the heaviest shot, the rifled barrel with bullet.

One of the men carried a spare rifle, and Johannes and Jakobsen each
shouldered a heavy walrus lance, a terrible weapon in the hands of a
strong man, with its stout pole about nine feet long and keen
leaf-shaped blade, so that they felt themselves more than a match for
any polar bear which might show itself in front.

"Gun heavy, Steve?" said the captain.

"Eh? Yes--no! I don't know," he replied; "I had not thought about the
weight."

"Which means, I suppose, that you were thinking of having a shot at a
bear."

"Well, yes, sir; I was thinking of something of the kind," said Steve,
colouring.

"You must be careful, then. I will not say do not fire, my lad; but a
gun is a dangerous weapon in unskilled hands, as dangerous sometimes for
the people round as for the quarry in front."

"I'll take care, sir," said Steve, in a tone full of confidence.

The captain turned and looked at him sharply.

"I'd rather you had said, `I'll try to take care.'"

"Snubbed," thought Steve. "Why, of course I shall take care. Does he
think I shall shoot one of the men?"

He had other things to think of a few minutes later, for there before
them, as they toiled on over the rocks and sand, with the breakers
thundering away just to their right, lay the wreck, making them all
hasten their pace, which gradually increased until it was a run, Steve
at last leading, in spite of the weight of the heavy gun, and reaching
the stranded vessel many yards in front of the doctor, who was next.

"I forgot all about the bears," said the latter, giving a sharp look
round with his gun ready.

But there was nothing in sight but a great gull floating gently along
over the breaking waves, and looking down eagerly for anything edible
cast up by the sea.

Then the rest came up, and they looked round the vessel, lying quite
firmly wedged in the rocks, one of them having pierced its bottom,
making a gap, through which the sand had made its way till it was half
filled.

The bows were examined and then the stern, but everything bearing the
vessel's name and the port from which she sailed had been swept away,
save two letters--two E's on the starboard side, just below the stern
cabin window.

"Do you think it is the _Ice Blink_, sir?" said Steve in an awe-stricken
whisper; for in spite of the bright sunshine and dazzling blue of sea
and sky, there was something so weird and grim about the loose, t