"It's a thousand times better than starving to death."
As the sailor spoke, he walked to the carcass and withdrew his knife from the wound.
"You'll come to it bime-by; I've seed the time when I was ready to chaw up a pair of leather breeches, but that isn't half as bad as being in an open boat under the equator, with not a drop of water for three days."
"We can never suffer from that cause so long as this iceberg holds out. How is it with you, Fred? Are you ready for bear steak?"
"I would be too glad to dine on it, if there was some means of cooking it, but that is out of the question. I think I'll wait awhile."
"I'll keep you company," remarked Jack, who felt no such repugnance against the primitive meal, but was willing to defer the feast out of regard for them.
The party watched the fog settling over the sea, until, as the sailor had told them it would do, it shut out all vision beyond a hundred feet or less.
"I would give a good deal to know one thing," said Fred, after several minutes' silence, as he seated himself, "and that is just where we are."
"I can tell you," said Rob.
"Where?"