tain proceeded. "But I must ask you to keep your boat waiting for half an hour more. You will be all the longer with your wife, you know. I thought of that, Crayford."

"I am much obliged to you, Captain Helding. I suppose there is some other reason for inverting the customary order of things, and keeping the lieutenant on shore after the captain is on board?" Quite true; there is another reason, I want you to wait for a volunteer who has just joined us.” "A volunteer!"

"Yes; he has his outfit to get in a hurry, and he may be half an hour late.”

"It's rather a sudden appointment, isn't it?" "No doubt. Very sudden."

"And, pardon me, it's rather a long time (as we are situated) to keep the ships waiting for one man?" Quite true, again. But a man who is worth having is worth waiting for. This man is worth having; this man is worth his weight in gold to such an expedition as ours. Seasoned to all climates and all fatigues; a strong fellow, a brave fellow, a clever fellow-in short, an excellent officer. I know him well, or I should never have taken him. The country gets plenty of work out of my new volunteer, Crayford. He only returned yesterday from foreign service."

"He only returned yesterday from foreign service, and he volunteers this morning to join the Arctic Expedition! You astonish me."

"I dare say I do; you can't be more astonished than I was when he presented himself at my hotel and told me what he wanted. Why, my good fellow, you have just got home,' I said; 'are you weary of your freedom after only a few hours' experience of it?' His answer rather startled me. He said, 'I am weary of my life, sir; I have come home and found a trouble to welcome me which goes near to break my heart. If I don't take refuge in absence and hard work, I am a lost man. Will you give me refuge?' That's what he said, Crayford, word for word."

"Did you ask him to explain himself further?" "Not I; I knew his value, and I took the poor devil on the spot without pestering him with any more questions. No need to ask him to explain himself; the facts speak for themselves in these cases. The old story, my good friend. There's a woman at the bottom of it, of course."

Mrs. Crayford, waiting for the return of her husband as patiently as she could, was startled by feeling a hand suddenly laid on her shoulder. She looked round and confronted Clara. Her first feeling of surprise changed instantly to alarm. Clara was trembling from head to foot.

"What is the matter? What has frightened you, my dear ?"

"Lucy! I have heard of him!" "Richard Wardour again?"

"Remember what I told you. I have heard every word of the conversation between Captain Helding and your husband. A man came to the Captain this morning and volunteered to join the 'Wanderer.' The Captain has taken him. The

man is Richard Wardour."

66

You don't mean it! Are you sure? Did you hear Captain Helding mention his name?"

"No."

"Then how do you know it's Richard Wardour ?" "Don't ask me! I am as certain of it as that I am standing here! They are going away together, Lucy-away to the eternal ice and snow. My foreboding has come true. The two will meet-the man who is to marry me, and the man whose heart I have broken!"

"Your foreboding has not come true, Clara! The men have not met here--the men are not likely to meet elsewhere. Even supposing it is Wardour, they are appointed to separate ships. Frank belongs to the 'Sea-Mew,' and Wardour to the Wanderer.' See! My husband is coming this way. Let me speak to him."

Lieutenant Crayford returned to his wife. She spoke to him instantly.

"William, have you got a new volunteer who joins the 'Wanderer ?'

"What you have been listening to the Captain and me?"

"I want to know his name,"

"How in the world did you manage to hear what we said to each other?"

"His name? has the Captain given you his name?"

"Don't excite yourself, my dear. positively alarming Miss Burnham.

teer is a perfect stranger to us.

-last on the ship's list."

Look! you are

The new volunThere is his name

Mrs. Crayford snatched the list out of her husband's hand, and read the name :

RICHARD WARDOUR."

SECOND SCENE.

THE HUT OF THE SEA-MEW.

CHAPTER VI.

GOOD-BYE to England! Good-bye to inhabited and civilised regions of the earth!

Two years have passed since the voyagers sailed from their native shores. The enterprise has failed the Arctic Expedition is lost and icelocked in the Polar wastes. The good ships "Wanderer" and "Sea-Mew," entombed in ice, will never ride the buoyant waters more. Stripped of their lighter timbers, both vessels have been used for the construction of huts, erected on the nearest land.

The largest of the two buildings which now shelter the lost men, is occupied by the surviving officers and crew of the " Sea-Mew." On one side of the principal room are the sleeping-berths and the fireplace. The other side discloses a broad doorway (closed by a canvas screen), which serves as means of communication with an inner apartment, devoted to the superior officers. A ham