"'You had better not, or by ——, if you thought me capable of committing such an act, or if you said it——' and so on he rambled incoherently, threatening and bullying; but all the while most surely confirming our just suspicions.
"'Let us cut him adrift; leave him behind; if we can do so, to-night,' whispered Jenner to me.
"Low though the whisper was, it caught the huge ears of Urbain, even while muffled by the lappets of a sealskin cap.
"'Leave me behind, will you? Well, you may do so; but, diable! I shall not be left without food.'
"About an hour after this we met with a terrible but significant catastrophe. While we were all proceeding in Indian file behind the captain, Urbain stumbled on a piece of slippery ice; he fell, and in doing so, his musket exploded, lodging its contents right in the back of the head of my poor messmate, Bob Jenner, who fell back, and expired without a groan.
"We were appalled by the suddenness of this calamity; all, save Urbain, who rubbed his knees, muttered an oath, and reloaded with all the rapidity of alarm; while each of us read in his neighbour's face the conviction that there was more of design than accident in what had taken place, though it had all the appearance of a casualty.
"Dissembling still, and having but little time for grief, we covered poor Bob's remains with snow, and resumed our melancholy march.
"We were but six now, and five of those were famished scarecrows.
"A mile farther on, we found the ruins of a deserted log hut, which we hailed with extravagant joy, as our first approach to civilization, and the abode of human beings. There we resolved to pass the night, which was approaching, and there we kindled a fire, and with blocks of snow filled up the doorway, while the smoke escaped by an aperture in the roof.
"Oh, how genial was the warmth we felt; and though we had only a few fragments of moist bark to chew, we would have felt almost happy, but for the recent catastrophe, and for our dread of Urbain Gautier, who as soon as twilight fell said he would go in search of a shot, and taking his gun went away.