n into what was almost a stupor.

There was one time, or else he dreamed it--he never quite knew which--
when he crept all about the deck again, to find it deeply encumbered
with snow. Then he was back in the cabin lying on a locker, and he
opened his eyes and saw the captain rolled up in a blanket lying asleep
on the table. The next minute he was looking about again, to find that
the captain had gone, and that the doctor only was there. Once it was
Mr Lowe, but he, too, disappeared, and then all was blank, till he
started into wakefulness, to find that the deafening rush and roar had
ceased, and that a peculiar weird light was forcing its way into the
cabin; while at intervals there came a curious grinding, cracking sound,
followed every now and then by a loud, rending crash. The ship was
rolling slowly upon a heaving sea, and steaming slowly, for the
vibration of the screw made the things in the cabin quiver. Then there
was more light in the cabin, for the door was opened with a crackling
sound, as of moving broken ice, and the captain, glistening and white,
entered the cabin.

"Awake, Steve?" he said in a low, weary voice.

"Yes, I'm so ashamed. Then the storm is over?"

"Yes, my lad," said the captain, sinking down on the locker with his
great oil-skin coat crackling loudly; "at last, thank God!"

There was a deep, heartfelt ring in Captain Marsham's voice as he
uttered those words, and for some moments Steve was silent, conscious
now that the doctor was lying on the cabin floor sleeping soundly.

"And we ought to have been on deck to help you, sir," said Steve at
last.

"No, my lad, I sent word for you to stay below; man or boy could not
help us then. We could only wait."

"But we are safe?"

"For the present, yes."

"And where are we?"

The captain smiled faintly.

"Where are we?" he said. "That's more than I can tell. In the ice,
Steve, and for aught I can tell, right up somewhere toward the North
Pole."

CHAPTER TWENTY.

NO MAN'S LAND.

The cold pierced Steve through and through, as he hurriedly shook
himself together; and his first thought now was to help Captain Marsham,
who was utterly prostrate from anxiety, want of sleep, and long
exposure.

"I shall be all right, my lad," he said kindly, "as soon as I've had
some hot tea and a nap. It was a long fight, but the storm is over.
The wind swept round, and we've been carried north with the ice, which
has been ripped up into e