to scare the fish away. Ideas came more slowly
and seldom; they seemed to expand, filling in the space of time, without
leaving any vacuum. They dreamed of incoherent and mysterious things, as
if in slumber, and the woof of their dreams was as airy as fog itself.

This misty month of August usually terminated the Iceland season, in
a quiet, mournful way. Otherwise the full physical life was the same,
filling the sailors' lungs with rustling air and hardening their already
strong muscles.

Yann's usual manner had returned, as if his great grief had not
continued; watchful and active, quick at his fishing work, a
happy-go-lucky temper, like one who had no troubles; communicative at
times, but very rarely--and always carrying his head up high, with his
old indifferent, domineering look.

At supper in the rough retreat, when they were all seated at table, with
their knives busy on their hot plates, he occasionally laughed out as he
used to do at droll remarks of his mates. In his inner self he perhaps
thought of Gaud, to whom, doubtless, Sylvestre had plighted him in his
last hours; and she had become a poor girl now, alone in the world. And
above all, perhaps, the mourning for his beloved brother still preyed
upon his heart. But this heart of his was a virgin wilderness, difficult
to explore and little known, where many things took place unrevealed on
the exterior.

CHAPTER XI--THE SPECTRE SHIP

One morning, going on three o'clock, while all were dreaming quietly
under their winding-sheet of fog, they heard something like a clamour of
voices--voices whose tones seemed strange and unfamiliar. Those on deck
looked at each other questioningly.

"Who's that talking?"

Nobody. Nobody had said anything. For that matter, the sounds had
seemed to come from the outer void. Then the man who had charge of the
fog-horn, but had been neglecting his duty since overnight, rushed for
it, and inflating his lungs to their utmost, sounded with all his might
the long bellow of alarm. It was enough to make a man of iron start, in
such a silence.

As if a spectre had been evoked by that thrilling, though deep-toned
roar, a huge unforeseen gray form suddenly arose very loftily and
towered threateningly right beside them; masts, spars, rigging, all
like a ship that had taken sudden shape in the air instantly, just as a
single beam of electric light evokes phantasmagoria on the screen of a
magic lantern.

Men appeared, almost close