot apart; and he was about to descend when he
+caught sight of something away over a ridge, and pointed.
+
+"She can see the ret-teer," he whispered.  "Whisht!"  Watty crept down
+cautiously, his actions showing that before now he must have been out in
+the deer forests at home; for as soon as he reached the bottom of the
+cliff he ran to Skene, who had been watching the owl and its prey with a
+curiously puzzled look as if he did not know it as a bird at home, and,
+dropping on one knee, he threw his left arm over the dog's neck and held
+his muzzle so that he should not bark.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+MISSING.
+
+Every one stared at Watty, he was so completely transformed from the
+sulky, ill-conditioned lad who assisted the cook.  The Scottish blood in
+his veins was fired by the sight of the deer and recollections of the
+stalking he had witnessed in his own Highlands, when he had been with
+one or other of the keepers, and his eyes flashed as he saw the advance
+made with the rifled guns.
+
+It proved to be no laborious stalk, for the deer did not apprehend
+danger.  The captain brought down one, the doctor another, while Steve,
+although he rested his heavy rifle on a stone in taking aim, missed an
+easy shot.  He did better later on, though, for another opportunity
+occurred enabling him to creep within sixty yards of a buck with large
+spreading antlers, and he was about to fire at the animal as it stood
+with head erect looking round listening to a sound in the distance, when
+there was a hard breathing just at his shoulder.
+
+"Watty, you here?" he said.
+
+"Ay.  She cam' to see her shute.  Tak' a lang straight aim this time,
+laddie.  Dinna miss the beastie for bonnie Scotland's sake.  Quick, or
+she'll be gane!  Tak' care; reet i' the shouther."  _Bang_!  "Hey, but
+ye het her!"
+
+For as the report of Steve's piece rang out and echoed from the side of
+the mountain, and again from a ridge across the mossy plain at whose
+edge they wandered, the stag at which he had fired made a bound and went
+off at full speed, leaving the lad with his heart beating and full of
+disappointment.
+
+"No, Watty, a miss; I can't shoot straight, and it's of no use trying, I
+only waste the cartridges."
+
+"Got him?" came faintly from the distance, and, turning, Steve could see
+the doctor a couple of hundred yards away.
+
+"No!" cried Steve gloomily; and then softly, "I can't shoot;" and he
+watched the disappearing stag.
+
+"Yes, yes, yes!" yelled Watty.  "Hi--yi--yi--yi--ah!"
+
+For just as the deer was going at full speed, and a few more bounds
+would have taken it round a point and out of sight, it dropped suddenly,
+the impetus at which it had been going sending it right over and over
+twice; then it lay motionless, and, re-loading as he went, Steve
+exultantly started after his prize.
+
+"I told her sae; I kenned she'd het her by the way the beastie rinned.
+Shot recht through the hairt, laddie--recht through the hairt."
+
+"Mind, it may only be wounded, and these things are dangerous."
+
+"Nay, she'll never rin again," panted Watty, whom long inaction on board
+had made fat.  "It was a bonnie lang shot, and ye ought to be verra
+proud."
+
+"But I'm not, Watty; it seems a shame and cowardly to crawl after a
+beautiful animal and murder it."
+
+"She isna a peautiful animal," said Watty scornfully.  "She's fat, put
+she's not so big and bonnie as a Hieland stag, and her horns are puir
+scrats o' things.  Hey, but ye should see the tines on the het of a
+bonnie ret-teer!  She's only coot to eat; ant she must kill the
+beasties, or else she'd pine to deat."
+
+Watty was right, and they could approach the deer without fear of
+attack.  As it happened, it proved to be the finest shot that day, and
+after it had been gralloched (as the Highlanders term the opening and
+cleaning of a stag), by the Norsemen, the light sledge was brought into
+requisition, the men harnessed themselves to it, and the reindeer was
+dragged to where the game had been left for picking up on their return;
+but to the surprise of all it was missing.
+
+"It must have been here that we left it," said the captain, glancing
+round at the wilderness of rocks reaching from them to the
+mountain-foot.
+
+"Of course; here are the marks," said the doctor.
+
+At that minute, with a quiet smile, Johannes touched Steve's arm and
+pointed.  The boy followed the direction indicated, and saw something
+moving on the mountain-side.
+
+"Yes, I see it!" cried Steve.  "There goes our deer."  For, plainly
+enough, though over a mile away, possibly two miles, for the air was
+wonderfully clear, there was a white-coated bear calmly dragging off for
+its own dinner the deer which had fallen to the doctor's piece.
+
+"Well, of all the thievish impudence!" he cried.  "Come along, and let's
+give him a lesson."
+
+"No, I think not to-day," said the captain; "we are all tired and
+hungry.  We should not care for the flesh now."
+
+"But the bear and his skin?"
+
+"We could not take him to-day; we can track him another time.  If we
+shot him now, we should have to leave the carcass, and the skin might be
+torn.  Let's get back to the other deer."
+
+The doctor nodded, and, to Steve's great delight, they pressed on,
+picked up the next deer, and then all at once Steve handed his gun to
+Johannes and started off at a trot toward the valley by which they had
+come.
+
+"Hi!  Where's he going?" cried the doctor, as the men loaded the sledge.
+
+"I don't know," said the captain.  "Yes, I do: he has run on to light a
+fire where we found the coal, so as to cook some of the meat."
+
+"Yes, that's it," said the doctor.  "I hope he'll have a good fire.  One
+gets horribly hungry out here."
+
+They trudged on till they came to where the next deer lay waiting to be
+picked up.  This was the last, and, quite satisfied with their load,
+they made their way steadily on toward the nearly perpendicular rocks
+where the coal had been discovered cropping out from the face.
+
+"That's the place, isn't it?" said the doctor, pointing and shifting his
+rifle from one shoulder to the other.
+
+"Yes, sir!" cried Watty Links eagerly.  "She can see ta big white ullet
+flitting aboot and roond and roond because Meester Stevey's leeting ta
+fire.  She wushes she'd gane.  She can leet a fire better tan Meester
+Stevey, and she could ha' blow in it wi' her brath and beat it wi' her
+bonnet to mak' a big blaze coom sune."
+
+"Did Mr Stephen say to you that he was going to light a fire?"
+
+"Phut!" ejaculated Watty, emitting a sound like an angry turkey-cock,
+and ruffling up and speaking indignantly.  "And tit she thenk she would
+have let her go and light a fire if she hat kenned aboot it?  She'd ha'
+gane hersel', and not let the young chentleman touch the coal stuff.
+She wadna tell me, and rin away to leet the fire her nainsel', because
+she thocht she could do it better.  But where's the smok?"
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said the captain; "but I don't see any smoke.
+He would have been there by now."
+
+"He has chosen some corner out of the wind," suggested the doctor, as he
+watched the great bird circling about the face of the cliff, but from
+their distance looking less than a pigeon.
+
+"We ought to have a specimen of those owls," said the captain as they
+trudged on, rather wearily now, their pieces seeming to have grown
+wonderfully heavy.
+
+"Marsham, my good friend," said the doctor, "there is only one specimen
+in natural history that interests me now, and that is the fleshy tissue
+known as steak or collops, frizzled over a good clear fire.  After I
+have exhibited, as we doctors say, a dose of that to myself, I shall be
+quite ready to talk about owls; not before."
+
+"See him, Johannes?" said the captain, dropping back to take hold of one
+of the tracking lines, and helping to pull the sledge and ease the men.
+
+"No, sir.  He has been troubled to get the fire to burn.  Maybe he has
+no matches.  For there was plenty of rough coal lying about, and dry
+stuff that would soon catch alight.  But it will be something to find
+the fire ready to burn; and we can soon get some bits of meat to roast."
+
+"I don't see any signs of that, my lad," said the captain, after they
+had gone a little farther.  "Of course that was why he ran on.  Did he
+say anything to you about it?"
+
+"Not a word, sir.  He made a sudden dart off and was gone."
+
+"Perhaps he has a fire where we cannot see it," said the captain; "and
+it tells well for the coal that it burns with so little smoke.  It will
+be capital for the engines."
+
+They trudged on, quite satisfied that they had not the other deer to
+drag as well, for the ground was very rugged, and Captain Marsham
+suggested to the doctor that if they had had the bear-skin the task
+would not have been much lighter.  Still, every one was cheerful, and
+tugged heartily at his track rope; but there was no sign of the lad when
+they reached the foot of the coal cliff.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+LOST.
+
+"Ahoy, there!  Ahoy!" shouted the doctor again and again, startling the
+great owl from its eagle-like eerie and making the rocks echo the cry.
+But there was no response, and the party looked at each other for an
+explanation of the position.
+
+"He has not been here," said the captain, "and we must go back and
+search.  How tiresome, when we are so weary!"
+
+"I wish you had not brought him," grumbled the doctor.  "I say, isn't
+anybody going to make a fire?"
+
+"Look here, sir!" cried Jakobsen suddenly from where he stood by a big
+mass of rock.
+
+"Yes! what is it?" cried the captain; and he stepped toward the man,
+followed by the others, to where Jakobsen pointed down to a ring of
+stones, within which was a quantity of dry, heathery stuff with a number
+of weather-worn lumps of coal.
+
+"No mistake about his having been here," said the doctor, taking out a
+box of matches, which, to his astonishment, was snatched from his
+fingers by Watty, who dropped upon his knees, struck and shaded a match,
+applied it to the light stuff, which blazed up at once, and then began
+to fan it with his bonnet in one hand, as he kept on adding little bits
+of coal with the other.
+
+"She'll soon have a ferry pig fire," said Watty, "and she'd petter get
+ta steaks retty to frizzle.  She can cook peautifully the noo."
+
+This was to Jakobsen, who nodded, drew his knife, and began to cut off a
+haunch from one of the deer, for Johannes was looking about uneasily.
+
+"See anything of him, my man?" said the captain.
+
+"No, sir.  He must be gathering coal together to help the fire; but I've
+been down both these rifts, and he is not there."
+
+"It's very strange," said the captain uneasily.  "So unlike him to rush
+off in that way."
+
+"He was thinking of our comfort, sir," said Johannes gravely; "and how
+good it would be for us to find a fire ready."
+
+"He must be about here somewhere," said the captain.  "Shout, will you?"
+
+Johannes made the rocks echo again and again, but the only effect was
+the starting of the owl into flight till the cries and their echoes
+ceased, when it settled once more high up the mountain-side.
+
+There were several narrow, gully-like places within reach, up either of
+which the boy might have gone, and the question arose as to the reason
+for his so doing.
+
+"He would not have gone seeking for coal," said the doctor, "because
+there is plenty here."
+
+"I'm thinking, sir," said the Norseman, "that he had no matches, and has
+gone to seek for a stone to use with his knife to strike a light.  There
+can be no other reason."
+
+"Then he will be back directly," said the captain.  "There, leave them
+to cook; I am uneasy about him.  Let's search those places a little
+farther off.  We'll take that one, Handscombe; you the other, Johannes."
+
+They all then started off as the fire burned up, and spread quite a
+cloud of black smoke overhead; and the Norseman had barely reached the
+mouth of the ravine which he was to explore before he stopped and gave a
+triumphant shout as he waved his hand.  The others waved their hands in
+answer, and turned to where he stood, with something in his grasp,
+peering carefully around.
+
+"His cap!" cried the captain.  "What does that mean?"
+
+The Norseman shook his head.
+
+"The ground is hard as iron, sir," he said; "there is not an impression
+anywhere.  I've been looking for foot-marks."
+
+"Surely he has not been attacked by wild beasts--bears!" cried Mr
+Handscombe hoarsely.
+
+"I thought of that, sir; but there is no sign."
+
+They hailed again and again, but there was no reply save that given by
+the echoes, and the captain grew more uneasy.
+
+"Show me exactly where you found the cap," he said.
+
+The Norseman trotted about fifty yards on beyond the entrance to the
+ravine he had been set to search, and picked up a piece of slaty coal.
+
+"Just here, sir," he said.  "I put this where I found the cap."
+
+"Then he must have gone on in that direction; he would not have come
+back to go down there."
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"But why should he have dropped his cap?" said the doctor.
+
+"He must have been running after something, sir."
+
+"Or something must have been running after him," cried the doctor.  "He
+would not have gone any farther than this unless there was some reason."
+
+"Of course not," said the captain testily; "but what reason could there
+be?"
+
+"Well, it seems to me that the best thing is to go back to the fire and
+wait a few minutes," said the doctor, after standing thoughtful and
+silent.  "He is far more likely to come to us than we are to go to him.
+It seems to be a mystery; but mysteries sometimes turn out very simple
+things.  What do you say?"
+
+"I say that we'll have a good search down this gully, and see if by any
+chance he has gone down here.  You, Johannes, search along over our
+morning's track straight away, and try and be back in half an hour at
+the fire.  We will meet you."
+
+The Norseman went off without a word, and the captain and doctor, after
+a glance in the direction of the fire to see that the others were
+watching them, plunged into the gloomy, rugged gully, which looked as if
+the mountain had been suddenly split apart, leaving at the bottom just
+room for two men to pick their way along abreast, while the sides ran up
+at once toward where the ice and snow never melted save on the surface,
+to send a little water trickling down to form a tiny stream, which
+wandered along among the stones beneath their feet.  But though they
+pressed on, seeking hard for some sign of the lad having passed there,
+nothing was seen; so, when the half-hour was well up, they turned their
+heads in the other direction, vainly trying to make out where he could
+have gone, and still scanning every stone and rift overhead for signs.
+
+"I hope Johannes has had better fortune," said the captain as they
+neared the entrance.
+
+"I hope so; he would be back at the fire long before now," replied the
+doctor; but hardly had he spoken when a loud hail came echoing down the
+gully.  They sent an echoing reply, and hurried their paces.
+
+"One hardly likes to shout here," said the doctor; "the echoes are so
+weird and strange, they seem quite to answer you."
+
+"Better if Steve would answer," said the captain drily.  "You said a
+time back you wished we had not brought him to-day.  I honestly wish now
+that I had not brought him at all.  Well, Johannes?"
+
+There was no need to speak.  The heavy, solemn face of the Norseman told
+that he had seen nothing, and they went back to the fire in silence.
+
+There was a pleasant odour to a hungry man out in the open, that of
+frizzling meat, as they approached the fire; but the strange
+disappearance of their young companion took away all appetite, and
+Watty, who was smiling with satisfaction at the success of the collops
+he had been cooking upon skewers of wood, as _chef_ of the _al-fresco_
+kitchen, saw with intense disappointment that the captain and those with
+him contented themselves with taking a couple of ship's biscuits each,
+and then turning away to confer as to what ought to be done.
+
+"We cannot go back to the ship without him," said the captain.
+
+"No," cried Johannes.
+
+"Do you think he is playing us some trick?" said the doctor.
+
+"Trick?"
+
+"I mean hiding away, and will turn up directly."
+
+"No, he would not be so wanting in common sense," said the captain
+sternly.  "What pleasure could he find in so inane a prank?"
+
+"None.  I ought not to have said such a thing.  He would not, of
+course."
+
+"No," said Johannes decisively.  "Is it possible, gentlemen, that he may
+have gone on, after putting the fire ready, so as to reach the boat?"
+
+"I can see no reason."
+
+"You did not give him any order, sir--one that you have forgotten?"
+
+"No, certainly not," said the captain; and Johannes was silent, waiting
+for his superior to make some suggestion, the captain being very
+thoughtful as he stood there with his brow knit.  At last he spoke.
+
+"I cannot leave this place with the knowledge that he may have gone away
+for some reason that we cannot grasp and will perhaps return here
+by-and-by.  It would be horrible for him to come and find that we had
+gone."
+
+"I should stay," said Johannes shortly.  "Thank you, my man," said the
+captain warmly; "and we shall stay, too.  Of course you would not go,
+Handscombe?"
+
+"Impossible!" said the doctor quickly.  "One minute, though," he
+continued, looking upward toward the rugged face of the mountain, and
+higher still to the snow and ice.  "Do you think he has climbed up
+yonder to pass the time till we overtook him?"
+
+"Oh no!" cried the captain; "the time was too short.  There, my mind is
+made up."
+
+The others looked at him; but he said no more till he had turned back to
+the fire.
+
+"Look here, my lads," he said; "make a meal as quickly as you can, and
+then hurry on to the place where we landed.  Of course you will keep a
+sharp look-out for Mr Steve as you go, in case he may be on the road.
+If you do not pass him, question the boat-keepers; and if they have not
+seen him, you, Jakobsen, will come back to us here."  The Norseman
+nodded.
+
+"I shall depend upon your making all the haste you can back to us,"
+continued the captain.  "We may want you to help explore the place
+around; but I am in hopes that you will find him waiting by the boat."
+
+Ten minutes later the men sprang up, harnessed themselves to the sledge
+and prepared to start, only waiting for the captain to give the word,
+"Go!"
+
+Just then Watty sidled up to where the captain was standing.
+
+"She'll chust let her stay?" said the boy insinuatingly.
+
+"Stay?  You stay, my lad?  What for?"
+
+"She thenks she can help find him."
+
+"Why, what makes you think that?"
+
+"Aw dinna ken," said the lad, shaking his head.  "She only thenks she
+can find him.  She can climb and rin.  Ye'll chust let her stay?"
+
+"But you don't want to find him," cried the doctor.  "You two were the
+worst of friends."
+
+"Freends?  She woodna be freend, only chust acquaint; but she'd like to
+find him, all the same."
+
+"Stay," said the captain laconically.  "You may be of use; but I'm
+afraid that we can do nothing but wait."
+
+Watty Links stepped back, giving himself a punch in his side, which
+seemed to indicate that he was intensely gratified.
+
+Then the word was given, the men tightened their track ropes, and went
+off with the sledge and its heavy load of fresh meat at a pretty good
+rate, while Captain Marsham and his companions stood gazing round, and
+considered what direction it would be best to take.
+
+Then a thought struck the captain, and he turned to the boy.
+
+"Look here, my lad," he said quickly, "if you stay here I shall want you
+to stop by the fire while we go about searching."
+
+"She'll want her to stop by the fire?" said Watty in dismay.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What, all alane?"
+
+"Yes, while we search, so that some one may be here if Mr Stephen comes
+back while we are gone."
+
+"But alane by her nainsel'?" faltered Watty.
+
+"Of course.  There, be off with you.  Run after the men; you can easily
+overtake them."
+
+"She dinna want to go after the men," said Watty stoutly.  "She wants to
+find Meester Stevey, and ye said I micht stop."
+
+"Then you must do what I want you to do, sir.  Are you afraid?"
+
+"Aye, she's a bit skeary aboot stopping here all alane."
+
+"Off with you, then!"
+
+"Nay, she said I micht stop."
+
+"Then you will have to stay and keep watch by the fire."
+
+"She wants to go and find Meester Stevey."
+
+"I have no time to argue with you, sir.  Go or stay," said the captain
+angrily.
+
+"She's chust going to stop," said Watty sullenly.
+
+"The boy has stuff in him," said the captain to Mr Handscombe; "and he
+has a kind of attachment to Steve after all their bickerings and
+fighting.  Now, then, we must have another search; which way do you
+recommend, Johannes?"
+
+"There is no choice, sir," said the Norseman gravely; "one place is as
+likely to be right as another.  There is a little valley yonder behind
+the coal.  Shall we try that?"
+
+"Yes," was the laconic answer; and the captain stood thinking for a few
+moments, and using the little glass he carried to sweep the
+mountain-side, and then the slopes and plain opening behind them.
+
+"She'll pe getting ferry hungry," said Watty, "and she'd petter eat some
+of the tear."
+
+The captain shook his head.
+
+"Eat, Johannes," he said.  "You, too, Handscombe."
+
+The Norseman nodded.
+
+"I cannot eat now, sir," he said; "but I'll take enough with us for all.
+We shall be faint and want food by-and-by."
+
+"Yes, take some," said the captain.  "Now, my man, you will keep up the
+fire and have some of the meat they have left ready to cook when we
+bring back Mr Stephen?"
+
+"Tat's what she was gaen to do," said the lad quickly.
+
+"We shall not be away more than an hour, if he comes back first.  There
+is nothing to mind."
+
+"Put if the beast come what'll she do?"
+
+"Beasts?  They are not likely to come here."
+
+"Put if she shall come, what then?" queried Watty sharply.
+
+"Then," said the captain, smiling--"why, then you must climb up the
+cliff there, and wait till we come back."
+
+"Yes," said Watty thoughtfully; "tat's the pest thing to do."
+
+Five minutes later he was alone frizzling more of the reindeer haunch
+freshly cut from the bone with his big sharp knife, for the others had
+started off at once for the little valley Johannes had pointed out.
+
+"She'll pe ferry lanely all alane," said Watty, after watching till the
+doctor, who was last, had disappeared.  "What'll she do till they come
+pack?"
+
+He stood watching the fire, and thinking.  Then at last:
+
+"There'll pe plenty left for Meester Stevey when she comes, and she
+tidn't get enough pefore, so she'll pegin to eat over again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+STEVE'S ADVENTURE.
+
+And all this time the object of so much solicitude was as eagerly on the
+watch for help as his friends were ready to supply it.
+
+When the idea struck him that it would be a capital thing to do to run
+on forward to the foot of the coal cliff and start a fire ready for the
+time when the sledge was laboriously dragged up, he did not pause to
+consider whether it would be wise to separate himself from his friends,
+but darted off at full speed, and in due time reached the spot.  He
+hurriedly built up a number of stones into a circle, and began to
+collect dry, twiggy stuff to start the blaze, wishing the while that he
+could see a fir wood with its ample supply of dead, turpentiny branches.
+But the twigs were strong and promised to burn well, so he proceeded
+next to collect the weather-worn fragments of coal, which had from time
+to time crumbled down from above, rent away by the frost.  These were
+scattered here and there, many of them resembling stone; but he soon
+obtained enough to begin with, and bore them to his rough fireplace,
+over which he saw in imagination, as he worked, delicious steaks of deer
+frizzling.
+
+He had pressed the bushy scrub down hard to make it burn without flaring
+away, glanced at the pieces of coal ready to hand, and now began to
+search his pocket for the little brass box of matches he carried, when
+as he knelt down there were footsteps behind him and a heavy breathing.
+
+"That you, Watty?" he said, without looking round.  "Bother the box!
+Here, Watty, got any matches?"  _Phoo_!
+
+A deep-toned expiration of the breath was the answer, and the boy turned
+his head, to find that, not three yards from where he knelt, a huge
+bear, whose long fur had quite a pale golden tinge in the sunshine, was
+literally towering over him upon its hind legs with fore paws extended
+as if to catch him.
+
+Steve's spring over the fireplace was of a kind that, improved by
+practice, was sufficiently fine to promise his taking rank as the
+greatest standing jumper of his time, while his speed in running
+certainly merited praise as he found that the great beast, which must
+have stood up some seven feet, had now dropped on all fours and was in
+full chase.
+
+For choice Steve would have run toward his friends, but he had no
+option.  The bear blocked the way in that direction; on his right there
+was the rapid rise of the mountain; on the left the ground was broken
+and boggy; before him the way open toward the mouth of the valley where
+they had left the boat, and naturally this way he ran, hoping that the
+bear would soon tire of the pursuit, and believing in his power to run
+more swiftly.
+
+The way was not good, for it was encumbered with blocks of stone that
+had fallen from above; but Steve felt that they must be as bad for the
+bear as for him, and he pressed on, taking off his bonnet to hold it in
+one hand as he ran.
+
+He glanced over his shoulder, and there was the bear appearing to
+shuffle along clumsily, but getting over the ground at a great rate of
+speed, which told the lad that he need do his best; but he consoled
+himself with the belief that, unless terribly hungry, the bear would not
+follow him for long; on the other hand, if famished, it would keep on
+and tire him out, and then--
+
+Steve obstinately refused to let his imagination carry him any farther--
+the thoughts were too horrible; and, mentally vowing that if he managed
+to get clear away he would never feel any compunction in helping to
+shoot a bear again, but would do his best to become the owner of its
+rich, whitish fur, he tore on as hard as he could go, fully conscious of
+the fact that the bear, though some yards behind, was determined to tire
+him out and run him down.
+
+The way now became more open, and as he raced on he just glanced at the
+opening to the narrow ravine on his right, for there was no temptation
+to leave the broad, open way for a stone-encumbered defile.
+
+No temptation then; but the next moment there was, for he was not far
+past enjoying the satisfaction of distancing his pursuer, when his heart
+sank, and a curdling sensation of horror so convulsed him that he
+dropped his cap, and pressed his hands to his throat; for there, fifty
+yards in front, and coming toward him, was a second bear, into whose
+jaws he was running hard.
+
+Danger behind, danger before, and between them death without mercy.
+There was only one way out of the peril, and that was to run back and
+turn up the narrow defile.
+
+It was a desperate venture, for the first bear was lumbering along and
+had nearly reached the turning; in fact, would have passed it before the
+boy could reach the haven of comparative safety if it had not stopped
+suddenly in surprise at seeing the quarry so suddenly turn round and
+seem to charge.  Instead, then, of running to meet him, the bear
+suddenly raised itself up, and, with outstretched claws, awaited Steve's
+approach.  It was all over in a moment or two: the boy had to go so
+close to the waiting bear that the beast struck at him with its right
+paw, and nearly touched the boy's shoulder; but the next instant he was
+beyond reach, and running up the defile.
+
+There was no bounding over the ground, though, here, for the place was,
+as has been shown, encumbered with fallen blocks; and Steve's heart,
+which the moment before rose with a leap at the way in which he had
+eluded the bears, sank once more like lead, for he knew enough of the
+natural history of these beasts and their construction to feel that,
+though they had left the ice for a prowl among the rocks, they would be
+thoroughly at home over such ground as he was traversing.
+
+"I've only put it off for a bit," he said to himself; "and they'll run
+me down."
+
+This thought only roused him.
+
+"They shan't find it an easy task, though," he muttered, and, forced as
+he was to slacken his speed, he had the satisfaction of seeing, on
+glancing back along the gloomy passage, that the bears were also
+compelled to slacken their pace and climb over intervening rocks as he
+had done.  And it was plural, for the second one had joined the first,
+and they were coming steadily on, their light coats showing with
+terrible plainness in the gloom among the rocks.
+
+The breathless rush, then, was over; but the progress, though slow, was
+terribly hard work, and that which depressed the lad most was to see
+that the great brutes made no hurry or fuss over their pursuit, but came
+deliberately on, as if quite sure of the result, and prepared to follow
+even if it were for days.
+
+"And I thought it so glorious to be always daylight and sunshine," said
+Steve.  Oh, if it would only come on now the blackest, darkest night
+ever known, so that he could take advantage of the many hiding-places he
+could see right and left, and crawl into one of them till the bears had
+passed!
+
+He looked back just as this idea crossed his mind, and once more a chill
+of dread came over him.  For the defile was a little more open at the
+top just then, so that he could see the actions of the bears plainly as
+they came on some sixty yards behind; and he grasped the knowledge now
+that they were not hunting him by sight, but by scent, and that though,
+as a rule, they came along with their noses in the air, every now and
+then they lowered their muzzles and snuffled eagerly about some block of
+stone, uttering low, pig-like grunts.
+
+"Why, that's where my hot, moist hands touched," said Steve in dismay.
+"Darkness would be of no use if they hunt like that."
+
+For some minutes now the boy's legs felt heavy and began to drag, his
+breath came short, and the feeling of dread rose round him as if it were
+water in which he was about to drown.
+
+But this sensation did not last.  A glance back showed that, if
+anything, he was farther in advance than before, and, taking heart at
+this, he pressed on, leaping little gaps, climbing over rocks, and
+descending at times to where the little stream trickled when the ground
+was more level.
+
+All this while the fugitive was conscious that he was ascending, the
+ravine being, as it were, a huge gash riven in the mountain-side.  And
+this knowledge that he was ascending would have depressed his spirits
+once more had he not set his teeth and tried manfully to keep before him
+the one idea that he must and would escape.
+
+The depressing sensation was caused by the thought that sooner or later
+he would come to the end of the stones and rocks and reach the snow;
+then, higher up the mountain-side, come upon the ice itself, where the
+bears would be quite in their element and rapidly run him down.
+
+"But they have not done that yet," muttered Steve, as a look back
+reassured him; and he steadily went on walking and climbing.
+
+He knew that his friends must have reached the bottom of the coal cliff,
+and be wondering why he had run on.
+
+"They'll be sure to guess it was to light a fire," he said; but as he
+said it he wondered whether they would find the place he had chosen for
+the purpose.
+
+"Sure to," he thought; "and as the fire is not alight they will begin to
+hunt for me, and come to my help at last.  Of course; they will very
+soon find my bonnet."  But, even as he thought this, he recalled that it
+was not inside the mouth of the defile, but beyond; and his spirits sank
+again, for he thought out exactly what happened: that his friends would
+come some distance up the ravine in search of him, find no traces, and
+go back.
+
+Plenty of ideas suggestive of the means of escape flashed through the
+boy's brain as he toiled on.
+
+One was the possibility of climbing up some precipitous part of the
+gully as high as he could get, and seating himself there to wait until
+the bears were wearied out and left him.
+
+But he gave this idea up for more than one reason.
+
+The bears, he felt, would scent their way right up to the spot where he
+began to climb, and he might slip and fall headlong into their hungry
+jaws, to be literally chopped up between them as they would chop up a
+seal.
+
+Another reason was that the bears might, with all their deliberation of
+movement, prove to be far better climbers than he; and, in addition,
+supposing they were not, and he got into a safe spot where they could
+not reach him, might not they sit down patiently to wait, as wild beasts
+will for their food, till, chilled by the cold and utterly wearied out,
+he became an easy prey?
+
+That was one of the ideas on which he pondered as he climbed up higher
+and higher.  The other was as to the possibility of his being able to
+reach the very top of the ravine, high up amongst the snow and ice,
+where it became blended with the mountain, and, having thus climbed high
+enough, begin to descend on the other side of the buttress naturally
+formed by one side of the gully.  Then he would at every step be getting
+nearer and nearer to his friends, who must, he knew, be in search of
+him.
+
+This was the idea which gave him hope, and sent a thrill of fresh
+strength through his weary frame.  A short time before he could only
+think of the certainty of the bears running him down at last in their
+untiring pursuit, as sooner or later, _if_ he were always getting
+farther from help, they were bound to do.  Now he could climb on with a
+feeling that an end to his sufferings was in sight.
+
+And all this while--how long he could not tell--the bears came steadily
+on, never faster, never slower, always in the same steady, untiring
+manner, seeming to be perfectly certain of overtaking their prey after a
+time; but, as the slope began to grow more steep, so did the progress of
+pursued and pursuers become slow.
+
+As Steve climbed on, forced by the ruggedness of the path to use his
+hands more and more frequently, so did the wildness of the defile
+increase, till, after hours of toil, the patches of snow which he had
+long reached gave place to a slope of pure white crystals, into which
+his feet began to sink, making the labour of walking more heavy.
+
+On still, though, plod, plod, till the loose drift was passed as if in a
+nightmare, and he felt as if his legs were moving mechanically.  How
+long this had been going on he could not tell, for at last the horror of
+the pursuit had numbed his brain, and he could not think of anything but
+that he must go on, and that at last he was out of the ravine and away
+to the right of the ridge, so that at any moment he might begin to
+descend and get down in another place.
+
+But he could not attempt to descend yet, but must keep on right up into
+the regions of this eternal snow, where all was silent--a silence which
+would have filled his mind with awe but for the stunned sensation of
+utter weariness.
+
+Still there was one flash of hope as he crept on, drawing himself over
+the ice crags on hands and knees.  He had looked back below him at his
+pursuers, and his heart leaped, for there was only one.  At first he
+could not believe it true, but a second look back confirmed the first
+impression.  One of the bears had given up the pursuit; but the other
+was as persevering as ever.  But it was hopeful, and gave Steve fresh
+energy; for if one was tired out, it was possible to weary the other.
+
+If he could have begun to descend, he would have done so now; but he
+dared not attempt it, for not only was the bear too close, but the
+steepness of the ascent had brought it right beneath him.
+
+And now, for the first time, the great animal seemed to see him, and
+increased its pace to such an extent that Steve felt all was over.  He
+looked up, and the way was steeper, his only course being over an
+ice-covered face of rock far out of the perpendicular, but so smooth
+that the only way up was by taking advantage of the cracks and rifts
+which seamed it like a net.
+
+"My last chance," thought Steve, whose mind in this terrible emergency
+had suddenly grown clearer.  He gave one glance below him, to see that
+the bear was not many yards away, and he could even see the gleam of its
+little, reddish-looking eyes.  Then he buckled to at the climb, and got
+up foot by foot at a rate which surprised him.  But the bear was as
+alert.  When the lad was twenty or thirty feet up the animal had nearly
+reached the foot, and by the time the pursued had mounted another twenty
+feet the great brute was close up and raised itself on its hind quarters
+to mount.
+
+A cry that he could not suppress rose to Steve's lips, for, to his
+despair, his last hope died away.  He had climbed on desperately,
+finding the ice-covered rock grow steeper and steeper, till, as he
+raised one foot to take the next step, there was no crevice or crack to
+give it hold, and it glided over the ice again and again.  He reached to
+the left, but there was no handhold there.  To the right it was the
+same, and--horror of horrors!--he knew now that he had clambered to a
+point which it was beyond human power to exceed, and this at a time when
+the bear was five-and-twenty feet below, and mounting fast.
+
+If he could reach that ledge just above him with his hands, he might
+draw himself up; but could he?  There was only one way, by making a
+leap, and this with so little foothold.  But a low growl decided him,
+and, pulling himself together, he stooped, and then sprang up with all
+his might.
+
+Hurrah!  He reached the ledge with his crooked hands, and tried hard to
+drive his toes into the ice as he hung.  But only for a few seconds.
+The sharp edge of the ledge was of ice of the most glassy nature, and
+Steve closed his eyes, for he had done all that mortal could do; his
+fingers glided over the angle to which they had for a moment or two
+clung, and then, as he drew himself up, he was falling like a ball, and
+as swift right on to the climbing bear.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+WATTY'S FEAST.
+
+Watty Links was undoubtedly great in a certain capacity.  He resembled a
+Dutch galliot, especially built to contain the largest quantity of
+merchandise in the smallest tonnage.  Of course Watty was not built to
+receive merchandise, but he was built to receive food, and the quantity
+he could consume when he was unfettered was so great that a crew made up
+of men proportionately as great eaters would have made a captain wince
+when stores were running out, and shipowners decline to take them again
+at any wage.
+
+There being a pretty good amount of the deer haunch left when the men
+departed--for in their hurry and excitement no one had thought it worth
+while to pack it up--Watty was left, so to speak, with a free hand--that
+is to say, he had a fire, plenty of meat, a knife, he knew how to cook,
+and there was no one to say, "Hold hard, young fellow!  I'm sure you
+have had quite enough."  So after making such arrangements as should
+provide an ample amount of roast deer for Steve when he returned, and
+also for the three personages of the expedition, Watty took a look
+round.
+
+The sun was getting lower, but the glittering ice peaks and the lights
+and shades on the mountain were beautiful to behold.  But Watty did not
+see that beauty.  He noticed how profound the silence was, thought it
+very lonely, and turned back to the fire, which was the most beautiful
+thing he had seen that day, for the gas and smoke were gone, and the
+coal was all of a hot glow, there being plenty and no question of its
+price per ton.
+
+"She wonters where the young chief has gone," muttered Watty.  "Hey, but
+what a fire to broil a bone!"
+
+A minute later the leg bone of the buck was spitting and sputtering on
+the glowing coals, and Watty smiled as he felt in his pockets and
+brought out a tobacco box, which, on being opened, proved to contain two
+pieces of rag, which he also opened, and displayed about a
+dessert-spoonful of salt and about half that quantity of black pepper.
+
+"She smells fine alreaty," said the lad; and he took a pinch of pepper
+as if it were snuff, and carefully sprinkled it over the grilling bone,
+following it up with a pinch of salt.  Then the box, with its contents,
+was put away, and Watty dived into his pockets again, to bring out a
+couple of biscuits.
+
+"Twa biscuit," he said.  "Hey, but she willna waste ta pread when she
+can have sae muckle gude meat!"
+
+He turned the bone over and waited a few minutes, which he spent in
+whetting the blade of his knife on a piece of smooth stone, and trying
+its edge again and again, and ending by giving it a stropping on his
+boot sole as if he meant to shave.
+
+"Done!" he cried suddenly; and whisking the browned and in some places
+blackened bone from the fire, he squatted down with his legs doubled
+under him like a Japanese, and began to skin off pieces of the tempting
+venison, and ate them deliberately, smiling with satisfaction the while.
+
+"I ken naebody could hae cookit deer meat efer so petter as tat," he
+said as he worked away, thoroughly enjoying his picnic meal till the
+last scrap was cleaned off, and then he cracked the bone with the back
+of his knife, and managed to get out a good deal of the marrow.
+
+"She's fine, though she is mickle," he said; and then he sighed and
+looked hard at the pieces of the deer set aside for the absent ones--a
+shabby, raggedly cut lot, though of course of delicious meat.
+
+Watty stretched his eyes away and had a look round.
+
+"They dinna come pack," he said, "and it's chust wasting a bonnie bit
+fire."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"She'd petter pit on some mair coal," muttered Watty; and he picked up a
+weather-worn lump, but dropped it again.
+
+"It's chust spoiling a gude fire to put on mair coal," he said softly,
+with his face all wrinkles, "and a' tat meat waiting."
+
+He had another look round.
+
+"She's ferry hungry," he muttered; "and she'll chust hae ane wee pit.
+The captain said he couldna eat.  She can."
+
+He made a dart at the biggest piece, laid it on the glowing coal,
+seasoned it as before, waited till it was done on one side, and then
+picked it up cleverly on the point of his knife and turned it, seasoned
+this side also, and replaced his box.
+
+"Peautiful, peautiful!" he murmured.  "Hey, put she smells petter than
+floores!"
+
+He did not leave the meat to cook too long, but soon had it out and laid
+upon a nicely warmed, flat piece of slaty stone, which served him for a
+plate as he began to eat with the greatest of gusto.
+
+"Hey, put she is chuicy," he muttered, as he munched away without paying
+much heed to a bit or two of cinder adhering to the meat and sounding
+unpleasant as he crunched them between his strong, white teeth.
+
+"Peautiful!" he murmured again, as he got about half-way through.
+"She's thenking it would pe petter to begin cooking mair so as to be
+retty when they come pack."
+
+So he placed another piece on the fire, and then went on eating his
+second snack so slowly and deliberately, spending a certain amount of
+time the while in watching and turning the cooking piece that it was
+beautifully done by the time he had finished; and now came a terrible
+test of his powers of endurance.  He looked at the frizzled slice, then
+away from it, then back at it; and it tempted him so sorely that he got
+up and walked away.
+
+"She's letting the fire oot," he cried, and ran back to stand looking
+down at it.  "Nay, put she'd spoil a gude cooking fire if she put on
+anny coal.  She'll cook ta rest."
+
+No sooner said than done.  A fresh piece was put on the glowing cinders,
+and the newly cooked slice placed upon the bit of shale.
+
+"She'll chust spoil if she gets caud," muttered Watty.  "The teer-fat
+goes hart and stickits to the roof of her mouth, an' it's a pity to
+spoil such bonnie meat."
+
+He gave his shock head a rub, and looked round again, wondering whether
+there were any bears likely to come and disturb him; but, as far as he
+could see, he was quite alone in the grand solitude, and he uttered a
+deep sigh.
+
+"She never said she was to cook anny meat," he said, "an' it such a pity
+to let it spoil.  She'll chust eat this wee pit, an' they'll pe pack py
+the time the nex' pit is tone."
+
+Watty took another look, then seasoned and saw to the fresh piece
+frizzling; and the next minute the smell and sight of the slice upon the
+stone were too tempting to be resisted longer, and he began upon it and
+finished it as ravenously as if he had not had a morsel before.
+
+"Hey, put she is fine," he murmured with a sigh of satisfaction; "she
+never hat such a gran' treat pefore, an' it would pe wicket to let such
+gude meat spoil by ketting caud.  The captain an' the tocktor poth said
+they wadna eat a pit, an' perhaps Meester Stevey's gone pack to ta ship
+or the poat pecause she was tired.  She hasna the hairt to see such gude
+meat spoil."
+
+Poor Watty had grown reckless now, and, casting conscience to the winds,
+he went on with his banquet.  His appetite seemed to increase as he went
+on, and, forgetful of bears, captains, doctors, Norsemen, and Steves,
+seeing, tasting, and enjoying the cooking and eating of these juicy,
+well-seasoned, delicious pieces of venison, time seemed to be no more
+for him, and he only awoke to his position as he shook out the contents
+of his pepper and salt rags on the last piece of meat, a goodly slice,
+the best of all, which he had avoided eating, always having selected the
+smaller bits.
+
+"Hat she petter leave tat?" he sighed, as he looked at it longingly and
+passed his tongue over his lips.  "Nay, if she toes, they'll expeckit
+mair; put if there's nane they winna say a word.  She'll hae to eat tat,
+too."
+
+The piece was half done, and he turned it, inhaling its delicious odour
+as he gloated over the brown side, and then took out his biscuits and
+had them ready.
+
+"Chust to fanish off," he said, smiling faintly.  "She'll chust pit it
+atween twa biscuit, an' mak' a santwich of it, an' then--Yah!"
+
+Watty uttered an unearthly yell, for a great shadow fell across the fire
+at that moment, and he was thrust sidewise, to fall just clear of the
+fire upon his face.
+
+"The pears--the pears!" he groaned.  "What shall she to?"  But he did
+not stir, neither did he see that the piece of hot meat had been
+literally snatched off the fire, and a crunching sound told him that a
+pair of strong jaws, with great, white teeth that in imagination he
+could see gleaming, were grinding up the biscuits that were to form the
+_finale_ of his meal.
+
+"The pear always hugs her pefore she eats her oop," thought Watty, as he
+lay there shivering with dread, this being the only movement he could
+contrive, feeling as he did that if he attempted to escape the great
+animal would seize him.  Then he recollected reading about a traveller
+pretending to be dead, and lying face downward till a bear in pursuit
+overtook him, smelled him over, and then went away.
+
+"She lie as tet as a toornail," thought Watty; and he tried to hold his
+breath as he waited for the bear to come.  But it was evidently too busy
+with the food, crunching up the biscuits and finishing the meat.
+
+"Oh, if she could only lie still an' not preathe a pit!" said the lad to
+himself.  "She can't, an' it makes a noise.  She wishes the pear would
+come an' smell her an' go."
+
+But the new arrival was too busy, and made Watty, as he lay there on his
+face, moist with perspiration, wonder how so big a beast could be so
+long eating so small a quantity of food.
+
+At last the boy felt as if he could endure no more, and that he must
+make a leap to his feet and run for his life.  He knew that the thing to
+do would be to draw a very deep breath, make a sudden effort, and run,
+for the suffering from lying there those brief minutes, which seemed to
+be like hours, was more than he could endure.
+
+He had made up his mind to try, but his heart sank, and he lay a little
+longer.  A second time he tried to screw himself up to the
+sticking-point, but failed, and lay panting, till all at once, just as
+he was saying to himself, "She must to it ta third time," the bear
+uttered a low "Ah-ah-ah!" and the lad sprang to his feet.
+
+"That's right, Watty; get me a drink of water."
+
+"Meester Stevey!" exclaimed the lad.  "Oh! oh! oh!" he half sobbed, and,
+throwing himself again upon the ground, he buried his face in his hands,
+and lay gently rolling from side to side, trying to stifle the
+hysterical fit which had attacked him; for it was mingled with relief
+from what he had looked upon as certain death, anger with himself for
+making such a blunder, and delight at Steve's return.
+
+"Why, Watty, what's the matter?" cried Steve.  "I do believe he's
+crying.  Get up.  Did you think I was dead?"
+
+"Yes, we all tought you wass teat, an' I tought the pear wass come to
+eat me, ant--ant--ant--she's ferry clad to see you acain, though she
+don't like you."
+
+"Well, you are a rum chap, Watty!  I say, you didn't mind my snatching
+away that meat?  I couldn't help it, I was nearly starved."
+
+"No, she ton't mind," replied the lad.  "She'd hat a little pit o' meat
+pefore.  But she's all scratted, an' her het pleets, an' she's cot no
+skin on her knuckles!"
+
+"Oh, never mind that!  I got away--escaped.  But it was very bad."
+
+"Put it wass ferry pad!  What wass ferry pad?"
+
+"Having a couple of bears after you."
+
+"An' she had twa pears after her?"
+
+"Yes, monsters.  They hunted me all along a gully right up into the
+mountain."
+
+"Hey!  An' tid they catch her?"
+
+"No; one got tired and stopped, but the other came right on to where it
+was all ice and snow.  Up yonder," said Steve, pointing to the
+glittering slopes and peaks far above their heads.
+
+"An' what tid that one to?  Tid she ket tired?"
+
+"No," said Steve.  "I made a jump to get up a steep bit of the ice,
+caught hold, and then fell right on to the bear as it was coming up
+after me."
+
+"Hey, tid she, though?"
+
+"Yes; and knocked it off the slope, and we went down together for a
+little way rolling over and over.  Then I found I was alone, for the
+bear had clawed about and stopped itself; but I was sliding and slipping
+there down and down, I don't know how far, but it must have been
+hundreds of feet over the steep snow, till I rolled over among the
+stones and cut my head."
+
+"Hey, and she has cut it!  Hadn't she petter tie it up?"
+
+"Oh, that's nothing."
+
+"Put what tid the pear to?"
+
+"I don't know.  I didn't see any more of it.  I suppose it's up there in
+the mountain somewhere.  I say, Watty, I wish I'd had Skeny with me.  I
+don't know, though; perhaps the bears would have killed him.  Where are
+the others?"
+
+"They're gone to leuk for you.  She's waiting for them to come pack."
+
+"Have they got Skeny with them?  He ought to have scented me out, so
+that they could have shot the bears."
+
+"Skeny?  Na; she tidn't see the tog."
+
+Steve started.
+
+"Why, Watty, I don't remember seeing him when we turned back with the
+deer; did you?"
+
+"Na, she tidn't see the tog since she rin after a teer.  She wass going
+ferry fast, an' she forgot all spout the tog after.  She hopes the tog
+isna lost."
+
+"No fear!  Skeny will find his way back.  Oh, how stiff and sore I am!
+Hark!"
+
+There was a faint whistle from the distance, and Watty leaped up, and,
+thrusting his fingers into his mouth, blew an answer.
+
+A couple of minutes later, as the boys stood watching in the direction
+from which the sound had come, they made out three figures on the slope
+of the mountain.  Then these three figures stopped, and began to wave
+their caps, and directly after they broke into a trot, and were soon up
+by the fire.
+
+"Steve, lad!" cried Captain Marsham.  "Thank God, you are safe!"
+
+"Where have you been, boy?" cried the doctor joyfully, as he wrung the
+hand the captain had left at liberty.  "Why, you have made me a job.
+Get some water, my lad," he continued to Watty, and laying down his gun
+he began to take out a pocket-book to get sticking-plaster and scissors.
+
+"I'm very glad, Mr Steve," said Johannes quietly.  "We thought you were
+lost."
+
+While the doctor washed away the marks left by Steve's fall and
+carefully applied sticking-plaster the boy told his adventure, Watty
+listening again attentively, and now watching the speaker, now the
+mountain-side, in full expectation of seeing the bear make its
+appearance from one of the gullies; but there was no interruption, and
+they heard all.
+
+"You must not leave your friends again, my lad," said the captain.  "We
+must all be ready to help each other; co-operation is power.  Well, how
+do you feel now?"
+
+"So stiff I can hardly move," replied Steve.
+
+"Then we must camp here for a few hours.  Fortunately we have a little
+of the provisions in our satchels.  Where's the rest of the meat, my
+lad?"
+
+Watty turned more red than usual.  "There isna a pit left, sir.  Meester
+Stevey ate oop a' there wass left."
+
+"Bravo, Steve, my boy!" cried the doctor merrily.  "Any one who can eat
+well has not much the matter with him."
+
+"I felt starved when I came back," said Steve, colouring.  "I couldn't
+help it."
+
+Watty looked horribly guilty; but his was not the nature to make a clean
+breast of the matter, and he sat furtively watching the little party as
+the provisions were brought out; and free from care now, they all began
+to eat.
+
+"Here, Watty," said Steve, as soon as he received a portion, "we must
+not forget you."
+
+"Na, sir, she couldna eat a pit," cried the lad truthfully, and it was
+only by great persuasion that his modesty was overcome; but certainly he
+did not do justice to the biscuits and cheese handed to him, for there
+were limits even to his capacity.
+
+Just as they had about finished, a distant barking was heard, and Steve
+tried to stand up, but sank back with a groan.
+
+"Skeny!" he cried.  "Oh, I say, I am stiff!"
+
+"The dog!  Ah, where has he been all this time?"
+
+"She went off efter the teer, and tidna come pack."
+
+"Not after deer now, gentlemen," cried Johannes, snatching up his spear.
+"Quick! your guns."
+
+The weapons were seized, and all now caught sight of that which had
+attracted the Norseman's attention; for a huge bear was seen coming down
+from a ravine, followed by the dog, which kept on snapping savagely at
+the beast's heels, and then as the bear turned bounded out of its reach.
+
+But the bear did not appear disposed to follow the dog, acting directly
+after as if it had some object in view, for it turned again, placed its
+nose close to the ground, and came on toward the little open camp.
+
+"That's my big bear!" said Steve excitedly.  "How do you know?" said the
+captain, altering the cartridge in one of his barrels for a bullet.
+
+"Because I came down from the mountain that way; and look, he's smelling
+my footsteps."
+
+"Yes, that is right, gentlemen.  The brute will be here soon.  Shall we
+meet him here, or get among the rocks?"
+
+"What do you say?" cried the captain.  "Here, sir, now that we are not
+out of breath.  If we climb, our hands will tremble."
+
+"But I've no gun," said Steve.
+
+"And you are not fit to use one, so leave it to us, my boy.  Will it
+come on when it sees us, Johannes?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I think so.  These beasts are very fierce, and they have had
+so little to do with man, that they do not avoid him.  We must be very
+steady and stand firm.  I'll attack first from the right."
+
+"What, with the spear?" cried Captain Marsham.  "No!"
+
+"It would be better, sir," said the Norseman respectfully.  "These
+animals move rather slowly.  It will turn to attack me savagely; and as
+I try to keep it off with the spear, it will be side on to you, and give
+you both good shots at the shoulder.  Don't aim at the head until it is
+down."
+
+"You are right," said the captain.  "Do as you say, but take care of
+yourself."
+
+"I leave that to you, gentlemen," said the man, smiling.  "You will have
+to shoot the brute while I hold its attention."
+
+There was no more time for conversation, for the bear was coming
+steadily on, checked by the dog from time to time, the former action
+being repeated again and again, and Skene's activity enabling him to
+leap away from the savage blows directed at him by the bear.
+
+"Cartridges all right, Handscombe?" cried the captain sharply.
+
+"Yes; both fresh."
+
+"Mind not to hit the dog."
+
+The doctor nodded, and Steve stood with his heart beating, wishing that
+he had the gun far away now upon the sledge, though he was fain to
+believe that his hands shook, so that he could not have shot straight.
+He had to join with Watty in occupying the position of spectators, and
+he was watching the bear come on, still without appearing to realise
+their presence, when the captain said:
+
+"I don't think we shall have any difficulty with the brute; but you lads
+must be ready to take to the rocks if we do.  He might charge by us."
+
+"Just a few yards forward, sir," said Johannes; "the ground is more
+level."
+
+They moved away from where the boys were standing to a spot free from
+fallen rocks; and Steve's heart beat more heavily, as he felt how brave
+it seemed to be to step forward to the attack of so fierce a beast--one
+which, by a single stroke of the paw, could sweep away those strong men;
+and as the bear came on, once more he saw himself breathless and
+exhausted, climbing up and up the snowy slope towering above where he
+now stood, with the savage beast close at his heels, merciless and
+untiring, and so determined that it had gone on tracking him ever since
+his escape.  All this robbed him of any feeling of commiseration for the
+ferocious creature, and he hoped fervently that it was coming on surely
+to its fate.
+
+"She'll come an' climb oop amang the rocks?" whispered Watty just then.
+
+"No, no; stop here," said Steve hoarsely.
+
+"She'll pe safer," whispered Watty.
+
+"Be quiet and look on," replied Steve angrily.
+
+"She'll pe kilt," groaned the lad; but he was silent afterwards, and as
+much interested in the scene before him as his companion.
+
+And all the while the snapping, growling, and turning went on while the
+bear approached nearer and nearer, still without seeing those who waited
+for it with their deadly weapons poised.  It seemed at first that in its
+heavy way the animal would have come close up; but at last, when it was
+not more than fifty yards distant, Skene made a sharper charge than
+ever, as if delighted that his master and friends should see his
+prowess, charging so close home that he seized the long hair upon the
+bear's leg, gave it a shake, and narrowly escaped the claws which were
+dashed savagely at it.
+
+But Skene was nimble, and now he darted forward to where his friends
+were, barking loudly, as much as to say, "Here he is; look out!" and
+then dashed back again.
+
+But the bear had followed the dog with its eyes, and now, forsaking the
+scent it had been running down, it swung its head from side to side so
+as to get each eye to bear well in turn upon its enemies, quite ignoring
+the dog when he dashed back barking furiously.
+
+"Call the dog, and keep him with you, Steve," said the captain loudly,
+but without turning; and in obedience to the summons Skene returned to
+his master, and stayed there, held by the long hair of his neck,
+trembling with excitement.
+
+There was a low, deep growl now, and the bear stopped, facing them, as
+if undecided whom first to attack; and then it came on again growling,
+with its mind still not made up.
+
+These were the most exciting moments, for all felt that the beast might
+charge in a way which gave no good opportunity for a deadly shot.
+
+It was very close now, and its eyes flashed in the sunshine as it swung
+its head about with its muzzle close down to the ground, though it was
+not scenting its way now, but carefully watching its enemies.
+
+Skene uttered an excited yelp just then, and recognising in it the
+little foe which had so pertinaciously hung on to it for some time past,
+the bear now uttered a growl, and turned toward where Steve stood with
+the dog.
+
+"Rin, Meester Stevey, rin!" cried Watty, setting the example; "she's
+coming here."
+
+But the bear soon changed its tactics, for Johannes took a few steps
+forward and made a thrust at the animal with his lance.
+
+The great brute uttered a furious roar, swung round, struck at the lance
+shaft, and rose up upon its hind legs to seize the aggressor.
+
+It was a dangerous position for the Norseman, for could the bear get one
+blow at him with its great hook-armed paw, his chances of being
+extricated alive were doubtful.  But he stood firm, for he had perfect
+confidence in the captain, and knew that he would seize this opportunity
+to fire.  He was quite right.  The captain drew trigger, there was the
+sharp, loud crack of the rifle, and almost simultaneously the thud of
+the bullet.
+
+The bear uttered a furious roar, and swung round to meet the enemy who
+had struck it that terrible blow on its shoulder.  This brought it into
+an inconvenient position for the doctor to get his shot, for the animal
+was now face on to them; but it gave Johannes his chance, of which he
+was not long in availing himself, for he rushed in and gave the monster
+a terrible thrust with the lance.
+
+The next instant the bear had swung round, snapping the shaft in two
+like a straw, and made for Johannes with a roar, when, just as it was on
+the point of overtaking the now unarmed man, crack went the captain's
+rifle again, but without checking the monster in the least, and
+Johannes' fate seemed sealed, when, with a sharp hiss, Steve loosed the
+dog.
+
+"At him, Skeny! css!"
+
+The dog dashed at the bear with a furious burst of barks, and fixed his
+teeth in the monster's hind leg, so diverting its attention that it
+stopped to strike at the new enemy.
+
+It was a fatal moment for the bear, but it gave the Norseman an
+opportunity to escape.  For, as the brute stopped to turn on Skene, the
+doctor now had his chance, and fired, from not ten yards' distance, two
+shots right in the shoulder, and with an aim that told well of his
+knowledge of anatomy, for the bear stopped, rose up, and struck at the
+air with its paws as if imagining its enemy was within reach, and then,
+as it towered up far higher than a tall man, tottered for a moment or
+two, and fell over backward--dead.
+
+"Well done, Handscombe!" cried Captain Marsham warmly.  "But, Johannes,
+my good fellow, you were too daring; you ought not to have run so great
+a risk."
+
+"I am not hurt, sir," said the Norseman, smiling gravely; "and it gave
+you the chance to fire."
+
+"Yes; but suppose I had not been there to fire?" cried the captain.
+
+"Ah, that would have been different, sir.  Then I should not have been
+there to break my lance in the bear's chest."
+
+Johannes smiled as he approached the bear more closely to extricate his
+spear.
+
+"Mind!" cried Steve.  "Perhaps he is not quite dead."
+
+"There is no fear, sir," replied the man; and, seizing the broken shaft,
+he dragged the head out of the bear's body, and then took out his knife.
+
+"What are you going to do?" said Steve.
+
+"Skin it, sir," replied the man, looking surprised that such a question
+should be asked.
+
+"But suppose its mate comes?"
+
+Johannes paused, and looked dubious.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "then we should have to fight the mate."
+
+"No more fighting this time," said the captain.  "And Steve is quite
+right; the other bear may come in search of its companion.  We must not
+attempt to camp here."
+
+"I should say not," cried the doctor, "if we are likely to have another
+bear visitor."
+
+"Do you think you can walk a few miles, Steve?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Yes, if you will go slowly," replied the boy.  "I'm very stiff now, but
+I shall get better as we go on."
+
+And risking the destruction and loss of the skin, they started at once
+for the boat, to reach it after what to Steve was a long and painful
+walk.
+
+That night he slept so soundly that ten hours had passed before he made
+his appearance in the cabin, a good deal scratched and otherwise marked,
+but little the worse for his adventure.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+SIGNS OF THE COLD.
+
+The skin of the bear was considered to be of too much value to be left
+to rot, so that next morning a fresh start was made as before, and in
+due time the place was reached where the roughly-built fireplace stood
+up blackened against the grey stones.  But the bear lay out of sight
+beyond a mass of rock.
+
+As they came to where the animal should have been, it did not seem to be
+there; but directly after Steve pointed, nearly speechless with wonder.
+
+"Look!" he cried.  "Come to life again."
+
+Johannes laughed.
+
+"Hardly," he said; "don't you see that it is the bear's mate."
+
+So it proved; and upon the party approaching the dead animal, their
+coming was savagely resented, and the second bear came on at once to the
+attack so fiercely that the battle began at once, with the result that
+the Norsemen, who had all accompanied this expedition, had two bears to
+skin, and the sledge was heavily laden with the valuable portion of
+their game.
+
+Certain threatening signs were pointed out by Johannes soon after, and
+they started back, but did not reach the boat till the ground was
+covered with snow and a peculiar chill was in the air.  This snow in
+summer was unseasonable, but it made the sleigh run easily, and the boat
+was reached in less time than had been anticipated; but the mountain
+slopes on either side of the fiord were completely transformed by the
+snow, an early taste of the winter they might expect to set in before
+long if they stayed.
+
+As the summer glided on the great rampart of ice was patiently watched
+for tokens of melting, but these signs were few; and as the sun rose
+less high day by day, and there were once more hours of darkness, the
+prospect of their having to bear the winter where they were began to be
+discussed.
+
+But meanwhile there was a long expedition as often as the men had
+cleared away the quantities of seal and walrus blubber that were brought
+in and rendered down.  These expeditions were made to embrace business
+and investigation; and their knowledge of the lay of the land
+increasing, they persevered in their search wherever it was possible to
+penetrate the valleys, while the coast to north and south was explored
+as far as the boats could go.
+
+But there was no sign of the lost crew, and as the time wore on it
+became evident that they were not in the region occupied by their
+friends.
+
+"Let us hope that they may have reached home by now," said the doctor
+one evening.  "I think we have done everything we can to find them."
+
+"Everything," said the captain gravely; "but we cannot fight against
+fate."
+
+There began to be certain signs now of the short summer nearing its
+termination, beside the setting of the sun in the far north-west.  The
+birds were not so plentiful, and whenever a flock approached as many
+ducks and geese as possible were shot, and placed in ice for use in the
+winter, when no doubt they would all have gone south.
+
+Thanks to the Norwegians, too, who proved to be very ingenious in
+watching the seals so as to find suitable places, plenty of fish were
+caught, making a most agreeable addition to their diet.
+
+At last the captain announced to the men that there was no necessity for
+more walrus or seal hunts to be carried out, for the cargo was
+sufficient, and that now they were to occupy their time more with
+hunting and exploring, so as to make their stores of venison and dried
+and salted fish so ample that they could set the winter at defiance.
+
+"Then you really think that we shall have to stay here all the winter,
+sir?" cried Steve.
+
+"I have not a doubt about it now, my boy," replied the captain.  "We
+came to help at first; now we are badly in want of help ourselves."
+
+"It doesn't much matter, does it?" said Steve.  "We are all very happy
+and strong; and if we stop through the winter, we shall be here ready
+for the breaking up of the ice."
+
+"Yes, Steve, quite ready," said the captain, rather sadly; "but I did
+not mean to be caught like this."
+
+"We've got months yet, haven't we, before the real winter comes?"
+
+"Not up in this latitude," said the captain, smiling.  "According to my
+calculations, we are as far north as any expedition has been.  Did you
+notice anything this morning when you first got up?"
+
+"No, only that it was rather cold for August."
+
+"Yes, my lad, more than rather, for there was a thin film of ice on the
+fiord till the sun touched it.  Only a very thin film, but a suggestion
+of how soon winter sets in up here."
+
+But the next day proved to be so glorious, bright, and sunny that Steve
+could not realise the fact that the winter would be upon them soon.
+There were tiny flowers in sunny corners, the sea and sky were of a
+brilliant blue, and the birds that were sailing round and round, and,
+chasing each other, made the rocks echo with their joyous cries.
+
+"This place is so sheltered that we ought not to feel the winter so very
+much," he said to himself; and he walked up to where the Norsemen were
+seated rebinding the lashing about their lance heads, examining the
+grommetting round the harpoons, and planing up a fresh shaft for a lance
+whose handle had been cracked in an encounter with a huge walrus, which
+gave one vigorous flap and broke away, the lance handle snapping as if
+it had been a match, at the same time preparing one for Johannes' weapon
+broken by the bear.
+
+"Morning," he said; and the fair, big, grave-looking fellows returned
+his salute with a smile.
+
+"Going to be fine weather?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, sir, fine and clear for some days yet.  I don't think we shall
+have any snow."
+
+"I should hope not," said Steve, smiling.  "I say, Johannes, didn't we
+have a bit of a frost this morning?"
+
+"Yes, sir, a slight one."
+
+"You don't think that's a sign of the winter coming, do you?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and very soon."
+
+"What nonsense!" cried Steve.  "Why, we often have sharp frosts at home
+in April and May, and they don't mean that winter is coming.  Why do you
+think it is coming so soon?"
+
+The big Norseman smiled.
+
+"Because, sir, it is not coming; it has already come."
+
+"Come?"
+
+"Yes," said Johannes, raising his hand, and pointing to the dazzling
+peaks of ice and the glistening snow coming quite low down on the
+slopes, leading gradually to the lake-like shores of the fiord; "there
+it is, sir."
+
+"Oh, but ice and snow have been there all the summer."
+
+"What we call the summer, sir; but it seems to me that the winter is
+always here.  It rises a little when the sun comes back and a part of
+the snow melts; but if we climb up into the mountains a little way, it
+freezes every night, and the winter is always there.  And now the sun
+rises a little less high every day, and there is real night which grows
+longer as the days grow shorter."
+
+"Yes, I noticed that the days grew shorter," said Steve, as he looked up
+at the realm of eternal winter with aching eyes.
+
+"Much, sir; and if we measured we should soon see that the snow up
+yonder was creeping down toward us week by week."
+
+Steve was silent for a few minutes, as he tried to familiarise himself
+with these wonderful facts about nature in the arctic circle.
+
+"I say, Johannes," he said at last, "what about the ice down at the
+opening of the fiord--will it give way this year?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man quietly.
+
+"Then for certain we shall not be able to get out?"
+
+"For certain you will not be able to get out, sir."
+
+"Then there is no doubt about it whatever; we shall have to spend the
+winter here, frozen up?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  I have had no doubt about it for weeks; neither has the
+captain, as you have seen by the great store of food he has buried in
+the ice."
+
+"Well, it will be a change," said Steve after a pause.  "I suppose it
+will not be so very cold?"
+
+The Norseman laughed.
+
+"Colder than you think for, sir; but not too cold to bear if you take
+care.  You must not go away into the mountains by yourself."
+
+"Couldn't help it if a bear were after me," said Steve, laughing.  "But
+I shall take care.  I say, though, tell me about the darkness: does the
+sun go right out of sight?"
+
+"Yes, sir, for weeks."
+
+"And it is quite dark--black darkness?"
+
+"It is about the same as it is in England, sir.  There are light nights
+when the sky is clear, and you can see the moon and stars, and there are
+dark nights when it is cloudy or a mist hangs low."
+
+"Seems queer," said Steve thoughtfully.
+
+"But you had the constant day, sir, when the sun never set."
+
+"Well, I daresay I shall get used to it," said Steve; and he went to get
+his gun and ammunition ready, so as to be prepared for a little
+exploring expedition which the captain was going to lead along the
+shore.
+
+And now for the rest of the open time trips were made north and south
+along the coast, efforts being directed to going farther in each
+direction before the frost made progress in the boats impossible.  Of
+these trips many were made, each being pushed farther north or south;
+for the ice had opened more and more away from the shore, increasing the
+length and width of the channel in the incomprehensible, unexpected
+manner in which such changes do take place amongst the ice.
+
+But it was always the same: not a trace of human being having been there
+before; no post or cairn erected; no sign of the rough hut that sailors
+who had come so far north would build up as a protection while hunting
+the walrus and the seal.
+
+"It seems to me," the captain said, "that we are the first visitors
+without doubt.  Would that we were the second, and could find our
+friends were the first!"
+
+"If this is the first time the country has been reached," said Steve,
+"oughtn't we to christen it by some name?  How would Walrus Land do?"
+
+"As well as any other name," said the captain; "but, whatever we call
+it, there is no doubt but that it will be many more years before it is
+reached again.  It is hardly likely that another expedition will meet
+with such an accident as that which brought us here.  Walrus Land be it
+then, for the huge, unwieldy creatures are plentiful enough.  How soon
+are you going to let your pet go?  It grows very fast."
+
+"Let it go!" cried Steve wonderingly.  "Why, I meant to take it back to
+England."
+
+"For the Zoological Gardens?  You can't keep it, like a dog, in the back
+yard."
+
+"No," said Steve thoughtfully; "it would want a kennel."
+
+"Kennel?  It would want an elephant house.  No, my lad, it will not do;
+you will have to set our friend at liberty, or let me tell Johannes to
+turn it into oil."
+
+That was one day at the end of August, when at midday the sun shone
+quite hot, and they knew that harvest must be in full progress at home.
+They had been so great a distance to the south that it was all the men
+could do to pull back; and, as it was, they did not reach the mouth of
+the narrow waterway until close upon ten o'clock, and the _Hvalross_
+till they were so utterly tired out that, after snatching a hasty meal,
+all were eager to throw themselves down to sleep.
+
+Safely anchored as they were, shut in from storms, right out where no
+bears, even if they swam out, could assail them, the keeping of a watch
+seemed very unnecessary, and Steve never thought it more so than that
+night, when he found that it was his turn to take the second watch in
+company with Johannes; for he was regularly fagged.  However, his was
+only the watch to come, so that he was able to get a good sleep before
+he was called, and then arose with his eyes half closed and a general
+desire to quarrel with everything and everybody.
+
+"It does seem so stupid!" he grumbled.  "What's the good of it?"
+
+"Being under a first-rate captain, sir, one who never lets discipline
+grow slack."
+
+"Oh, bother!" said Steve testily.  "It seems such a nuisance when one is
+so tired and sleepy.  It does no good now."
+
+"Yes, sir, a great deal," replied the Norseman.  "Makes every one feel
+confident that he is being watched over, and may sleep in peace."
+
+"Wish I was being watched over and could sleep in peace," groaned out
+Steve.  "No, I don't," he hastened to add; "it would be so precious
+selfish.  But I'm not well, Johannes; I'm chilly.  Got a bad cold, I
+think."
+
+"Then go and get your sheep-skin coat."
+
+"Would you?  Well, I think I will."
+
+He went back to the cabin, and returned, putting on the thick coat, with
+its closely-cut pile of wool, shorn so regularly that it looked like
+velvet in the light of the glistening stars.
+
+"I don't like this watching in the dark," said Steve.  "And how strange
+it is!  Only the other day it was quite light at this time.  Ugh! how
+cold I feel!"
+
+"You'll be better soon," said Johannes.  "You have not had time yet to
+feel the good of your coat."
+
+"What good can that do me when I'm not well?" grumbled Steve.  "Hullo!
+you've got on yours."
+
+"Yes, sir; and it's very welcome.  The air is very cold to-night."
+
+"Freezing?"
+
+"Yes, sir, hard.  I daresay we shall find the fiord covered with ice in
+the morning.  Winter is coming, sir, you see."
+
+"Oh, but this is only a night frost that will go away in the sun quite
+early."
+
+"Perhaps so, sir; but you can never be sure about the weather at this
+time of year.  It will make some of the walrus boats turn their heads
+south, many of them perhaps empty, while here they swarm more than
+ever."
+
+"Then they should come up here and catch them."
+
+"How?" said Johannes.
+
+"Sail and steam, as we did."
+
+"Yes, sir, that sounds easy; but suppose they cannot?  Suppose you made
+up your mind to sail south to-morrow?"
+
+"Well, we couldn't go for the ice."
+
+"Exactly, sir; and the walrus boats couldn't sail up here for the ice."
+
+"Ugh! it is cold," said Steve with a shiver.  "I wonder what the glass
+says.  Wish I'd looked."
+
+"It would not have been a fair test, sir; it is warmer down in the
+cabin.  You are not unwell, only you feel the chill just waking up from
+sleep."
+
+"Yes, I feel better now.  How the stars shine!"
+
+"You'll see them brighter by-and-by, sir," said Johannes.  "Have you got
+anything hard in your pocket?"
+
+"Only my knife.  What do you want?"
+
+"Something for you," replied the Norseman.  "Wait a minute, sir."
+
+He turned and stepped down into the furnace-room, to return directly.
+
+"Take that, sir."
+
+"What is it?  Lump of coal?  What for?"
+
+"Throw it right out on the ice, sir.  I want you to try it.  Quick!
+there's something for you to look at now."
+
+"But surely there's no ice for it to fall on," said Steve.  "It's
+impossible."
+
+All the same, he took the lump of coal, and, drawing back, threw it as
+far as he could out over the fiord; and, to his utter astonishment, when
+it fell he heard it rebound with the regular musical ring of a hard
+substance upon ice, and strike again and again before it became
+motionless.
+
+"Why, the ice must be quite half an inch thick!" cried Steve.  "No
+wonder I felt cold."
+
+"Yes, sir, it's freezing hard; the winter has begun, though of course it
+will be warm in the fine days.  But look; there's a sure sign of the
+cold weather coming."
+
+He pointed to the northward, where the Great Bear shone with a
+brightness foreign to that which he would have seen at home.
+
+"What am I to look at?" said Steve; "that soft light?  It's the Milky
+Way."
+
+"No, sir, the aurora.  There it goes; it is spreading right along."
+
+"Then it's the sun going to rise!" cried Steve.
+
+"In the north-west, sir?  No, it's the aurora; you will see it stream up
+in rays right away to the Pole Star soon.  Yes, I thought so;" for, even
+as he was speaking, sheaves of thin pencils of soft lambent light
+streamed right away up toward the zenith, then sank, wavered about, and
+then streamed up once again.
+
+"Finer than I should have expected, sir," said Johannes, as the glow
+near the horizon increased till it was now pale white, now of a delicate
+blush, while the pencils of light flickered up and streamed and waved,
+and looked in their delicate, dawn-like colouring like the spirits of
+fire or light flying upward from earth to heaven.
+
+"What is it?" said Steve at last, after gazing at the wondrous
+phenomenon for a long time.
+
+"Ah, sir, you must ask some one wiser than I am to answer that question.
+All I can tell you is that cold weather generally comes after the sky
+has been lit up as if it was the inside of some great shell, and with as
+many colours, only more light and faint."
+
+The aurora flashed up brighter and then sank, flickered as if dying out,
+and then blazed up again, if the term can be applied to the exquisitely
+soft, lambent glow playing in the north; but its movements were those of
+leaping flame flashing up from a huge fire, growing exhausted, and then
+dying down till almost invisible, but only to light up the northern
+heavens again, from horizon almost to zenith, with its dawn-like beauty,
+till it grew hard to imagine that there was not something more to
+follow.
+
+"One would think that some kind of pale, cold sun was about to rise over
+there," said Steve at last.  "Are you sure that nothing will rise?"
+
+"Nothing but more rays, sir."
+
+"Cold rays," muttered Steve, drawing his fingers in under the sleeves of
+his sheep-skin coat.  "I say, Johannes, are you warm?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"My fingers are numbed, and it's getting hold of my toes.  I'll go down
+and have five minutes' warm by the cabin fire."
+
+"No, sir, don't.  Take my advice.  Let's have a trot up and down the
+deck till your blood circulates.  Exercise is the thing out here.  Blood
+always running about through your veins, that's the thing to keep you
+warm."
+
+"But one is so much better after a good warm!"
+
+"For a few minutes, sir; but get yourself warm by a good run, and it
+will last for hours.  Take my word; I know."
+
+"But you've never been frozen up here?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, twice.  Not for long, but quite long enough to know how to
+act most sensibly as to eating and drinking."
+
+"Does that make much difference?" said Steve, as they walked sharply
+along the deck, and then broke into the double, step for step.
+
+"All the difference, sir.  Eat and drink well up here in these cold
+places, and you are able to stand the cold."
+
+"What do you eat, then?"
+
+"Meat with plenty of fat, sir, and warmth-producing stuff like sugar.
+The Eskimo people almost live upon fat--blubber and oil."
+
+"Ugh!" ejaculated Steve; "how horrible!  But look here, Johannes, what
+do you people drink up here to help--plenty of grog?"
+
+"No, sir, not a drop," said the Norseman sharply.  "That does more harm
+than good.  Makes a man feverishly hot for a few minutes, then leaves
+him colder than he was before."
+
+"What do you drink, then?" said Steve, staring at the man's earnestness.
+
+"Tea, sir; plenty of good, hot tea.  It rests and refreshes a man
+directly, and he can do more work on hot tea than upon anything else
+that has been tried."
+
+"Well, I don't mind tea," said Steve rather jerkily; for it was
+beginning to be hard work to keep on talking while trotting round and
+round the deck.  But Johannes, though measuring his big strides to make
+them fit with the boy's, kept up the trot till Steve was so thoroughly
+out of breath that at the end of a quarter of an hour he stopped short
+and then dropped upon a coil of rope.
+
+"Don't sit down, sir!" cried Johannes.  "It's too cold for that.  Out of
+breath?"
+
+"Yes--quite!" panted Steve.  "My word! what a run!"
+
+"Feel cold, sir?"
+
+"Who's to feel cold," puffed Steve, "after running miles like that?  I'm
+getting hot."
+
+"Then now let's walk, so that you don't cool down too fast."
+
+"Why, here's old Skeny!" cried Steve, patting the dog's rough head.  "I
+didn't see him."
+
+"He has been trotting round just behind us all the time, sir," said
+Johannes, bending down in turn to pat the dog, who ruffled up his great
+thick frill and uttered a low growl.
+
+"Ah!" cried Steve.  "Quiet!  Don't you know your friends yet, sir?"
+
+The dog growled again; and this time apparently at his master.
+
+"Ah! would you?" cried Steve; and the dog wagged his tail, making it
+flap up against the Norseman's leg; but he growled again.
+
+"It isn't at us, sir," said Johannes.  "He hears something ashore.  What
+is it, then, old fellow?"
+
+The dog uttered a sharp bark, and ran to the bulwarks, reared up, and
+tried to look over.
+
+"There's something coming over the ice.  Hark!"
+
+They listened breathlessly, while the dog uttered a low whine.
+
+"Yes, I can hear it now, sir," whispered Johannes.  "Listen!"
+
+Steve was already listening to a strange whistling noise which sounded
+as if hundreds of boys were a long way off, making the lashes of as many
+whips whish through the air together; and this sound came nearer and
+nearer, till it grew close to them--over, beneath, around--and so
+strange in the darkness, lit up only by the stars which were gleaming on
+the ice as well as above, and the lambent rays of the aurora, that Steve
+felt a curious sensation of dread stealing over him, and he
+involuntarily crept closer to the Norseman, and whispered:
+
+"It is--something coming from up by the glacier over the ice;" while the
+sound increased, and sounded so awe-inspiring that the lad could not
+help a shiver.
+
+Johannes was silent and did not stir.
+
+"Don't you hear it?" said Steve again.  "Shall I get a gun?"
+
+"No; and it is a pity to disturb the captain and doctor.  It is not on
+the ice, sir," replied Johannes.
+
+"But it is, I tell you."
+
+"No, sir; I've heard it before.  It is only echoed from the hard, flat
+surface.  Hah! what a number we might shoot if we wanted them!"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Wild fowl, sir.  They're not geese, or they would make a clanging
+noise.  They must be ducks."
+
+"Ducks?" cried Steve, staring upwards and seeing nothing.
+
+"Yes, sir.  Another sign of the cold weather.  They're all banded
+together in one great flight, and are going south to the marshes of
+North Russia, where they'll stay till it begins to freeze there, and
+then go farther south."
+
+"But are you sure?  Oh, they wouldn't take flight in the dark!"
+
+"Sure, sir?  Listen to the whistling of their wings, hundreds and
+thousands of them flying over as fast as they can go.  Yes, they always
+fly in the night when they're going from here south, and I believe birds
+come north in the same way, following after the frost as it is driven
+north.  I've noticed it at home near Nordoe.  To-day there would be no
+birds at all in the spring; next day there would be hundreds of them
+flying about.  They must have come in the night."
+
+Steve had not a word to say, but stood there silent, listening to the
+whirring of the thousands of wings which echoed from the ice and the
+sides of the fiord, sounding so close that he felt disposed to stretch
+out his hand and try to touch that which seemed to be within reach.
+Then he began to wonder how many thousands there would be, and where
+they had come from; and then how it was that this plain, homely
+Norwegian should know so much better than he, and show that he had
+passed his life picking up knowledge peculiar to his surroundings, so
+that he was able to teach those around him again and again.
+
+"Isn't there going to be any end of them?" said the boy at last; for the
+peculiar whirring had been going on for quite half an hour.
+
+"Oh yes, sir; they'll all be by soon," replied Johannes; and almost as
+he spoke the whirring sound grew fainter, fainter, and then died away.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Steve, drawing a long breath.  "How strange it
+sounded!"
+
+He was about to say, "I am glad you were here, for it quite startled
+me," when the Norseman spoke:
+
+"I remember hearing one of these night flights, sir when I was quite a
+lad somewhere about your age.  I was out quite alone, and it frightened
+me so that I ran away.  It was one night, and I was going straight home
+over the mountain when it began.  First thing I did was to throw myself
+flat on my face; but the noise seemed to come close down to me, and I
+was so scared that I jumped up and began to run.  But that did no good,
+for I started running in the same direction as the wild fowl were
+flying, and consequently the noise sounded as if following me, and kept
+on louder and louder till I reached home, dashed myself, out of breath,
+against the door, and rushed in to where my father and mother were
+sitting with the window open listening, as I thought, for me.  In a
+moment I'd banged to and barred the door, and then I turned to my
+father.
+
+"`Shut the window,' I said.  `Quick! they're coming in.'
+
+"`What are?' said my father.
+
+"`I don't know.  I think it's a pack of wolves,' I panted as I sank in a
+chair.  `Get the gun.'
+
+"`Oh yes,' said my father.  `Perhaps it is flying wolves with feathers
+instead of fur coats, and they were after you to eat you.'
+
+"`Yes, father,' I said, `I thought so.'
+
+"`Then don't be such a bull goose again,' said my father.  `Here,
+mother, try and teach this boy to think better, and not go and believe
+that every sound he hears is all troll and hobgoblin.  Feathered wolves
+that fly, eh, Johannes?  That kind of fowl has not been hatched yet, my
+boy.  Now, the next time you hear a flight of fowl going south in the
+night, you'll know better, won't you?'
+
+"I said, `Yes, father,' very sharply, for I was horribly ashamed of
+having been frightened at the flight of wild fowl; but I didn't know any
+better, and it was very dark, like to-night; and it is startling to hear
+such sounds when you don't know what they are."
+
+"Yes, very," said Steve consciously.
+
+"Why, if the lad Watty had been on deck, I don't know what kind of
+creature he would have thought it was.  Hark!" he whispered, for Skene
+uttered another low whine.  "Here they are again, sir.  This frost has
+started them in a hurry.  Yes; geese this time."
+
+For from out of the black darkness ahead came a long-drawn, weird,
+clanging noise, growing louder and louder till it swept over their heads
+and into the distance, hushed, as it were, by the whir and whistle of
+the heavy pinions beating the air.
+
+"The captain was right," said Johannes after they had listened for a
+time.  "There is nothing like laying in a store when you have the
+chance.  We shall have to go far enough now to pick up a few birds for
+some months to come."
+
+The wild-geese flight passed over, and the walk up and down the deck was
+resumed; and now Steve noted that the aurora was growing paler, with the
+effect of making the stars shine out more brightly.  Then all at once
+the strange glow sank down lower and lower, and then disappeared as the
+glow cast upon a cloud of mist disappears when the electric light is
+turned aside.
+
+"Yes, it comes and goes like that," said Johannes; "and I have never
+known yet, sir, any one who could explain it to make it seem clear and
+reasonable to me.  But it is very good."
+
+"Good!  What does it do?"
+
+"Gives us light through the long, black winter, sir, when we're glad of
+anything that brightens the sky where there is no sun.  Hark!  That's
+not birds."
+
+Skene had heard it, and he emitted a deep growl now at the long, low
+noise faintly heard, apparently from the valley by the glacier.
+
+"What is it?" whispered Steve.  "There it is again.  Why, it must be
+wolves.  There, that sounds like two or three!"
+
+"And I should say it was the cry of wolves, sir, if there are any.  But
+we have not seen a sign."
+
+"No, not even a fox."
+
+"But there are deer," said Johannes; "and where there are deer you
+generally find wolves to prey upon them.  Yes, the cold weather is
+bringing them now.  It must be wolves."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+PREPARING FOR THE ENEMY.
+
+"Well, Johannes, what do you say to this?" said the captain, when he
+appeared on deck the next morning--a natural morning Steve called it,
+for there had been darkness once more in the night.
+
+"Winter's coming, sir," replied the Norseman, as he glanced round him at
+the dark, clear, metal-like ice which spread from shore to shore, and
+looked strong enough to bear.
+
+"Yes, but has it come?  Surely this will melt before sunset, and we
+shall have some mild weather ere the cold regularly sets in?"
+
+"If we were two or three hundred miles farther south, sir," replied the
+man, "I could answer you; but who can tell what the weather is likely to
+be up here, where man has had no experience.  We can only wait and see."
+
+They waited; and for a fortnight longer the ice which formed in the
+night melted in the day.  Then came one that was dull and sunless, when
+the ice did not melt, and they had a fall of snow.  That night the ice
+more than doubled in thickness, and they started ashore next morning for
+a good long tramp eastward, drawing a light sledge bearing provisions,
+and ready for the carriage of any game that might be shot.
+
+This was a new experience, for winter garments were now worn, with heavy
+boots and mittens, fur caps, and eye-protectors.  The snow filled up the
+inequalities of the ground, and the sledge glided easily upon its
+runners; but its load was soon increased, for the walking was heavy, and
+as the sun shone out the men were glad to pile their heavy coats upon
+the light framework and walk without them.
+
+The scene was brilliant, and every here and there they found traces of
+animals, of whose presence they would otherwise have been ignorant.
+Skene was the first to notice footprints, snuffling loudly and growling,
+and setting up his fur about his neck, according to his custom when he
+smelt an enemy; and upon these tracks being examined, they proved to be
+similar to those which would be made by a dog with thick claws and very
+hairy feet.
+
+"Wolves," said Johannes directly.  "Those which you heard the other
+night, Mr Steve."
+
+A sharp look-out was kept for these visitors, but none were seen.  Soon
+after, though, they came upon the fresh-looking footprints of a bear--
+marks so big that they indicated an animal of large size.  But the beast
+which printed the long marks had gone toward the shore, and though arms
+were kept ready for instant use, they marched on seeing nothing but the
+dazzling snow.
+
+After a time the doctor called a halt and gave orders.  "Spectacles at
+once," he said, "or I shall be having cases of snow-blindness to
+attend."
+
+So eye-protectors were mounted, and the party moved on again, the
+captain choosing a fresh direction, one not previously tried, and, in
+spite of the heavy walking, as there was no halting to track game, they
+made plenty of progress, getting miles beyond any point previously
+reached before they stopped to attack the provisions and rest.
+
+It was intensely cold, but the sun shone brilliantly, and there was not
+a breath of air; so that the great lowering of the temperature was not
+unpleasant, especially as the exertion had sent the blood racing through
+their veins, while the novel aspect of the scene was full of interest
+for Steve.  The peaks glittered in the new-fallen snow, and, look where
+they would, it was at a world of dazzling whiteness, save where the
+shadows and valley-like rifts in the mountain-sides appeared to be of a
+delicate blue.
+
+"We must take advantage of all the light now, Steve," said the captain,
+"and make expeditions inland whenever it is possible.  We might pick out
+a few places and make _caches_ of provision, so as to get farther out
+each time.  But it is more from a sense of duty than anything else.  We
+must feel that we have done everything possible to find our friends."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Why not make our way right across?"
+
+"Across where?"
+
+"The island to the farther shore, and then work right round the coast,
+and come up again on our side."
+
+"For several reasons, my lad," said Captain Marsham, smiling.  "It would
+be very risky to take the men so far from our headquarters, not knowing
+how soon we may be attacked by a terrible storm.  We do not know that we
+are upon an island with a farther shore.  And it would be impossible to
+make such a journey as you propose.  Are these reasons enough?"
+
+"Plenty, sir.  Are we going any farther?"
+
+"No.  We have got by the days of endless light, my lad, and I don't wish
+for us to be benighted out in these snowy valleys."
+
+So the captain gave the word to turn back, and they reached the ship
+just at dusk, after a most uneventful journey, not having encountered a
+single head of game.
+
+The next morning they found that more snow had fallen, and the deck had
+to be cleared.  There was not the most remote prospect now of doing more
+that season, so the boats were made snug and covered; and as there was
+no likelihood of the ship moving in a drift, so set fast was she in the
+ice, the men were now started to rig up an awning like the roof of a hut
+and completely cover in the deck.  This was worked at with a will, till
+a double thickness of canvas was spread, and over that tarpaulins.
+
+"Keep some of the cold out, eh, doctor?"
+
+"Yes," said that gentleman; "and I suppose in a night or two you'll have
+snow over it to keep us warmer."
+
+"It is probable.  Wonderful how rapidly we are settling down into
+winter.  A long one, too," he added in a low voice.  "Can you keep us
+all in good health till the summer comes again?"
+
+"It depends more upon yourselves than upon me," said Mr Handscombe
+sharply.  "Keep every one so busy that he gets tired and has no time to
+think."
+
+"I mean to," said the captain quietly.  "There will be enough to keep
+them pretty well employed in getting and sleighing over to here all the
+coal I hope to have on board--enough, that is, to make up for all that
+is gone, and so as to give us an ample supply to keep our stoves burning
+as much as we like."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "with plenty of work, plenty to eat and drink,
+and the means of keeping up bonny fires, I do not see why we should not
+pass through the winter pleasantly enough.  The darkness will be
+depressing when it comes, but the men will have grown pretty well
+accustomed to it; for it comes on, I suppose, so thoroughly by degrees.
+Let's see, how long will it be perfectly dark?"
+
+"Not at all, I hope," said Captain Marsham.  "Nature counteracts a great
+deal of the gloom by the brilliancy of stars and moon, and the
+reflection from the dazzlingly white earth.  Then, too, I suppose we
+shall have the aurora pretty often."
+
+"But for how long does the sun disappear entirely?"
+
+"About eighteen weeks," said the captain.  "Once it has reached its
+farthest point to the south I don't care, for then it will be journeying
+back to us.  Our task seems to be to keep the men in good heart up to
+the shortest day; after that we can manage."
+
+Days passed with a fair amount of sunshine, and then came a week of
+storm, the wind giving them a taste or two of what might be expected
+later; and the snow fell heavily, loading down the great tent-like
+arrangement over the deck to such an extent that the men were busily
+employed rigging up the extra spars and spare yards as rafters and
+ridge-poles, to help bear the strain put upon the ropes; and then all
+knew that there was to be no autumn, for the brief northern summer gave
+place at one bound to winter.
+
+After the storm the snow was piled and drifted up round and about the
+bows to such an extent that in one place there was a complete slope from
+the top of the bulwark, and the snow lay deep upon the ice, though here
+and there a few passages were left where the wind had swept the surface
+pretty clear; and as the day was fairly bright and the way open in the
+direction of the narrow, jagged rift, it was decided to take advantage
+of the opportunity and have a trip through the gorge to the seashore.
+
+Anticipating that the zigzagging, canal-like waterway would be too
+slightly frozen in so sheltered a spot to bear a party of men, a boat
+was run down the snow-slope on to the ice, and then skated along on the
+iron of the keel where the snow was absent, and driven over or through
+it when it lay deep.  The men took to the task readily, the dog entered
+into the excitement of the business, and Steve followed sedately enough
+with the captain and doctor, envying Watty his spirits, for the lad had
+permission to accompany the party, and he was revelling in the
+excitement of a day's freedom from the slavery of the galley.  The men,
+too, thoroughly enjoyed their task, dragging and pushing with plenty of
+cheering as they got the boat through some great snow-wreath which
+barred their way to the chasm-like opening in the side of the fiord.
+
+"Black water--no ice!" cried Steve, who made his way to the front when
+they were nearly across.
+
+"Na, tat's not watter," said Watty, who had followed him.  "She's a'
+ice."
+
+"Nonsense!  Look how clear it is!" cried Steve.  "It must be water."
+
+But as he reached the entrance he had to alter his opinion, for the
+black-looking water proved to be perfectly solid; and Watty dashed on,
+slid some distance, and ended by jumping upon it.
+
+"Tak' car', laddie!" cried Andrew; "ef she gangs through she'll hae to
+stay."
+
+But there was no fear, and the boat was left upright in a snow-drift,
+the provisions packed on the little hand-sleigh brought as well, and the
+journey commenced through the chasm.  At first every one proceeded
+cautiously, expecting moment by moment to hear a sharp crack; but after
+a few minutes confidence was felt in the strength of the ice, and all
+stepped out boldly.
+
+"Hadn't we better have brought the boat, after all, sir?"  Steve asked
+the captain.  "There'll be open water as soon as we are through, and we
+might get a seal or two, if we didn't get a walrus."
+
+"If the water is frozen in this sheltered passage, my lad," replied the
+captain, "there is no fear about the water on the other side."
+
+"What! you think it would be frozen?"
+
+"Certainly.  I expect we shall find the open sheet of water along the
+shore frozen from side to side."
+
+"Then there'll be no walrus?"
+
+"Not one."
+
+"Nor seals?"
+
+"I don't expect we shall see anything now for months but bears, wolves,
+and foxes.  Beside them, we shall be the only occupants of the place.  I
+have not seen a bird for days."
+
+It proved as the captain had said, for as soon as they were well through
+the narrow passage there lay the ice to right and left, and not a patch
+of open water was to be seen.  Winter had set in indeed, and after a
+long tramp without seeing a single animal the party retraced their
+steps, and returned to the ship light enough, but in excellent spirits,
+the inevitable being accepted; and as there was an abundant supply of
+food in store, the absence of game in boat and sleigh, though it made
+Mr Lowe smile, was deemed to be of not the slightest consequence.
+
+The next day the coaling began, the men being divided into four parties,
+one to hew down the coal on the mountain-side, another to collect and
+pass it down to the sledges, and the other two parties to draw the
+loaded and empty sledges to and fro.  The mineral fuel was abundant, and
+the men worked so well that very soon the beaten track through the snow
+was blackened with dust and small fragments of coal; while, after this
+had been kept on for a week, the men treating the dirty job as quite a
+frolic, Steve felt that the sooner another fall of snow came down the
+better for the face of nature.  He was not kept long waiting, for the
+second night after the captain had been satisfied that no more coal
+could be stored with any convenience down came the storm again, lasting
+a couple of days, and the last hope of the weather becoming open that
+season departed.
+
+"No, sir," said Johannes; "the winter has come, and means to stay."
+
+"Right on through the long, black darkness when there is no sun," said
+Steve with a slight shiver, and he went and looked at the glass.
+
+The doctor saw him go, and joined him.  "Down to zero, my lad," he said.
+"That would make people at home stare.  But it's only the mercury
+that's down to zero; our spirits must be up to a thoroughly genial
+height."
+
+Steve nodded, but he could not help a curious sensation of awe creeping
+over him as once more he thought of the coming six months, during which
+they would almost have bidden good-bye to the sun.
+
+"I can't quite think how we shall do without any light, Mr Handscombe,"
+said Steve quietly.
+
+"Nor I neither, my lad; but _experientia docet_, as the Latin folk used
+to say."
+
+"But doctors should not," said the captain merrily, as he came up.
+"_Docet_ sounds suggestive from the lips of a medical man.  Now, Steve,
+I appoint you commander-in-chief of the fires.  See that they are
+properly kept up from now till the end of next spring."
+
+"If spring there be," said the doctor.  "I expect that we shall step
+from winter into summer, as we did from summer to winter; but we shall
+see."
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "we shall see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+CHILL DAYS.
+
+"Ha-Ha!  Ha-ha-ha!  Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
+
+A regular rollicking burst of good, sound, old-fashioned, honest,
+English laughter, which rang out clear, bright, and cheery in the frosty
+air.
+
+"She'll pe laughin' at me, Meester Stevey?"
+
+"Yes!" cried the lad, bursting out into another peal, in which Skene
+joined with a good, sound, rattling bark.  "Why, even the dog can't help
+it.  Look at him!"
+
+"She'll pe only barkin' and not laughin'.  Togs canna laugh."
+
+"Well, they can show their teeth!" cried Steve.  "Oh, I say, Watty, you
+do look a guy!  Your mother wouldn't know you."
+
+"Her ain mither wad ken her anywhere," said Watty proudly.
+
+"Not like this.  Why, you look like an old bear with a sheep-skin on.
+Why, that coat's too big for you.  What have you got underneath?"
+
+"She isna a pit too pig.  She wants a muckle great-coat to keep oot the
+caud."
+
+"Why, you've got a blanket on under it!"
+
+"Ay.  She chust happit a planket roond an' roond her potty, an' tied it
+wi' a bit o' line to keep it oop, an' she's waarm as waarm a' but her
+foots an' han's!"
+
+"I should think you are," said Steve merrily.  "You're as big round as a
+hop pocket.  You can hardly move."
+
+"Oh ay, she can move when she wants to move.  Hae ye got any
+chilplains?"
+
+"No, have you?"
+
+"Cot any chilplains?  Why, her han's an' foots are chust a' ane creat
+chilplain, an' when she kets wairm they ding an' itch till she cauld
+scratch awa' a' her skin."
+
+"I'll ask Mr Handscombe to give you something for them."
+
+"Nay, she winna tak' it.  She canna' tak' pheesek."
+
+"Nonsense!  I mean to rub on."
+
+"Oh, mebby she micht try a wee drap ootside."
+
+"Well, how do you like having the weather so cold as this?"
+
+"She wants to gang hame.  When shall we sail back again?"
+
+"Next summer, I hope.  What nonsense!  How could we sail when we're
+frozen up?"
+
+"Preak a way oot.  She wadna mind helping."
+
+"You don't know what you're talking about.  But I say, I wouldn't dress
+up so warmly as that now."
+
+"Why, she's tressed oop wairmly!"
+
+"I've only got this sheep-skin coat on.  If you dress like this now,
+what will you do when it grows cold?"
+
+"Phwat!" cried Watty excitedly.  "Ye dinna mean that she can be more
+caud than this?"
+
+"Yes, this is nothing.  Wait a bit till the sun does not rise at all,
+and it's all dark, and then I s'pose it's going to be tremendously
+cold."
+
+"Dinna say it, sir; dinna say it!"
+
+"Why not?  It's true enough!" cried Steve.
+
+"Nay, she's lauchin' at her.  Cauder!  She could na pe mair caud than
+the noo."
+
+"Oh, very well; wait and see."
+
+"Put she's chust choking her."
+
+"Chust choking you!" cried Steve, laughing.  "I tell you it's all true."
+
+"Hey, then, what's to pecome of her?" groaned Watty.  "She couldna pear
+a pit mair caud, and she'll have to pe perried out here in the ice and
+snaw.  Ye'll chust tell her ane thing, Meester Stevey.  She winna lauch
+at her?"
+
+"No, I won't laugh, Watty.  What is it?"
+
+"They keek oop a lot o' talk and clish ma claver aboot it kettin' dairk.
+Is she coing to hae ferry short days--shorter than they are the noo?"
+
+"There'll be no days at all soon.  It will all be night."
+
+"Phwat!  Dairk nicht, and no taylight at a'?"
+
+"Not a bit.  The sun will not rise at all for about eighteen weeks."
+
+Watty looked out wildly from among the wool of the great-coat he had on
+and from beneath the fur of his peaked cap with quite an agonised
+expression.
+
+"She isna choking her?"
+
+"No, I told you I would not."
+
+"The sun winna coom oop at a'?"
+
+"No, not at all for eighteen weeks.  It will be all night."
+
+"Then ta wairld's going to be at an eend?"
+
+"Nonsense!  No."
+
+"Then the sun's coing oot?"
+
+"Not a bit of it."
+
+"Then whar she coing to?"
+
+"Down toward the South Pole."
+
+"She canna understan' it," said Watty piteously.  "She thocht it was a'
+talk to frechten her.  Then we shall nivver see the sun any more?"
+
+"Of course we shall.  There'll be eighteen weeks without it, and then it
+will begin to get lighter again more and more, till the sun keeps up in
+the sky like it did when we came up here just now.  You understand?"
+
+"Nay, she dinna understan' it a pit."
+
+"But you saw that the sun did not set for a long time?"
+
+"Yes, she saw tat; but she nivver understood it a pit."
+
+"Well, it is puzzling," said Steve.  "It took me some time to get it
+into my head, but I do pretty well understand it now.  Why, Watty, if we
+stood at the North Pole at midsummer, we should see the sun go round and
+round in the sky, and then every day get a little lower and a little
+lower, till it was only just in sight; and then still lower, till it
+disappeared altogether."
+
+"Does she mean went oot o' sicht a' thegither?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And wad she hae to stan' recht o' the top o' the pole to see tat?"
+
+"No, at the Pole.  You don't think there's a wooden pole there, do you?"
+
+"Ay.  Andra says she's a creat pig pole, an' ta wairld turns roond and
+roond upon her."
+
+"The world turns round and round; but there's no wooden pole, only one
+spot they call the Pole."
+
+"An' ye can see the sun go roond like tat, Meester Stevey?"
+
+"You could if you could get there.  Nobody has ever been so far north.
+I don't think anybody has been so far before as this."
+
+"Then how do they know?"
+
+"Oh, by calculations and books."
+
+"She dinna pelieve it."
+
+"Oh, it's quite true, though."
+
+"What, tat ta sun coes roond like tat?"
+
+"Yes, I'm not deceiving you.  Don't you believe me?"
+
+"Oh ay, she pelieves pecause she knows she's a chentleman; and when a
+chentleman says onything is true she is quite true."
+
+"Thank you," said Steve, smiling.  "Put if ta sun coes on like tat, an'
+she's squirming oop an' squirming doon, she's cot something wrong wi'
+her wairks."
+
+Steve laughed.
+
+"Ay, put it's naething to lauch aboot, Meester Stevey.  Thenk o' the sun
+coing quite oot for eighteen weeks.  Oh, it's a waefu' place.  What'll
+we do when it's a' nicht?"
+
+"Go to sleep like the bears do, and have a good long rest."
+
+"Go to sleep for eighteen weeks!" cried Watty in horror.  "Why, she'd
+nivver wak' ony mair!"
+
+"Oh yes, you would; and besides, it will not be quite dark.  There'll be
+the moon and stars and the aurora."
+
+"She dinna ken onything apoot the roarer.  Will she mak' it licht?"
+
+"Yes, beautifully."
+
+"Hey, but caud as it is the noo?"
+
+"Much colder," cried Steve.
+
+"Then she'll chust lie doon and dee," said Watty piteously, "for she
+canna bear to thenk upo' it.  Cauder than it is the noo, an' her han's
+and foots like they are.  Why, she'd be a' one creat chilplain ivery
+wha'!  What wad her mither say if she knew?"
+
+The lads were out on the trampled snow about a hundred yards from the
+_Hvalross_, which looked, with its snow-covered roofing, like some long,
+low house, out of which three tall masts had grown.  And as they were
+talking a hail came from the canvas-covered doorway at the top of the
+gangway.
+
+The resemblance to a low, long house was increased by the iron chimneys
+rising out through the snow and the big funnel of the boiler, from all
+of which black smoke was issuing; for, the ample supply of coal being so
+near, Captain Marsham had the engine furnace kept going for the sake of
+the heat given by the boilers, as well as from the fire itself.  In
+fact, the engine-room and stoke-hole became favourite places with the
+men of an evening before bed, or after a long tramp round somewhere
+through the snow; for, now that they were fairly started in their battle
+with the arctic winter, the weather had to be very bad, and the wind
+very keen, for the crew to be kept out of their daily exercise.
+
+The loud hail came from the doorway, and a curious-looking figure like a
+diver in a fur suit came down the well-made flight of ice steps, and
+advanced to join the two lads.  The resemblance to a diver increased as
+it drew nearer, for the face was almost completely hidden by the
+visor-like arrangement of the round, helmet-shaped cap, and in place of
+a visor's bars there were two large, round green-glass goggles which
+glistened in a peculiar manner when the object advanced, as if he were
+not only a diver, but a steam diver who was moved by some internal
+machinery which caused him to emit little puffs of steam at breathing
+intervals.
+
+"Morning, Mr Handscombe," cried Steve as he drew near.
+
+"Morning, my lad; but look here, you are doing a very foolish thing.
+We're below zero, and yet you're standing about here talking as if it
+were summer."
+
+"We haven't felt the cold, sir."
+
+"The more likely for the cold to be dangerous for you, my lad.  A
+frost-bite comes on without the sufferer knowing about it, the cold
+making the part quite insensible to pain, and a bad bite may mean utter
+destruction of the tissue and the loss of even hands and feet."
+
+"Phwat!" cried Watty, forgetting his awe of the doctor in the horror of
+the announcement; "wad a man who was frost-bit lose her han's or her
+foots?"
+
+"Yes, if it were a bad case of freezing."
+
+"An' wad her han's or foots tummle off?"
+
+"More likely the patient's medical attendant would have to cut them
+off."
+
+"Coot her han's an foots off?  What wi'--chopper?"
+
+"No," said the doctor, smiling at the lad's horrified looks; "they would
+be carefully taken off with a knife and saw.  Surgeons are very
+careful."
+
+Watty groaned.
+
+"It's a' ower wi' her, Meester Stevey, an' she's ferry sorry she's iver
+fote and ca'd her, for she'll nivver see bonnie Scotland more."
+
+"Why not?  What's the matter with you, my lad?" said the doctor.
+
+"She's ferry pad, sir.  Poth her foots an' poth her han's is
+frost-pitten."
+
+"What! and you did not tell me?  Here, come back to the ship, and let me
+have a look."
+
+"Na, na, na; she'll na gang wi' ye!" cried Watty.
+
+"But if they are frost-bitten I can perhaps do them good, and save you
+from a very bad injury.  Come along."
+
+"Na, na; she'll keep her han's an' foots on as lang as she can," groaned
+the lad.  "She winna let her tooch them."
+
+"Don't be absurd!" said the doctor angrily.  "Steve, did you know of
+this?"
+
+"No, sir," said the boy, fighting hard to conceal his mirth.
+
+"I ought to have been told.  Here, come along.  Stop!"
+
+"Ay, she'll stop; she winna gang wi' ye."
+
+"Are your feet really bad?"
+
+"Ay, sir; but she shanna tooch them."
+
+"You have no business to walk," said the doctor.  "I must have you
+carried, sir."
+
+"Na, na; she'll stay here."
+
+"Bah! don't be absurd, boy.  I know what is best for you.  Here, Steve,
+my lad, go and fetch two of the men to carry him in.  I'm glad I heard
+of this in time."
+
+"Dinna gang, Meester Stevey; oh, dinna gang!" cried Watty.
+
+"I must; I'm ordered to go," cried Steve quickly, as he ran back to the
+ship, and then hunted out Andrew and Hamish from the forecastle to come
+and bear the lad to the deck.
+
+"She wass ferry well at breakfast," said Andrew.  "She must ha' been
+eating something since then," for Andrew's ideas of illness were always
+in connection with eating or drinking too much.  "Phwat will she say's
+the matter?"
+
+"He told the doctor he was very bad," replied Steve, "and you're to
+carry him."
+
+"She wass ferry sorry for the puir laddie, and she'll carry her on her
+pack."
+
+But Andrew was not allowed to carry Watty in on his "pack," but under
+the doctor's instructions, and, in spite of the lad's remonstrances,
+they passed hands under him, made him throw his arms over their
+shoulders, and prepared to start.
+
+"She winna go!" cried Watty, struggling faintly.
+
+"Take no notice of him," said the doctor; "he must be carried in at
+once.  Now off!"
+
+Poor Watty was borne to the snow steps which rose right up to the
+gangway, carried in, and no sooner were they upon the gloomy deck, where
+they had to depend now for light upon a couple of swinging lanthorns,
+than the captain met them.
+
+The place was quite misty with the men's breath, which hung about like
+steam, in spite of the efforts made to keep the place warm; and things
+looked quite indistinct, especially about Watty, who had had to resign
+himself to his fate, and lay where he was placed upon the deck.
+
+"What is it--a fall?" cried the captain; "broken leg?"
+
+"No, frost-bitten," said the doctor laconically.  "Take off that fur
+coat, my lads."
+
+The huge sheep-skin coat was opened and drawn from Watty's shoulders,
+leaving visible one of the blankets from his bunk doubled and rolled
+round him tightly, and held by a stout piece of cord that looked
+wonderfully like a portion of a walrus line.
+
+"Watty laddie," said Hamish, "she meant to keep hersel' wairm," and the
+men about laughed, all but Johannes and his companions, who were
+perfectly serious.
+
+"Ay, she tid: ferry wairm as efer wass," added Andrew.  "Is it her
+nose?"
+
+"That will do, my men; let me come," said the doctor, kneeling down and
+hastily drawing off the big fur glove that Watty wore on his right hand,
+in spite, too, of a good deal of resistance on the lad's part.
+
+"Dinna lat him coot it off, Meester Stevey, sir," he whispered.  "Her
+mither wadna ken her if she went back to Ardnachree gin she had nae
+airms and legs."
+
+"Humph! dear me!" said the doctor; "bring that lanthorn closer.  Very
+red and inflamed, but that one's not frost-bitten."
+
+He held the hand close to the lanthorn, which was lowered by Andrew, and
+then knocked sidewise, for the lad sprang up sitting.
+
+"Then she wadna chop it off?"
+
+"No, no; lie still!" cried the doctor testily.
+
+"You had better hold him, my lads," said the captain; and Hamish and
+Andrew held him down again, bringing forth a fierce growl from Skene,
+who seemed to feel that if there was a struggle on he ought to be in it.
+
+"Down, Skeny!" said Steve sharply; and the dog uttered an uneasy whine.
+
+"Here, let me see the other hand," cried the doctor.
+
+"Na, that one's the waur!" cried Watty excitedly.  "She's nae waur than
+this or my puir foots."
+
+"No nonsense," said the doctor; and he firmly but gently held the boy's
+other red and swollen hand to the light of the lanthorn.
+
+"Frost-bitten?" said the captain; but the doctor did not answer save by
+a grunt.
+
+"Ane's waur than t'ither," whimpered Watty.
+
+"And now about your feet, my lad," cried the doctor.
+
+"Oh, they're nane so bad as my han's, sir; only dings and tangs o'
+nichts."
+
+"There, get up, you young impostor!" cried the doctor, rising.
+"Frost-bitten?" he added, turning to the captain.  "Nothing but a few
+chilblains.  Here, you Steve," he continued, button-holing the lad, "did
+you know there was nothing the matter but chilblains?"
+
+"He told me his hands and feet were frost-bitten," said Steve.
+
+"Yes, but you knew better, sir," said the doctor, who had hold of the
+boy's arm and was marching him toward the cabin stairs.
+
+"Well, I--" began Steve.
+
+"Of course," cried the doctor.  "I saw the twinkle in your eye, my lad.
+Look here, don't you play tricks with doctors; they get such chances for
+serving you out."
+
+"I suppose I ought to have spoken," said Steve; "but it seemed so comic
+to see him so sure that he was frost-bitten, and it's such a long time
+since we had a laugh that--"
+
+"Let it rest, Handscombe," said Captain Marsham good-humouredly.  "Steve
+says it is a long time since he had a hearty laugh."
+
+"What!" cried the doctor.  "Why, I heard him roaring with laughter not
+above an hour ago."
+
+Steve looked confused.
+
+"Of course," he said, colouring.  "I'd forgotten that."
+
+"There, we don't want any apologies, my boy," said the captain.  "Keep
+up your spirits, and other people's if you can.  I want every one to
+have a good store of health and strength before the long night comes."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+A NOCTURNAL VISITOR.
+
+And that long night which was on everybody's lips, and when silent in
+everybody's mind, was coming on surely and gradually, but to all on
+board the _Hvalross_ very fast; for the captain never let the men rest.
+After every heavy fall of snow--and these came at shorter intervals--the
+crew were set to work banking it up against the sides of the ship.
+
+"But it will make it so much colder," Steve protested.
+
+"No, my lad, so much warmer," said the captain.  "Do you know what is
+our greatest enemy here that we shall have to fight?"
+
+"Yes, the bears.  They'll smell the meat--Johannes said so; and you're
+making an extremely easy way up to the deck."
+
+"Well, yes, if they come.  But if they do, we must be ready for them.
+We can keep them off from our fortress, I daresay.  But that was not the
+enemy I meant."
+
+"Oh, I see; you mean the cold."
+
+"Yes, my boy; but in one form.  I mean the wind.  I daresay we could
+stand thirty degrees below zero without wind better than we could stand
+zero with wind.  That is the enemy we have to fight against.  The still
+cold will not affect us like the storms."
+
+And so it passed, day after day.  The men were out hunting one morning,
+when it was the coldest by the thermometer they had yet felt; but no one
+suffered.  The men came back with their beards quite masses of ice, but
+the exercise in the still air kept them all aglow; while the very next
+day they had a walk along the lane they had trampled down in the snow as
+far as the piled-up ice-floe which had shut them up in the peaceful
+fiord, and coming back they had to face a piercing north wind which
+carried with it a fine snow-dust which seemed to cut into the skin.
+
+"The coldest day we have had yet," said the doctor as they stepped on
+deck; but the captain went at once to the instruments which were placed
+ready for taking the observations duly entered in a journal, and turned
+back, shaking his head.
+
+"Twenty degrees warmer than it was yesterday."
+
+"You amaze me," said Mr Handscombe.  "I never felt it so cold before."
+
+"He meant twenty degrees not quite so cold, sir," said Steve, who was
+rubbing and beating his half-numbed hands.  "It isn't warmer."
+
+The wind dropped at sundown, if it could be called sundown, when that
+day they had only had some hours of glow over the icy rampart that shut
+them in.  Then in the darkening sky the stars began to peer out one by
+one, till, as the sky grew perfectly black, the heavens were one blaze
+of glittering splendour.
+
+"Why, the stars seem double the size that they are at home," said Steve,
+as he stood out on the snow steps for a little while before retiring to
+rest.  "The sky looks so transparent, too, just as if you were peeping
+right in amongst them.  Look, look!"
+
+He pointed at that which the others saw as soon as he, for a brilliant
+meteor suddenly flashed into sight, formed an arc in the sky, and
+disappeared, leaving a thin line of sparks behind it for a moment or two
+before they died out.
+
+"What was that?" cried Steve.
+
+"A meteor," said the captain.  "One of the little bodies which
+astronomers say burst into light in passing through our atmosphere.  But
+come; the fireside is the best place on a night like this."
+
+They retired to the cabin, after carefully tying the points of the
+canvas down; and, after a walk right forward by the dim light of the
+lanthorns to see that the men were all comfortable and well, the trio
+returned to the cabin, where the stove was crackling and roaring, and
+the hanging lamp, books, papers, and chess-board looked cheery and
+home-like.
+
+Skene followed them and stood at the door in a deprecating fashion,
+slowly waving his plume-like tail from side to side, and looking, Steve
+said, as if he would come in and stay if he were asked.
+
+"Yes, come in," said the captain.
+
+The dog entered with a bound, and couched instantly at the front of the
+stove.
+
+"It's getting intensely cold now," said the captain, taking up the
+log-book to make an entry or two.
+
+"I thought so," said the doctor; "but after my experience of this
+afternoon I was afraid I might be wrong again.  What do you say, Steve?"
+
+"I think it's as cold as we've had it, sir.  We can see our breath here
+before this hot fire."
+
+"Look here!" exclaimed Captain Marsham, as he sat, pen in hand,
+examining the inkstand.
+
+"What's the matter?  No ink?"
+
+"Ink?  Yes; but look here--frozen, and in this cabin!"
+
+There was the fact; the ink-glass was partly full of splinters and
+scales of ice, while the bottom was like thick, melted black snow.
+
+"Well, we can't have it any colder than that, can we?" asked Steve; and
+then he started, for Skene suddenly sprang to his feet, his hair rose
+about his throat, and he uttered a low growl.
+
+"What does he hear?" said the captain, after placing the ink to thaw.
+
+"I know," cried Steve, "though I didn't hear it.  Andra must have got
+out his pipes, and is playing what he calls a chune."
+
+"Very likely," said the captain, turning the ink.
+
+"He doesn't like it," continued Steve.  "I wonder any one can bear the
+noise."
+
+"Tastes differ, my lad," said the captain.  "The men seem to like the
+sounds on these long, dark nights.  I wish we had some one who could
+play the fiddle, too."
+
+"Johannes can, and he has one with him," said Steve eagerly.
+
+"That's good news, for I want the lads to enjoy themselves, and a little
+music is the very thing for them.  Quiet, dog, quiet! if you mean to
+stay here."
+
+For Skene had gone excitedly to the closed door, placed his nose to the
+crack at the bottom, and growled fiercely.
+
+"It isn't the pipes," said Steve, springing up.  "He hears something.
+What is it, Skene?"
+
+"R-rr-rr-ra!" growled the dog in low, menacing tones.
+
+"Now, doctor," said the captain, setting the example of taking his
+double gun from the rack and slinging his cartridge-bag over his
+shoulder.
+
+The doctor followed the captain's lead, and Steve stepped to the slings
+on the other side for his.
+
+"Coats on," said the captain; "it's bitter out on the deck.  Keep him
+quiet, Steve!"
+
+Steve patted and whistled to the dog, who gave his tail a slow sweep
+from side to side, and then stood ready for action, while coats and caps
+were donned, and cartridges slipped into the breeches of the pieces.
+The captain laid his hand upon the door and was about to open it, when
+there was a gentle tap, and the light shone full upon the face of
+Johannes.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked the captain sharply.  "A bear, I think, sir,"
+said the Norseman in a low voice.  "The scent of these animals is very
+fine, and the smell of the cooking has brought him perhaps.  But it is
+very dark, and I'm not sure, sir.  I hope it is not a false alarm.  You
+heard it, then?" he said, as it seemed only then to strike him that the
+party had risen to go out on deck.
+
+"Skeny heard something and growled!" cried Steve.  "Then there is one,
+gentlemen," said the man quietly.  "Will you come round and listen?"
+
+A word or two given in an impressive whisper to the dog silenced him,
+and he followed as if knowing his business exactly--that is, to steal up
+to the quarry and wait patiently until the fighting began and his
+pent-up excitement could have full play.
+
+Johannes led, and they all walked slowly along the port side of the
+deck, which looked dark and impressive with only one lanthorn burning
+close to the galley door.  The canvas sides of the long, tent-like
+awning bulged in here and there as they passed some shroud or stay, and
+the roof hung low in places where the snow lay particularly heavy, while
+the cold that struck to them now in leaving the warm cabin was terrible.
+Every breath Steve drew felt as if it were charged with tiny needles,
+which tingled in his nostrils.  A thick mist formed about them, and when
+they paused close to the lanthorn to listen for a minute the vapour of
+their breath rose and then fell down again in soft specks which the lad
+did not understand for the moment, and then saw to be tiny flakes of
+snow.  But all was still save a murmur which came up from the closely
+shut engine-room hatch, where the men had collected about the glowing
+fire kept up without stint.
+
+Johannes went on round by the bows, and all followed, Steve shivering
+with cold and excitement; but they passed along, going aft now, close by
+the canvas wall, till they reached the cabin door again without a sound
+being heard.
+
+"False alarm, Johannes?" whispered the captain.
+
+The man smiled, and pointed to the dog, whose ears were twitching, and
+now standing up, bent forward, now lowered down, while his tail was
+waving slowly, and his muzzle was in the air with the nostrils
+distended.
+
+"Skeny says there's a bear or something about," said Steve softly.
+
+The dog turned to his master sharply upon hearing his name.
+
+"Where is it, Skeny?" whispered the boy, dropping on one knee with his
+arm on the dog's neck.
+
+There was a low growl, and the dog ran back a dozen steps, and stood
+listening and twitching his ears as he gazed at one part of the canvas
+wall.  They followed, and stood beside him, but all was perfectly quiet,
+the silence being strangely impressive in that intense misty cold.  Then
+all at once there was a sound like a deep sigh, followed by a snuffling
+noise, and directly after the canvas wall was pressed in just above the
+bulwark.  It was exactly as if some man of gigantic size was feeling
+over the canvas for a way in, his nails now scratching against it
+heavily.  But the tough canvas did not tear, for it was thickly coated
+with ice caused by the condensation of breath, and moisture from
+without, freezing into a hard, thick mass.  But it cracked and snapped
+and bent in, so that at any moment there was the possibility of its
+giving way.
+
+"Lanthorn, quick!" said the captain; and as Johannes brought it the
+captain's and doctor's pieces clicked; while, as soon as the light was
+held well up, they calculated as nearly as they could where the bear's
+breast would be and fired together.
+
+A savage roar followed the reports, there was a scrambling rush, and
+then a great rustling; and as the men came running up excitedly the dog
+seemed to consider that he was free, and set up a furious barking as he
+ran to the tied-up canvas door by the gangway, and stood gazing at his
+master, waiting to be let out.
+
+"Hit, and scared away," said the captain, re-loading.  "Shall we go out
+and see?" said the doctor.  "No, not till daylight," replied the
+captain; "it is too risky to go out in the darkness.  We can track it
+through the snow in the morning.  Quiet the dog, Steve, my lad.  There,
+go below, my lads; the cold here is terrible.  Good-night."
+
+Talking eagerly about this interruption the men hurried below, and as
+soon as the hatch was closed sounds arose which made Skene whine and
+Steve stop his ears as he hurried into the warm cabin; for Andrew had
+taken his pipes, and was making them skirl and drone in honour of the
+victory.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+IN THE STERN GRIP.
+
+Steve slept soundly that night, and woke to find the blanket, pulled up
+close to his ears, stiff with hoar-frost, and the stinging, prickling
+sensation in his nostrils more acute than ever.  There was no time spent
+in dressing, and all were soon ready for the breakfast brought in by the
+cook, who was loud in complaints about the way in which everything froze
+in the galley, even when the fire was roaring in the stove.  But he was
+pretty cheerful, for he was a busy man with certain daily duties,
+whereas tasks had to be made for the men, who, on account of the intense
+cold and the solitary safety of their position, were not now even set to
+keep any of the regular watches.
+
+As soon as breakfast was despatched by lamplight, a start was made to
+see if the bear was anywhere near; and as the canvas door was opened
+with some difficulty, they stepped out into the semi-darkness to make
+for the other side of the vessel, about a hundred yards from which a
+hummock could be seen lying through the rising mist; and upon their
+approaching it the footsteps of the bear could be plainly traced in
+company with spots of blood, showing that the animal must have been
+seriously wounded.
+
+"He staggered and went down here," said Johannes, pointing to
+unmistakable marks; and then, as the back of the animal stood up white
+as the snow around, Johannes began to trot forward.
+
+"Don't do that!" cried Steve excitedly.  "Let them go first with the
+guns."
+
+"No fear, sir; he's frozen stiff."
+
+So it proved, but a horrifying sight presented itself; for there were
+footprints about, which the Norseman pointed out as belonging to three
+more bears, a large and two small ones, which had been devouring the one
+that had been shot, and now lay, partially eaten, in the snow.
+
+"Ugh! the cannibals!" exclaimed Steve, turning away in disgust.
+
+"Will they come back to the feast?" said the doctor.  "They may, sir;
+but I think not.  They have gorged themselves, and will have gone back
+to the cave they occupy, perhaps to go to sleep for a couple of months.
+I think they lie up during the very coldest weather, and I should say it
+was cold enough for that.  Besides, this carcass is a mass of ice now.--
+It is very cold."
+
+"Yes, and dark enough for anything."  But as the days--they could hardly
+be called days--glided by the last gleams of a dim twilight died out,
+till in the clearest times there was nothing but a faint dawn to be seen
+at twelve o'clock, where they had seen the rim of the sun for the last
+time, and the cold was intense, beyond anything they could have
+imagined.  When the men were crowded together in the forecastle their
+breath rose in a thick mist, and Watty murmured bitterly to Steve about
+it, for he said it was a shame that the deck was not freshly cleaned.
+
+"A' through snaw-storm last neet," he said, "the snaw came tumm'ling
+doon upo' our bets till she was a' wet."
+
+"But there was no snowstorm last night, Watty."
+
+"Why, she saw it wi' her ain een."
+
+"It was only the frozen breath," said Steve, as he recalled his
+experience on the deck the night the bear was shot.
+
+"Ah, weel, she dinna ken.  Maybe she's richt; but the cauld is chust
+awfu'.  Tid she ken the McByle burnt her foots last nicht?"
+
+"What, Andra?  No."
+
+"Oh ay, she tid.  She was sitting by the fire trying to blaw the ice oot
+o' the pipes, for she couldna ket the pipes to skirl.  She was sitting
+leuking on, when she smelt something oot.  Chacobsen she says, `She'll
+hae to mind, Andra, for she's purning her foots'; and Andra she says tat
+Chacobsen should keep her chokes to hersel when she's pusy wi' the
+pipes; and chust then Chohannes lays holt upo' her py the shouthers an'
+pu's her ower, and shows her the toes wass purning, and she tidn't
+know."
+
+"Is this true, Watty?"
+
+"She can chust co and leuk the chief's foots an' see.  Why, the tins o'
+meat all coom oot lumps o' ice, and the soup freezes in the galley where
+the fire's purning.  She niver knew it could pe sae caud, or she'd ha'
+stoppit at hame."
+
+Watty was quite right, for the cold struck in everywhere; and if it had
+not been for the great fire kept going in the engine furnace, the ship
+would have been unbearable.  For the cold produced so utter an
+insensibility in the extremities that the doctor had to keep a very
+watchful eye over the men, several of whom were slightly frost-bitten.
+
+But he was well backed up by the four Norwegians, who had learned in
+their own severe winters something of the power of the frost; and hence
+it was that, when the darkness set in entirely for their four months'
+night, all were still in excellent health.
+
+"Help me, Steve, in every way you can, my lad.  Let's keep the men's
+spirits up till the twenty-first of December."
+
+"You mean till the end of March," said Steve gloomily.
+
+"No, my lad; as I said, till the twenty-first of December.  Only get
+that day past, and I can say to the men, `the sun is on its way back;
+patience, and we shall once more have the light.'"
+
+"What shall I do to help you?"
+
+"First of all, cast off that despondent way, my lad, and set others an
+example.  You, I, and Mr Handscombe can't afford to be low-spirited.
+There: be yourself, cheery and bright.  I'm ready to encourage you in
+starting games or sports.  Anything to keep the men in a cheerful
+state."
+
+Steve tried, but in spite of moon and star-shine, more brilliant than
+any present had ever seen before, abundant food, long walks for exercise
+whenever the weather would permit, and, above all, encouragement to
+sleep as long as they felt disposed, there was a peculiar depression
+steadily creeping over the men with which it grew harder and harder to
+battle.
+
+At first they were merry and cheery enough in the glow of the fire, they
+sang all the songs they knew, and joined in chorus; the fiddle was heard
+going, and often enough the tune kept time with the beating of feet, as
+the men tried the steps of some hornpipes.  And on other nights Andrew's
+pipes made most dismal sounds, to the great delight of the Scots; but
+after the mishap to one of his feet, a burn which refused to heal, "ta
+pipes" found no more favour in the Highlander's eyes, and he grew
+low-spirited and irritable to a degree that made him snatch the pipes
+one day from Watty, who had taken them down "to hae a blaw," as he
+called it, and strike him across the head with the big drone.
+
+Johannes was taken into consultation in the cabin, where they were in
+pretty good spirits, Steve being occupied in helping the doctor and
+captain in keeping the log, and noting down the observations they made
+with the instruments and on the weather; but the Norseman shook his
+head.
+
+"I'm trying all I know, sir," he said; "but it's a hard task.  I'm only
+an unlearned man, and do not understand these things well; but it seems
+to me, sir, that nothing was ever meant to live up here in the coldest
+time.  The birds have gone south, we have not seen the track of deer or
+wolf for a month, and it is six weeks now since we have seen the
+footprint of a bear.  It is nature's long, dark, cold night, sir, where
+nothing is meant to live."
+
+"Humph!" said the captain shortly; "and so you are going to give in too,
+and turn coward, eh?"
+
+"No, sir," said the Norseman firmly; "and you know that I do not deserve
+those words.  Jakobsen and our two Nordoe brothers have done all they
+can to keep up the men's spirits, and we shall do this, whether we live
+or die, to the end."
+
+"Of course you will, Johannes," said Steve warmly, as he was aware of a
+peculiar sensation in his eyes; and then felt brighter than he had for
+days, for the captain made a quick movement and snatched off the thick
+fur glove he was obliged to wear in the heated cabin, even while he
+wrote, for the ink still froze at a short distance from the fire.
+
+Captain Marsham's movement was to hold out his hand to the Norseman, and
+have it seized in a grip of iron.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Johannes," he said.  "My words were unjust."
+
+"Say no more, sir," said the man, smiling.  "You are the captain, and
+have a right to speak words to bring your men up to their work."
+
+"But they are not needed with you, my lad," said the captain warmly.
+"But the others, what can we do to stir them out of this depressed
+state?"
+
+"Work them, sir.  We want some great thing to draw them out of thinking
+about themselves.  Walks and ordinary work depress them.  We want some
+great call made upon them for their help."
+
+"Yes; and how can that call be made?"
+
+Johannes shook his head.  The suggestion was excellent, but it seemed to
+be impossible to carry out; for it was madness to attempt toilsome
+expeditions over the ice when at any hour they were liable to be
+overtaken by one of the terrible, blinding snowstorms of which they had
+had several examples since the darkness had set in; so after much
+consideration Captain Marsham came to the conclusion that it was hard
+enough work to preserve existence with the ship as a place of refuge,
+always within touch, without running risks which might prove fatal to
+the whole party.
+
+"You are quite right," said the doctor, who had remained silent.  "I do
+not doubt our power to make long expeditions, but they would always be
+terribly risky; and unless there was some object in view that warranted
+the work, I should not venture."
+
+"You mean that?" said the captain.
+
+"I do.  If a man gets frost-bitten anywhere within range, we can bring
+him back, and soon take proper steps to save the injured limb or part.
+On the other hand, suppose we are overtaken by a storm and darkness, and
+forced to shelter somewhere under the lee of the rocks or ice, how many
+of us would be able to reach the ship after the storm was over?  No; I
+see nothing for us to do but take what exercise we can in the moonlight,
+and then come back to our quarters, which we must make as snug as we
+can."
+
+"And be thankful that we have such quarters," said the captain.  "What
+do you say, Steve?"
+
+The lad started at this first appeal, but spoke out.
+
+"I should like to try and search again for the crew of the _Ice Blink_,
+sir," he said.
+
+"What could we do better than we have done, my boy?  We could not reach
+the parts that we journeyed over in the summer, that is certain, and to
+do any good we ought to go farther.  No, my lad, we must wait."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+A BRAVE FIGHT.
+
+Darkness profound at times, and often with it a silence so strange and
+weird that Steve found himself speaking in a whisper.  He was not alone
+in this, for he found the crew often answered him in a low voice, as if
+afraid of being heard.  For, in spite of all that could be done to cheer
+them up, the poor fellows were growing very despondent, and even when
+the shortest day arrived they did not rouse up as the captain had hoped
+would be the case.
+
+Time had been gliding on so monotonously of late, with nothing to look
+for but the changes in the moon, that it took Steve quite by surprise
+when at breakfast the captain cried cheerily:
+
+"The shortest day, my boy!  Well, why don't you look pleased?  What are
+you thinking about?"
+
+"I was thinking," said Steve as he started out of a reverie, "that it
+would be the longest night."
+
+"Well, take it that way, then: the longest night, and the shortest day.
+To-morrow the sun will have started on the backward journey, so come,
+cheer up, and--"
+
+They all sprang to their feet, for a terrific report somewhere on high
+was followed by a crashing roar as of thunder, and with one consent they
+hurried on deck and out into the snow.
+
+All was silent by then, but a few moments later there was a rushing and
+crashing sound, evidently on the steep mountain-side, in the direction
+of the chasm through which they had been in the habit of making their
+way to the open sea.
+
+"An avalanche of ice and rocks," said the captain.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Johannes, as the rushing sound stopped.  "The frost
+must have rent open some big rock, and this started the others in
+falling."
+
+Here was something to do.
+
+"A good beginning, though a few hours too soon, my lads.  We've reached
+the shortest day, and it's time to be active once more.  Quick! wrap up;
+coats on, and mitts.  We'll go and see what the ice avalanche has done."
+
+The men returned to their quarters, but it was in a dull, spiritless
+way, which Steve could not help noticing, but he said nothing then.
+
+"Take guns, sir?" he asked, as they reached the cabin.
+
+"We may as well, my lad, though I don't think there will be anything to
+shoot."
+
+Steve was ready first, and went out on deck, to see the men coming up
+from the forecastle, looking big and uncouth in their hooded fur coats
+and mittens; but no one spoke as they stood there in the gloom waiting
+for orders.  Steve peered about, but could not see the face he sought,
+and he turned to Hamish, who was close at hand.
+
+"Where's Watty?" he said.
+
+"In her bunk, sir," said the man surlily.
+
+"In his bunk?  Why didn't you rouse him up?  It will do him good to
+come.  Andra isn't here, either.  He ought to try and walk as far as
+we're going to-day."
+
+"Na, let them be, sir," said the man.  "Better let the puir chiels dee
+in peace."
+
+"For shame!" cried Steve hotly; "what do you mean by talking about dying
+in peace?"
+
+"Only that she may as weel lee doon and ket it ower, sir.  She'll neffer
+see Scotia acain."
+
+"Hamish, I should be ashamed to say that if I were a big, strong fellow
+like you.  What are you thinking about?"
+
+"She thinks it wass a shame to pring us all oop here to dee."
+
+There was a low murmur of acquiescence here among the men, and Steve
+felt a shiver run through him, as if the men's dread and despondency
+were contagious.  But he brightened up the next minute, and said
+lightly:
+
+"This doesn't sound very brave;" and he pushed by the men and descended
+to the forecastle, where Andrew lay staring at the dim light swinging
+from one of the beams.
+
+"Hullo, Andra!" he cried cheerily, though he knew the jubilant sound of
+his voice was forced; "lying down?  How are the pipes?"
+
+"The pipes are froze hard, Meester Stevey, an' she'll hae them put wi'
+her in the hole in the snow."
+
+"What, to thaw them?" cried Steve.  "Nonsense! you're not so bad as
+that.  Where's Watty?"
+
+"Oh!" came from right forward out of the darkness.
+
+"What a groan!" cried Steve boisterously.  "Here, come out, you lazy old
+rascal; we're just going on a bit of a trip.  Where are you?  Oh, I say,
+you do like playing dormouse."
+
+"Oh, dinna tooch her, sir; she's froze all through, and she'll preak."
+
+"Nonsense!  Let's have a look at you, Watty!" cried Steve jovially,
+though his heart ached as he spoke and thought of how the doctor had
+said that unless the men's spirits were kept up they would droop and
+die.
+
+As he spoke he half dragged the lad, blankets, and all into the light.
+
+"Why, you're not half frozen yet."
+
+"Hey, put she dinna ken.  She's a' ane muckle chilplain."
+
+"Then come out, and have a run through the snow."
+
+"Nay, she'll never rin acain."
+
+"Yes, you will.  I want you, Watty.  Come along."
+
+"Nay, she dinna like her, an' she never tid.  She's ferry pad."
+
+"Did the doctor say so?"
+
+"No," growled Andrew; "she said it wass nothing the matter with the
+callant, and she ought to ket oop and rin apoot."
+
+"Eh?" cried Watty, rising up so quickly that he knocked his head against
+the bottom of the next bunk.  "The doctor said Andra wass petter as I
+am, Meester Stevey, an' she should pe apoot her wairk.  She's ferry well
+inteet."
+
+"A lee!" cried Andrew fiercely.  "The doctor dinna ken how sair she be.
+She's ferry pad, and she's coing to dee."
+
+"So we all are, some day, Andra.  Come, man, get up, and you, too,
+Watty."
+
+"Na, na--na, na," came with quite a duet of groans.  "Oh, I say!" cried
+Steve.  "I know I feel quite as bad and low-spirited as you both do.
+Come, Watty laddie, it's horribly dull without you.  Get up."
+
+"She dinna want her, sir, she dinna want her."
+
+"But I do, Watty, 'pon my word.  You and I are the only two boys in the
+ship, and I miss you.  Get up, and you and I'll stick together all day,
+and have a good run with Skeny."
+
+"Do she mean she to want her ferry padly?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Then she'll ket oop," said the lad with a groan.
+
+"And you, too, Andra.  Get up, and come with us; it will do you good."
+
+"Neffer no more, neffer no more," groaned the man.
+
+"Nonsense!  It's too bad of you!" cried Steve.  "The ship's as dull as
+dull now, and you might make it so different."
+
+Andrew groaned, but he pulled the blanket away from his left ear, and
+Steve noticed it as he went on.
+
+"One never hears you making a joke about Hamish."
+
+"Ah, she tid mak' chokes apoot Hahmeesh."
+
+"And just when we want the place to be made cheerful with a bit of
+music, you go and put away the pipes and pretend they're frozen."
+
+Andrew groaned again, but it was a much shorter groan.
+
+"When it was light we could hear the pipes going.  Ha! what were those
+tunes you played--Strathclydes?"
+
+"Na, na, Strathspeys, laddie; but if she tuked a holt o' the pipes the
+noo it wad pe a coronach she'd blaw."
+
+"Very well; I'd rather hear that than nothing.  That was a good tune,
+`Maggie Lauder.'"
+
+"Oh ay, she wass a ferry coot chune," sighed Andrew.
+
+"And that jolly jig, `Money Rusk.'"
+
+"`Musk,'" sighed Andrew.  "Oh ay, `Money Musk' mak's ta plood stir in a
+man maist as much as `Tullochgorum.'"
+
+"Or `The Gathering of the Clans,' Andra," cried Steve.
+
+"Hey, she's crant!" cried the man excitedly.  "She stirs the plood,
+too."
+
+"Yes, and it rouses up the men."
+
+"She feels as if she cauld play it a pit the noo."
+
+"Could you?  Then look here, Andra.  We're going to have a run across
+the fiord in the moonlight.  It's full moon and as clear as day."
+
+"She's retty the noo," said Watty.
+
+"That's right, Watty; and I want Andra to come, too.  Look here, old
+fellow.  Get the pipes, and you and I and Watty'll go at the head of the
+men, and we'll march across to the side, with you playing `The Gathering
+of the Clans' in the moonlight, and making the mountains ring.  Why, it
+would be grand."
+
+"Ay, she'd pe crant," said Watty; "put she couldna play it.  The notes
+would freeze, ant come rattling doon like hail-stanes."
+
+"No, they wouldn't, Watty.  My word, how the old pipes would make the
+mountain-side ring and echo again!  Such a sound was never heard before
+so far north."
+
+"Hey! and if she had a claymore an' the plaidie--the plaidie o' the
+McByles."
+
+"Never mind the plaid, Andra.  Put on the sheep-skin coat, and come and
+try."
+
+The man's eyes flashed, and, raising himself on his elbow, he thrust one
+hand behind him, and brought out his beloved pipes from under the
+blankets.
+
+"Tak' haud, laddie," he said.  "She was frichten tat the pahg might
+freeze hairt, put she's quite saft.  She'll be retty tirectly."
+
+In ten minutes Andrew was in his big boots and sheep-skin coat and hood,
+ready to stretch out his hands for the pipes.
+
+"Ahoy, Mr Steve!" came from the deck in Johannes voice.  "We're ready
+to start."
+
+"Coming!" cried Steve, who was trembling for fear his efforts had been
+thrown away and that Andrew would shirk.
+
+But the man pulled himself together, and marched out with quite a
+military bearing on to the deck, which was empty, and then down the snow
+steps to where the men were waiting with the captain at their head.  And
+as Steve and his companions stepped out into the bright moonlight
+reflected from the dazzling snow, the men burst into a cheer, which they
+repeated when, without a word, Steve took his place with Watty in front,
+and then signed to Andrew to go first.
+
+The Highlander did not hesitate, but threw back his head, placed the
+mouthpiece to his lips, blew out the bag, and then stepped off, sending
+forth the wild notes quivering on the frosty air.  He played, and played
+well, the thrilling strains, which echoed and throbbed from the sides of
+the rock in a weird and wonderful manner, and sent a curious sensation
+trembling through the nerves of every man present.
+
+They were utterly silent now, as they kept step to the music, every one
+bringing his feet down with a heavy tramp, till the regular _beat, beat_
+was repeated from the snowy rocks in front like the regular tap on some
+giant drum.  Then the echoes grew more and more, till to the excited
+imagination of Andrew, who, like the rest of the crew, was half
+hysterical from long-continued depression, it seemed as if other pipes
+were being played high up among the dazzling snow pinnacles, and clans
+afar off were gathering indeed to the wild notes of the pibroch.
+
+Right away across the fiord, with hearts glowing and pulses beating
+high, the men marched on till the entrance to the chasm was reached, and
+Andrew, looking three inches taller than usual, gave a final blast,
+which went quivering and echoing through the clear, silent air for miles
+before it quite died away upon the ears of the men, who drew aside their
+hoods to listen.
+
+Then, and then only, did they burst forth into a stentorian cheer, which
+was repeated twice and listened to until it died away.
+
+"Bravo! bravo!" cried the captain.  "Well done, Andrew, my man.  It was
+grand!  It was worth coming through all these troubles to hear."
+
+"Ay, the pipes is crant," said Andrew proudly.  "She's the far pestest
+musick as effer wass for the mountains."
+
+"And never better played," cried the doctor.  "I say bravo, too."
+
+"Well, Watty, how are you?" whispered Steve.
+
+"She feels petter, chust noo."
+
+"Keep moving, my lads!" cried the captain cheerily; and he stepped
+forward.
+
+But not many yards; for there before them, piled-up in mighty masses,
+was the freshly fallen rock which had come crashing down from on high,
+and completely blocked up the entrance to the passage-like gorge through
+which they had been wont to row to the sea.
+
+"Will the water force its way through, Johannes?" said the captain.
+
+"No, sir, never.  If it had been ice and solid snow, it would of course
+in time; but this is all granite rock."
+
+"Well," said the captain, "it will be work for us to haul a boat right
+over the mountain and keep on the other side."
+
+In due time the word was given, and Andrew went to the front again to
+strike up some of his gayest lilts; and the men marched back to muster
+on deck afterwards, glowing with health and exercise, and ready to enjoy
+a hearty meal.
+
+"Steve, my lad," cried the captain, as soon as they were in the cabin,
+"God bless you for this!  You've started the poor fellows on a fresh
+lease of life.  And done me more good, boy, than ever I did to any one
+yet."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" cried Steve, who felt a choking sensation in his throat.
+
+"No nonsense, my lad.  Try to keep it up; any way, so that we can kill
+the demon _ennui_."
+
+"I'll try," said Steve huskily; "but, hard though it was, I didn't know
+it would do so much good.  But I'll never laugh at the bagpipes again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+BLACK DARKNESS.
+
+Steve worked hard, and he worked wonders; but he could not do
+impossibilities, and all in the cabin knew that the black darkness was
+hovering heavily over the men's spirits.  They fought it back for an
+hour, but it settled down again upon them heavier and heavier all
+through that awful January, when the cold was so intense that it was
+dangerous to stir.  Then there were terrible storms, during which the
+fine snow-dust penetrated everything, and every drop of moisture
+condensed on wall or ceiling froze hard.  The doctor managed to keep the
+men free of frost-bite, but he could not master the depression, and
+consequently their general health began to fail.  It was of no use to
+tell the crew that the end of the darkness was coming, for when January
+was out it appeared to be black as ever, and they had February to pass
+through.  Steve's efforts fell flat now, and the men became worse, while
+even the captain grew heartsick as he looked forward to the months of
+terrible inaction.
+
+"Nothing but a miracle can save us," he said at last.  "I am but human.
+I have done everything I can.  Heaven helps those who help themselves,
+Steve lad; and Heaven knows we have helped ourselves."
+
+"Then Heaven will help us!" cried Steve fervently; "for, after going
+through what we have, I will not believe that we shall all have to lie
+down and die."
+
+How cold it was!  They ceased to study their instruments; for, like the
+men, they seemed, Steve said, to have given up in despair of being able
+to go down low enough to register the number of degrees.
+
+In spite of all efforts, Andrew had gone back to his bunk, where he lay
+day after day cuddling his pipes, and growing more and more despondent.
+Watty also went back, though Steve tried in every way to interest him in
+sports--running, jumping, and the like.  He wanted to "gang hame to his
+mither," he said; and when strong men grew so despondent, it was useless
+to blame a boy.
+
+It was during one of the darkest times that Steve found the four
+Norwegians together upon the deck.  It was when the skies were black
+with clouds, and a terrible wind howled through the standing rigging,
+and threatened to tear down the canvas sheltering of the deck; and it
+was not to be wondered at that the men's spirits were down to their
+lowest ebb, and that, consequent upon a report from the doctor, Captain
+Marsham had asked the prayers of all present for their two brethren who
+lay grievously mentally sick, for it was more from brain than from
+bodily ailment.  It was Sunday, and the proper observance of that day
+had always been carefully kept up.  Steve, heart-sore, and as depressed
+as any one on board, had gone on the deck to have a run up and down, as
+it was impossible to go out; and he soon became aware that Skene was
+trotting at his heels.  Directly after he came upon Johannes and his
+three companions, and halted, wondering why they were there, as they
+were generally with the firemen below.
+
+"We were only having a talk, sir," said the harpooner.
+
+"About our position--whether we shall get through it?" cried Steve
+eagerly.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, and what do you think?"
+
+"That we shall, sir.  Why not?  It is very dark and cold, but we have
+plenty of food and fuel.  We only want work.  The cook yonder is always
+busy getting things ready for us, and he is the healthiest man on
+board."
+
+"Then you think we can hold out?"
+
+"Please God, yes, sir," said the men in reverent tones.  "We must not
+give up now."
+
+"No, we must not give up now," echoed Steve.
+
+"We have been thinking that, as soon as this storm has blown over, we
+may have three or four days' fine, clear weather.  The moon is getting
+toward the full, and if the captain would start an expedition, it would
+not be so dangerous now."
+
+"Which way would you go?"
+
+"Inland, sir.  I don't expect it, but we might find deer or a bear; but
+whether we did or no, we should have something to do."
+
+The storm had given place to fine clear moonshine, and there was not a
+breath of air, but no expedition was started; for, to the despair and
+misery of all, the captain broke down, worn out by mental care; and
+after three or four days Steve sat by his cot listening to his hurried
+breathing, and asking himself what was to become of them all if their
+brave leader died.  The boy had to divide his attention between watching
+and keeping up the temperature of the cabin; but the glowing stove and
+constantly burning lamp had a hard fight with the cold, which seemed to
+pierce through everything; and though curtains of sailcloth had been
+nailed up outside the cabin door, they did little in those piercing
+hours of the long arctic night.
+
+The boy had just resumed his seat, after rearranging the fur coat which
+he had thrown over the captain, when Mr Handscombe entered, the
+sailcloth curtains crackling loudly as he moved them to pass, for the
+moisture from the breath froze them stiff, and the thickness was
+constantly being added to.
+
+"How does he seem?" said the doctor, going closer to the fire to thaw
+the frozen rime from his beard, which was quite a bush of ice from the
+chin downward, before taking off his heavy fur coat and hood.
+
+"Just the same, sir," said Steve despondently.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the doctor sharply; "none of that.  Don't you take that
+tone."
+
+"I--I can't help it!" cried Steve piteously, as he now broke down
+completely.  "I--I have tried so hard, Mr Handscombe.  I have done
+everything till now, and it's of no use.  I must lie down now like the
+rest, and give up, for we shall never see the day again."
+
+A pair of frozen mittens was thrown down, and Steve's hand was grasped.
+
+"You have done everything, my lad," cried the doctor warmly.  "I have
+said nothing, but I have not been blind.  I have watched the brave,
+unselfish way in which you have tried to help and encourage the others;
+but you have not done yet.  Poor Lowe has taken to his bunk quite
+helpless, and there is hardly a man ready to stir.  We two have to take
+things in hand, and the lot has fallen on us to try and save the crew of
+this ship.  I am only the doctor, so you must take the captain's place,
+and go on fighting to the end."
+
+"I can't," groaned Steve.  "The end is close at hand now.  I must give
+up."
+
+"A British boy ought never to give up, my lad," cried the doctor warmly;
+"and you are not going to.  They say that doctors say while there is
+life there is hope.  Well, captains ought to feel the same with their
+crews and ships.  If it were the end of November, I should be ready to
+take a despondent view of our position; but we shall soon be having
+March and the light.  And you talk of giving up?  Nonsense!  You and I,
+Steve, must be ready to show that we are made of better stuff.  Come,
+your hand upon it.  Pluck works wonders, and you have plenty in you yet,
+though it is a little bit frozen.  Now, then, British boy, you'll fight
+with me till you die?  Come!"
+
+"Yes!" cried Steve, for these words seemed to galvanise him into action.
+
+"Hah!  I thought so," cried the doctor.  "Never say die, eh?"
+
+"Never say die!" cried Steve half hysterically, for long watching and
+the strain had terribly lowered his tone.
+
+"Come along, then, captain.  Your crew is sick all but the cook."
+
+"And the Norsemen," said Steve.
+
+"They're breaking down, boy.  Even stout, staunch old Johannes has
+caught the fever this morning."
+
+"Fever?"
+
+"Well, the complaint, my lad.  He is sickening from the terrible
+depression.  It is more than human nature can stand to see one's
+fellow-creatures breaking down day by day.  There are limits to
+endurance, and sooner or later every one must break down--except doctors
+and deputy captains.  Now, come on and help me administer medicine.
+We'll get it, and then come back here and give poor Marsham the first
+dose.  Come along."
+
+"But the medicine chest is here," said Steve.
+
+"Yes, but this is a different medicine.  I have some one mixing it, and
+I persuaded Johannes to take the fireman's place and keep the furnace
+going.  On with your cap, and come on.  Mitts, too, for it's colder than
+ever."
+
+Steve gave one more look at the captain, who lay there stern and calm
+now, as if sleeping more peacefully, and then followed Mr Handscombe to
+the engine-room, from which came up the clatter of an iron shovel and
+the rattle of coals.
+
+"That's better," said the doctor, "I've roused Johannes up to work.  Now
+let's go and see if the physic is ready."
+
+Steve followed again, the doctor carrying a lanthorn along the dark,
+crackling deck, whose canvas roof and walls glittered with pendent
+icicles which made it resemble some wonderful grotto, while in the
+neighbourhood of the engine-room the deck was slippery with the frozen
+moisture.  There was a warm glow of light by the galley, though, and a
+faint sound from the humming stove was breaking the stillness of the
+place, while quite a burst of hot light saluted them as the doctor
+opened the door.
+
+"Well, cook, my physic ready?"
+
+"Yes, sir, gallons of it, as strong as I can make it.  But I do want a
+little help, sir.  Can't you make that boy Watty rouse up?  He'd be
+better here than in his bunk."
+
+"I'll try--I mean we'll try," said the doctor.  "That's right.  One
+basin now, not much, for the captain; then we'll come back for the rest.
+Hah! excellent.  Try it, Captain Steve."
+
+The cook stared, and Steve unwillingly tasted the strong soup.
+
+"Go on," cried the doctor.  "It takes ten table-spoonfuls to properly
+try that stuff."
+
+Steve went on, took his ten table-spoonfuls, and felt better.
+
+"Hah!  I knew you would," cried the doctor.  "Now look: we must keep up
+that medicine till further orders, and see if we can't bring the men
+round.  There are plenty of tins of preserved meat in store?"
+
+"Any amount, sir; and plenty of reindeer meat still."
+
+"Then we shan't break down there.  Now, then, captain, _en avant_!"
+
+They returned to the cabin, Steve carrying a small basin and the doctor
+a large one, which he handed down to Johannes on the way, the Norseman
+receiving it in a sad, awed, depressed way, and promising to eat it at
+once.  But they had very little success in the cabin, and Steve's
+spirits, which had been rising, sank again as they returned to the
+galley, where the cook was ready with a great tin bucket full of the
+steaming stuff, regular meat essence in its strength.
+
+From here they went down into the forecastle, dim, steamy, and with
+snowflakes floating here and there.  Two or three of the men sat near
+the stove, but for the most part they were in their bunks, and all
+greeted the new-comers with a hollow-eyed stare.  Their basins were half
+filled and taken from bunk to bunk; but the men could hardly be roused
+to eat, and at times the doctor had to angrily insist before they could
+be induced to try to partake of the steaming preparation.
+
+Watty was the first for whom Steve made in the dark, depressing place,
+and found him lying dim-eyed, half stupefied, gazing at the light.  He
+thought of how he had roused the lad up before again and again, but the
+spirit was wanting, on both sides now; and after with great difficulty
+inducing the lad to partake of a few spoonfuls of the so-called
+medicine, Watty sank back, and then felt slowly for Steve's hand.
+
+"I'm thenkin', Meester Stevey," he whispered, "that she'll ket pack to
+Scotland."
+
+"Yes, and you too," said Steve, with as much heart as he could put into
+his words--little enough, though.
+
+"Nay, she's coing to dee, and she's ferry sorry she wasna always coot
+frien's."
+
+"Oh, never mind that now, Watty!"
+
+"Put she toes mind, Meester Stevey, and she's ferry sorry.  Ye'll pe
+coing pack to Scotland, sir, and ye'll tak' care an' co and tell my
+mither a' aboot her and how she deed."
+
+Steve could bear no more.  He hurried across to where Andrew was lying,
+and took him a basin of the doctor's soup.  But his success was very
+little better here.  All the men were in the dull, apathetic state
+pretty well expressed by the Highlander, who, after partaking of a few
+spoonfuls of the stimulus, said softly:
+
+"Ye'll do her a favour?"
+
+"Yes, Andra, if I can.  But stop; do me one first.  Get up, and try and
+help us."
+
+"Nay, she'll never ket oop acain," said the man.  "Ye'll chust wait till
+she's deed, an' then come an' tak' awa' the pipes.  They're doon here
+peside me in her plankets, and she'll tak' care of them an' carry them
+pack hame wi' her; an' laddie, if she'll try an' learn the pipes, it's
+the far pestest music as effer wass, an' she'll thenk sometimes apoot
+puir Andra McByle?"
+
+Steve promised.  At another time he could have laughed; but now, in,
+that dim, gloomy place, surrounded by the faces of the gaunt men whose
+eyes gleamed faintly in the light of the lanthorn, it all seemed to be
+more than he could bear; and at last, when everything possible had been
+done, he followed the doctor back to the cabin, where they sat down in
+silence.
+
+The doctor was the first to speak.
+
+"It's hard work, Steve boy," he said; "but we've got to do it, and with
+God's help we will.  Poor fellows! they have the muscles, but they have
+no energy; and I tell you frankly, I'm beginning to be afraid."
+
+"Afraid?  What of?" said Steve anxiously.
+
+"That one of them will die; and if we come to that, the effect upon the
+others will be terrible."
+
+Steve shuddered.
+
+"Can we do anything else?"
+
+"No more than we are doing, lad," said the doctor wearily, "only wait."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+"NEVER SAY DIE."
+
+Three days passed, during which Mr Handscombe and Steve worked hard
+watching by turns over their sick; and in spite of the boy's desire to
+evade the task, the doctor forced him to come out for a tramp in the
+snow by the light of the moon.  The Norsemen, who bore the winter better
+than the rest, had begun to lose hope, and declined to leave the fire,
+while the cook always pleaded for excuse--want of time.
+
+It would have been very beautiful out there; but the state of the crew,
+and his own want of energy, made the fiord look like a cold, dark,
+cruel, icy prison, and Steve was always glad to get back into the
+shelter of the ship.
+
+Then came a morning when the doctor complained of being unwell, and
+asked Steve to go alone to attend to the men.
+
+With a feeling of horror that he could not conceal, the boy slowly left
+the doctor's cabin.
+
+"He'll lie now as the others are lying," said Steve to himself; and the
+boy's first thought now was that he ought to go to his own cot and give
+up, for there was nothing more to be done.
+
+"Never say die," he muttered, though; "never say die;" and, setting his
+teeth, he went on with the duty the doctor had inaugurated, and visited
+man after man, praying, exhorting, and bullying them into partaking of
+food instead of lying there, dying, as it were, by inches.
+
+One by one the Norsemen gave up, till only Johannes made the least
+effort, and that only when Steve stood by.  Then came the day when he,
+too, resigned himself to his fate; and on going, after leaving him lying
+in the engine-room, to the galley, Steve found that the cook was seated
+listless and weary, his chin upon his hands, his elbows on his knees,
+gazing at the dying fire in his stove.
+
+"What!" cried Steve, "you are not going to give up?"
+
+The man looked at him sadly for a few moments without speaking, and then
+shook his head.
+
+"The cold stuns them, the cold stuns them!" said the boy aloud in his
+despair and horror as he turned back to the cabin.  "Mr Handscombe," he
+cried, "what shall I give them?  I can do no more."
+
+There was no reply, and with a thrill of horror running through him
+Steve fled back to the deck, where the black darkness horrified him
+still more, for the lamps had gone out for want of attention, the boiler
+fire was nearly extinct, and even the outer cold seemed preferable to
+that gloomy icy vault, so full of horror.  He literally staggered to the
+ice-covered canvas door of the awning, and in his fearful loneliness
+strove to get the frozen fastenings undone, so that he might at least
+have the stars of heaven for company.  And then he felt that he was not
+alone, for there was a sharp bark, the dog sprang to his side, and the
+boy dropped upon his knees and flung his arms about his faithful
+companion's neck.
+
+"Skeny, old lad!" he cried with a sob, "and I thought I was quite left."
+
+A sharp bark was the response, and in his delight the dog butted at him,
+seized his arm in his teeth, and playfully worried it.
+
+The next minute Steve rose to his feet, and, hardly knowing what he was
+doing, dragged the canvas doorway open, and staggered out of the
+darkness and down the snow steps into what looked once more a world of
+silvery light; for the moon was at the full, and it seemed nearly as
+light as day.  In his delight the dog threw himself on his side to force
+a way through the snow, and then turned over to repeat the performance,
+and leap and race round his master, who stood shading his eyes from the
+light, and staring before him at something misty and spectral-looking in
+the distance.  Finally the dog burst into a joyous peal of barking at
+the objects which had struck his master, and there came the sharp report
+of a gun, followed by a rolling volley of echoes.
+
+"Is this dreaming?  Am I getting worse?" thought Steve; and at that
+moment there came a loud "Ahoy!"
+
+"Some one there!--there in that terrible solitude!  Then it must be
+help."
+
+The excitement and reaction were too much.  Steve strove to shout again;
+but the words failed him, and he only uttered a hoarse cry.  But the dog
+responded bravely and loudly it seemed to the boy at first, then faintly
+and more faintly, while the moonlight was dim, and then all dark, for he
+had sunk insensible upon the snow.
+
+When he opened his eyes Skene was standing with his fore paws upon his
+chest, and nearly a dozen men in heavy furs stood about him, while one
+white-haired, burly-looking personage, who was supporting him, said:
+
+"Come, my lad, better?  Where are your friends? in the ship?"
+
+"Uncle!" was all that Steve could pant out, for he recognised the voice
+that he had not heard for a couple of years.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
+
+THE WAY OUT.
+
+Captain Young it was with his crew!  For the rescue party which had gone
+out in search of the _Ice Blink_, and met with the fate of so many who
+penetrate the solitudes of the north, had been found and rescued by
+those they sought to save.
+
+Their coming, as they advanced toward the frozen-in _Hvalross_ cheering
+loudly, acted like an electric shock, and before they reached the deck
+with Steve, men who had been lying in hopeless misery shut up in their
+bunks came crawling out to meet the help which they knew must have
+arrived.
+
+An hour later Steve could hardly believe in the change, for the silence
+in the ship had given place to an eager buzzing of conversation; the
+fires were burning and sending forth their warm glow; and though in the
+cabin the captain still lay insensible, the doctor had been galvanised
+into life, and was talking eagerly to Captain Young.
+
+"So, Steve," cried the latter, "you are in command now, eh?"
+
+"Oh, nonsense, uncle!  That is only what Mr Handscombe said," replied
+the lad.
+
+"Well, you must have been captain and crew, too," said his uncle, who
+was making a tremendous meal.  "But you're a poor officer, my lad, to
+let your men get into such a low, exhausted state."
+
+"You don't know, uncle, how every one has tried," said Steve
+reproachfully.
+
+"Tried?" said Captain Young.  "Why, when we came on board an hour ago
+your men pretended that they were all dying.  Now they are feasting
+along with my lads as if nothing whatever had been the matter."
+
+"You don't know how reduced and helpless we had all grown, sir," said
+the doctor, coming to Steve's help; "and you do not think of the effect
+upon them of your coming with help when they had all literally lain down
+to die."
+
+"I know, I know, my dear sir!" said the bluff, red-faced, grey-headed
+man.  "I've gone through it all.  Last winter I saw my poor fellows go
+down one by one, till I was the only man about who tried to fight the
+darkness and depression; and all the time so utterly weak and despairing
+that I could at any time have lain down and given up all hope.  But we
+got through the winter, and this year my lads have held up wonderfully,
+and have battled through with hardly one breakdown."
+
+"It is astonishing," said the doctor.
+
+"Perhaps so; but I daresay all of you would have fought through a second
+year far better than your first."
+
+Steve shook his head.
+
+"Nonsense, boy!  It is principally the mind, and being used to things.
+You wrote at school, I know, `Familiarity breeds contempt,' which,
+written simply, means, `Bogies don't frighten you when you've seen them
+more than once.'"
+
+"But our poor fellows were very bad, sir," said Steve.
+
+"Yes, in spirits, my boy.  Now they think it's all right, they get up
+and talk and eat and drink."
+
+"Well, but, uncle," said Steve, "see how different our position is now!"
+
+"Nonsense!  It's all fancy, my lad.  You're worse off now than you were
+a couple of hours ago."
+
+"Worse off?" cried Steve.
+
+"Of course.  You have a dozen hungry men to provide for."
+
+"But you've come to save us, and brought us hope."
+
+"Where is it then, boy?" cried Captain Young.  "You all had as much hope
+as we had--far more; but you gave up and smothered it.  We haven't come
+to save you; we want you to save us."
+
+"I don't understand you," said Steve.
+
+"Then I'll make myself plain, my lad.  You have a sound ship here in
+this fiord, well provisioned, and with plenty of fuel, besides having a
+doctor to take care of you.  On the other hand, we have a ship sixty
+miles away, yonder on the east side of this great island or peninsula of
+a vast arctic continent, for we have not made out much; but our ship
+lies where it was driven ashore by the ice, crushed beyond repairing,
+good for nothing but to make us a house to live in."
+
+"Then you have been within sixty miles of us all the time!" cried the
+doctor.
+
+"Yes, sixty miles, I should say, south-east, and only found a way across
+the mountains during these last few days, and quite by accident; for
+they have always been like a wall to us till now."
+
+"But you have tried to get across to here before?"
+
+"Once; but our expeditions have generally been in the other directions--
+south and east."
+
+"And you have kept on making expeditions in this terrible weather?" said
+the doctor.
+
+"Terrible?  When it is quite calm, and the moon makes it like day," said
+Captain Young, smiling.  "There, we have had a year's more experience,
+and have grown used to it.  Whenever the weather was clear we have been
+out."
+
+"Then you have not come to save us?" said Steve, who had grown very
+thoughtful.
+
+"No, my dear boy; you have got to save us," said Captain Young cheerily.
+"We would not give up hope, but worked away; and at last we have found
+the help we wanted, for our ship can never sail again, even if we could
+get her afloat.  You came to rescue us like the brave fellows you were,
+and here we are ready to be rescued and taken home to dear old England
+once again."
+
+Steve's face was comic in its perplexity.
+
+"We seem a nice party to save your great, strong, hearty men," he said.
+
+"Bah!" cried Captain Young.  "We've done you good already, and you'll
+all soon come round and be able to help us sleigh all our treasures
+across the mountains whenever the weather is fine.  What a gloriously
+snug position you are in here; far more sheltered than we."
+
+Steve exchanged glances with the doctor; and just then, looking very
+weak, Mr Lowe tottered into the cabin, the coming of the crew of the
+_Ice Blink_ having roused him too.
+
+"You steamed up this fiord, of course?" said Captain Young.
+
+"Yes," replied Steve.
+
+"Then there is only one winter's ice around you, and therefore you ought
+to be free by the end of July."
+
+Steve groaned.
+
+"What's the matter, my lad?"
+
+"You don't know that the ice-floes jammed up the mouth of the fiord
+after we were in."
+
+"Indeed!  Well, boy, nature must unjam it when the ice is in motion
+again.  Mouths of inlets are always opening and closing here.  Let's
+wait and see.  I want to see Marsham, though, look different from this."
+
+He had his wish, and within a week; for all idea of the _Ice Blink's_
+going back was put an end to by a succession of terrible gales.  When at
+last the weather settled again the moon was growing old, and a trip
+right up a valley on the far side of the glacier, where they had never
+explored at all, led them toward the mountains whose pass was so choked
+with snow that the party were forced to return to the _Hvalross_, where
+they were quartered for the next six weeks.
+
+Their coming and the example of the acclimatised men worked wonders, so
+that by the end of those six weeks there was hardly a sick man left; and
+when daylight and the hardened snow gave them opportunities journey
+after journey was made to the _Ice Blink_ for the most valuable of the
+skins the crew had collected, the rest being left in the hope of the
+_Hvalross_ sailing round to that side of the great promontory, so as to
+get within easy distance, and then load up with all worth taking.
+
+But that was never done, for it was quite the end of August, and a
+feeling of despair was creeping over both crews, as it seemed that they
+must prepare for another winter in the ice, when a terrific gale swept
+down the fiord one night.
+
+It had its results.
+
+All through the spring and summer the water had been rising in the
+blocked-up fiord, for that which had escaped from the chasm was very
+small in quantity since the crumbling down of the rocks that night; and
+consequently the _Hvalross_ rode some thirty yards higher than when she
+was frozen-in amongst the newly formed ice.  The weight of this water
+against the ice dam was tremendous, and there was always hope that it
+would force its way through; but the piled-up floe held good till the
+night of the gale, when there was a heavy sea on, and the ship lay
+tugging at her two anchors, hard set to hold her own so as not to be
+driven down the fiord and crushed amongst the breakers.
+
+The canvas shelter had long before been lowered, and every one was on
+deck, waiting once more for the steam to be up sufficiently to enable
+them to go ahead a little and ease the strain on the anchors.  At last
+there was sufficient pressure, and the familiar ting came from the
+engine-room gong, the propeller spun round, and the dragging at the
+anchors ceased.  It was just in time, for all at once there was a
+fearful roar heard loudly above the rushing and shrieking of the wind.
+
+"Full speed ahead!" signalled the captain; and the propeller churned up
+the water now rushing by them at a terrific rate, while all gazed wildly
+at the sides, expecting to be swept down the fiord to destruction in the
+masses of ice.  For the great floe dam which closed them in had given
+way at last, and for a short time their position was one of terrible
+peril.  But the cables proved true, eased as they were by the full power
+of the propeller, and half an hour after the _Hvalross_ was riding
+nearly forty feet lower than she had been in the morning, with the way
+out to the ocean free.
+
+In those precarious waters no opportunities can be lost.  A place open
+one day may, by a change of wind, be closed the next by the ice-floes;
+and in view of this the _Hvalross_ glided out of her prison deeply laden
+with the spoil of another summer in the far north, and with the two
+crews cheering loudly as they went.  Then after various vicissitudes of
+being caught in the ice, freed, caught, and freed again, she made her
+way southward till the last lane in the ice-floes was threaded, and her
+head laid for Nordoe in the brightest of sunshine, and the deck in the
+long summer day feeling hot.
+
+There was a warm and friendly, almost affectionate, parting from the
+Norwegians, Johannes looking quite mournful when he shook farewell hands
+with Steve; but they were cheered loudly as they stepped on to the
+little quay, any sadness they felt being chased away by the many friends
+who pressed round them to welcome them back from the icy seas.
+
+Next morning the head of the stout little steamer was laid for home, and
+the crew gave vent to the heartiest of cheers, which increased to a roar
+of delight as Andrew, forgetful of all past suffering, made his
+appearance, proud and solemn-looking, to march round the deck with his
+pipes, driving Skene the dog below with crest and tail drooping, and his
+sharp, white teeth bared to the gums.
+
+Then all settled down to the quiet monotony of the voyage home, for the
+stormy times were past, and the vessel glided south, heavily laden, but
+steady, and looking, as Steve said, perfectly satisfied with having well
+done her work.  And so she had, for every man who had sailed was
+returning safe and sound, and she was bringing back the captain and crew
+of brave men for whom they had gone in search.
+
+"I feel convinced," said Captain Marsham one evening, "that we were the
+first visitors to those icy shores."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Young; "I doubt whether any one ever reached so far
+north before; but I don't like leaving my ship and so much valuable
+cargo behind."
+
+"Let them rest for the next who go there," said Captain Marsham.  "It
+would have been madness to have run the risk of being caught in the ice
+again."
+
+"Yes, we had enough darkness and cold to last some time."
+
+Steve went out on deck, and found Watty right in the bows bribing Skene
+to sit up with scraps of meat brought from the galley; but he ceased and
+looked shyly at the boy as he advanced.
+
+"Well, Watty," cried Steve, "we shall soon be home again now, all alive
+and well."
+
+"Ay, she'll sune pe seeing Glasgie, and her puir auld mither ance
+again."
+
+"How should you like to go up north once more?"
+
+Watty shook his shock head.
+
+"The pear's grease is peautiful, Meester Stevey, and she ton't mind the
+chilplains after a pit; but it's a' tat tairkness mak's her hairt sair.
+Hey, but it's a waefu' place."
+
+"Then you wouldn't care to go again?"
+
+"Na," said Watty; "put if she ganged there acain to fetch the ither ship
+she'd gang wi' her."
+
+"You would, Watty?"
+
+"Ay, tat she would, and to the ferry wairld's end."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Steve Young, by George Manville Fenn
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