makes much
the same cries, whether it comes from the throat of white or black. Let us
work upward, nearer to the cliffs, sir; I see something dark on the snow,
hereaway, as it might be on our larboard bow."

Roswell caught a glimpse of the same object, and thither our adventurers
now bent their steps, walking on the crust without any difficulty, so long
as they kept out of the drifts. One does not find it as easy to make any
physical effort in an intensely cold atmosphere, as he does when the
weather is more moderate. This prevented Roswell and his companion from
moving as fast as they otherwise might have done; but they got along with
sufficient rapidity to reach the dark spot on the snow in less than five
minutes after they had changed their course.

"You are right, Stephen," said Gardiner, as he came up to this speck, amid
the immensity of the white mantle that covered both sea and land, far as
the eye could reach; "it is the cook! The poor fellow has given out here,
about half-way between the two stations."

"There must be life in him yet, sir--nigger as he is. It's not yet twenty
minutes since he gave that last cry. Help me to turn him over, Captain
Gar'ner, and we will rub him, and give him a swallow of brandy. A little
hot coffee, now, might bring the life back to his heart."

Roswell complied, first firing his pistol as a signal to those left
behind. The negro was not dead, but so near it, that a very few more
minutes would have sealed his fate. The applications and frictions used by
Gardiner and the boat-steerer had an effect. A swallow of the brandy
probably saved the poor fellow's life. While working on his patient,
Captain Gardiner found a piece of frozen pork, which, on examination, he
ascertained had never been cooked. It at once explained the nature of the
calamity that had befallen the crew of the wreck.

So intent were the two on their benevolent duty, that a party arrived from
the house in obedience to the signal, in much less time than they could
have hoped for. It was led by the mate, and came provided with a lamp
burning beneath a tin vessel filled with sweetened coffee. This hot drink
answered an excellent purpose with both well and sick. After a swallow or
two, aided by a vigorous friction, and closely surrounded by so many human
bodies, the black began to revive; and the sort of drowsy stupor which is
known to precede death in those who die by freezing, having been in a
degree shaken off, he