d Angut, standing motionless near the edge of an
ice-cliff, gazing up into the glorious constellations overhead.

"I can't sleep, Angut," said the seaman; "I suppose you are much in the
same way?"

"I do not know. I did not try," returned the Eskimo in a low voice; "I
wish to think, not to sleep. Why cannot the Kablunet sleep?"

"Well, it's hard to tell. I suppose thinking too much has something to
do with it. The fact is, Angut, that we've got into what I call a fix,
and I can't for the life of me see how we are to get out of it. Indeed
I greatly fear that we shall never get out of it."

"If the Great Spirit wills that our end should be _now_," said Angut,
"is the Kablunet afraid to die?"

The question puzzled Rooney not a little.

"Well," he replied, "I can't say that I'm afraid, but--but--I don't
exactly _want_ to die just yet, you see. The fact is, my friend, that
I've got a wife and children and a dear old grandmother at home, and I
don't quite relish the idea of never seein' them again."

"Have you not told me," said Angut, with a look of solemn surprise,
"that all who love the Great Spirit shall meet again up there?" He
pointed to the sky as he spoke.

"Ay, truly, I said that, and I believe that. But a man sometimes wants
to see his wife and children again in _this_ life--and, to my thinkin',
that's not likely with me, as things go at present. Have _you_ much
hope that we shall escape?"

"Yes, I have hope," answered the Eskimo, with a touch of enthusiasm in
his tone. "I know not why. I know not how. Perhaps the Great Spirit
who made me put it into me. I cannot tell. All around and within me is
beyond my understanding--but--the Great Spirit is all-wise,
all-powerful, and--good. Did you not say so?"

"Yes, I said so; and that's a trustworthy foundation, anyhow," returned
the sailor meditatively; "wise, powerful, and good--a safe anchorage.
But now, tell me, what chances, think you, have we of deliverance?"

"I can think of only one," said Angut. "If the pack sets fast again, we
may walk over it to the land. Once there, we could manage to live--
though not to continue our pursuit of Ujarak. _That_ is at an end."

In spite of himself, the poor fellow said the last words in a tone which
showed how deeply he was affected by the destruction of his hope to
rescue Nunaga.

"Now my friend seems to me inconsistent," said Rooney. "He trusts the
Great Spirit for deliverance from danger. Is,