The breeze had swept the ice away,
and that was reassuring, because it meant that Dampier would be at the
inlet when they reached it, though now and then a horrible fear that
their strength would fail them or that their provisions would run out
first, crept in.

Their faces had grown gaunt and haggard, and each scanty meal had been
cut down to the smallest portion which would keep life and power of
movement within them. Still, though the weight of it hampered him almost
intolerably, Wyllard clung to the one rifle that they had saved from the
disaster at the landing and a dozen cartridges. This was a folly about
which he and Charly once had virulent words.

At last they came to a river which flowed across their path, and lay
down beside it, feeling that the end was not far away. Except in the
eddies and shallows, the ice had broken up, and the stream swirled by in
raging flood, thick with heavy masses which it had brought down from its
higher reaches. The ice crashed upon the gleaming spurs that here and
there projected from the half-thawed fringe, and smashed with a harsh
crackling among the boulders, and there was no doubt as to what would
befall the stoutest swimmer who might attempt the passage. So far as
Wyllard afterwards remembered, none of them said anything when they lay
down among the wet stones, but with the first of the daylight they
started up stream. The river was not a large one, and it seemed just
possible that they might find a means of crossing higher up, though they
afterwards admitted that this was a great deal more than they expected.

The ground rose sharply, and the stream flowed out of a deep ravine
which they followed. The rocks were of volcanic origin, and some of them
had crumbled into heaps of ragged debris. The slope of the ravine
became a talus along which it was almost impossible to scramble, and
they were forced back upon the boulders and the half-thawed ice in the
slacker pools.

They made progress, notwithstanding all the obstacles in their way, and
when evening drew near found a little clearer space between rock and
river. The Indian had wrenched his knee, and when they stopped to make
camp among the rocks it was some little time before he overtook them. He
said that he had found the tracks of some animal which he believed had
gone up the ravine. What the beast was he did not know, but he was sure
that it was, at least, large enough to eat, and that appeared to be of
the most impor