the opportunity of speaking to you about it. I suppose I might
rely upon you if there were any necessity?"

"Most assuredly," I answered; "and since you are taking this step,
I may as well"----

"You! you!" he interrupted. "YOU'RE all right. What the devil
is the matter with YOU? There, I didn't mean to be peppery, but
I don't like to hear a young fellow, that has hardly began life,
speculating about death. Go up on deck and get some fresh air
into your lungs instead of talking nonsense in the cabin, and
encouraging me to do the same."

The more I think of this conversation of ours the less do I like
it. Why should the man be settling his affairs at the very time
when we seem to be emerging from all danger? There must be some
method in his madness. Can it be that he contemplates suicide? I
remember that upon one occasion he spoke in a deeply reverent
manner of the heinousness of the crime of self-destruction. I
shall keep my eye upon him, however, and though I cannot obtrude
upon the privacy of his cabin, I shall at least make a point of
remaining on deck as long as he stays up.

Mr. Milne pooh-poohs my fears, and says it is only the "skipper's
little way." He himself takes a very rosy view of the situation.
According to him we shall be out of the ice by the day after to-
morrow, pass Jan Meyen two days after that, and sight Shetland in
little more than a week. I hope he may not be too sanguine. His
opinion may be fairly balanced against the gloomy precautions of
the Captain, for he is an old and experienced seaman, and weighs