sage.
Beyond that place where the Polar bears are no one has ever been, and
no one knows what is there.'

'Oh yes, please, Master Godfrey, I do,' exclaimed Nancy, ready as usual
with information; 'the pig-sty.'

'Nobody knows that comes with me on the _Victory_', persisted Godfrey
firmly, 'or if they do they've got to think they don't know as soon as
possible. Now, say good-bye to the crew and come along.'

Nancy did not find it so easy as Godfrey seemed to do to imagine the
empty decks of the little _Victory_ fully manned, so her good-byes did
not take long. But when she found that her captain's intention was to
cross the pond on the ice, she hung back.

'It won't bear, Master Godfrey; Pete said it wasn't going to bear
to-day.'

'What's bear?' asked Godfrey, with a foot on the ice.

'You can't walk on it, it'll break,' urged Nancy.

'What'll happen if it does?' asked Godfrey, with interest. That dark
smooth surface, the first ice he had ever trodden on, had a strange
attraction for him.

'You'll be drowned,' said Nancy solemnly; 'Pete knew a man whose
brother was drowned through the ice. He'd had a drop too much beer and
he got off the path.'

'There isn't any path here and I don't drink beer,' said Godfrey
loftily. 'Are you coming?'

'Oh, if you please, Master Godfrey, I think I'd sooner stop with the
crew!' faltered Nancy.

'Very well,' said Godfrey calmly; 'if I leave my bones in the Arctic
Circle, go home in the _Victory_ and take the news to my countrymen in
England.'

'Oh, Master Godfrey, do come back!' screamed Nancy, for the ice was
really swaying; 'it won't be only your bones, it will be all of you if
it breaks.'

'I can't hear you,' said Godfrey, with his back to her; 'you and the
crew are miles away, I'm beyond where the foot of anything ever trod
except Polar bears. Why, what's that?' and he doubled up his hand and
looked through it for a telescope.

'It's the tub they used to use for the pig-wash,' exclaimed Nancy;
'it's frozen into the ice. Oh, Master Godfrey, do come back!'

'Some other discoverer has been here before me,' said Godfrey gravely,
without noticing her. 'I see the hulk of a vessel locked in the ice,
and unless I am mistaken she flies English colours. I must board her
and see whether----'

A shriek from Nancy and a dreadful rumbling crack cut short his speech,
and the next moment Godfrey knew what was meant by ice not bearing.
The smooth surface gave way under