efore, the value of the knowledge that had enabled him to restore the
usefulness of that electric heater. After getting it into operation,
and making his report to the sick man, who had impatiently awaited him,
there was another meal to prepare.

So, in spite of Cabot's overwhelming desire to hear Mr. Balfour's
story, there was so much to be done first that the short day had merged
into another night before the opportunity arrived. When it came, our
lad drew a chair to the bedside of his patient and said:

"Now, sir, if you feel able to talk, and are willing to tell me how you
happen to be living in this place, I shall be more than glad to listen."

"I am willing," replied the other, "but must be brief, since talking
has become an exertion. As perhaps you know, I was a working
electrician in London, where, though I had a good business, I had not
accumulated much money. Consequently I was greatly pleased to receive
what promised to be a lucrative contract from a Canadian railway
company for supplying and installing a quantity of electrical apparatus
along their line. I at once invested every penny I could raise in the
purchase of material and in the charter of a sailing vessel to
transport it to this country. On the eve of sailing I married a young
lady to whom I had long been engaged, and, with light hearts, we set
forth on our wedding trip across the Atlantic.

"The first two weeks of that voyage were filled with such happiness
that I trembled for fear it should be snatched from me. During that
time we had fair weather and favouring winds. Then we ran into a gale
that lasted for days, and drove us far out of our course. One mast
went by the board, the other was cut away to save the ship, and, while
in this helpless condition, she struck at night, what I afterwards
learned to be, a mass of floating ice. At the time all hands believed
us to be on the coast, and the crew, taking our only seaworthy boat,
put off in a panic, while I was below preparing my wife for departure.
Thus deserted, we awaited the death that we expected with each passing
moment, but it failed to come and the ship still floated. With
earliest daylight I was on deck, and, to my amazement, saw land on both
sides. We had been driven into the mouth of a broad estuary, up which
wind and tide were still carrying us.

"For three days our helpless drift, to and fro, was continued, and then
our ship grounded on a ledge at the foot of these clif