He took a few steps to where Steve shrinkingly saw a hollow in which, barely covered by small pieces of rock and ice, lay the remains of a man, from which all turned without a word. For it wanted no words to tell how he had pined and died, and been dragged to his last resting-place by his feeble companion, the last of the party, so helpless now that he could not chip out a grave, but was fain to lay his dead companion in a natural rift, and slowly pile over him little pieces of the stone and ice around; then crawl back into the hut to lie there, covered by the skins, waiting for the dawn to come after the long, long wintry night, and bring with it the hopes of rescue which came too late. The Norseman who had stood by the graves with his cap in his hands went softly away on tip-toe to the boat, and the captain said sadly: "There is something very awful as well as grand up here in these solitudes. Poor fellows! What a history they have left behind! Steve, lad, it is a painful sight for you." "Yes," said the boy huskily, and his voice shook as he looked up apologetically at the speaker. "I can't help it--makes me feel quite ill and weak; for when I think of it all, and of those who must have been hoping they would return like some one we know, I feel as if I could sit down and cry." "Hah!" ejaculated the doctor; and as the others looked at him he sharply turned away his face. "Yes, it is very sad," said the captain briskly; "but we will not take that view of the case, my lad. Let's only be thankful that you were wrong in your ideas. Our friends would be better provided than these poor fellows were, and I have always a strong feeling that we shall find them alive and well." An hour later they had been right up, pretty close to the barrier of ice which stopped further progress to the north; and as there was a pleasant breeze from the north-east, sail was set, the fires damped, and away they went southward toward the fiord where the deer had been shot in the valley. This was reached late the next evening, and they landed to try for more deer, an adventure attended with so much success that on the following day, when they began to sail southward, they had twelve fine, fat deer lying in the hold in ice, and another in the hands of the cook for present use. "Seems rather wholesale, doesn't it?" said Steve to the doctor. "Yes, my boy; but meat will keep for years in this climate if once frozen; and," he added with a laugh, "you must make your hay when the sun shines." "And freeze it afterwards," said Steve, smiling. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. BATTLE ROYAL.