What foundation had he for it?
None but the hearing of an idle boast that the man had made one day to his wife, and that she in simplicity had taken for earnest.
Le Maitre signified that he would go with O'Shea.

Indeed, looked at from a short distance, the passage through the ice did not look so difficult as it had proved.
O'Shea and Caius parted without word or glance of farewell.

Caius clambered over the side of the schooner; the one thought in his mind was to get a nearer view of Le Maitre.
This man was still standing sleepily.

He did not bear closer inspection well.

His clothes were dirty, especially about the front of vest and coat; there was everything to suggest an entire lack of neatness in personal habits; more than that, the face at the time bore unmistakable signs that enough alcohol had been drunk to benumb, although not to stupefy, his faculties: the eye was bloodshot; the face, weather-beaten as it was, was flabby.