"Isn't it fine," he whispered to Cabot, after all hands had sought
their bunks, "to think that our venture has turned out so splendidly
after all?"
"Fine is no name for it," rejoined the other. "But I do hope we will
have the chance of meeting Mr. Homolupus once more and of thanking him
for what he has done. We owe so much to him that, man-wolf or no
man-wolf, I consider him a splendid fellow."
In spite of their impatience to start southwards, our lads were still
compelled to spend two weeks longer at Locked Harbour. First the
missionary was obliged to make a visit to his station, and, on his
return, the snow was not in condition for a long sledge journey.
Furious winds had piled it into drifts, with intervening spaces of bare
ground, over which sledge travel would be impossible. So they must
wait until the autumnal storms were over and winter had settled down in
earnest. But, impatient as they were, time no longer hung heavily on
their hands, nor did they now regard their place of abode as a prison.
Its solitude and dreariness had fled before the advent of half a
hundred Eskimo--short, squarely built men, moon-faced women, and
roly-poly children, looking like animated balls of fur, all of whom had
been brought from the mission to form a settlement on the beach. It
was easier to bring them to the Heaven-sent provisions that were to
keep them until spring than it would have been to transport the heavy
barrels of flour and pork to the mission.
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