rd for noble endeavour, he had hoped in all
honour to do in some far-off time.

* * * * *

Being bound across the bay from Heart's Delight of an ominously dull
afternoon--this on a straight-away course over the ice which still clung
to the coast rocks--we were caught in a change of wind and swept to sea
with the floe: a rising wind, blowing with unseasonable snow from the
northwest, which was presently black as night. Far off shore, the pack
was broken in pieces by the sea, scattered broadcast by the gale; so
that by the time of deep night--while the snow still whipped past in
clouds that stung and stifled us--our pan rode breaking water: which
hissed and flashed on every hand, the while ravenously eating at our
narrow raft of ice. Death waited at our feet.... We stood with our backs
to the wind, my sister and I cowering, numb and silent, in the lee of
the doctor.... Through the long night 'twas he that sheltered us.... By
and by he drew my sister close. She sank against his breast, and
trembled, and snuggled closer, and lay very still in his arms.... I
heard his voice: but was careless of the words, which the wind swept
overhead--far into the writhing night beyond.

"No, zur," my sister answered. "I'm not afraid--with you."

A long time after that, when the first light of dawn was abroad--sullen
and cheerless--he spoke again.

"Zur?" my sister asked, trembling.

He whispered in her ear.

"Ay, zur," she answered.

Then he kissed her lips....

* * * * *

Late in the day the snow-clouds passed. Ice and black water mercilessly
encompassed us to the round horizon of gray sky. There was no hope
anywhere to be descried.... In the dead of night a change of wind herded
the scattered fragments of the pack. The ice closed in upon us--great
pans, crashing together: threatening to crush our frailer one.... We
were driven in a new direction.... Far off to leeward--somewhere deep in
the black night ahead--the floe struck the coast. We heard the evil
commotion of raftering ice. It swept towards us. Our pan stopped dead
with a jolt. The pack behind came rushing upon us. We were tilted out of
the water--lifted clear of it all--dropped headlong with the wreck of
the pan....

I crawled out of a shallow pool of water. "Bessie!" I screamed. "Oh,
Bessie, where is you?"

The noise of the pack passed into distance--dwindling to deepest
silence.

"Davy," my sister c