IMPRISONED IN DOCTOR'S HOUSE
The first business next day was to arrange for a hunt. It wassettled that Altamont, Bell, and Hatteras should form the party,while Clawbonny should go and explore as far as Isle Johnson, andmake some hydrographic notes and Johnson should remain behind tokeep house.
The three hunters soon completed their preparations. They armedthemselves each with a double barrelled revolver and a rifle, andtook plenty of powder and shot. Each man also carried in his belthis indispensable snow knife and hatchet, and a small supply ofpemmican in case night should surprise them before their return.
Thus equipped, they could go far, and might count on a good supplyof game.
At eight o'clock they started, accompanied by Duk, who frisked andgambolled with delight. They went up the hill to the east, acrossthe cone, and down into the plain below.
The Doctor next took his departure, after agreeing with Johnson on asignal of alarm in case of danger.
The old boatswain was left alone, but he had plenty to do. He beganby unfastening the Greenland dogs, and letting them out for a runafter their long, wearisome confinement. Then he attended to divershousekeeping matters. He had to replenish the stock of combustiblesand provisions, to arrange the store-houses, to mend several brokenutensils, to repair the rents in coverlets, and get new shoes readyfor summer excursions. There was no lack of work, and the oldsailor's nimble clever fingers could do anything.
]
While his hands were busy, his mind was occupied with theconversation of the preceding evening. He thought with regret overthe captain's obstinacy, and yet he felt that there was somethinggrand and even heroic in his determination that neither an Americannor an American ship should first touch the Pole.
The hunters had been gone about an hour when Johnson suddenly heardthe report of a gun.
"Capital!" he exclaimed. "They have found something, andpretty quickly too, for me to hear their guns so distinctly. Theatmosphere must be very clear."
A second and a third shot followed.
"Bravo!" again exclaimed the boatswain; "they must have fallenin luck's way!"
Hatteras could only manage to keep off his pursuersby flinging down one article after another--P.120]
But when three more shots came in rapid succession, the old manturned pale, and a horrible thought crossed his mind, which made himrush out and climb hastily to the top of the cone. He shuddered atthe sight which met his eyes. The three hunters, followed by Duk,were tearing home at full speed, followed by the five huge bears!Their six balls had evidently taken no effect, and the terriblemonsters were close on their heels. Hatteras, who brought up therear, could only manage to keep off his pursuers by flinging downone article after another--first his cap, then his hatchet, and,finally, his gun. He knew that the inquisitive bears would stop andexamine every object, sniffing all round it, and this gave him alittle time, otherwise he could not have escaped, for these animalsoutstrip the fleetest horse, and one monster was so near thatHatteras had to brandish his knife vigorously, to ward off atremendous blow of his paw.
At last, though panting and out of breath, the three men reachedJohnson safely, and slid down the rock with him into the snow-house.The bears stopped short on the upper plateau, and Hatteras and hiscompanions lost no time in barring and barricading them out.
"Here we are at last!" exclaimed Hatteras; "we can defendourselves better now. It is five against five."
"Four!" said Johnson in a frightened voice.
"How?"
"The Doctor!" replied Johnson, pointing to the emptysitting-room.
"Well, he is in Isle Johnson."
"A bad job for him," said Bell.
"But we can't leave him to his fate, in this fashion," saidAltamont.
"No, let's be off to find him at once," replied Hatteras.
]
He opened the door, but soon shut it, narrowly escaping a bear'shug.
"They are there!" he exclaimed.
"All?" asked Bell.
"The whole pack."
Altamont rushed to the windows, and began to fill up the deepembrasure with blocks of ice, which he broke off the walls of thehouse.
His companions followed his example silently. Not a sound was heardbut the low, deep growl of Duk.
To tell the simple truth, however, it was not their own danger thatoccupied their thoughts, but their absent friend, the Doctor's. Itwas for him they trembled, not for themselves. Poor Clawbonny, sogood and devoted as he had been to every member of the littlecolony! This was the first time they had been separated from him.Extreme peril, and most likely a frightful death awaited him, for hemight return unsuspectingly to Fort Providence, and find himself inthe power of these ferocious animals.
]
"And yet," said Johnson, "unless I am much mistaken, he mustbe on guard. Your repeated shots cannot but have warned him. He mustsurely be aware that something unusual has happened."
"But suppose he was too far away to hear them," repliedAltamont, "or has not understood the cause of them? It is tenchances to one but he'll come quickly back, never imagining thedanger. The bears are screened from sight by the crag completely."
"We must get rid of them before he comes," said Hatteras.
"But how?" asked Bell.
]
It was difficult to reply to this, for a sortie was out of thequestion. They had taken care to barricade the entrance passage, butthe bears could easily find a way in if they chose. So it wasthought advisable to keep a close watch on their movements outside,by listening attentively in each room, so as to be able to resistall attempts at invasion. They could hear them distinctly prowlingabout, growling and scraping the walls with their enormous paws.
However, some action must be taken speedily, for time was passing.Altamont resolved to try a port-hole through which he might fire onhis assailants. He had soon scooped out a hole in the wall, but hisgun was hardly pushed through, when it was seized with irresistibleforce, and wrested from his grasp before he could even fire.
"Confound it!" he exclaimed, "we're no match for them."
And he hastened to stop up the breach as fast as possible.
This state of things had lasted upwards of an hour, and there seemedno prospect of a termination. The question of a sortie began now tobe seriously discussed. There was little chance of success, as thebears could not be attacked separately, but Hatteras and hiscompanions had grown so impatient, and it must be confessed werealso so much ashamed of being kept in prison by beasts, that theywould even have dared the risk if the captain had not suddenlythought of a new mode of defence.
He took Johnson's furnace-poker, and thrust it into the stovewhile he made an opening in the snow wall, or rather a partialopening, for he left a thin sheet of ice on the outer side. As soonas the poker was red hot, he said to his comrades who stood eagerlywatching him, wondering what he was going to do--
"This red-hot bar will keep off the bears when they try to gethold of it, and we shall be able easily to fire across it withoutletting them snatch away our guns."
"A good idea," said Bell, posting himself beside Altamont.
Hatteras withdrew the poker, and instantly plunged it in the wall.The melting snow made a loud hissing noise, and two bears ran andmade a snatch at the glowing bar; but they fell back with a terriblehowl, and at the same moment four shots resounded, one after theother.
"Hit!" exclaimed Altamont.
"Hit!" echoed Bell.
"Let us repeat the dose," said Hatteras, carefully stopping upthe opening meantime.
The poker was again thrust into the fire, and in a few minutes wasready for Hatteras to recommence operations.
Altamont and Bell reloaded their guns, and took their places; butthis time the poker would not pass through.
"Confound the beasts!" exclaimed the impetuous American.
"What's the matter?" asked Johnson.
"What's the matter? Why, those plaguey animals are piling upblock after block, intending to bury us
alive!"
"Impossible!"
"Look for yourself; the poker can't get through. I declare it isgetting absurd now."
It was worse than absurd, it was alarming. Things grew worse. It wasevident that the bears meant to stifle their prey, for the sagaciousanimals were heaping up huge masses, which would make escapeimpossible.
"It is too bad," said old Johnson, with a mortified look. "Onemight put up with men, but bears!"
]
Two hours elapsed without bringing any relief to the prisoners; togo out was impossible, and the thick walls excluded all sound.Altamont walked impatiently up and down full of exasperation andexcitement at finding himself worsted for once. Hatteras could thinkof nothing but the Doctor, and of the serious peril which threatenedhim.
]
"Oh, if Mr. Clawbonny were only here!" said Johnson.
"What could he do?" asked Altamont.
"Oh, he'd manage to get us out somehow."
"How, pray?" said the American, crossly.
"If I knew that I should not need him. However, I know what hisadvice just now would be."
"What?"
"To take some food; that can't hurt us. What do you say, Mr.Altamont?"
"Oh, let's eat, by all means, if that will please you, thoughwe're in a ridiculous, not to say humiliating, plight."
"I'll bet you we'll find a way out after dinner."
No one replied, but they seated themselves round the table.
]
Johnson, trained in Clawbonny's school, tried to be brave andunconcerned about the danger, but he could scarcely manage it. Hisjokes stuck in his throat. Moreover, the whole party began to feeluncomfortable. The atmosphere was getting dense, for every openingwas hermetically sealed. The stoves would hardly draw, and it wasevident would soon go out altogether for want of oxygen.
Hatteras was the first to see their fresh danger, and he made noattempt to hide it from his companions.
"If that is the case," said Altamont, "we must get out at allrisks."
"Yes," replied Hatteras; "but let us wait till night. We willmake a hole in the roof, and let in a provision of air, and then oneof us can fire out of it on the bears."
"It is the only thing we can do, I suppose," said Altamont.
So it was agreed; but waiting was hard work, and Altamont could notrefrain from giving vent to his impatience by thunderingmaledictions on the bears, and abusing the ill fate which had placedthem in such an awkward and humbling predicament. "It was beastsversus men," he said, "and certainly the men cut a prettyfigure."
CHAPTER XIII.