ered by numbers, had been knocked down, and
at this moment Martin Holt, in gratitude to the man who saved his
life, was rushing to his aid, but Hearne called out to him,--

"Leave the fellow alone, and come with us!"

Martin Holt hesitated.

"Yes, leave him alone, I say; leave Dirk Peters, the assassin of
your brother, alone."

"The assassin of my brolher!"

"Your brother, killed on board the _Grampus_--"

"Killed! by Dirk Peters?"

"Yes! Killed and eaten--eaten--eaten!" repeated Hearne, who
pronounced the hateful worms with a kind of howl.

And then, at a sign from Hearne, two of his comrades seized Martin
Holt and dragged him into the boat. Hearne was instantly followed by
all those whom he had induced to join in this criminal deed.

At that moment Dirk Peters rose from the ground, and sprang upon one
of the Falklands men as he was in the act of stepping on the
platform of the boat, lifted him up bodily, hurled him round his
head and dashed his brains out against a rock.

In an instant the half-breed fell, shot in the shoulder by a bullet
from Hearne's pistol, and the boat was pushed off.

Then Captain Len Guy and West came out of the cavern--the whole
scene had passed in less than a minute--and ran down to the point,
which they reached together with the boatswain, Hardy, Francis, and
Stern.

The boat, which was drawn by the current, was already some distance
off, and the tide was falling rapidly.

West shouldered his gun and fired; a sailor dropped into the bottom
of the boat. A second shot, fired by Captain Len Guy, grazed
Hearne's breast, and the ball was lost among the ice-blocks at the
moment when the boat disappeared behind the iceberg.

The only thing for us to do was to cross to the other side of the
point. The current would carry the wretches thither, no doubt,
before it bore them northsyard. If they passed within range, and if
a second shot should hit Hearne, either killing or wounding him, his
companions might perhaps decide on coming back to us.

A quarter of an hour elapsed. When the boat appeared at the other
side of the point, it was so far off that our bullets could not
reach it. Hearne had already had the sail set, and the boat,
impelled by wind and current jointly, was soon no more than a white
speck on the face of the waters, and speedily disappeared.

CHAPTER XXIII.
FOUND AT LAST

The question of our wintering on the land whereon we had been thrown
was settled for us.