hade of the sails. All around us was a
stillness which passes words, broken loudly by our steps on the hot
deck, and the occasional graze of ice-cakes against the sides. We felt
uneasy enough. This calm was ominous.

"There's mischief brewing!" muttered Kit; "and here we are in the very
jaws of the straits!"

Since the wind dropped, the ice had seemed to thicken ahead. To the
southward, farther out from the shore, where the outward current was
stronger, we could see it driving along in a glittering procession of
white bergs. The wisdom of keeping on the north side of the strait was
apparent from this; though it seemed likely to cost us dear in the
consequent loss of the wind. On many of the larger cakes we could see
dark objects, which the glass disclosed to be seals, sunning.

Presently a dense mass of blue-black clouds loomed suddenly over the
brow of the cliffs.

"A shower!" cried Raed.

"A squall!" exclaimed old Trull.

"All hands take in sail!" shouted the captain.

Our Gloucester lads needed no further awakening. We all bore a hand,
and had the mainsail down on the boom, short order; and, while Wade
and I tried our hand at lashing it with the gaskets, the rest got down
the foresail and the topsail. The jib was not furled, but got ready to
"let go" in case of fierce gusts. Low, heavy peals of thunder began to
rumble behind the cliffs. The dark cloud-mass heaved up, till a misty
line of foamy, driving rain and hail showed over the flinty crags.
Bright flashes gleamed out, followed shortly by heavy, hollow peals.
The naked ledges added vastly, no doubt, to the tone of the
reverberations. The rain-drift broke over the cliffs; but the shower
passed mainly to the north-west. Only some scattered drops, with a few
big straggling pellets of hail, hit on the deck. An eddy of cool air
followed the gust. The jib puffed out on a sudden.

"Up with the foresail!" was the order.

It was at once set; and "The Curlew" started on in the wake of the
shower. The cloud passed across the straits diagonally to the
south-west. We could see it raining heavily on the ice-flecked water a
few miles farther up; and immediately the whole surface began to
steam. We watched it with considerable anxiety.

"It will be a fog, I'm afraid," groaned Raed.

"It's sure to be," said young Hobbs. "I never seed a scud on the
'Banks' but 'ut it was allus follered by a fog."

White-gray, cold-looking clouds began to drift along the sun from the