him," answered Pen furiously.

"Look out, Pen, he's got teeth that could snap an iron bar in two."

"If he moves I'll cut him open," cried Pen, taking his knife in one
hand. He bounced in between decks, followed by Warren, who wanted
to help him in his undertaking. They quickly came back, carrying the
animal in their arms, strongly muzzled, with his paws bound tightly
together. They had taken him by surprise whilst he slept, so that
the unfortunate dog could not escape them.

"Hurrah for Pen!" cried Plover.

"What do you mean to do with him now you've got him?" asked Clifton.

"Why, drown him, and if ever he gets over it----" replied Pen, with
a fearful smile of satisfaction.

About two hundred steps from the vessel there was a seal-hole, a kind
of circular crevice cut out by the teeth of that amphibious animal,
hollowed out from underneath, and through which the seal comes up
to breathe on to the surface of the ice. To keep this aperture from
closing up he has to be very careful because the formation of his
jaws would not enable him to bore through the hole again from the
outside, and in a moment of danger he would fall a prey to his enemies.
Pen and Warren directed their steps towards this crevice, and there,
in spite of the dog's energetic efforts, he was unmercifully
precipitated into the sea. An enormous lump of ice was then placed
over the opening, thus closing all possible issue to the poor animal,
walled up in a watery prison.

"Good luck to you, captain," cried the brutal sailor.

Shortly afterwards Pen and Warren returned on deck. Johnson had seen
nothing of this performance. The fog thickened round about the ship,
and snow began to fall with violence. An hour later, Richard Shandon,
the doctor, and Garry rejoined the _Forward_. Shandon had noticed
a pass in a north-eastern direction of which he was resolved to take
advantage, and gave his orders in consequence. The crew obeyed with
a certain activity, not without hinting to Shandon that it was
impossible to go further on, and that they only gave him three more
days' obedience. During a part of the night and the following day
the working of the saws and the hauling were actively kept up; the
_Forward_ gained about two miles further north. On the 18th she was
in sight of land, and at five or six cable-lengths from a peculiar
peak, called from its strange shape the Devil's Thumb.

It was there that the _Prince Albert_ in 1851, and the _Advance_ with