“So have I,” replied Serge, as, unfastening his kamleika, he reached behind him and drew forth a couple of the eggs Phil had brought along as specimens.
“H’m!” ejaculated the latter, as, after carefully removing a portion of the shell to see that the contents were fresh, he swallowed them at a gulp. “A little fishy, but not so bad as I expected. Let’s have another.”
After eating half a dozen eggs apiece, the lads felt decidedly better, and even a little more cheerful.
“It warn’t much of a breakfust, but even a poor breakfust tastes good to a hungry man, as old Kite Robinson uster say,” remarked Phil, and at the picture thus called up both lads actually smiled. Then, too, they caught a glimpse of the sun, which was a slight comfort, though not so great as it might have been, had it not shown them that they were headed due north, instead of west, as they had supposed.
“We are headed for the north-pole,” said Phil. “Do you know of any place on which we might fetch up, short of it?”
“Yes,” replied his companion, “there are islands somewhere to the north of here, though I don’t know exactly where. I don’t believe they are more than a hundred miles or so away, though.”
“Let’s make a try for them,” cried Phil, with sudden energy. “Anything is better than lying still, and we are not done for yet, by a long shot.”
So all that long, weary day the plucky lads tried to cheer each other as they alternately paddled, rested, and made melancholy pretence of enjoying their raw, fishy eggs. At length, however, their supply of these was exhausted, they were too utterly wearied to paddle any longer, and night was again coming on. The fog had thinned during the day, but only so as to disclose a wider expanse of chill waters, and with the coming of night it closed in again as dense as ever. The only comfort was that the wind had gone down with the sun, leaving a smooth sea.
“I’m beat out, old man!” said Phil, at length, as he laid his paddle on deck.
“So am I,” answered Serge, “and, what is worse—” Here the lad suddenly checked himself. He would not add to his comrade’s misery by disclosing, any sooner than he could help, the new source of dread that had just been revealed to him by a peculiar motion of their frail craft.