"A good thousand miles, sir."
"A thousand miles! And how on earth did you reach here?"
"We kept hugging the ice all the way till abreast of the islands. Whenever it came on to blow we drew up the boat and lived on small bergs. Ah! sir, I assure you we're real penitent."
"You will have to prove your penitence then by guiding us to the wreck of the Resolute. If I find you false, I shall hang you both to the yard-arm as sure as my name is Jamie Cawdor."
"We'll be true as a needle to the Pole, sir. Won't we, Bill? We swear it."
"I swear it," said Nat solemnly.
They were then taken on board, and the voyage was renewed.
No time was to be lost now if the men of the Resolute were to be rescued this year; for the ice-floes in these regions are constantly shifting, and streams of bergs in another month would encompass every island in the southern sea, rendering relief to the castaway crew an utter impossibility.
For two more weeks and over the cruise was continued, the weather being on the whole crisp and clear and the wind favourable.
Being now about the longitude indicated by the men picked up from Donell's rocks, the course was changed and the ship steered south away, till at last the ice was made. Although there were many floating bergs or huge pieces, with green glittering sides and caps of snow, the main flow was in itself a wondrous sight. Imagine, if you can, a huge irregular perpendicular wall of ice of nearly one thousand feet in height, level on its upper crust of snow, and indented with many a bay, with the waves dashing in foam high over the water-line, and forming a ridge of the strangest and most fantastic stalactites that it is possible to imagine. Here were caves of ice and grottoes of ice and coral apparently, with pillars of every shape and size, from which, when the sun shone, the most radiant and lovely colours were reflected, rendering the whole scene dazzling in the extreme. As the ship sailed slowly along this scene of enchantment, it was impossible not to believe you actually saw strange figures moving to and fro in those fairy caves, figures in trailing garments, some all white, others green, or blue or crimson, but all emitting light, and all seeming to mingle and glide as ghosts are said to do. Several times, indeed, Fred could have swore he saw hands and arms waved towards him, and the more he gazed the more life-like the ice spirits grew, till at last he was fain to cover his face with his hands, as a strange momentary fear came over him that he was losing his senses.