The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 44

Bell and he carried this body into the snow-house, while Hatteras stood in silence, gazing at the sunken dwelling.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The doctor stripped the body; it bore no signs of injury; with Bell's aid he rubbed it vigorously with tow dipped in alcohol, and he saw life gradually reviving within it; but the man was in a state of complete prostration, and unable to speak; his tongue clove to his palate as if it were frozen.

The doctor examined his patient's pockets; they were empty. No paper.

He let Bell continue rubbing, and went out to Hatteras.

He found him in the ruined snow-house, clearing away the floor; soon he came out, bearing a half-burned piece of an envelope. A few words could be deciphered:--

....tamont ...._orpoise_ ....w York.

"Altamont!" shouted the doctor, "of the _Porpoise_! of New York!"

"An American!" said Hatteras.

"I shall save him," said the doctor; "I'll answer for it, and we shall find out the explanation of this puzzle."

He returned to Altamont, while Hatteras remained pensive. The doctor succeeded in recalling the unfortunate man to life, but not to consciousness; he neither saw, heard, nor spoke, but at any rate he was alive!

The next morning Hatteras said to the doctor,--

"We must start."

"All right, Hatteras! The sledge is not loaded; we shall carry this poor fellow back to the s.h.i.+p with us.

"Very well," said Hatteras. "But first let us bury these corpses."

The two unknown sailors were placed beneath the ruins of the snow-house; Simpson's body took the place of Altamont's.

The three travellers uttered a short prayer over their companion, and at seven o'clock in the morning they set off again for the s.h.i.+p.

Two of the dogs were dead. Duke volunteered to drag the sledge, and he worked as resolutely as a Greenland dog.

For twenty days, from January 31st to February 19th, the return was very much like the first part of the journey. Save that it was in the month of February, the coldest of the whole year, and the ice was harder; the travellers suffered terribly from the cold, but not from the wind or snow-storm.

The sun reappeared for the first time January 31st; every day it rose higher above the horizon. Bell and the doctor were at the end of their strength, almost blind and quite lame; the carpenter could not walk without crutches. Altamont was alive, but continued insensible; sometimes his life was despaired of, but unremitting care kept him alive! And yet the doctor needed to take the greatest care of himself, for his health was beginning to suffer.

Hatteras thought of the _Forward_! In what condition was he going to find it? What had happened on board? Had Johnson been able to withstand Shandon and his allies? The cold had been terrible! Had they burned the s.h.i.+p? Had they spared her masts and keel?

While thinking of this, Hatteras walked on as if he had wished to get an early view of the _Forward_.

February 24th, in the morning, he stopped suddenly. Three hundred paces before him appeared a reddish glow, above which rose an immense column of black smoke, which was lost in the gray clouds of the sky.

"See that smoke!" he shouted.

His heart beat as if it would burst.

"See that smoke!" he said to his companions. "My s.h.i.+p is on fire!"

"But we are more than three miles from it," said Bell. "It can't be the _Forward_!"

"Yes, but it is," answered the doctor; "the mirage makes it seem nearer."

"Let us run!" cried Hatteras.

They left the sledge in charge of Duke, and hastened after the captain. An hour later they came in sight of the s.h.i.+p. A terrible sight! The brig was burning in the midst of the ice, which was melting about her; the flames were lapping her hull, and the southerly breeze brought to Hatteras's ears unaccustomed sounds.

Five hundred feet from the s.h.i.+p stood a man raising his hands in despair; he stood there, powerless, facing the fire which was destroying the _Forward_.

The man was alone; it was Johnson.

Hatteras ran towards him.

"My s.h.i.+p! my s.h.i.+p!" he cried.

"You! Captain!" answered Johnson; "you! stop! not a step farther!"

"Well?" asked Hatteras with a terrible air.

"The wretches!" answered Johnson, "they've been gone forty-eight hours, after firing the s.h.i.+p!"

"Curse them!" groaned Hatteras.

Then a terrible explosion was heard; the earth trembled; the icebergs fell; a column of smoke rose to the clouds, and the _Forward_ disappeared in an abyss of fire.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Then a terrible explosion was heard."]

At that moment the doctor and Bell came up to Hatteras. He roused himself suddenly from his despair.

"My friends," he said energetically, "the cowards have taken flight!

The brave will succeed! Johnson, Bell, you are bold; Doctor, you are wise; as for me, I have faith! There is the North Pole! Come, to work!"

Hatteras's companions felt their hearts glow at these brave words.

And yet the situation was terrible for these four men and the dying man, abandoned without supplies, alone at the eighty-fourth degree of lat.i.tude, in the very heart of the polar regions.

END OF PART I.

PART II.

THE DESERT OF ICE.