this diligent watching of the waves; but for the first
forty hours, at any rate, I saw nothing--not so much as a small
ship--though it felt much colder; and again on the third day the lower
temperature was yet more marked, so that I welcomed fresh and warmer
clothing which the negro brought me for my bed; and observed with
satisfaction that there were means within the ship for heating the
cabin during the daytime.

It must have been on the fourth day after my capture that the nameless
ship, which hitherto had not been speeding at an abnormal pace, began
to go very fast, the rush of water from the head of her rising
frequently above my port, and permitting but rare views of the distant
horizon. The greater speed was sustained during that day until the
first dog-watch, when I was disturbed in my reading by the
consciousness that the ship had stopped, and that there was great
agitation on deck. I looked from my window and observed the cause of
the confusion, for there, ahead of us a mile or more, was one of the
largest icebergs I have ever seen. The mighty mass, from whose sides
the water was rushing as in little cataracts, towered above the sea to
a height of four or five hundred feet, rising up in three snow-white
pinnacles which caught the crimson light of the sinking sun and gave it
back in prismatic hues, all dazzling and beautiful. As a great island
of ice, all rich in waving colour and superb majesty, the berg passed
on, and the screw of the steamer was heard again. I watched intently,
hoping to see other bergs, or, indeed, any ships that should tell me
how far we had gone towards the north; but the night fell suddenly, and
the negro served dinner, asking me if I had warmth enough? My curt
answer seemed to astonish him; but the truth was that I was thinking of
the man Paolo's words when sick upon my own ship. He had cried, "Ice,
ice," more than once in his delirium; but none of us then had the
meaning of his cry. Yet I had it, and with it a notion of the second
secret of Captain Black. For surely he was running to hiding; and his
hiding-place lay to the north, far above the course even of
Canadian-bound vessels, as I knew by the number of days we had been
steaming.

This new surmise on strange openings did not in any way combat the
terror which visited me so often in that floating prison. Every day,
indeed, seemed to take me farther from humanity, from friends, from the
lands and the peoples of civilisation. Every