THE SEQUEL. 
211 
it by a special watch. Besides all this, reconnoitring 
stealthily beyond Sylvia Head, we discovered a train 
of sledges drawn up behind the hummocks. 
There was cause for apprehension in all this; but I 
felt that I could not afford to break with the rogues. 
They had it in their power to molest us seriously in 
our sledge-travel; they could make our hunts around 
the harbor dangerous; and my best chance of obtain¬ 
ing an abundant supply of fresh meat, our great desi¬ 
deratum, was by their agency. I treated the new 
party with marked kindness, and gave them many 
presents; but took care to make them aware that, until 
all the missing articles were restored, no member of 
the tribe would be admitted again as a guest on board 
the brig. They went off with many pantomimic pro¬ 
testations of innocence; but McGary, nevertheless, 
caught the incorrigible scamps stealing a coal-barrel as 
they passed Butler Island, and expedited their journey 
homeward by firing among them a charge of small 
shot. 
Still, one peculiar worthy—we thought it must have 
been the venerable of the party, whom I knew after¬ 
ward as a stanch friend, old Shang-huh—managed to 
work round in a westerly direction, and to cut to pieces 
my India-rubber boat, which had been left on the floe 
since Mr. Brooks’s disaster, and to carry off every par¬ 
ticle of the wood. 
A few days after this, an agile, elfin youth drove up 
to our floe in open day. He was sprightly and good- 
looking, and had quite a neat turn-out of sledge and 
