40 
.T H E IV R A I T H. 
us they attempt to ridicule his fear, is like the ghost- 
story merriment of a nursery circle.” 
It was an ugly and withal an anxious night. Mr. 
Goodfellow, the youngest of our party, had left the 
cabin soon after dinner for an inland stroll with his 
gun, and he had not returned when the scanty twilight 
closed before its time. The wind blew off the coast, 
piling the snow in great hills and changing the whole 
face of the floe. As the darkness wore on we be¬ 
came uneasy, and at last alarmed, at his absence. We 
burnt bluelights and Roman candles to guide him 
through the night; but it was six o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing before he came in, happily none the worse for his 
adventure. 
Honest Tom Hickey had been on the deck recon¬ 
noitring for him while the gale was at its height. He 
came down to the mess just before the alarm of the 
thumping fur-bag, declaring he had seen Mr. Good- 
fellow moving cautiously along the land-ice and jump¬ 
ing down on the field below. He hurried his tea-things 
to give him a warm supper, but no one came. In the 
result, though Tom volunteered to make search at the 
spot where lie had seen his messmate, and Riley offered 
to accompany him, and I myself looked diligently after¬ 
ward with a lantern for some hundreds of yards around, 
we found nothing but fresh drifted snow, without the 
trace of a human foot. Tom had seen a wraith; he 
believes it religiously, and associates its mysterious 
advent with the luminous fur-bag. - 
“There must be some warm southern area over 
