'This gentleman,' said Mr. Hobbs, 'is Mr. Archibald Moore. The young lady passenger aboard the "Lady Emma" was----' he dropped his head and was silent. I gazed at the seaman with consuming interest; he had been among the last--he might have been the last--who had seen, who had spoken to Marie. 'You'll not tell me,' said I, in a broken voice, 'there's no hope for the three you left behind you?' 'No, sir, I'll not tell you that,' answered the man in deep tones, which trembled upon the ear with the power of their volume. 'I've said all along that if the ice only lets the hull keep afloat, there was nothen to prevent her being fallen in with. She wasn't so far south,' continued he, looking at Mr. Hobbs, 'as to be out of the way of half a dozen chances a week if the weather opened out the sea, and gave a view of her as she lay flat, with but twelve foot of foremast standing.' 'Why were they left behind?' I cried. 'Why were they left to wash about in a dismasted hulk amongst ice, to perish horribly after days of suffering perhaps?' and I beat the table with my fist. 'Mr. Moore, the capt'n refused to quit,' said the seaman, speaking calmly in his deep voice, and viewing me with an air of respectful pity. 'My mates'll tell you I entreated of him and the ladies to enter the boat, likewise did Mr. Owen, the doctor. We wasn't listened to. The captain was all for waiting for something to come alongside, and take the hulk in tow. He was for jury-rigging her--on a twelve-foot stump of foremast!' said he, slowly regarding Mr. Hobbs. 'The consarn blew over the bows. What in that way was going to stand down there?' 'You should have used force,' I said. 'With the capt'n?' he exclaimed, with a slow, astonished shake of his head. 'Had you got the captain into the boat, the ladies would have followed.' 'Neither 'ud have been alive next morning. The young one would have froze to death in a few hours. You should have heard the strongest amongst us groaning with the cold when we lost sight of the craft we were making for, and when the night drawed down, and we were for the hull, all hands of us mad for the shelter of her and the warmth of our blankets and the hot drinks to be got. I tell ye, sir,' he added, calmly and respectfully, 'that the captain knew more about it than we did, and was right to keep the ladies aboard; for if they was to die, better comfortably in a warm cabin than in an open boat with spray sheeting over them at every plunge.' 'What was the situation of the hull when the crew abandoned her?' I asked. Mr. Hobbs pulled open a drawer, and read aloud a copy of an entry in the log-book of the 'Planter' in which the meeting with the long-boat was minuted. The situation as there stated was Latitude 58° 45' S., Longitude 45° 10' W. This copy of the logbook entry had been handed by Captain Parry of the 'Planter' to the master of the ship to whom the crew had been transferred.