looked there came a great weird wailing from a
distant hill, a piercing cry, as of another soul passing, and it echoed
again and again from peak to peak and ravine to ravine--a wild
"ochone," that had sadness and grief and misery in it; and I knew that
it was the cry from one of the seamen who had been turned from the
mines--from one who mourned, perchance, the death of a friend or of a
brother. Yet, at the cry, Black gave a great start, and shivering as a
man struck down with a deadly chill, he passed from the grave to the
beach. And this was the agony of his returning reason.

CHAPTER XX.

I QUIT ICE-HAVEN.

It was on the next afternoon, near to the setting of the sun, there
having been unusual activity about the creek during the forenoon, that
Doctor Osbart came to my room with great news for me.

"This business with the men has completely upset our plans," said he.
"Black hoped to winter here; and to let the hubbub in Europe quite
subside before he put to sea again. Now he can't do that, for there'll
be trouble just as long as the crew eats its head off in this
wilderness. There's only one thing that will keep the hands quiet, and
that's excitement. After all, it's the same motive with most of us,
from the gutter-beggar who lives on the hope of the next penny to the
democrat who supports existence on a probable revolution. If we once
get them away to sea, with money to win, and towns to riot in, we shall
hear no more of this folly, and Black knows it. He has determined to
sail to-night; and he'll take some of the men he put out of the mines
to do the work of those who went down yesterday. I'm very glad, for I
should have cut my throat if I'd been here the winter through, and I
dare say you won't be displeased to get a change of quarters; but,
before we talk of that, we must have the conditions."

"I won't sign that paper, and Black has been told so," cried I at once;
"it's no good coming here again with that."

"You're premature," he replied, with a smile, "premature, as you always
are. Isn't it time enough to discuss the paper when I bring it to you?"

"Then what have you to ask?" said I, prepared to hear of something
which I must refuse, but longing with a great hope for the freedom of
the sea.

"Simply this," he answered, "and, for the life of me, I don't see what
the guv'nor is driving at in your case; for he asks only that, if he
take you from here, where you'd starve in a month if he left you,