ny oaths,--"I say that we have had
enough of this, that we are not going any farther, that we don't want
to wear ourselves out with fatigue and cold during the winter, and
that the fires shall not be lighted."

"Mr. Shandon," answered Hatteras, coldly, "have this man put in
irons."

"But, Captain," said Shandon, "what this man said--"

"If you repeat what this man said," retorted Hatteras, "I shall order
you to your cabin and confine you there. Seize that man! Do you hear?"

Johnson, Bell, and Simpson stepped towards the sailor, who was beside
himself with wrath.

"The first man who lays a finger on me--" he cried, seizing a
handspike, which he flourished about his head.

Hatteras walked towards him.

"Pen," he said very quietly, "if you move hand or foot, I shall blow
your brains out!"

With these words he drew a revolver and aimed it at the sailor.

[Illustration]

A murmur arose from the crew.

"Not a word from any of you," said Hatteras, "or he's a dead man."

At that moment Johnson and Bell disarmed Pen, who no longer resisted,
and suffered himself to be led to the bottom of the hold.

"Now go below, Brunton," said Hatteras.

The engineer, followed by Plover and Warren, went below. Hatteras
returned to the quarter-deck.

"That Pen is a worthless fellow," the doctor said to him.

"No man was ever nearer death," answered the captain, simply.

Soon there was enough steam on; the anchors of the _Forward_ were
raised; and the brig started eastward, heading for Point Beecher, and
cutting through the newly formed ice.

A great number of islands lie between Baring Island and Point Beecher,
scattered in the midst of the ice-fields; the ice-streams crowd in
great numbers in the little straits into which they divide the sea;
when the weather is cold they have a tendency to accumulate; here and
there hummocks were forming, and it was easy to see that the floes,
already harder and more crowded, would, under the influence of the
first frosts, soon form an impenetrable mass.

It was with great difficulty that the _Forward_ made her way through
the whirling snow. Still, with the variability which is a peculiarity
of these regions, the sun would appear from time to time; the air grew
much milder; the ice melted as if by enchantment, and a clear expanse
of water, a most welcome sight to the eyes of the crew, spread out
before them where a few moments before the ice had blocked their
progress. All over the ho