ndless lanes of clear water. As soon as I can
take an observation we shall see where we are."

Their talking roused the doctor, who sprang up to reproach himself after
Steve's fashion.

"I am so ashamed, Marsham!" he cried warmly.

"For doing your duty as a non-combatant man?" replied the captain,
smiling. "Nonsense! You did me the greatest service you could by
keeping out of my way."

In a short time the sailor who acted the part of steward appeared, to
show that the routine of the ship, interrupted by that fearful storm,
had been resumed, and that the cook had his galley fire going; for a
good breakfast was spread upon the table, after which Steve hurried out
on deck, leaving the captain to have an hour or two's rest.

He gazed about him wonderingly, his eyes dazzled by the brilliant light;
for the sun was shining brightly, and flashing and sparkling from the
ice and snow floating in every direction and in motion in the water,
which appeared by contrast absolutely black.

The _Hvalross_ was under steam, for the ropes and sails were thickly
coated with ice and snow; but the aim of the man who was now on the
bridge was not to attempt progress so much as to avoid coming in contact
with the masses and fields of ice which from time to time threatened to
close in around and crush her like a shell. For there were masses of
ice from the size of one of the boats right up to detached fields that
were hundreds of yards across; and feeling as if they had escaped a
horrible danger, and in perfect ignorance of the fact that their
position was as perilous as ever, Steve feasted his eyes on the glorious
spread of fantastic beauty before him, and felt as if he had just
awakened in a world where everything was silver, even to the vessel in
which he sailed.

There were no towering icebergs such as are encountered floating in the
Atlantic, for the ice here consisted of the broken-up surface of the
frozen sea, the largest pieces not being twenty feet in height, and
looking, from their irregularity, as if one field had been forced over
another by the rushing waters, which ripped and tore and broke up the
ice barrier at whose edge they had so often sailed. But these pieces
exhibited every shade of lovely blue, side by side with the glittering
as of crystallised silver, for their inequalities were in places covered
with soft powdery snow such as three of the men were scraping up and
brushing from the deck and tops of the deckhou