piece--since
we met. He tells me the white men are very brave and fond of running
into danger for nothing but fun. Those who do not like the fun of
danger should join Eemerk. Those who are fond of fun and danger should
come with our great chief Chingatok--huk! Let us divide."

Without more palaver the band divided, and it was found that only eight
sided with Eemerk. All the rest cast in their lot with our giant, after
which this Arctic House of Commons adjourned, and its members went to
rest.

A few days after that, Captain Vane and his Eskimo allies, having left
the camp with Eemerk and his friends far behind them, came suddenly one
fine morning on a barrier which threatened effectually to arrest their
further progress northward. This was nothing less than that tremendous
sea of "ancient ice" which had baffled previous navigators and sledging
parties.

"Chaos! absolute chaos!" exclaimed Alf Vandervell, who was first to
recover from the shock of surprise, not to say consternation, with which
the party beheld the scene on turning a high cape.

"It looks bad," said Captain Vane, gravely, "but things often look worse
at a first glance than they really are."

"I hope it may be so in this case," said Leo, in a low tone.

"Good-bye to the North Pole!" said Benjy, with a look of despondency so
deep that the rest of the party laughed in spite of themselves.

The truth was that poor Benjy had suffered much during the sledge
journey which they had begun, for although he rode, like the rest of
them, on one of the Eskimo sledges, the ice over which they had
travelled along shore had been sufficiently rugged to necessitate
constant getting off and on, as well as much scrambling over hummocks
and broken ice. We have already said that Benjy was not very robust,
though courageous and full of spirit, so that he was prone to leap from
the deepest depths of despair to the highest heights of hope at a
moment's notice--or _vice versa_. Not having become inured to
ice-travel, he was naturally much cast down when the chaos
above-mentioned met his gaze.

"Strange," said the Captain, after a long silent look at the barrier,
"strange that we should find it here. The experience of former
travellers placed it considerably to the south and west of this."

"But you know," said Leo, "Chingatok told us that the old ice drifts
about just as the more recently formed does. Who knows but we may find
the end of it not far off, and perh