d with that. Now, Mr. Saunders, assist me to get the
small sledge fitted out. I'll go to look after them myself."

"An' I'll go with 'ee, sir," said the second mate promptly.

"I fear you are hardly able."

"No fear o' me, sir. I'm better than 'ee think."

"I must go too," added Captain Ellice; "it is quite evident that you
cannot muster a party without me."

"That's impossible," interrupted the doctor. "Your leg is not strong
enough nearly for such a trip; besides, my dear sir, you must stay
behind to perform my duties, for the ship can't do without a doctor, and
I shall go with Captain Guy, if he will allow me."

"That he won't," cried the captain. "You say truly the ship cannot be
left without a doctor. Neither you nor my friend Ellice shall leave the
ship with my permission. But don't let us waste time talking.--Come,
Summers and Mizzle, you are well enough to join, and, Meetuck, you must
be our guide. Look alive and get yourselves ready."

In less than half-an-hour the rescue party were equipped and on their
way over the floes. They were six in all--one of the freshest among the
crew having volunteered to join those already mentioned.

It was a very dark night, and bitterly cold; but they took nothing with
them except the clothes on their backs, a supply of provisions for their
lost comrades, their sleeping-bags, and a small leather tent. The
captain also took care to carry with them a flask of brandy.

The colossal bergs, which stretched like well-known land-marks over the
sea, were their guides at first; but after travelling ten hours without
halting, they had passed the greater number of those with which they
were familiar, and entered upon an unknown region. Here it became
necessary to use the utmost caution. They knew that the lost men must
be within twenty miles of them, but they had no means of knowing the
exact spot, and any footprints that had been made were now obliterated.
In these circumstances Captain Guy had to depend very much on his own
sagacity.

Clambering to the top of a hummock, he observed a long stretch of level
floe to the northward.

"I think it likely," he remarked to Saunders, who had accompanied him,
"that they may have gone in that direction. It seems an attractive road
among this chaos of ice-heaps."

"I'm no sure o' that," objected Saunders; "yonder's a pretty clear road
away to the west, maybe they took that."

"Perhaps they did, but as Fred said they had gone far out o