al
advantage, which made him better-looking still, that he did not know it.

For though Stephen Young, son of a well-known Lincolnshire doctor who
lost his life in fighting hard to save those of others, stood in front
of a looking-glass every morning to comb his hair, he never stopped
long, and for the short space he did stay his face was convulsed and
wrinkled, eyes red, and mouth twisted all on one side, consequent upon
his being in pain as he jigged and tore with the comb trying to smooth
the unsmoothable; for Steve's hair had a habit of curling closely all
over his head; and before he had been combing a minute he used to dash
the teethed instrument away, give his crisp locks a rub, and say,
"Bother!"

And now he, Captain Marsham, and Dr Handscombe stood on the granite
wharf at Nordoe, high up among the Norwegian fiords, talking to Captain
Hendal, a sturdy, elderly, ruddy-bronze giant, who acted as a sort of
amateur consul and referee for shipping folk who came and went from the
little hot-and-cold port, and who was now frowning heavily at the trio
whom he faced.

"Want me to speak out, do you, Captain Marsham, eh?"

"Of course. I came and asked you for your help and advice. I know you
to be a man of great experience, and I say once more, what do you
think?"

"Well, sir, I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself."

"Why?" said Captain Marsham, smiling; and as his features relaxed, he
looked in size, ruddy-bronze complexion, and hard, weather-tanned
appearance wonderfully like the Norwegian consul.

"Because you are going to take a boy like that up into the high
latitudes, where from minute to minute you never know whether the end
mayn't come."

"The end come?" said the captain.

"Yes, and you ought to know how: stove in, crushed, sunk, lost in the
snow, frozen, starved, sir. It's one big risk, I tell you. It's all
very well for the walrus-hunters and whale-fishers, who go for their
living; but you're a gentleman, with money to fit out that steamer as
you have done it. There's no need for you to go; and if you'll take my
advice, you'll give it up."

Captain Marsham shook his head.

"You've been to sea a good deal?" said Hendal.

"Nearly all my life. Almost everywhere," said the captain, while Steve
Young listened intently to all that was said.

"But you don't know our polar ocean, sir."

"No; but I've had a pretty fair experience among the southern ice,
trying to penetrate the pack there," s