38o FARTHEST NORTH 



" ' Oh, I never did anything to them, you know. Just 

 once I broke up a coffin to get wood to make a fire for 

 our coffee; but when we opened it the body just fell to 

 pieces. But it was juicy wood, that, better to burn than 

 the best fir-roots — such a fire as it made !' 



" One of the others now remarked, ' Wasn't it the 

 devil that used a skull for his coffee-cup ?' 



" ' Well, he hadn't anything else, you see, and he just 

 happened to find one. There was no harm in that, was 

 there ?' 



" Then Jacobsen began to hold forth : ' It's not at 

 all such an uncommon thing to use skulls for shooting 

 at, either because people fancy them for targets, or 

 because of some other reason ; they shoot in through 

 the eyeholes,' etc., etc. 



"I asked Peter about ' Tobiesen's ' coffin — if it had 

 ever been dug up to find out if it v;as true that his 

 men had killed him and his son. 



" ' No, that one has never been dug up.' 



" ' I sailed past there last year,' begins Jacobsen again ; 

 ' I didn't go ashore, but it seems to me that I heard that 

 it had been dug up.' 



" ' That's just rubbish ; it has never been dug up.' 



" ' Well,' said I, ' it seems to me that I've heard some- 

 thing about it too ; I believe it was here on board, and 

 I am very much mistaken if it was not yourself that said 

 it, Peter.' 



" ' No, I never said that. All I said was that a man 



