The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 69

"Yes," he answered, with his face expressing surprise at the question.

"You want to reach the North Pole," resumed the doctor; "I understand your ambition, I share it, but to reach this end we need the means."

"Well, haven't I so far sacrificed everything in order to succeed?"

"No, Hatteras, you have not sacrificed your personal prejudices, and at this moment I see that you are ready to refuse the indispensable means of reaching the Pole."

"Ah!" answered Hatteras, "you mean the launch; this man--"

"Come, Hatteras, let us argue coolly, without pa.s.sion, and look at all sides of the question. The line of the coast on which we have wintered may be broken; there is no proof that it runs six degrees to the north; if the information which has brought you so far is right, we ought to find a vast extent of open sea during the summer months. Now, with the Arctic Ocean before us, free of ice and favorable for navigation, what shall we do if we lack the means of crossing it?"

Hatteras made no answer.

"Do you want to be within a few miles of the Pole without being able to reach it?"

Hatteras's head sank into his hands.

"And now," continued the doctor, "let us look at the question from a moral point of view. I can understand that an Englishman should give up his life and his fortune for the honor of his country. But because a boat made of a few planks torn from a wrecked American ship first touches the coast or crosses the unknown ocean, can that diminish the honor of the discovery? If you found on this sh.o.r.e the hull of an abandoned ship, should you hesitate to make use of it? Doesn't the glory of success belong to the head of the expedition? And I ask you if this launch built by four Englishmen, manned by four Englishmen, would not be English from keel to gunwale?"

Hatteras was still silent.

"No," said Clawbonny, "let us talk frankly; it's not the boat you mind, it's the man."

"Yes, Doctor, yes," answered the captain, "that American; I hate him with real English hate, that man thrown in my way by chance--"

"To save you!"

"To ruin me! He seems to defy me, to act as master, to imagine he holds my fate in his hands, and to have guessed my plans. Didn't he show his character when we were giving names to the new lands? Has he ever said what he was doing here? You can't free me of the idea which is killing me, that this man is the head of an expedition sent out by the government of the United States."

"And if he is, Hatteras, what is there to show that he is in search of the Pole? Can't America try to discover the Northwest Pa.s.sage as well as England? At any rate, Altamont is perfectly ignorant of your plans; for neither Johnson nor Bell nor you nor I has said a single word about them in his presence."

"Well, I hope he'll never know them!"

"He will know them finally, of course, for we can't leave him alone here."

"Why not?" asked the captain, with some violence; "can't he remain at Fort Providence?"

"He would never give his consent, Hatteras; and then to leave him here, uncertain of finding him again, would be more than imprudent, it would be inhuman. Altamont will come with us; he must come! But since there is no need of suggesting new ideas to him, let us say nothing, and build a launch apparently for reconnoitring these new sh.o.r.es."

Hatteras could not make up his mind to accede to the demands of his friend, who waited for an answer which did not come.

"And if he refused to let us tear his ship to pieces!" said the captain, finally.

"In that case, you would have the right on your side; you could build the boat in spite of him, and he could do nothing about it."

"I hope he will refuse," exclaimed Hatteras.

"Before he refuses," answered the doctor, "he must be asked. I will undertake to do it."

In fact, that evening, before supper, Clawbonny turned the conversation to certain proposed expeditions in the summer months for hydrographic observations.

"I suppose, Altamont," he said, "that you will join us?"

"Certainly," was the reply; "we must know how large New America is."

Hatteras gazed earnestly at his rival while he made his answer.

"And for that," continued Altamont, "we must make the best use we can of the fragments of the _Porpoise_; let us make a strong boat which can carry us far."

"You hear, Bell," said the doctor, quickly; "to-morrow we shall set to work."

CHAPTER XV.

THE NORTHWEST Pa.s.sAGE.

The next day Bell, Altamont, and the doctor went to the _Porpoise_; they found no lack of wood; the old three-masted launch, though injured by being wrecked, could still supply abundant material for the new one. The carpenter set to work at once; they needed a seaworthy boat, which should yet be light enough to carry on a sledge. Towards the end of May the weather grew warmer; the thermometer rose above the freezing-point; the spring came in earnest this time, and the men were able to lay aside their winter clothing. Much rain fell, and soon the snow began to slide and melt away. Hatteras could not hide his joy at seeing the first signs of thaw in the ice-fields. The open sea meant liberty for him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "The carpenter set to work at once."]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Whether or not his predecessors had been wrong on this great question of an open polar sea, he hoped soon to know. All chance of success in his undertaking depended on this. One evening, after a warm day in which the ice had given unmistakable signs of breaking up, he turned the conversation to the question of an open sea. He took up the familiar arguments, and found the doctor, as ever, a warm advocate of his doctrine. Besides, his conclusions were evidently accurate.

"It is plain," he said, "that if the ocean before Victoria Bay gets clear of ice, its southern part will also be clear as far as New Cornwall and Queen's Channel. Penny and Belcher saw it in that state, and they certainly saw clearly."

"I agree with you, Hatteras," answered the doctor, "and I have no reason for doubting the word of these sailors; a vain attempt has been made to explain their discovery as an effect of mirage; but they were so certain, it was impossible that they could have made such a mistake."

"I always thought so," said Altamont; "the polar basin extends to the east as well as to the west."

"We can suppose so, at any rate," answered Hatteras.

"We ought to suppose so," continued the American, "for this open sea which Captains Penny and Belcher saw near the coast of Grinnell Land was seen by Morton, Kane's lieutenant, in the straits which are named after that bold explorer."

"We are not in Kane's sea," answered Hatteras, coldly, "and consequently we cannot verify the fact."

"It is supposable, at least," said Altamont.

"Certainly," replied the doctor, who wished to avoid useless discussion. "What Altamont thinks ought to be the truth; unless there is a peculiar disposition of the surrounding land, the same effects appear at the same lat.i.tudes. Hence I believe the sea is open in the east as well as in the west."

"At any rate, it makes very little difference to us," said Hatteras.

"I don't agree with you, Hatteras," resumed the American, who was beginning to be annoyed by the affected unconcern of the captain; "it may make considerable difference to us."

"And when, if I may ask?"