on all sides. Already the cold was beginning to stiffen their limbs, and the damp of their garments was being transformed into icicles which hung about them.
Just as Penellan was about to descend, he looked towards André. He saw him suddenly gaze in one direction, then shudder and turn pale.
"What is the matter, Vasling?" he asked.
"Nothing," replied the other. "Let us go down and urge the captain to leave these parts, where we ought never to have come, at once!"
Instead of obeying, Penellan ascended again, and looked in the direction which had drawn the mate's attention. A very different effect was produced on him, for he uttered a shout of joy, and cried, "Blessed be God!"
A light smoke was rising in the northeast. There was no possibility of deception. It indicated the presence of human beings. Penellan's cries of joy reached the rest below, and all were able to convince themselves with their eyes that he was not mistaken.
Without thinking of their want of provisions or the severity of the temperature, wrapped in their hoods, they were all soon advancing towards the spot whence the smoke arose in the northeast. This was evidently five or six miles off, and it was very difficult to take exactly the right direction. The smoke now disappeared, and no elevation served as a guiding mark, for the ice-plain was one united level. It was important, nevertheless, not to diverge from a straight line.
"Since we cannot guide ourselves by distant objects," said Jean Cornbutte, "we must use this method. Penellan will go ahead, Vasling twenty steps behind him, and I twenty steps behind Vasling. I can then judge whether or not Penellan diverges from the straight line."
They had gone on thus for half an hour, when Penellan suddenly stopped and listened. The party hurried up to him. "Did you hear nothing?" he asked.
"Nothing!" replied Misonne.
"It is strange," said Penellan. "It seemed to me I heard cries off to one side from this direction."
"Cries?" replied Marie. "Perhaps we are near our destination, then."
"That is no reason," said André Vasling. "In these
