end of a quarter of an hour he stopped short
and then dropped upon a coil of rope.

"Don't sit down, sir!" cried Johannes. "It's too cold for that. Out of
breath?"

"Yes--quite!" panted Steve. "My word! what a run!"

"Feel cold, sir?"

"Who's to feel cold," puffed Steve, "after running miles like that? I'm
getting hot."

"Then now let's walk, so that you don't cool down too fast."

"Why, here's old Skeny!" cried Steve, patting the dog's rough head. "I
didn't see him."

"He has been trotting round just behind us all the time, sir," said
Johannes, bending down in turn to pat the dog, who ruffled up his great
thick frill and uttered a low growl.

"Ah!" cried Steve. "Quiet! Don't you know your friends yet, sir?"

The dog growled again; and this time apparently at his master.

"Ah! would you?" cried Steve; and the dog wagged his tail, making it
flap up against the Norseman's leg; but he growled again.

"It isn't at us, sir," said Johannes. "He hears something ashore. What
is it, then, old fellow?"

The dog uttered a sharp bark, and ran to the bulwarks, reared up, and
tried to look over.

"There's something coming over the ice. Hark!"

They listened breathlessly, while the dog uttered a low whine.

"Yes, I can hear it now, sir," whispered Johannes. "Listen!"

Steve was already listening to a strange whistling noise which sounded
as if hundreds of boys were a long way off, making the lashes of as many
whips whish through the air together; and this sound came nearer and
nearer, till it grew close to them--over, beneath, around--and so
strange in the darkness, lit up only by the stars which were gleaming on
the ice as well as above, and the lambent rays of the aurora, that Steve
felt a curious sensation of dread stealing over him, and he
involuntarily crept closer to the Norseman, and whispered:

"It is--something coming from up by the glacier over the ice;" while the
sound increased, and sounded so awe-inspiring that the lad could not
help a shiver.

Johannes was silent and did not stir.

"Don't you hear it?" said Steve again. "Shall I get a gun?"

"No; and it is a pity to disturb the captain and doctor. It is not on
the ice, sir," replied Johannes.

"But it is, I tell you."

"No, sir; I've heard it before. It is only echoed from the hard, flat
surface. Hah! what a number we might shoot if we wanted them!"

"What do you mean?"

"Wild fowl, sir. They're not geese, or they would make