was thinking of your safety, Steve, my lad; but we must
think for him and the crew. Exposure such as they are going through is
murderous. Let's wait for a bit, and then take them all some more hot
drink."

He led the way out of the whitened cabin, and they struggled back
through the driving snow to the engine-room, down into whose warm glow
they crept just as there was another blow, which jarred the whole ship.
Then the gong sounded.

"Slower," said the engineer, as he moved the lever. "There, that's
about as little as we can do. Just enough to give her steering power."

No more was said, and Steve looked round, as he warmed his numbed hands,
to see that Watty was lying with his face in his hands, close to the
side.

"Asleep?" said Steve, with his lips to the cook's ear; but the man shook
his head.

"Fright!" he replied.

A few minutes later one of the Norwegians and three of the crew came
down all covered with ice, and one of the furnace doors was opened to
send out a genial glow, lighting up the whole place, which was now
dripping wet with thawed snow, and the stream rose up to float out
through the hatch.

"Mate sent us down for a warm," said one of the men. "To stay half an
hour, and then relieve some more. We can do nothing on deck."

"Let's leave them," said the doctor in Steve's ear; and after warning
the cook to be ready with the refreshment in half an hour, they made
their way back to the cabin.

Those refreshments were not taken to the men on deck, for in turn all
were sent down to the engine-room for warmth and food; and at last, to
Steve's great delight, the captain entered the cabin, to reply to the
grips of the hand given him, and then drink with avidity the hot coffee
ready on the table.

"I don't like leaving the deck," he said cheerfully; "but I must have
coal and water for my engine, or I cannot work. No, no, don't question
me; I have no news. We are in an awful storm, and are being carried
with the drifting ice, Heaven only knows where."

That storm lasted forty-eight hours--hours of as great trial as man
could go through, and live. Steve had borne up till, in spite of the
danger, his eyes would keep open no longer, and then he had slept a
troubled nightmare-like sleep to dream of shipwreck and struggling with
the wind and waves. Every now and then he would start awake suffering
from cold, and draw the great skin rug in which he had nestled closer
round him, and drop off agai