Captain Marsham shook his head.
“You’ve been to sea a good deal?” said Hendal.
“Nearly all my life. Almost everywhere,” said the captain, while Steve Young listened intently to all that was said.
“But you don’t know our polar ocean, sir.”
“No; but I’ve had a pretty fair experience among the southern ice, trying to penetrate the pack there,” said Captain Marsham.
“Oh! oh! Ah, then that would help you a bit. Ice is ice, sir, all the world over.”
“Of course.”
“But there, you give it up, sir: that’s my advice. Take a trip a little way if you like, and do your bit of shooting; you can do that without any risks. Then come back. Why, only last year—let me see, it was the beginning of June, like this is—a well-formed, strongly built schooner touched here—the Ice Blink they called her—from Hull, Captain Young—”
“Yes,” said Captain Marsham quietly; “and they sailed north, and have not been heard of since.”
“Eh? How did you know?” cried the consul. “Oh, of course, from the papers.”