Part 27 (1/2)

”I don't think it is a question of scouting along the land in the search,” said the captain, ”but of being here, for itthem We shall of course build up a cairn wherever we touch, with a paper in it telling e landed and the direction we take, in case they co and fishi+ng as we touch at place after place?”

”Certainly, until we have filled the tanks That will enablemy 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 stea fiord after fiord, and searching vainly There were always the sa cliffs capped with snow, laciers, and here and there inlets whose entrances were completely frozen up, and not likely to be open for a nal-post No hu 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 ht 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 Norseet farther away, for they are hunted so much that they shun the places where vessels come”

Their words calass; 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 i 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 see It was so silent and so strange that at tiht caused hi, especially when seen through the telescope; for there wereinto some far-off, weird wonderland, a land of solemn silence, where life could not exist; and at such lass, and look down at thenear 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 shi+ning, there was a peculiarity in the sky to northward, a so he could not well have explained, which ainst the side of the crow's-nest he listened to as said on deck, and then oncethe line of coast, and then giving a start; for a fewonward 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 ja it to the ard 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 so 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 dilass once nal, 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 an to climb rapidly and as actively as either of the reat 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 lass, ”and you will see a great black cliff with hardly a scrap of snow upon it Then, lon 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 solereat wooden cross Don't you think they set it up there as a signal?”

”I think son, ravely

”And that so 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 o on adown”