have not done what is usual on board ships
on crossing the Line!"

"You regret that?"

"Certainly I do, and the _Halbrane_ might have been allowed the
ceremony of a southern baptism."

"A baptism? And whom would you have baptized, boatswain, seeing
that all our men, like yourself, have already sailed beyond this
parallel?"

"We! Oh, yes! But you! Oh, no, Mr. Jeorling. And why, may I ask,
should not that ceremony be performed in your honour?"

"True, boatswain; this is the first time in the course of my
travels that I have been in so high a latitude."

"And you should have been rewarded by a baptism, Mr. Jeorling.
Yes, indeed, but without any big fuss--no drum and trumpet about
it, and leaving out old Father Neptune with his masquerade. If you
would permit me to baptize you--"

"So be it, Hurliguerly," said I, putting my hand into my pocket.
"Baptize as you please. Here is something to drink my health with at
the nearest tavern."

"Then that will be Bennet Islet or Tsalal Island, provided there
are any taverns in those savage islands, and any Atkinses to keep
them."

"Tell me, boatswain--I always get back to Hunt--does he seem so
much pleased to have passed the Polar Circle as the _Halbrane's_ old
sailors are?"

"Who knows? There's nothing to be got out of him one way or
another. But, as I have said before, if he has not already made
acquaintance with the ice-barrier."

"What makes you think so?"

"Everything and nothing, Mr. Jeorling. One feels these things; one
doesn't think them. Hunt is an old sea-dog, who has carried his
canvas bag into every corner of the world."

The boatswain's opinion was mine also, and some inexplicable
presentiment made me observe Hunt constantly, for he occupied a
large share of my thoughts.

Early in December the wind showed a north-west tendency, and that
was not good for us, but we would have no serious right to complain
so long as it did not blow due south-west. In the latter case the
schooner would have been thrown out of her course, or at least she
would have had a struggle to keep in it, and it was better for us,
in short, not to stray from the meridian which we had followed since
our departure from the New South Orkneys. Captain Len Guy was made
anxious by this alteration in the wind, and besides, the speed of
the _Halbrane_ was manifestly lessened, for the breeze began to soften
on the 4th, and in the middle of the night it died away.

In the morning the sails