h they cannot win; others have
honours which they do not desire thrust upon them. Ippegoo was of the
latter class. He followed humbly, and rather closely, for the bare idea
of being alone in such a place terrified him. Although pronounced a
fool, the poor fellow was wise enough to perceive that he was utterly
unfitted, physically as well as mentally, for the high honour to which
Ujarak destined him; but he was so thoroughly under the power of his
influence that he felt resistance or refusal to be impossible. He
advanced, therefore, with a heavy heart. Everything around was fitted
to chill his ambition, even if he had possessed any, and to arouse the
terrors of his weak and superstitious mind.

When they had walked over the icy floor of the cave until the entrance
behind them seemed no larger than a bright star, the wizard stopped
abruptly. Ippegoo stumbled up against him with a gasp of alarm. The
light was so feeble that surrounding objects were barely visible. Great
blocks and spires and angular fragments of ice projected into
observation out of profound obscurity. Overhead mighty and grotesque
forms, attached to the invisible roof, seemed like creatures floating in
the air, to which an imagination much less active than that of Ippegoo
might easily have given grinning mouths and glaring eyes; and the
atmosphere of the place was so intensely cold that even Eskimo garments
could not prevent a shudder.

The wizard turned on his victim a solemn gaze. As he stood facing the
entrance of the cavern, there was just light enough to render his teeth
and the whites of his eyes visible, though the rest of his features were
shadowy.

"Ippegoo," he said in a low voice, "the time has come--"

At that moment a tremendous crash drowned his voice, and seemed to rend
the cavern in twain. The reverberating echoes had not ceased when a
clap as of the loudest thunder seemed to burst their ears. It was
followed for a few seconds by a pattering shower, as of giant hail, and
Ippegoo's very marrow quailed.

It was only a crack in the berg, followed by the dislodgement of a great
mass, which fell from the roof to the floor below--fortunately at some
distance from the spot on which the Eskimos stood.

"Bergs sometimes rend and fall asunder," gasped the trembling youth.

Ujarak's voice was unwontedly solemn as he replied--

"Not in the spring-time, foolish one. Fear not, but listen. To-night
you must be prepared to go throug