rowed and wrinkled like an old man's face by
the streams of melted water which were continually running down them.
The whole huge mass was brittle and honeycombed and rotten. Already
they could hear all round them the ominous drip, drip, and the splash
and tinkle of the little rivulets as they fell into the ocean.

"Hullo!" cried Amos Green, "what's that?"

"What then?"

"Did you hear nothing?"

"No."

"I could have sworn that I heard a voice."

"Impossible. We are all here."

"It must have been my fancy then."

Captain Ephraim walked to the seaward face of the cave and swept the
ocean with his eyes. The wind had quite fallen away now, and the sea
stretched away to the eastward, smooth and unbroken save for a single
great black spar which floated near the spot where the _Golden Rod_ had
foundered.

"We should lie in the track of some ships," said the captain
thoughtfully. "There's the codders and the herring-busses. We're over
far south for them, I reckon. But we can't be more'n two hundred mile
from Port Royal in Arcadia, and we're in the line of the St. Lawrence
trade. If I had three white mountain pines, Amos, and a hundred yards
of stout canvas I'd get up on the top of this thing, d'ye see, and I'd
rig such a jury-mast as would send her humming into Boston Bay. Then
I'd break her up and sell her for what she was worth, and turn a few
pieces over the business. But she's a heavy old craft, and that's a
fact, though even now she might do a knot or two an hour if she had a
hurricane behind her. But what is it, Amos?"

The young hunter was standing with his ear slanting, his head bent
forwards, and his eyes glancing sideways like a man who listens
intently. He was about to answer when De Catinat gave a cry and pointed
to the back of the cave.

"Look at the crack now."

It had widened by a foot since they had noticed it last, until it was
now no longer a crack. It was a pass.

"Let us go through," said the captain.

"It can but come out on the other side."

"Then let us see the other side."

He led the way and the other two followed him. It was very dark as they
advanced, with high dripping ice walls on either side and one little
zigzagging slit of blue sky above their heads. Tripping and groping
their way, they stumbled along until suddenly the passage grew wider and
opened out into a large square of flat ice. The berg was level in the
centre and sloped upwards from that point to the