“Eh!” answered the doctor, “who can say? For greater safety, my friends, I beg one more day of watching; it is certain the enemy did not approach last night, at least from this side—”
“Let us make a circuit of the plateau,” said Altamont, “and then we shall make sure.”
“Willingly,” said the doctor.
But with all their care in exploration, not the slightest trace could be found.
“Well, shall we start on our hunt?” asked Altamont, impatiently.
“Let us wait till tomorrow,” urged the doctor.
“All right,” answered Altamont, who had some reluctance, however, about conceding.
They returned to the fort. Each one had to watch for an hour, as on the previous evening. When Altamont’s turn came, he went to relieve Bell. As soon as he was gone, Hatteras called his companions together. The doctor left his notes, and Johnson his furnaces. It might have been supposed that Hatteras was going to discuss the dangers of the situation; he did not even think of them.
“My friends,” he said, “let us take advantage of the absence of this American, to talk over our affairs; some things don’t concern him at all, and I don’t care to have him meddling with them.”
The others looked at one another, uncertain of his meaning.
“I want to speak with you,” he said, “about our future plans.”
“Well,” answered the doctor, “let us talk now we are alone.”
“In a month, or six weeks at the latest,” Hatteras began, “we shall be able to make distant excursions. Had you thought of what might be done in the summer?”
“Had you, Captain?” asked Johnson.
“I? I can say that not an hour passes without my mind’s recurring to my plan. I suppose no one of you has any thought of returning—”
There was no immediate answer to this insinuation.
“As for me,” continued Hatteras, “if I have to go alone, I shall go to the North Pole; we are only three hundred and sixty miles from it at the outside. No men have ever been so near it, and I shall not let such a chance go by without the attempt, even if it be impossible. What are your views in the matter?”
“Your own,” answered the doctor.
“And yours, Johnson?”
“The same as the doctor’s,” answered the boatswain.
“It is your turn to speak, Bell,” said Hatteras.
“Captain,” answered the carpenter, “it is true we have no family awaiting us in England, but our country is our country: don’t you think of going back?”
“We shall go back easily as soon as we shall have discovered the Pole. In fact, more easily. The difficulties will not increase, for, on our way thither, we leave behind us the coldest spots on the globe. We have supplies of all sorts for a long time. There is nothing to hinder us, and we should be to blame if we did not push on to the end.”
“Well,” answered Bell, “we are all of your opinion, Captain.”
“Good!” replied Hatteras. “I have never doubted of you. We shall succeed, my friends, and England shall have all the glory of our success.”
“But there is an American with us,” said Johnson.
Hatteras could not restrain a wrathful gesture at this remark.
“I know it,” he said in a deep voice.
“We can’t leave him here,” continued the doctor.
“No, we cannot,” answered Hatteras, coldly.
“And he will certainly come.”
“Yes, he will come, but who will command?”
“You, Captain.”
“And if you obey me, will this Yankee refuse to obey?”
“I don’t think so,” answered Johnson; “but if he is unwilling to obey your orders—”
“It would have to be settled between him and me.”
The three Englishmen looked at Hatteras without a word. The doctor broke the silence.
“How shall we travel?” he asked.
“By keeping along the coast as much as possible,” answered Hatteras.
“But if we find the sea open, as is likely?”
“Well, we shall cross it.”
“How? We have no boat.”
Hatteras did not answer; he was evidently embarrassed.
“Perhaps,” suggested Bell, “we might build a launch out of the timbers of the Porpoise.”
“Never!” shouted Hatteras, warmly.
“Never?” exclaimed Johnson.
The doctor shook his head; he understood the captain’s unwillingness.
“Never!” the latter answered. “A launch made out of the wood of an American ship would be an American launch—”
“But, Captain—” interposed Johnson.
The doctor made a sign to the old boatswain to keep silent. A more suitable time was required for that question. The doctor, although he understood Hatteras’s repugnance, did not sympathize with it, and he determined to make his friend abandon this hasty decision. Hence he spoke of something else, of the possibility of going along the coast to the north, and that unknown point, the North Pole. In a word, he avoided all dangerous subjects of conversation up to the moment when it was suddenly ended by the entrance of Altamont. He had nothing new to report. The day ended in this way, and the night was quiet. The bears had evidently disappeared.
XII
The Ice Prison
The next day they determined to arrange the hunt, in which Hatteras, Altamont, and the carpenter were to take part; no more tracks were to be seen; the bears had decidedly given up their plan of attack, either from fear of their unknown enemies, or because there had been no sign of living beings beneath the mass of snow. During the absence of the three hunters, the doctor was to push on to Johnson Island to examine the condition of the ice, and to make some hydrographic investigations. The cold was sharp, but they supported it well, having become accustomed to it by this time. The boatswain was to remain at Doctor’s House; in a word, to guard the house.
The three hunters made their preparations; each one took a double-barrelled rifled gun, with conical balls; they carried a small quantity of pemmican, in case night should fall before their return; they also were provided with the snow-knife, which is so indispensable in these regions, and a hatchet which they wore in their
