"Just all that can be done in the circumstances," replied the Captain. "You see, we cannot advance over ice either with sail or steam, but there's a basin just ahead which seems a little more secure than that in which we lie. I'll try to get into it. There is nothing but a neck of ice between us and it, which I think I could cut by charging in under full steam, and there seems a faint gleam of something far ahead, which encourages me. Tell the steward to fetch my glasses, Benjy."
"Butterface!" shouted the boy.
"Yis, massa."
"Fetch the Captain's glasses, please."
"Yis, massa."
A pair of large binoculars were brought up by a huge n***o, whose name was pre-eminently unsuggestive of his appearance.
After a long steady gaze at the horizon, the Captain shut up the glass with an air of d
