m, raised him, and lifted
his arms to heaven in despair.

Andre Vasling, who was following close behind with the rest of
the sailors, ran up and cried,--

"It is one of the castaways! It is our sailor Courtois!"

"He is dead!" replied Penellan. "Frozen to death!"

Jean Cornbutte and Marie came up beside the corpse, which was
already stiffened by the ice. Despair was written on every face.
The dead man was one of the comrades of Louis Cornbutte!

"Forward!" cried Penellan.

They went on for half an hour in perfect silence, and perceived
an elevation which seemed without doubt to be land.

"It is Shannon Island," said Jean Cornbutte.

A mile farther on they distinctly perceived smoke escaping from a
snow-hut, closed by a wooden door. They shouted. Two men rushed
out of the hut, and Penellan recognized one of them as Pierre
Nouquet.

"Pierre!" he cried.

Pierre stood still as if stunned, and unconscious of what was
going on around him. Andre Vasling looked at Pierre Nouquet's
companion with anxiety mingled with a cruel joy, for he did not
recognize Louis Cornbutte in him.

"Pierre! it is I!" cried Penellan. "These are all your friends!"

Pierre Nouquet recovered his senses, and fell into his old
comrade's arms.

"And my son--and Louis!" cried Jean Cornbutte, in an accent of the
most profound despair.

CHAPTER XII.

THE RETURN TO THE SHIP.

At this moment a man, almost dead, dragged himself out of the hut
and along the ice.

It was Louis Cornbutte.

[Illustration: It was Louis Cornbutte.]

"My son!"

"My beloved!"

These two cries were uttered at the same time, and Louis
Cornbutte fell fainting into the arms of his father and Marie,
who drew him towards the hut, where their tender care soon
revived him.

"My father! Marie!" cried Louis; "I shall not die without having
seen you!"

"You will not die!" replied Penellan, "for all your friends are
near you."

Andre Vasling must have hated Louis Cornbutte bitterly not to
extend his hand to him, but he did not.

Pierre Nouquet was wild with joy. He embraced every body; then he
threw some wood into the stove, and soon a comfortable temperature
was felt in the cabin.

There were two men there whom neither Jean Cornbutte nor Penellan
recognized.

They were Jocki and Herming, the only two sailors of the crew of
the Norwegian schooner who were left.

"My friends, we are saved!" said Louis. "My father! Marie! You
have exposed yourselve