“Afraid? What of?” said Steve anxiously.
“That one of them will die; and if we come to that, the effect upon the others will be terrible.”
Steve shuddered.
“Can we do anything else?”
“No more than we are doing, lad,” said the doctor wearily, “only wait.”
Chapter Forty One.
“Never Say Die.”
Three days passed, during which Mr Handscombe and Steve worked hard watching by turns over their sick; and in spite of the boy’s desire to evade the task, the doctor forced him to come out for a tramp in the snow by the light of the moon. The Norsemen, who bore the winter better than the rest, had begun to lose hope, and declined to leave the fire, while the cook always pleaded for excuse—want of time.