ice pack had "pinched" the schooner and opened her up
below, and the crew had made a hurried escape in one of the boats.
This he knew sometimes occurred on the coast, and if it were the case,
and her hull had been crushed below the water line, it was of course
only a question of the ice breaking up, which might occur at any time,
when she would go to the bottom. There was one small boat on deck,
and if an examination in the morning disclosed the unseaworthiness of
the craft, this small boat would at least serve them as a means of
escape from the ice pack.

Whatever the condition of the vessel, the night was calm and the ice
was hard, and there was no probability of a break-up that would
release her from her firm fastenings before morning; and they decided,
therefore, to make themselves comfortable aboard. There was a stove in
the cabin and another in the forecastle, plenty of blankets were in
the berths, and provisions--actual luxuries--down forward. Bob was
afraid that it was a dream and that he would wake up presently to the
realities of the igloo and raw dog meat, and the hopelessness of it
all.

He and the Eskimos lighted the lamps, started a fire in the galley
stove, put the kettle over, fried some bacon, and finally sat down to
a feast of bacon, tea, ship's biscuit, butter, sugar, and even jam to
top off with. It was the best meal, Bob declared, that he had ever
eaten in all his life.

"An' if un turns out t' be a dream, 'twill be th' finest kind o' one,"
was his emphatic decision.

How the three laughed and talked and enjoyed themselves over their
supper, and how Bob revelled in the soft, warm blankets of Captain
Hanks' berth when he finally, for the first time in weeks, was enabled
to undress and crawl into bed, can better be imagined than described.

After an early breakfast the next morning the first care was to
examine the hold, and very much to their satisfaction, and at the same
time mystification, for they could not now understand why the schooner
had been abandoned, they found the hull quite sound and the schooner
to all appearances perfectly seaworthy.

Another astonishment awaited Bob, too, when he came upon the
quantities of fur, and the stock of provisions and other goods that he
found below decks.

"'Tis enough t' stock a company's post!" he exclaimed. But its real
intrinsic value was quite beyond his comprehension.

When it was settled, beyond doubt, that the _Maid of the North_ was
entir