lane of water, even if they could have recovered her,
which it scarcely seemed worth while to attempt. The sea rumbled along
the edge of the ice, and they could not tell if the latter extended as
far as the beach. They looked at one another until Wyllard spoke.

"We have got the hand-sled, and some, at least, of the things," he
said. "The sooner we start for the beach the sooner we'll get there."

It was a relief to load the sled, and when that was done they set off
in the hide traces across the ice with the snow whirling about them.
It was arduous work apart from the hauling of the load, for the ice was
rough and broken, and covered for the most part with softening snow.
They had only gum-boots with soft hide moccasins under them, for
snow-shoes are only used in Eastern Canada, and it takes one a long
while to learn to walk on them. Sometimes they sank almost knee-deep,
sometimes they slipped and scrambled on uncovered ledges, but they
pushed on with the sled bouncing and sliding unevenly behind them until
the afternoon had almost gone.

Then they set up the saturated tent behind a hummock, and crouched
inside it upon a ground sheet while Charly boiled a kettle on the
little oil blast stove, and the wind that screamed about it hurled the
snow upon the straining canvas. It, however, stood the buffeting, and
when they had eaten a very simple meal Charly put the stove out and the
darkness was only broken down when one of them struck a match to light
his pipe. They had only a strip of rubber sheeting between them and
the snow, for the water had got into the sleeping bags, and their
clothes dried upon them with the heat of their bodies. They said
nothing for awhile, and Wyllard was half-asleep when Charly spoke.

"I've been thinking about that boat," he said. "Though I don't know
that we could have done it, we ought to have tried to pull her out."

"Why?" asked Wyllard. "She'd have been all to pieces, anyway."

"I'm figuring it out like this. If Dampier wasn't up in the shrouds
when we made the landing he'd sent somebody. We could see him up
against the sky, but we'd be much less clear to him low down with the
ice and the surf about us. Besides, it was snowing quite fast then.
Well, I don't know what Dampier saw, but I guess he'd have made out
that we hadn't hauled the boat up, anyway. The trouble is that with
the wind freshening and it getting thick he'd have to thrash the
schooner out and lie to until it