fast."

"Eh?" came back. "Yes. Ahoy, there, Johannes! that will do. Come
down, Handscombe?" said the captain thoughtfully. "Yes, we may as well
have something to eat, for we shall have plenty of time."

He pointed to the huge rampart of ice right across the inlet, and said
quietly:

"A man needs to be well educated in the ways of nature in the north to
navigate his ship. Our only hope now is--"

"Let's talk of that when we have studied nature's daily wants," said the
doctor, smiling. "We are safe, are we not?"

"Oh yes," said the captain bitterly, "we are quite safe now."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

THE NORTHERN PRISON.

As the doctor said, _il faut manger_, and, in spite of all they had gone
through, their appetites were so sharp-set that they made a most hearty
repast, and were ready to declare themselves prepared to encounter
anything.

Steve thought that this was rather boastful, and due in a great measure
to the fact that they all, himself included, felt that, for the present
at any rate, they had no danger to encounter, but he said nothing.

In fact, when they returned on deck the noise of the ice had died away
into a distant murmur, and the fiord, with its smooth, blue water, huge,
nearly perpendicular walls, and shattered rocks of dark stone made
brilliant with ice, looked so beautiful that their position appeared to
be more a cause of congratulation than complaint. Certainly they were
blocked in; but ice that shut them up so quickly might, by another
movement, likely enough set them free; and, besides, most of these
northern fiords were like those on the Norwegian or Highland coasts--
channels inside islands; and consequently, for aught they knew to the
contrary, there was a way out to the north which might not be closed.

But the captain had no intention of making a long exploration on that
day. He was content to run on a short distance, to anchor in what
looked to be a snug berth behind a jutting mass of the rocky side which
sheltered them from the north wind in case it should come tearing down
the channel, and faced the sunny south. The fires were then raked out,
and that night, after the watch was set, those who were free indulged in
a long and much-needed sleep.

Steve rose the next morning bright and cheerful, to find the others the
same. The intense cold which accompanied the storm had passed, and
there in the sheltered fiord the air felt, by comparison with that which
they had go