the future looked very dark,--all shrouded by her fears.

By the time the skiff was deposited where it had been found, both the
rowers were so weary that they gave up the idea of taking the raft in
tow, as for full security they ought to do. They doubted whether they
could get home, if they had more weight to draw than their own boat. It
was well that they left this incumbrance behind, for there was quite
peril and difficulty enough without it, and Erica's strength and spirits
failed the more the further the enemy was left behind.

A breath of wind seemed to bring a sudden darkening of the friendly
lights which had blazed up higher and brighter, from their first
appearance till now. Both rowers looked down the fiord, and uttered an
exclamation at the same moment.

"See the fog!" cried Oddo, putting fresh strength into his oar.

"O Nipen! Nipen!" mournfully exclaimed Erica. "Here it is, Oddo,--the
west wind!"

The west wind is, in winter, the great foe of the fishermen of the
fiords: it brings in the fog from the sea, and the fogs of the Arctic
Circle are no trifling enemy. If Nipen really had the charge of the
winds, he could not more emphatically show his displeasure towards any
unhappy boatman than by overtaking him with the west wind and fog.

"The wind must have just changed," said Oddo, pulling exhausting
strokes, as the fog marched towards them over the water, like a solid
and immeasurably lofty wall. "The wind must have gone right round in a
minute."

"To be sure,--since you said what you did of Nipen," replied Erica,
bitterly.

Oddo made no answer, but he did what he could. Erica had to tell him
not to wear himself out too quickly, as there was no saying how long
they should be on the water.

How long they had been on the water, how far they had deviated from
their right course, they could not at all tell, when, at last, more by
accident than skill, they touched the shore near home, and heard
friendly voices, and saw the light of torches through the thick air.
The fog had wrapped them round so that they could not even see the
water, or each other. They had rowed mechanically, sometimes touching
the rock, sometimes grazing upon the sand, but never knowing where they
were till the ringing of a bell, which they recognised as the farm bell,
roused hope in their hearts, and strengthened them to throw off the
fatal drowsiness caused by cold and fatigue. They made towards the
bell, and then heard