it entered the dark mist toward the
bottom.

"He'll discover it first," said the doctor, calmly.

"But no one will know," I said, bitterly.

"We may get up again first," he said, radiantly, as the men tied him on
in his turn.

"Good luck to you, if you do," said Scudds, grinning, as he tied the
last knot binding the stout old fellow to the second block of ice.

"_Au revoir_, Captain!" said the doctor, smiling; and then they pushed
him on to the inclined way, and he glided off, waving his hand as he
went, till he was nearly half-way down, and then the crew seized me.

"Not without a struggle!" I said; and seizing an iron bar used for
breaking ice, I laid about me, knocking one fellow after another down,
and sending them gliding over the sides of the awful gulf, till only
Scudds remained behind.

"Not yet, skipper!" he cried, avoiding my blow, and springing at my
throat--"not yet;" and the next minute we were engaged in a desperate
struggle, each trying with all his might to get the other to the edge of
that awful slope, and hurl him down.

Twice he had me on the brink and his savage look seemed to chill my
blood; but with an effort I wrenched myself away, and prolonged the
struggle, getting the better of him, till, filled with the same savage
thoughts as he, I got him right to the edge.

"Not yet, skipper--not yet!" he exclaimed; and then, allowing himself to
fall, he drew me, as it were, over his head, and the next moment I was
hanging upon the icy slope, holding on only by one of his hands, and
vainly trying to get a footing, for my feet kept gliding away.

"You villain, you shall die with me!" I cried, clinging tenaciously to
his hand to drag him down, too, but he looked down laughingly at me.

"I shall go back and say I found the North Pole all by myself!" he
cried, with a hideous grin; and then, apparently without an effort, he
shook me off, and I began to glide down, down, down, into the horrible
black mist below me!

As I glided over the ice, which was wonderfully smooth, my rate of
progress grew each moment more rapid, till it was like lightning in its
speed. I fancied I heard Scudds' mocking laugh; but it was far distant,
and now I was nearing the mist each moment, and instead of cold I could
feel a strange burning sensation in my head.

"What of those gone before?" I asked myself, as I slid on at lightning
speed. "Have they been dashed to pieces, or have they plunged into some
horrible aby