At least,
he made them understand something of the grim resolution which had
animated Wyllard. He pictured, in terse seaman's words, the little
schooner plunging to windward over long phalanxes of icy seas, or
crawling white with snow through the blinding fog. His companions saw
the big combers tumbling ready to break short upon the dipping bows out
of the dark, and half-frozen men struggling for dear life with folds of
madly thrashing sail. The pictures were, however, necessarily somewhat
blurred and hazy, for after all only an epic poet could fittingly
describe the things that must be done and borne at sea, and epic
poets--it is, perhaps, a pity--are not bred in the forecastle. When he
reached the last scene he gained almost dramatic power, and Agatha's
face grew strangely white and tense. She saw the dim figures pulling
in the flying spray beneath the wall of ice.

"We ran her in," he added, "with the snow blinding us. It was working
up for a heavy blow, and as we'd have to beat her out we couldn't take
sail off her. We stood on until we heard the sea along the edge of the
ice, and then there was nothing to do but jam her on the wind and
thrash her clear. There was only a plank or two of the boat, an oar,
and Charly's cap, when we came back again!"

"After all, though the boat was smashed, they might have got out,"
Hastings suggested.

"Well," said Dampier simply, "it didn't seem likely. The ice was sharp
and ragged, and there was a long wash of sea. A man's not tough enough
to stand much of that kind of hammering."

Agatha's face grew a little whiter, but Dampier, who had paused, went
on again.

"Anyway," he said, "they didn't turn up at the inlet as we'd fixed, and
that decided the thing. If Wyllard had been alive, he surely would
have done."

"Isn't it just possible that he might have fallen into the hands of the
Russians?" asked Hastings.

"I naturally thought of that, but so far as the chart shows there isn't
a settlement within leagues of the spot. Besides, supposing the
Russians had got him, how could I have helped him? They'd have sent
him off in the first place to one of the bigger settlements in the
South, and if the authorities couldn't have connected him with any
illegal sealing they'd no doubt have managed to send him across to
Japan by and bye. In that case, he'd have got home without any
trouble."

He paused, and it was significant that he turned to Agatha with a
little depr