of course not; but that's all over now. I'm afraid we are
going to have a bad storm."

"Think so, sir?"

"Look at the captain. He does; or he would not be taking all these
precautions. I suppose we can do nothing?"

"Only get out of the way," replied Steve. "Every one looks as if he
wishes we would go below."

"Then every one will be disappointed," said the doctor shortly. "If I'm
to be drowned, it shall be from the deck. I'm not going to be battened
down under hatches, nor you neither, eh?"

"No, I shall stop on deck," said Steve stoutly. "How dark it's
getting!"

"Yes, my lad. It looks very beautiful in the bright sunshine, with the
ice and snow glittering; but Nature certainly seems to have drawn her
line up here in the north, to show us that this part of the world was
never meant for ordinary human habitation. If ever the North Pole is
reached it will only be a scientific feat, and no valuable result can
follow for enterprising man. Whew!" he added with a shiver; "did you
feel that?"

For an icy puff of wind struck them suddenly and then passed on, leaving
the air as calm as it was before its coming.

"No one could help feeling it," said Steve, buttoning his mackintosh
tightly.

"Part of the advance-guard of the storm, my lad. Yes, we're going to
have it soon. Let's see, you thought one day that it was horribly hot
down below, didn't you?"

Steve nodded.

"I'm thinking that we shall be glad to go down and visit the
engine-room, and not be above turning stokers."

Another icy blast put an end to the doctor's remarks; and as it passed
on toward the south, after making the ship heel over and then race
onward, the captain gave sharp orders for reducing the small amount of
sail even more, Johannes giving one of his fellow-Norsemen a satisfied
nod of the head, which Steve read to mean:

"All right; he knows his business."

And all the while the men were busy below, hurrying on the furnaces and
adding to the darkness astern by making the low, wide funnel send out a
great black cloud of smoke, which, instead of trailing astern like a
plume, gathered together and followed the vessel, shutting off the view
northward, save when one of the chilling blasts dispersed it, driving it
onward and leaving all clear.

"Getting snug by degrees," said the captain, joining the two idlers for
a few moments before hurrying off in a fresh direction. "If it will
hold up another quarter of an hour, I think we