The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 84

"Hatteras," said the doctor, "this is far enough! we can't go any farther!"

"Stay where you are, then," answered the captain in a strange voice; "I shall go higher!"

"No! that's useless! you are at the Pole here!"

"No, no, higher!"

"My friend, it's I who am speaking to you, Dr. Clawbonny! Don't you know me?"

"Higher! higher!" repeated the madman.

"Well, no, we sha'n't let--"

The doctor had not finished the sentence before Hatteras, by a violent effort, sprang over the stream of lava and was out of their reach.

They uttered a cry, thinking Hatteras was lost in the fiery abyss; but he had reached the other side, followed by Duke, who was unwilling to abandon him.

He disappeared behind a puff of smoke, and his voice was heard growing fainter and fainter in the distance.

"To the north!" he was shouting, "to the top of Mount Hatteras! Do you remember Mount Hatteras?"

They could not think of getting up to him; there were twenty chances to one against their being able to cross the stream he had leaped over with the skill and luck of madmen. Nor could they get around it.

Altamont in vain tried to pa.s.s; he was nearly lost in trying to cross the stream of lava; his companions were obliged to hold him by force.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Hatteras, Hatteras!" shouted the doctor.

But the captain did not answer; Duke's barking alone was heard upon the mountain.

Still, Hatteras could be seen at intervals through the column of smoke and the showers of cinders. Sometimes his arm or head would emerge from the whirlwind. Then he would disappear and be seen again higher up in the rocks. His height diminished with the fantastic swiftness of objects rising in the air. Half an hour later he seemed but a fraction of his usual size.

The air was filled with the dull noises of the volcano; the mountain was roaring like a boiler, its sides were quivering. Hatteras kept on, and Duke followed. From time to time some enormous rock would give way beneath them and go crashing down to the sea. But Hatteras did not look back. He had made use of his staff as a pole on which to fasten the English flag. His companions observed every one of his movements.

His dimensions became gradually smaller, and Duke seemed no larger than a rat. One moment the wind seemed to drive down upon them a great wave of flame. The doctor uttered a cry of anguish, but Hatteras reappeared, standing and brandishing the flag.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "But Hatteras did not look back. He had made use of his staff as a pole on which to fasten the English flag."]

This sight lasted for more than an hour,--an hour of struggle with the trembling rocks, with the beds of ashes into which this madman would sink up to the waist. Now he would be climbing on his knees and making use of every inequality in the mountain, and now he would hang by his hands at some sharp corner, swinging in the wind like a dry leaf.

At last he reached the top, the yawning mouth of the crater. The doctor then hoped that the wretched man, having attained his object, would perhaps return and have only those dangers before him.

He gave a last shout.

"Hatteras, Hatteras!"

The doctor's cry moved the American's heart so that he cried out,--

"I will save him!"

Then with one leap crossing the fiery torrent at the risk of falling in, he disappeared among the rocks. Clawbonny did not have time to stop him. Still, Hatteras, having reached the top, was climbing on top of a rock which overhung the abyss. The stones were raining about him.

Duke was still following him. The poor beast seemed already dizzy at the sight beneath him. Hatteras was whirling about his head the flag, which was lighted with the brilliant reflection, and the red bunting could be seen above the crater. With one hand Hatteras was holding it; with the other he was pointing to the zenith, the celestial pole.

Still he seemed to hesitate. He was seeking the mathematical point where all the meridians meet, and on which in his sublime obstinacy he wanted to set his foot.

Suddenly the rock gave way beneath him. He disappeared. A terrible cry from his companions rose even to the summit of the mountain. A second--a century--pa.s.sed! Clawbonny considered his friend lost and buried forever in the depths of the volcano. But Altamont was there, and Duke too. The man and the dog had seized him just when he was disappearing in the abyss. Hatteras was saved, saved in spite of himself, and half an hour later the captain of the _Forward_ lay unconscious in the arms of his despairing friends.

When he came to himself, the doctor gave him a questioning glance in mute agony. But his vague look, like that of a blind man, made no reply.

"Heavens!" said Johnson, "he is blind!"

"No," answered Clawbonny,--"no! My poor friends, we have saved Hatteras's body! His mind is at the top of the volcano! He has lost his reason!"

"Mad?" cried Johnson and Altamont in deep distress.

"Mad!" answered the doctor.

And he wept bitterly.

CHAPTER XXVI.

RETURN TO THE SOUTH.

Three hours after this sad conclusion to the adventures of Captain Hatteras, Clawbonny, Altamont, and the two sailors were a.s.sembled in the cavern at the foot of the volcano. Then Clawbonny was asked to give his opinion on what was to be done.

"My friends," he said, "we cannot prolong our stay at Queen's Island; the sea is open before us; our provisions are sufficient; we must set out and reach Fort Providence as soon as possible, and we can go into winter-quarters till next summer."

"That is my opinion," said Altamont; "the wind is fair, and to-morrow we shall set sail."

The day pa.s.sed in great gloom. The captain's madness was a sad foreboding, and when Johnson, Bell, and Altamont thought of their return, they were afraid of their loneliness and remoteness. They felt the need of Hatteras's bold soul. Still, like energetic men they made ready for a new struggle with the elements, and with themselves, in case they should feel themselves growing faint-hearted.

The next day, Sat.u.r.day, July 13th, the camping materials were put on the boat, and soon everything was ready for their departure. But before leaving this rock forever, the doctor, following Hatteras's intentions, put up a cairn at the place where the captain reached the island; this cairn was built of large rocks laid on one another, so as to form a perfectly visible landmark, if it were not destroyed by the eruption.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "The doctor put up a cairn."]

On one of the lateral stones Bell carved with a chisel this simple inscription:--

JOHN HATTERAS 1861.

A copy of the doc.u.ment was placed inside of the cairn in an hermetically sealed tin cylinder, and the proof of this great discovery was left here on these lonely rocks.

Then the four men and the captain,--a poor body without a mind,--and his faithful Duke, sad and melancholy, got into the boat for the return voyage. It was ten o'clock in the morning. A new sail was set up with the canvas of the tent. The launch, sailing before the wind, left Queen's Island, and that evening the doctor, standing on his bench, waved a last farewell to Mount Hatteras, which was lighting up the horizon.

Their voyage was very quick; the sea, which was always open, was easy sailing, and it seemed really easier to go away from the Pole than to approach it. But Hatteras was in no state to understand what was going on about him; he lay at full length in the launch, his mouth closed, his expression dull, and his arms folded. Duke lay at his feet. It was in vain that the doctor questioned him. Hatteras did not hear him.

For forty-eight hours the breeze was fair and the sea smooth.

Clawbonny and his companions rejoiced in the north-wind. July 15th, they made Altamont Harbor in the south; but since the Polar Ocean was open all along the coast, instead of crossing New America by sledge, they resolved to sail around it, and reach Victoria Bay by sea. This voyage was quicker and easier. In fact, the s.p.a.ce which had taken them a fortnight on sledges took them hardly a week by sail; and after following the rugged outline of the coast, which was fringed with numerous fiords, and determining its shape, they reached Victoria Bay, Monday evening, July 23d.

The launch was firmly anch.o.r.ed to the sh.o.r.e, and each one ran to Fort Providence. The Doctor's House, the stores, the magazine, the fortifications, all had melted in the sun, and the supplies had been devoured by hungry beasts.