ot able to do so
much; the grave is more shallow, the coffin rougher, and there is only
one cross-piece. Then we have here the fourth man's resting-place--very
shallow, and only an upright post, with his initials, two letters
roughly scored by a feeble hand, by one of the two survivors. Then look
at this."

He took a few steps to where Steve shrinkingly saw a hollow in which,
barely covered by small pieces of rock and ice, lay the remains of a
man, from which all turned without a word. For it wanted no words to
tell how he had pined and died, and been dragged to his last
resting-place by his feeble companion, the last of the party, so
helpless now that he could not chip out a grave, but was fain to lay his
dead companion in a natural rift, and slowly pile over him little pieces
of the stone and ice around; then crawl back into the hut to lie there,
covered by the skins, waiting for the dawn to come after the long, long
wintry night, and bring with it the hopes of rescue which came too late.

The Norseman who had stood by the graves with his cap in his hands went
softly away on tip-toe to the boat, and the captain said sadly: "There
is something very awful as well as grand up here in these solitudes.
Poor fellows! What a history they have left behind! Steve, lad, it is
a painful sight for you."

"Yes," said the boy huskily, and his voice shook as he looked up
apologetically at the speaker. "I can't help it--makes me feel quite
ill and weak; for when I think of it all, and of those who must have
been hoping they would return like some one we know, I feel as if I
could sit down and cry."

"Hah!" ejaculated the doctor; and as the others looked at him he sharply
turned away his face.

"Yes, it is very sad," said the captain briskly; "but we will not take
that view of the case, my lad. Let's only be thankful that you were
wrong in your ideas. Our friends would be better provided than these
poor fellows were, and I have always a strong feeling that we shall find
them alive and well."

An hour later they had been right up, pretty close to the barrier of ice
which stopped further progress to the north; and as there was a pleasant
breeze from the north-east, sail was set, the fires damped, and away
they went southward toward the fiord where the deer had been shot in the
valley.

This was reached late the next evening, and they landed to try for more
deer, an adventure attended with so much success that on the fol