."

At that moment the dog, which had followed them, quietly waiting for the
first shot to be fired, when his task of retrieving the game would
begin, uttered an uneasy whimper and cocked his ears.

"Quiet, Skeny! What is it?" said Steve, stooping to pat him. "Only
getting impatient."

"Yes," said the captain, "and we may as well move on. No, doctor, there
is nobody to search for, so let's take a tramp for a few miles, try and
pick up a few wild fowl, and get back on board. Eh? you have something
to say, Jakobsen?" he continued, as he caught the second Norwegian's
eye.

"Only that I think as Johannes does, sir, that you are right. She was a
forsaken vessel when she struck there."

"Forward, then," cried the captain, shouldering his gun; and they
dropped down on to the drift of sand below her, walked round by the bow,
and, keeping a sharp look-out for game, tramped away northward, but
bearing for the cliff, where at one point a glacier came right down, and
at its foot the snow lay in a long slope; not soft, flocculent snow
fresh fallen, but a collection of hard pellets, more resembling a
gigantic heap of the remains seen after a very heavy hail-storm. But it
was suggestive to Skene of the mountain-side far away beyond the Clyde
at home, and with a sharp bark he dashed at it, thrust his nose in the
cool, rounded fragments, and then cast himself upon his side to plough
his way through them, sniffling and snuffling the while, as if he were
trying to find snow-buried sheep after a winter's gale.

"Goot tog, goot tog," muttered Andrew, who carried the spare rifle, and
he shifted it from one shoulder to the other. "Ah, laddie," he
whispered to Steve, "how it 'minds me o' bonnie Scotland."

They tramped on, noting flock after flock, thousands upon thousands in
fact, of sea-birds, sitting in rows upon the ledges of the cliffs many
of them, while others flew seaward, wheeling round and retiring; so
plentiful were they--auks, puffins, guillemots, and tern--that the men
might easily have been loaded with the spoil. But these birds were not
tempting from a food point of view; and though Steve was anxious for a
trial, the captain had no mind to stop while the boy ran risks by
climbing to the ledges in search of the eggs that no doubt were there in
thousands; so they kept on, looking vainly for ducks or geese.

"There," said the captain at last, "we have nothing to gain by tramping
along here. We know that if we keep