g was necessary for the safety of all? I know not, but I had
no confidence in him, neither had Hurliguerly!

I need not dwell on the ardour with which the half-breed did the
rough work, always first to begin and the last to leave off, doing
as much as four men, and scarcely sleeping, only resting during
meals, which he took apart from the others. He had hardly spoken to
me at all since the schooner had met with this terrible accident.

What indeed could he say to me? Did I not know as well as he that it
would be necessary to renounce every hope of pursuing our intended
voyage?

Now and again I noticed Martin Holt and the halfbreed near each
other while some difficult piece of work wasin progress. Our
sailing-masterdid not miss a chance of getting near Dirk Peters, who
always tried his best to escape from him, for reasons well known to
me. And whenever I thought of the secret of the fate of the
so-called Parker, Martin Holt's brother, which had been entrusted
to me, that dreadful scene of the _Grampus_ filled me with horror. I
was certain that if this secret were made known the half-breed would
become an object of terror. He would no longer be looked upon as the
rescuerof the sailingmaster; and the latter, learning that his
brother--Luckily, Dirk Peters and myself were the only two
acquainted with the fact.

While the _Halbrane_ was being unloaded, Captain Len Guy and the mate
were considering how the vessel might be launched. They had to allow
for a drop of one hundred feet between the cavity in which the ship
lay and the sea; this to be effected by means of an inclined bed
hollowed in an oblique line along the west side of the iceberg, and
to measure two or three hundred perches in length. So, while the
first lot of men, commanded by the boatswain, was unloading the
schooner, a second batch under West's orders began to cut the
trench between the blocks which covered the side of the floating
mountain.

Floating? I know not why I use this expression, for the iceberg no
longer floated, but remained as motionless as an island. There was
nothing to indicate that it would ever move again. Other icebergs
drifted along and passed us, going south-east, whilst ours, to use
Dirk Peters' expression, was "lying to." Would its base be
sufficiently undermined to allow it to detach itself? Perhaps some
heavy mass of ice might strike it and set it free by the shock. No
one could predict such an event, and we had only the _Halbra