All the same, there was no use in meeting trouble.

Davies had passed Quebec, and if he made good progress in the next twenty-four hours, one might begin to hope.
Below Quebec there were awkward spots where steamers used buoyed channels, and if these were blocked by ice Davies must risk crossing the shoals.

If he got across, the water was deep and he need only bother about the floes until he came to the Gulf.

Since Belle Isle Strait was frozen, Davies would go South of Anticosti and out by the Cabot passage, but the Gulf was often dark with snow and fog, and one met the old Greenland ice.

Well, much depended on the weather, and Cartwright went to get his lunch.
The restaurant under a big building was warm, and for a time Cartwright occupied his favorite corner of the smoking-room.