"What shall we do with it?" I asked. "We might sink it with three or four of those six-pound shot, I suppose."
"No, no!" exclaimed Wade. "We can't afford six-pound shots to bury the heathen: it's as much as we can do to get enough to kill them with."
"Oh, don't, Wade!" said Raed. "It's a sad sight at best."
"Of course it is. But then we've only got seventeen balls left, and no knowing how many battles to fight."
This last argument was a clincher.
"Let go!" ordered the captain.
Don and Hobbs shook the line violently, but couldn't tear out the grapple from the tough seal-skin.
"Well, let go line and all, then!" cried the captain.
With a dull plash the kayak fell back into the sea; and we all turned away.
At midnight the ice-patches were thickening rapidly; and by two o'clock all sail had to be taken in, the bumps had grown so frequent and heavy. On the port side lay a large ice-floe of many acres extent. The schooner gradually drifted up to it. Raed and Kit had gone on deck.