one, or, as I soon found out, a
boy,--the cabin-boy of the ship, a light, pale-faced lad, and only
fourteen years old. The boy was evidently fast in some way among the
rigging, and had been trying to free himself. As I came closer, I
observed that he was entirely quiet, and had sunk out of view. Quick as
thought I mounted up into the wreck, and then I saw the boy with a rope
tangled round his leg, and lying quite insensible. Underneath him
another man was lying, much mutilated, and evidently quite dead. As I
was mounting up, a wave washed in under the wreck, but I escaped with
only a little spray flying over me, which, however, did not wet me
much. It was but the work of a moment to whip out my knife, which I
carried in a belt, like every other sailor, and cut the rope which bound
the boy down, and which he had tried in vain to loosen. After this I had
no further difficulty, and, seizing the boy around the waist with one
arm (he was very light even for his years), I clambered out of the wreck
to the ice without getting much more water upon me, and, hurrying off,
did not stop until I had jumped with my burden across several cracks,
and ran across several pieces of ice, reaching a place of present safety
on the unbroken or fast ice. Here I laid down my insensible burden, all
dripping with the cold water, and in a state of great anxiety I bent
over the boy. At first I thought that he was dead, but it was soon clear
that this was not the case, for he was breathing, although slowly, yet
freely. Out from his wet hair a little blood was oozing, and upon
examining the spot I found that there was a bad bruise there, and that
the skin was broken, though there was not a serious cut. This was
clearly the cause of his present unconsciousness, as his breathing
seemed conclusively to show that he had managed to keep his head above
water, and had not been brought to his present state by drowning. It
occurred to me that the blow had simply stunned him, and that it had
come almost at the moment I arrived to rescue him. I could not perceive
that the skull was fractured, and I felt convinced that, if the boy
could be warmed and allowed to lie at rest, he would after a while come
to his senses. To this conclusion I arrived while leaning over the poor
fellow, examining his hurt, while he lay on the chilly ice, never once
thinking where I was, and all the while calling frantically to him; but
I might as well have called to a stone. When I rose