“The spirit is still in the body, sir, but about to depart, If we can get him to swallow a little of the coffee, the angel of death may yet loosen his hold on him.”

The coffee was got down this man’s throat, and he instantly revived.  He was a young man named Lee, and was one of the finest physical specimens of strength and youth in the whole crew.  On examining his limbs, none were found absolutely frozen, though the circulation of the blood was so near being checked that another hour of the great cold which had reigned in the cabin, and which was slowly increasing in intensity, must have destroyed him.  On applying a similar process to Daggett, Roswell was startled at the discovery he made.  The feet, legs, and forearms of the unfortunate Vineyarder were all as stiff and rigid as icicles.  In these particulars there could be no mistake, and men were immediately sent for snow, in order to extract the frost by the only safe process known to the sealers.  The dead bodies were carried from the cabin, and laid decently on the ice, outside, the increasing warmth within rendering the removal advisable.  On glancing again at the thermometer, now suspended in a remote part of the cabin, the mercury was found risen to two above zero.  This was a very tolerable degree of cold, and the men began to lay aside some of their extra defences against the weather, which would otherwise be of no service to them when exposed outside.

The crew of the Vineyard Lion had consisted of fifteen souls, one less than that of her consort.  Of these men, four had lost their lives between the wreck and the house; two on a former, and two on the present occasion.  Three bodies were found sitting in the cabin, and two more were taken out of the berths, dead.  The captain, the cook and Lee, added to these, made a dozen, leaving but three of the crew to be accounted for.  When questioned on the subject, Lee said that one of those three had frozen to death in the caverns, several days before, and the other two had set out for the hut in the last snow-storm, unable to endure the cold at the wreck any longer.  As these two men had not arrived at the house when Gardiner and his companions left it, they had perished, out of all doubt.  Thus, of the fifteen human beings who had sailed together from Martha’s Vineyard, ready to encounter every hazard in order to secure wealth, or what in their estimation was wealth, but three remained; and of these, two might be considered in a critical condition.  Lee was the only man of the entire crew who was sound and fit for service.

Chapter XXVII.

  “Bid him bow down to that which is above him,—­
  The overruling Infinite,—­the Maker,——­
  Who made him not for worship,—­let him kneel,
  And we will kneel together.”

  Byron.