he handsome
furniture, the superb pictures and statuary, and the choice _bric a
brac_, all glowing under the brilliant but cunningly modified electric
light. And if he was surprised at all these unwonted sights, his
astonishment may be imagined when he was informed that the four refined
and cultured men who welcomed him so hospitably, constituted, with the
exception of the cook and the steward, the entire crew of the immense
craft, and that the owner of all the magnificence he beheld had dared
the terrors of the polar regions solely by way of pastime.

"Well, gentlemen," he remarked, "it's an old saying that tastes differ,
and what you've just told me proves it. I've been a whaler for nigh on
to twenty-five years, but it has been a case of necessity, not choice,
with me; and after the first two or three years of the life--when the
novelty had worn off a bit, as you may say--I've looked forward to only
one thing, and that is the scraping together of enough money to retire
and get quit of it all for ever. I took to it first as a hand before
the mast, and have regularly passed through all the grades--boat-
steerer, third, second, and chief mate, master, and at last owner of my
own ship, always with the same object ahead. And when, little more than
a year ago, I put the savings of a lifetime into the purchase of the old
_Walrus_ there, I thought that the dream of my life was soon to be
realised, and that one trip more to the nor'ard would bring me in a
sufficiency to last me the remainder of my days, and enable me to enjoy
'em in the company of my wife and my little daughter. God bless the
child! if she's still alive she's five years old to-day."

"Ah!" interrupted Mildmay, "then that, I suppose, accounts for the flags
flying on board you, and the meaning of which we were so utterly unable
to guess?"

"That's it, sir," was the reply. "I `dressed ship' at eight o'clock
this morning in honour of my little Florrie's birthday, and I hadn't the
heart to haul down the flags even when we found ourselves in such a
precious pickle amongst the ice yonder. I thought that if so be it was
God's will that we was to go, we might as well go with the buntin' still
flying in Florrie's honour as not."

"And what success have you met with, captain?" asked Sir Reginald.

"Precious little, sir. We've been out now more'n a twelvemonth, and
we've only killed three fish in all that time. Got jammed up here in
the ice all last winter.