ck eye had
noted our return some minutes before, and inferred from the early
abandonment of the chase some serious accident. Happily our party were
so disposed that I had time to assume the usual position before she
caught sight of me. I could not, however, deceive her by a desperate
effort to walk steadily and unaided. She stood by quietly and calmly
while the surgeon of the hunters dressed my hurts, observing exactly
how the bandages and lotions were applied. Only when we were left
alone did she in any degree give way to an agitation by which she
feared to increase my evident pain and feverishness. It was impossible
to satisfy her that black bruises and broad gashes meant no danger,
and would be healed by a few days' rest. But when she saw that I could
talk and smile as usual, she was unsparing in her attempts to coax
from me a pledge that I would never again peril life or limb to
gratify my curiosity regarding the very few pursuits in which, for the
highest remuneration, Martialists can be induced to incur the
probability of injury and the chance of that death they so abjectly
dread. Scarcely less reluctant to repeat the scolding she felt so
acutely than to employ the methods of rebuke she deemed less severe, I
had no little difficulty in evading her entreaties. Only a very
decided request to drop the subject at once and for ever, enforced on
her conscience by reminding her that it would be enforced no
otherwise, at last obtained me peace without the sacrifice of liberty.

CHAPTER XVI - TROUBLED WATERS.

We were now in Martial N. latitude 57 deg., in a comparatively open part
of the narrow sea which encloses the northern land-belt, and to the
south-eastward lay the only channel by which this sea communicates
with the main ocean of the southern hemisphere. Along this we took our
course. Bather against Ergimo's advice, I insisted on remaining on the
surface, as the sea was tolerably calm. Eveena, with her usual
self-suppression, professed to prefer the free air, the light of the
long day, and such amusement as the sight of an occasional sea-monster
or shoal of fishes afforded, to the fainter light and comparative
monotony of submarine travelling. Ergimo, who had in his time
commanded the hunters of the Arctic Sea, was almost as completely
exempt as myself from sea-sickness; but I was surprised to find that
the crew disliked, and, had they ventured, would have grumbled at, the
change, being so little accustomed to