"I know, I know, my dear sir!" said the bluff, red-faced, grey-headed man. "I've gone through it all. Last winter I saw my poor fellows go down one by one, till I was the only man about who tried to fight the darkness and depression; and all the time so utterly weak and despairing that I could at any time have lain down and given up all hope. But we got through the winter, and this year my lads have held up wonderfully, and have battled through with hardly one breakdown." "It is astonishing," said the doctor. "Perhaps so; but I daresay all of you would have fought through a second year far better than your first." Steve shook his head. "Nonsense, boy! It is principally the mind, and being used to things. You wrote at school, I know, `Familiarity breeds contempt,' which, written simply, means, `Bogies don't frighten you when you've seen them more than once.'" "But our poor fellows were very bad, sir," said Steve. "Yes, in spirits, my boy. Now they think it's all right, they get up and talk and eat and drink." "Well, but, uncle," said Steve, "see how different our position is now!" "Nonsense! It's all fancy, my lad. You're worse off now than you were a couple of hours ago." "Worse off?" cried Steve. "Of course. You have a dozen hungry men to provide for." "But you've come to save us, and brought us hope." "Where is it then, boy?" cried Captain Young. "You all had as much hope as we had--far more; but you gave up and smothered it. We haven't come to save you; we want you to save us." "I don't understand you," said Steve. "Then I'll make myself plain, my lad. You have a sound ship here in this fiord, well provisioned, and with plenty of fuel, besides having a doctor to take care of you. On the other hand, we have a ship sixty miles away, yonder on the east side of this great island or peninsula of a vast arctic continent, for we have not made out much; but our ship lies where it was driven ashore by the ice, crushed beyond repairing, good for nothing but to make us a house to live in." "Then you have been within sixty miles of us all the time!" cried the doctor. "Yes, sixty miles, I should say, south-east, and only found a way across the mountains during these last few days, and quite by accident; for they have always been like a wall to us till now." "But you have tried to get across to here before?" "Once; but our expeditions have generally been in the other directions-- south and east." "And you have kept on making expeditions in this terrible weather?" said the doctor. "Terrible? When it is quite calm, and the moon makes it like day," said Captain Young, smiling. "There, we have had a year's more experience, and have grown used to it. Whenever the weather was clear we have been out." "Then you have not come to save us?" said Steve, who had grown very thoughtful.