ompanion-steps
with an air of bustle.

The wind as before was in the south-west, blowing without much weight;
but the sky was overcast with great masses of white clouds with a tint
of rainbows in their shoulders and skirts, amid which the sky showed in
a clear liquid blue. Those clouds seemed to promise wind and perhaps
snow anon; but there was nothing to hinder our operations. We got upon
the ice, and went to work to fix matches to the barrels and bags, and to
sling them by the beams we had contrived ready for lowering when the
matches were fired, and this occupied us the best part of two hours.
When all was ready I fired the first match, and we lowered the barrel
smartly to the scope of line we had settled upon; so with the others.
You may reckon we worked with all imaginable wariness, for the stuff we
handled was mighty deadly, and if a barrel should fall and burst with
the match alight, we might be blown in an instant into rags, it being
impossible to tell how deep the rents went.

The bags being lighter there was less to fear, and presently all the
barrels and bags with the matches burning were poised in the places and
hanging at the depth we had fixed upon, and we then returned to the
schooner, the Frenchman breaking into a run and tumbling over the rail
in his alarm with the dexterity of a monkey.

Each match was supposed to burn an hour, so that when the several
explosions happened they might all occur as nearly as possible at once,
and we had therefore a long time to wait. The margin may look
unreasonable in the face of our despatch, but you will not think it
unnecessary if you consider that our machinery might not have worked
very smooth, and that meanwhile all that was lowered was in the way of
exploding. So interminable a period as now followed I do believe never
before entered into the experiences of a man. The cold was intense, and
we had to move about; but also were we repeatedly coming to a halt to
look at our watches and cast our eyes over the ice. It was like standing
under a gallows with the noose around the neck waiting for the cart to
move off. My own suspense became torture; but I commanded my face. The
Frenchman, on the other hand, could not control the torments of his
expectation and fear.

"Holy Virgin!" he would cry, "suppose we are blown up too? suppose we
are engulphed in the ice? suppose it should be vomited up in vast blocks
which in falling upon us must crush us to pulp and smash the d