rin'. A pore lot. Swing either way,
like a patent gate. I ain't worryin' about them. I'm goin' to git my
coffee. I was up afore dawn, tryin' to figger things out. You git to
Sandy soon's you can, matey." And Lund went below.

Rainey saw nothing more of him until noon, at the midday meal. And he
found no chance to talk with Sandy. He noticed the boy looking at him
once or twice, wistfully, he thought, and yet furtively. A thickening
atmosphere of something unusual afoot seemed present. And the actual
weather grew distinctly colder. He had got his sweater, and he needed
it. The sailors had put on their thickest clothes. Carlsen did not
appear during the morning, neither did the hunters. Nor the girl.

At noon Carlsen came up to take his observation. He said nothing to
Rainey, but the latter noticed the doctor's face seemed more sardonic
than usual as he tucked his sextant under his arm.

With Hansen on deck they all assembled at the table with the exception
of the captain. Tamada served perfectly and silently. The doctor
conversed with the girl in a low voice. Once or twice she smiled across
the table at Rainey in friendly fashion.

"Skipper enny better?" asked Lund, at the end of the meal.

Carlsen ignored him, but the girl answered:

"I am afraid not." It was not often she spoke to Lund at all, and Rainey
wondered if she had experienced any change of feeling toward the giant
as well as himself.

Carlsen got up, announcing his intention of going forward. Lund nodded
significantly at Rainey as if to suggest that the doctor was going to
foregather with the hunters, and that this might be an opportunity to
talk with Sandy.

"Goin' to turn in," he said. "Eyes hurt me. It's the ice in the wind."

"Is there ice?" Peggy Simms asked Rainey as Lund disappeared. Carlsen
had already vanished.

"None in sight," he answered. "But Lund says he can smell it, and I
think I know what he means. It's cold on deck."

The girl went to the door of her own room and then hesitated and came
back to the table where Rainey still sat. He had four hours off, and he
meant to make an opportunity of talking to the roustabout.

"Mr. Carlsen told me he expects to sight land by to-morrow morning," she
said. "Unalaska or Unimak, most likely. How is the boy you saved?"

She seemed so inclined to friendliness, her eyes were so frank, that
Rainey resolved to talk to her. He held a notion that she was lonely,
and worried about her father. There