of gratings, and going to sleep in the warm sun, evidently
thoroughly appreciating the dry nature of its new bed.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

THE HEALING OF A FEUD.

Upon the principle of making hay while the sun shone, the little
imprisoned party worked hard amongst the walrus, and with so much
success, that there seemed to be no doubt about the cargo defraying the
expenses of the expedition, and, if it should prove necessary, paying
for a second voyage the next year.

"If we can get out," said Steve one day, when the subject was being
discussed in the cabin.

"We must take that for granted, my lad," said the captain. "There are
many reasons why it is possible for the mass of ice at the bottom of the
fiord to give way. The outside must always be weakening, and the
pressure on the inner increasing by the constant flow of water into the
fiord, which is rising day by day. That passage does not take off half
as much as appears to come in somewhere from the rocks, and sooner or
later this must break through the ice. If it comes to the worst, we
must turn engineers and block the passage by blasting down stones in
that narrowest part till we have dammed the way out. We should then
turn this fiord into a lake, which would, sooner or later, burst down
its southern bank."

There was a little talk that evening, too, about the sun, whose career
above the horizon was coming to an end, the height at noon being far
less, and at midnight so close down to the horizon that it ceased to
shine down into the glen, the rays being hid by the glacier. This fact
brought forth serious thoughts, for it suggested the time when the brief
summer would be drawing to a close, and the approach of that long period
during which the arc described by the sun grew lower and lower until it
ceased to appear at all, and then came the worst of the wintry time--
that when, saving the rays of the moon, stars, and aurora, there was no
light.

"I don't want to suggest difficulties," said the doctor suddenly; "but
suppose, when the time for fine weather to be at an end comes, there is
no chance of our escape--always supposing that we have seen nothing of
the _Ice Blink_ people--what then?"

"In plain English," said the captain, "we must make up our minds to pass
the winter here."

"The winter?" cried Steve.

"Yes, my lad. Why not? We have snug, warm quarters, which we can make
warmer, for I saw traces of coal up yonder in the valley close to th