saw that the ice had sunk there, and
that there were twenty great rents and yawning seams where I had before
noticed but one. A vast block of ice had fallen on the starboard side,
and lay so close on the quarter that I could have sprung on to it. No
other marked changes were observable, but there were a hundred sounds to
assure me that neither the sea nor the gale was wholly wasting its
strength upon this crystal territory, and that if I thought proper to
climb the slope and expose myself to the wind, I should behold a face of
ice somewhat different from what I had before gazed upon.

But the bitter cold held me in dread, and there was no need besides for
me to take a survey. All that concerned me lay in the hollow in which
the schooner was frozen; but so far as the slopes were concerned I could
see nothing to render me uneasy. The declivities were gradual, and there
was little fear of even a violent convulsion throwing the ice upon us.
The danger lay below, under the keel; if the ice split, then down would
drop the ship and stave herself, or if she escaped that peril she must
be so wedged as to render the least further pressure of the ice against
her sides destructive.

I was about to go below again, when my eye was taken by the two figures
lying upon the deck. No dead bodies ever looked more dead, but after
the wondrous restoration of the Frenchman I could not view their forms
without fancying that they were but as he had been, and that if they
were carried to the furnace and treated with brandy and rubbing and the
like they might be brought to. Full of thoughts concerning them I
stepped into the cabin, and, going to the cook-room, found Tassard still
heavily sleeping. The coal in the corner was low, and as it wanted an
hour of dinner-time I took the lanthorn and a bucket and went into the
forepeak, and after several journeys stocked up a good provision of coal
in the corner. I made noise enough, but Tassard slept on. When this was
ended I boiled some water to cleanse myself, and then set about getting
the dinner ready.

The going into the forepeak had put my mind upon the treasure, which, as
I had gathered from the Frenchman's narrative, was somewhere hidden in
the schooner--in the run, as I doubted not; I mean in the hold, under
the lazarette, for you will recollect that, being weary and
half-perished with the cold, I had turned my back on that dark part
after having looked into the powder-room. All the time I wa