"There was no sign of a human habitation to be seen, and our eyes swept in vain the horizon, where the white snow and blue sky met, for a smoke-wreath indicating where a squatter’s cabin stood. "’Malediction!’ said Urbain, hoarsely, ’if this continues I shall have something to eat, _bon gré malgré!_—if it should be the flesh of a man. You seem shocked mate,’ said he to me, as I shrank back. "’I am shocked,’ said, I, quietly. "’Well—_diable!_ don’t be so,’ he replied, mockingly, ’because it is wonderful truly what you may bring your mind to, if you put your courage to the test, and place yourself _en visage_ with your fate like a man.’ "’Or a devil—eh, Urbain Gautier?’ said Captain Benson; ’but no more of this, or——’ "’Don’t threaten me, _mon petit capitaine_—my nice little man,’ interrupted the giant, with a horrible grimace, ’or——’ and pausing, he laid his hand significantly on his knife. "Urbain now became surly, insolent, and ferocious; but knowing his singular strength, which failed less than ours, and knowing the secret, the loathsome and terrible means by which he maintained it—aware also that he had plenty of ammunition—we dissembled alike our fears, our suspicions, and our abhorrence of him. "After we had toiled on for two hours in silence, he suddenly stopped us all by an oath. "’_Nombril de Belzebub!_’ he exclaimed to Captain Benson, ’what is the use of looking for food or game in these infernal wastes, into which your stupidity has led us? Let us cast lots, and find out who shall be shot for the food of the rest!’ "’Silence, wretch,’ said Captain Benson. "’To that it will come at last,’ said Urbain, grinning. "’Perhaps it has come to it already,’ said Bob Jenner, unwisely. "’Ah, _sacré_! You think I murdered that boy, do you? And you think so, too?’ he added to me. "’I have not said so,’ I replied, evasively. "’You had better not, or by ——, if you thought me capable of committing such an act, or if you said it——’ and so on he rambled incoherently, threatening and bullying; but all the while most surely confirming our just suspicions. "’Let us cut him adrift; leave him behind; if we can do so, to-night,’ whispered Jenner to me. "Low though the whisper was, it caught the huge ears of Urbain, even while muffled by the lappets of a sealskin cap. "’Leave me behind, will you? Well, you may do so; but, diable! I shall not be left without food.’ "About an hour after this we met with a terrible but significant catastrophe. While we were all proceeding in Indian file behind the captain, Urbain stumbled on a piece of slippery ice; he fell, and in doing so, his musket exploded, lodging its contents right in the back of the head of my poor messmate, Bob Jenner, who fell back, and expired without a groan.