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THE GREAT SECRET.

better than men; they are feline by nature, and all felines can climb. To the honour of the savage Dennis, he came last, blowing like a porpoise with his exertions, as he came to the surface.

"Poor Anatole! what a journey he must have had!" said the countess, as she knelt beside the captain, and lifted his cold head upon her almost as cold bosom.

Still, the action was a tender one, and some warmth must have come from her jaded heart, for soon he opened his eyes, and, sitting up, began also to cover his feet.

Anatole was the handsomest and youngest man of the three left on this ice-cold hell, and the countess must attach herself to some man while she had life.

"Poor Anatole! yes, he has done his duty; and now we must do ours, if we don't want to starve. I suppose you are all as hungry as I am," said the doctor, as he rose to his feet, shading his black eyes with his slender hand, while he bent himself against the blast, and looked about him.

"Desperately hungry and cold, doctor," cried the women in a chorus.

"Well, I see the indications of a fjord to the north, with the coast line trending towards it. If my scientific calculations are correct, and we can get down to that fjord strand, I fancy we may be able to secure some of the packages from the wreck. The wind and tide act that way, and it is our only present chance of a meal."

There were inland mountains, six and seven thousand feet high, snow and ice covered, with jagged peaks, also steep valleys at the base, covered with a dark kind of vegetation, but no trees of any description met the eye; it was a dismal land altogether. But there seemed no scarcity of fresh water, for waterfalls and streams rushed over the rugged mountain sides, and bold rocks started