of their
position, sank on his knees, and began the simple prayers of his faith.
Lund saw them fade from view into the sleety veil that hid the waste of
waters, and groaning in spirit, turned homeward.

"In half an hour no boat on the island can reach them, even if men could
be found to face certain death in a snow-storm out on the open Gulf."

Peter rose to his feet, apparently almost hopeless.

"Good by, Saint Peter's! Good by, Trois Lieues' Creek! Good by, Lund!
Poor Peter no more shootum wild goose here."

"Come, Peter, don't give it up so," said La Salle. "We must find the
boys and get their oars and boat, and then well try and see what we can
do to get ashore."

Peter's eyes brightened a little, and walking around the edge of the
floe, they came, in the course of twenty minutes, to the boys, snugly
seated under their inverted boat, in a hollow of a large berg, which,
until that day, had never floated with the tide.

"Come, boys, this won't do. We're adrift, and getting well out into the
Gulf. Turn over your boat, put everything into her, and let's try what
we can do with the big boat."

In desperate haste the four took down the light craft, threw in the oars
and guns, and dashed across the quarter of a mile which lay between them
and the windward side of the ice. In about five minutes they reached the
large boat; but all saw at a glance that little less than a miracle was
needed to carry them safe ashore.

The snow was falling thick and fast, the wind driving it in eddying
clouds, and amid it could be seen at times the white caps of the
increasing surges as they broke on the edge of the floe. It was evident
that it would be madness to attempt to leave their present position; yet
all stood silent a moment, as if unwilling to be the first to confess
the painful truth.

At last La Salle broke the silence. "It's no use, boys; we must stay
here all night. And first, let's get both boats down to the berg, for
this floe may go to pieces any time; but that is all of twenty feet
thick, and will stand a good deal yet. Come, pile in the decoys and
tools, and let's get under cover as soon as we can."

The decoys of iron and wood, and even those of fir-twigs, of which they
had added some three dozen, were piled into the boats, and taking hold
at the painter of the largest, they soon trundled the heavy load to the
thickest part of the field.

"Sposum we get Davies's box and 'coys too. Then we makum camp, have
ple