template. I would sooner lie in ice than in earth--and that ice is
not part of the glacier; it never moves. It is bound by the rock there
which cuts it off from the main mass."

"It's a horrible sight!" I exclaimed, shivering.

"Not at all," he said. "These men have been our friends. I like to see
them, and in a way one can talk to them. Who can be sure that they do
not hear?"

It was almost the thought of a religious man, and it amazed me. I was
even about to seek explanation, but a sudden excitement came upon him,
and he raved incoherent words, crying--

"Yes, they hear, every one of them. Dick, you blackguard, do you hear
me? Old Jack, wake up, you old gun! Thunder, you've killed many a one
in your day. Move your pins, old Thunder! There's work to do--work to
do--work to do!"

His voice rang out in the cavern, echoing from vault to vault. It was
an awful contrast to hear his raving, and yet to see the rigid dead
before him. My surmise that Doctor Osbart was a madman was undoubtedly
too true; and, horrified at the desecration, I dragged him from the
cavern into the light of the sun, and there I found myself trembling
like a leaf, and as weak as a child. The cold crisp breeze brought the
doctor to his senses; but he was absent and wandering, and he left me
at the door of my room.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE MURDERS IN THE COVE.

For some days I saw no more of Doctor Osbart or of Captain Black. My
existence in the rock house seemed to be forgotten by them, and where
they were I knew not; but the negro waited on me every day, and I was
provided with generous food and many books. I spent the hours wandering
over the cliffs, or the grass plains; but I discovered that the place
was quite surrounded by ice-capped mountains and by snowfields, and
that any hope of escape by land was more than futile. Once or twice
during these days I saw the man "Four-Eyes," and from him gained a few
answers to my questions. He told me that Captain Black kept up
communication with Europe by two small screw steamers disguised as
whalers; that one of them, the one I saw, was shortly to be despatched
to England for information; and that the other was then on the American
coast gleaning all possible news of the pursuit; also charging herself
with stores for the colony.

"Bedad, an' we're nading 'em," he said in his best brogue, "for,
wanting the victuals, it's poor sort av order we'd be keepin', by the
Saints. Ye see, young 'un, it's ye