Two Sailor Lads by Gordon Stables

Nearer and nearer sailed the _San Salvador_, closer and closer into the bay; and soon the dark spot resolved itself into something with a definable shape. Presently all doubt was dispelled; it was a ship lying on the ice on her beam ends, and a few minutes after several men were seen clustering near her.

The captain took the glass from his eye,

"There is no doubt about it," he said aloud. "Yonder lies the wreck of the _Resolute_."

Then the crew manned the bulwarks, the capstan, and winch, and cheer after cheer rose on the icy air of the morning, such cheers as only can be heard from true British sailors.

Was it an echo from the cold and snowy mountain cliffs, or was it really a cheer in response to theirs, that now came feebly back over the dark waters? None could tell. But in a very short time the _San Salvador_ was near enough to see figures running excitedly about on the ice.

They are soon near enough for safety, the anchor chains rattle out, and the sails are clued; and soon a boat is speeding shorewards, both Captain Cawdor and his young friend Fred being seated in the stern sheets.

And now I have a strange fact to record; and mind you, reader, facts are stranger far than fiction, and I must leave the elucidation thereof to the psychologist.

As the boat entered the bay then, and the mountains and cliffs grew taller and taller, and cast great shadows across the water, Fred was noticed by his captain to become strangely excited, and to look more and more surprised every moment. He kept gazing around him.

"Captain Cawdor," he said at last, clutching his friend's arm, "am I really and truly awake? Oh, sir, everything around me is familiar -- every rock and cliff and gloomy hill! Oh, captain, I've been here before!"

He looked so wild as he spoke that Captain Cawdor really began to think he was taking leave of his senses. But he had more reason to think so immediately afterwards.

Fred started to his feet, his cap falling off as he did so, his eyes staring shorewards, in which direction also his right arm was stretched.

"I knew it! I knew it! " he cried. "It is my dream coming true -- my thrice-dreamt dream! Look, sir, look! Yonder stands Frank himself!"

He waved both arms madly above his head,

"Frank! Frank! Frank! " he shouted, "it is I, Fred Arundel, your friend, your brother!"

He sank down almost exhausted.

Captain Cawdor noticed a young man in the garb of a sailor come staggering along the snow to the very edge of the black water, where he swayed about, so that those in the boat were in momentary expectation of seeing him fall into the sea.

No sooner had the boat touched the snow edge than Fred sprang up and leapt on shore, and next moment the two long-lost friends stood hand in hand gazing into each other's faces, though neither could speak a single word.

Frank was the first to regain his voice.

"God bless you, Fred; I knew you'd come."

"You _knew_, Frank?"