annels, and for the moment he forgot
the main subject of conversation, while the white men regarded him with
some surprise, his comrades with feelings of interest not unmingled with
awe.

"But," he continued, "I know where the sea of ancient ice-blocks is just
now. I came past it in my kayak, and can guide you to it by the same
way."

"That is just what I want, Chingatok," said the Captain with a joyful
look, "only aid me in this matter, and I will reward you well. I've
already told you that my ship is wrecked, and that the crew, except
those you see here, have left me; but I have saved all the cargo and
buried it in a place of security with the exception of those things
which I need for my expedition. One half of these things are on this
sledge,--the other half on a sledge left behind and ready packed near
the wreck. Now, I want you to send men to fetch that sledge here."

"That shall be done," said Chingatok. "Thanks, thanks, my good fellow,"
returned the Captain, "and we must set about it at once, for the summer
is advancing, and you know as well as I do that the hot season is but a
short one in these regions."

"A moment more shall not be lost," said the giant.

He turned to Oolichuk, who had been leaning on a short spear, and gazing
open-mouthed, eyed, and eared, during the foregoing conversation, and
said a few words to him and to the other Eskimos in a low tone.

Oolichuk merely nodded his head, said "Yah!" or something similarly
significant, shouldered his spear and went off in the direction of the
Cape of Newhope, followed by nearly all the men of the party.

"Stay, not quite so fast," cried Captain Vane.

"Stop!" shouted Chingatok.

Oolichuk and his men paused.

"One of us had better go with them," said the Captain, "to show the
place where the sledge has been left."

"I will go, uncle, if you'll allow me," said Leo Vandervell.

"Oh! let me go too, father," pleaded Benjy, "I'm not a bit tired; do."

"You may both go. Take a rifle with you, Leo. There's no saying what
you may meet on the way."

In half-an-hour the party under Oolichuk had reached the extremity of
the cape, and Captain Vane observed that his volatile son mounted to the
top of an ice-block to wave a farewell. He looked like a black speck,
or a crow, in the far distance. Another moment, and the speck had
disappeared among the hummocks of the ice-locked sea.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED AND FACED.

Th