under some cake of ice, and from thence would speedily sink
to a bier of sand at the bottom of the bay.

"By----! I never saw anything like that." It was the remark which began
and ended the episode with the skipper. Then he raised his voice, and
shouted to O'Shea: "It's no sort of use your staying here! Make the rope
fast to your boat, and come up on deck!"

But this O'Shea would not do. He replied that he would remain, and look
about among the ice a bit longer, and that, any way, it would be twice
as far to take his boat home from Harbour Island as from the place where
he now was. The schooner towed his boat until he had baled the water out
and got hold of his oars. The ice had floated so far apart that it
seemed easy for the boat to go back through it.

During this time excited pithy gossip had been going on concerning the
accident.

"You did all a man could do," shouted the captain to O'Shea consolingly,
and remarked to those about him: "There wasn't no love lost between
them, but O'Shea did all he could. O'Shea might as easy as not have gone
over himself, holding the pole under water that time."

The fussy little captain, as far as Caius could judge, was not acting a
part. The sailors were French; they could talk some English; and they
spoke in both languages a great deal.

"His lady won't be much troubled, I dare say, from all I hear." The
captain was becoming easy and good-natured again. He said to Caius: "You
are acquainted with her?"

"She will be shocked," said Caius.

He felt as he spoke that he himself was suffering from shock--so much so
that he was hardly able to think consecutively about what had occurred.

"They won't have an inquest without the body," shouted the captain to
O'Shea. Then to those about him he remarked: "He was as decent and
good-natured a fellow as I'd want to see."

The pronoun referred to Le Maitre. The remark was perhaps prompted by
natural pity, but it was so instantly agreed to by all on the vessel
that the chorus had the air of propitiating the spirit of the dead.

CHAPTER XI.

THE RIDDLE OF LIFE.

The schooner slowly moved along, and lay not far from the steamship. The
steamship did not start for Souris until the afternoon. Caius was put on
shore there to await the hour of embarking. In his own mind he was
questioning whether he would embark with the steamer or return to Cloud
Island; but he naturally did not make this problem known to those around
him.