bound, and now, from out the foam and mist, a wave of vast proportions rolled away in a widening semicircle. The wave came down upon us with the speed of the wind. The swell occasioned by an earthquake can alone compare with it in magnitude. It rolled beneath the Panther, lifted her upon its crest, and swept her towards the rocks. An instant more, and I was flat upon the deck, borne down by the stroke of falling water. Another and another came in quick succession, but each was smaller than the one preceding it. The Panther was driven within two fathoms of the shore, but she did not strike. Our anchor held, or our ship would have been knocked to pieces, or landed high and dry with the first great wave that rolled under us.'

After all this terrible confusion had subsided, and half-a-dozen new icebergs, each like a mammoth lapis lazuli, set in a sea of chased silver, were floating off to join their brethren in Baffin's Bay, the voyagers landed and held a picnic on the glacier, from which they were hunted by clouds of mosquitoes, of a number and viciousness unknown to southern climes. They had nearly accomplished the purpose of their voyage now. They had seen the Land of Desolation; revelled in its solemn, majestic, awfully solitary beauty; beheld the most wonderful of the operations of nature in her grandest solitudes; and now it only remained for them to record the fact of their presence there; and after that, they would set sail for the Arctic Circle, for the melancholy, mystical region where the sun 'doth shine for half the year. So they selected a convenient spot on the summit of the great glacier, and there they planted the banner of the 'Stars and Stripes.' They returned all silent to the Panther, picked up their anchor, and steamed down the fiord, the wonderful ice-stream, which had afforded them so many adventures, melting away in the gathering twilight of the evening.

A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE. CHAPTER VI.—OTHELLO CHARMS DESDEMONA WITH

THE TALE OF HIS ADVENTURES.

is, when he was smoking them there is every reason to suppose, since he stared at the river a good deal, that he also was regarding it with satisfaction.

'How very, very beautiful is nature!' sighed Helen: it was not at all characteristic of her to be sentimental; but the ejaculation, though conventional enough, was really genuine, and won from her by what she beheld.

'Very much so,' said Jack, feeling called upon to say something himself, since nobody else spoke, and, of course, not aware that Arthur had squeezed her hand, which was all she wanted in the way acquiescence.

of

So calm, so gentle, so sympathising with humanity,' continued Helen, answering the squeeze with a soft pressure.

Well, I don't know about that,' laughed Jack, who was truth (not to say matter-of-fact) itself. 'I think Arthur could tell you another story.' "Eh, what!' cried Mrs Somers, aroused by Jack's stentorian tones. 'Is Arthur going to tell us another story? I'm all attention; I have not been asleep. I only wish I could sometimes get a wink or two of sleep in the middle of the day. How nice everything looks! I've got quite to like the wabble, wabble, wab'— In her ample bosom sunk her double-chin; above it, her head nodded once or twice, like a hammer beating in a nail, and she once more rejoined the Rev. Bung. 'Why should Arthur think that nature is unsympathising?' inquired Helen. Make him tell you with his ownI mean in his own words,' replied Jack, who was the soul of propriety, and thought 'lips,' under the circumstances, would be indelicate.

"Tell me, Arthur,' said Helen softly. 'Or are you asleep?' added she, a little louder, and not without a touch of reproach.

thought; and such have their attraction for us all.

Asleep?' said he, rousing himself with effort. No, indeed; or if I was,' he added in a low tone, 'I was dreaming of you.' You liar! whispered a little voice-that of Conscience, which, fortunately, is so still and small, that it is a quite rare feat even to make its owner hear it, much less another.

Arthur Tyndall was not asleep, yet he had not heard her. He was in what is called-I know not why-a brown-study.' Men that have travelled much are subject to them; something that occurs around them—a sight, a sound, a scent even-will suddenly carry away their minds to distant scenes, and abstract them wholly from the present. It IF the beauties of the river had been approved was not a distant scene in this case, it was a home of before lunch, we may be sure they were now scene-one, too, that he was nearing every instant doubly appreciated. Mrs Somers, it is true, 'over--but it was a bygone one, bygone for ever, as he come' by the warmth of the weather, had dropped asleep, but it was only to dream of them. She thought she was in a fairy shallop with the Rev. Mr Bung, whose weight, combined with her own, sent the prow of the boat up (as it probably would have done in real life) heavenwards; and now the good man pointed to the firmament, praising it in his smooth, patronising way; and now he dipped his curved hand into the stream, and offered it to her like a cup; and she accepted it gladly, for the waters of that river were green Curaçoa. Helen was dreaming too, and likewise a dream of bliss. Her ears drank in the music of her lover's voice, and her hand clasped his beneath the table; and yet she had eyes for the fair sights which met them upon every hand, and a pleasant 'Yes, indeed,' for Jack Adair, when, pipe in mouth, he would raise himself upon his elbow from the bench on which he lay reclined, and point out some object for her admiration. Mr Allardyce's mind was much exercised in making cigarettes; but when the demand was temporarily supplied-that

Helen gave one of her purrs of pleasure. The Hon. Wynn Allardyce heard it, or, at all events, understood, by the expression of her features, that she was purring, and scowled under cover of his cigarette smoke. He had no chance now, at all events for the present, of coming between these two fond hearts; the herb valerian (as I have, unfortunately, had occasion more than once to remark) is very powerful with females, but pales before the unfolded Rose of Love.

'You shall not be so lazy, Arthur,' exclaimed Helen, a consciousness that those horrible men' might imagine she was 'spooning,' suddenly endowing her with vitality. Come, let us have your story?

.

I believe that Jack must have guessed how matters were with his friend, for he came to the rescue with: "That shipwreck story, Tyndall. I was telling Miss Somers that nature hadn't always sympathised with you.'

'Oh, it's nothing,' said Arthur; that is, the story isn't. But it's quite true what Jack says-nature pleases herself if she pleases us, so much the better for us; but she doesn't go out of her way to do it not she. I was once a passenger on board a ship that was burned in the North Pacific. We talk of "leaving home" as being a painful experience; but when home leaves us, when one sees the vessel that has been our ark of safety for long months in wind and storm, go down before one's eyes into the Deep, a sheet of fire-that is leaving home indeed. It was quite calm when the thing happened, so that we were all enabled to take to the boats, but it was not less terrible to see, on that account. I shall never forget the hiss of the waveless sea as the burning mass went under, nor the darkness, which it had illumined, that closed over us as it did so. It seemed to be a full five minutes before we saw the stars; yet there they were, shining down upon us as daintily as they will shine upon this pleasure-boat to-night, with the thin fleecy clouds sailing in and out among them; and they would have shone all the same, we may be sure, had we all been burned alive in our lost ship, and gone under with it. So, you see, Helen, that nature is not quite so sympathetic as you take her to be.'

Go on, Arthur; pray, go on. What did you

do?'

'Well, we did the best we could, which was not much. In the first place, we counted our provisions. No petty trader ever knew so well what articles he had in store as we did, every man of us; for we were a thousand miles from the nearest land, and every ounce of food and every spoonful of water might be worth its weight in gold. We had four hams, and twenty-eight pounds of pork; twelve two-pound cans of oysters and preserved meats; six bushels of raw potatoes (which rotted very fast, by-the-bye, and were of small service to us); but sixteen gallons of water; three bottles of brandy; and one hundred pounds of tobacco.

"That seems a great deal, too,' said Helen. 'Yes,' murmured Jack; I have heard of nothing like such provision since the list of stores in

Robinson Crusoe's care.'

'Yes, my good fellow, but that was for one man's benefit,' said Arthur gravely, and we were thirtyone, and a thousand miles from land. Two of us, it is true, were sick, and had not much appetite, but what they had, poor fellows, was never satisfied. It is no exaggeration to say that what Jones yonder took to-day at lunch to his own cheek would have lasted him a week on board our boat.

We were put on short allowance from the first, of course; each man being allowed but a morsel of salt pork (or a little piece of potato, if he preferred that), and half a sea-biscuit, three times a day. It took seven of those sea-biscuits to weigh a pound. For the first two days, only a gill of water was served out to each; but for a fortnight afterwards

to bear than the pangs of hunger; though, as to that, when folks talk of "wanting objects in life," and prate about having "nothing to look forward to," I often think of those first few days, when we were less used to starve, and how, after the morning fragment was consumed, we counted the hours till noon and night should bring with them another meal. A time did come when most of us, perhaps all of us, would have given up every chance of prosperity in this world-I had almost said, of happiness in the next-for half a loaf of bread and a cup of water; when all the riches of the world, and the pride of life-all that Art and Learning have ever done for the human race-had become absolutely valueless; when civilisation was a dead letter, and our hearts and wishes were all, as it were, "fried down" to those two rude desires, Food and Drink.'

'Did you talk much?' asked Helen.

'Not at first; most of us were too down-hearted. We only looked at one another, and searched the sea for the sail that never came.'

'And thought, I suppose, of Home?' 'Sometimes. I have seen this very river, for example, with its green banks and shady groves, as plainly as I see it now, though the tropic sun poured down on us its fiery darts, and the sea itself shone around us like molten metal. I heard the flap of the sail, the cool dip of the oar: the ripple of this rushing stream mocked my parched lips. It was not Home, you see, so much as water, of which I dreamed.-I am afraid you must think me a savage, Helen.'

If she did, it was easy to read in her admiring eyes that she thought him a very Noble one.

'On the contrary,' said Jack, 'you were more like an alderman, always thinking of eating and drinking. But, pray, get on to where you devoured the two sick men.'

Helen gave a stifled shriek of horror, and Allardyce looked up for the first time from his cigarette manufacture with a gleam of interest in his languid face.

'Did you eat them raw?' inquired he. 'We did not eat them at all,' said Tyndall, ‘as Jack very well knows.'

Oh, how could you, Mr Adair!' remonstrated

Helen.

'I beg your pardon for the disappointment,' answered the Incorrigible One.-'Paddle on, Tyn

dall.'

'Next to food, the hope of being picked up was the subject of our thoughts, and even of our dreams, when we did dream, for we slept but little. The nights were very dismal and lonesome, especially (as mostly happened) when there were no stars: as we had no lantern, too, we could not even see the compass.'

'How did you steer the boat?' inquired Allardyce, languidly expelling a thin spiral of smoke.

'It travelled easy, and we steered by the feel of the wind in our faces, and by the heave of the sea I have abused the stars; but I am bound to say that the North Star, though I still contend that he only came out for his own convenience''O Arthur!' interrupted Helen.

there was almost incessant rain, which we caught 'I don't say, my dear Helen, that he would not in canvas, and stored in every place that would have come out for yours,' continued Tyndall coolly; hold water, even to our boots. Those were luxu-but as for us, who, I daresay, did not deserve it, rious days, when we had plenty of water, for he was not very considerate. When we did catch thirst, as we afterwards discovered, is even harder a fleeting glimpse of him, however, we made the

most of it, instantly lighting a match and examining the compass to see that we kept our course. On the fifth day, we caught a dolphin, which we warmed by means of a fire made in a tin plate, and divided among all hands.'

'Did it change into all kinds of beautiful colours when it died, Arthur?'

'Not that I remarked, my dear: it only struck me how very little there was of it, though it had to go such a great way. We caught seven more in all, and a bonita. After that, we caught no more, and began to starve. On the eighth day, our rations were reduced one half. Breakfast an ounce of ham, one gill of water; dinner-same quantity of bread and water, with four oysters.'

'Ah,' said Allardyce, 'in London one eats oysters for an appetite, which you could not have wanted. Were they natives?'

'Fortunately not, since they were much larger. But just imagine how you would feel at the club when, after the oysters and bread and butter, your host said: "That is all." Our supper consisted of the same portion of bread and water, with twelve raisins. During the first fifteen days, we had also each a spoonful of brandy; but that soon failed. Upon one occasion, a small dark object was seen rising and falling upon the waves. As we drew nearer, it was found to be a green turtle fast asleep. I never remember enduring such moments of agonising expectation as followed. Directions were given for his capture, but we hardly hoped that so great a blessing should be vouchsafed to us. The man to whom the task was confided probably felt a greater sense of responsibility than that of all the directors of public companies who have ever existed; and as for the rest of us, we held our breath as the moment approached for the execution of his project. If he should miss his grasp, we felt that we should tear him to pieces. Silently we floated up to this floating prize, and the next instant it was hauled aboard by its hind-leg. Jack has likened us to aldermen, but never did aldermen smack their lips over turtle as we did: it was warmed like the dolphins, and then divided. If heaven can be concentrated in a taste, I must surely have experienced it in my thirty-first share of that turtle."

'It must have been an invidious task to divide it!' observed Helen. 'I suppose the captain did that?'

'The man they had chosen for captain did; for we were only one of three boats, though with the other two we had parted company; and, as it happened, none of the chief officers of the ship were with us. The division, I believe, was made as equal as it could be.'

'Are you sure of that, Tyndall?' observed Jack quietly. As the story was told me-though not by yourself I understood the captain often gave some of his own share to a little fad there was on board.'

occurred. One of the men-an invalided one too, who was too weak even to take his turn in the watch-leaped suddenly to his feet, and cried: "A sail, a sail!" But it turned out to be only one of our own boats that had drifted across our path after three weeks of absence. They could do nothing for us, of course, nor we for them; but that chance meeting seemed, strangely enough, to increase our sense of loneliness. On all the vast Pacific, there seemed to be no other beings than ourselves and our shipwrecked fellows. That day, we made an observation, and found that we were a thousand miles from where our vessel had been burned. Think of a thousand miles of ocean without a sail! We had been steering for the Clarion Isles, but were now obliged to give up the hope of making them, and altered our course for the Sandwich group. What we suffered for the next three weeks, it is impossible to describe. The pains of hunger would seem incredible even if I could paint them. Curiously enough, what we found most efficacious to divert our minds from the horrors that encompassed us were the descriptions of delicious dinners eaten at home, or the planning of interminable and preposterous bills of fare for dinners that we should eat when we got home again; only the little boy had the good sense to remark that plain bread and butter would be good enough for him, all the days of his life, if he could only get it. You may think I exaggerate, but it is nevertheless a fact that, during this last period of our sufferings, we never slept; nor yet were we wholly awake. Three-fourths of our faculties were in our possession, but the remainder was in dreamland, and made feasts-always feastscomposed of everything imagination could dream of, piled upon long tables, and smoking hot. We fell down, and ravenously seized upon the first dish; and then awoke to find ourselves among our starving comrades, upon the desolate, sailless sea. It is too terrible to recall to mind: let it suffice to say, as an example of the condition to which we were reduced, that, on the twenty-eighth day, our rations were one tea-spoonful of bread-crumbs, and an ounce of ham, for the morning meal; and a teaspoonful of bread-crumbs only for the evening. On the thirty-eighth day of our troubles, we had nothing left but a pound and a half of ham amongst us. The ham-bone was saved for the next day. For some time before that, we had been cutting our old boots into small pieces, and eating them, and also pounding wet rags into a sort of pulp. After apportioning the ham-bone, the captain cut the canvas cover that had been around the ham into fifteen equal pieces, and each man took his portion. This was the last division of food: but the men broke up the small wooden butter-tub, and divided the staves, and gnawed them up; and also the shell of the little green turtle was scraped with knives, and eaten to the last shaving. As for myself, I remember eating the strap of one boot, and saving the other for the next day.'

'How nice of him!' cried Helen rapturously. 'Well, he was a big, strong man,' said Arthur, and the poor child was failing.' 'On the eigh- 'But did you really never think of eating one teenth day, we caught two "boobies." Never another, Tyndall?' inquired Allardyce-' of drawwere two boobies so welcome to any joint-stockings lots, I mean, and so forth?' company; they are about as large as a duck, but mostly bone and feathers. They were not even warmed, for the sea ran too high to admit of our lighting a fire; so we ate them raw, and to the last bone. On the twenty-first day, a dreadful incident

The men did so, I believe,' answered -Tyndall, hesitating.

'Well; and you were one of the men. Come, tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' said Allardyce; 'unless, indeed,