shook me by the shoulder and said:

"Take yer seats."

When I got out, the driver was on the box, and the others
were getting rum and milk inside themselves (and in bottles)
before taking their seats.

It was colder and darker than before, and the South Pole seemed nearer,
and pretty soon, but for the rum, we should have been in a worse fix
than before.

There was a spell of grumbling. Presently someone said:

"I don't believe them horses was lost at all. I was round behind the stable
before I went to bed, and seen horses there; and if they wasn't
them same horses there, I'll eat 'em raw!"

"Would yer?" said the driver, in a disinterested tone.

"I would," said the passenger. Then, with a sudden ferocity, "and you too!"

The driver said nothing. It was an abstract question
which didn't interest him.

We saw that we were on delicate ground, and changed the subject for a while.
Then someone else said:

"I wonder where his missus was? I didn't see any signs of her about,
or any other woman about the place, and we was pretty well all over it."