wed the hour to be
after six. Whilst my supper was preparing I went on deck to close the
hatches to keep the cold out of the ship, and found the weather changed,
the wind having shifted directly into the west, whence it was blowing
with a good deal of violence upon the ice, ringing over the peaks and
among the rocks with a singular clanking noise in its crying, as though
it brought with it the echo of thousands of bells pealing in some great
city behind the sea. It also swept up the gorge that went from our
hollow to the edge of the cliff in a noisy fierce hooting, and this
blast was very freely charged with the spray of the breakers which
boiled along the island. The sky was overcast with flying clouds of the
true Cape Horn colour and appearance.

I closed the fore-scuttle, but on stepping aft came to the two bodies,
the sight of which brought me to a stand. Since there was life in one,
thought I, life may be in these, and I felt as if it would be like
murdering them to leave them here for the night. But, said I to myself,
after all, these men are certainly insensible if they be not dead; the
cold that freezes on deck cannot be different from the cold that froze
them below; they'll not be better off in the cabin than here. It will be
all the same to them, and to-morrow I shall perhaps have the Frenchman's
help to carry them to the furnace and discover if the vital spark is
still in them.

To be candid, I was the more easily persuaded to leave them to their
deck lodging by the very grim, malignant, and savage appearance of the
great figure that had leaned against the rail. Indeed, I did not at all
like the notion of such company in the cabin through the long night.
Added to this, his bulk was such that, without assistance, I could only
have moved him as you move a cask, by rolling it; and though this might
have answered to convey him to the hatch, I stood to break his arms and
legs off, and perhaps his head, so brittle was he with frost, by letting
his own weight trundle him down the ladder.

So I left them to lie and came away, flinging a last look round, and
then closing the companion-door upon me. The Frenchman, as I may call
him, was sleeping very heavily and snoring loudly.

I got my supper, and whilst I ate surveyed the mound of clothes he made
on the deck--a motley heap indeed, with the colours and the finery of
the lace and buttons of the coats I had piled upon him--and fell into
some startling consideration