CHAPTER V.THE SEAL AND THE BEAR.
Hatteras and the doctor went back to the house.
"You know," said the captain, "that the polar bears chase seals, whichare their principal food. They watch for days at theirbreathing-holes, and seize them the moment they come upon the ice. Soa bear will not be afraid of a seal; far from it."
"I understand your plan," said the doctor, "but it's dangerous."
"But there is a chance of success," answered the captain, "and we musttry it. I am going to put on the sealskin and crawl over the ice. Letus lose no time. Load the gun and give it to me."
The doctor had nothing to say; he would himself have done what hiscompanion was about to try; he left the house, carrying two axes, onefor Johnson, the other for himself; then, accompanied by Hatteras, hewent to the sledge.
There Hatteras put on the sealskin, which very nearly covered him.Meanwhile, Hatteras loaded the gun with the last charge of powder, anddropped in it the quicksilver bullet, which was as hard as steel andas heavy as lead. Then he handed Hatteras the gun, which he hidbeneath the sealskin. Then he said to the doctor,--
"You go and join Johnson; I shall wait a few moments to puzzle theenemy."
"Courage, Hatteras!" said the doctor.
"Don't be uneasy, and above all don't show yourselves before you hearmy gun."
The doctor soon reached the hummock which concealed Johnson.
"Well?" the latter asked.
"Well, we must wait. Hatteras is doing all this to save us."
The doctor was agitated; he looked at the bear, which had grownexcited, as if he had become conscious of the danger which threatenedhim. A quarter of an hour later the seal was crawling over the ice; hemade a circuit of a quarter of a mile to baffle the bear; then hefound himself within three hundred feet of him. The bear then saw him,and settled down as if he were trying to hide. Hatteras imitatedskilfully the movements of a seal, and if he had not known, the doctorwould certainly have taken him for one.
"That's true!" whispered Johnson.
The seal, as he approached the bear, did not appear to see him; heseemed to be seeking some hole through which to reach the water. Thebear advanced towards him over the ice with the utmost caution; hiseager eyes betrayed his excitement; for one or perhaps two months hehad been fasting, and fortune was now throwing a sure prey before him.The seal had come within ten feet of his enemy; the bear hastenedtowards him, made a long leap, and stood stupefied three paces fromHatteras, who, casting aside the sealskin, with one knee resting onthe ground, was aiming at the bear's heart.
The report was sounded, and the bear rolled over on the ice.
"Forward!" shouted the doctor. And, followed by Johnson, he hastenedto the scene of combat. The huge beast rose, and beat the air with onepaw while with the other he tore up a handful of snow to stanch thewound. Hatteras did not stir, but waited, knife in hand. But his aimhad been accurate, and his bullet had hit its mark; before the arrivalof his friends he had plunged his knife into the beast's throat, andit fell, never to rise.
"He plunged his knife into the beast's throat."]
"Victory!" shouted Johnson.
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" cried the doctor.
Hatteras, with folded arms, was gazing calmly at the corpse of hisfoe.
"It's now my turn," said Johnson; "it's very well to have killed it,but there is no need of waiting till it's frozen as hard as a stone,when teeth and knife will be useless for attacking it."
Johnson began by skinning the bear, which was nearly as large as anox; it was nine feet long and six feet in circumference; two hugetusks, three inches long, issued from his mouth. On opening him,nothing was found in his stomach but water; the bear had evidentlyeaten nothing for a long time; nevertheless, he was very fat, and heweighed more than fifteen hundred pounds; he was divided into fourquarters, each one of which gave two hundred pounds of meat, and thehunters carried this flesh back to the snow-house, without forgettingthe animal's heart, which went on beating for three hours.
The others wanted to eat the meat raw, but the doctor bade them waituntil it should be roasted. On entering the house he was struck by thegreat cold within it; he went up to the stove and found the fire out;the occupations as well as the excitement of the morning had madeJohnson forget his customary duty. The doctor tried to rekindle thefire, but there was not even a spark lingering amid the cold ashes.
"Well, we must have patience!" he said to himself. He then went to thesledge to get some tinder, and asked Johnson for his steel, tellinghim that the fire had gone out. Johnson answered that it was hisfault, and he put his hand in his pocket, where he usually kept it; hewas surprised not to find it there. He felt in his other pockets withthe same success; he went into the snow-house and examined carefullythe covering under which he had slept in the previous night, but hecould not find it.
"Well?" shouted the doctor.
Johnson came back, and stared at his companions.
"And haven't you got the steel, Dr. Clawbonny?" he asked.
"No, Johnson."
"Nor you, Captain?"
"No," answered Hatteras.
"You have always carried it," said the doctor.
"Well, I haven't got it now--" murmured the old sailor, growing pale.
"Not got it!" shouted the doctor, who could not help trembling. Therewas no other steel, and the loss of this might bring with it terribleconsequences.
"Hunt again!" said the doctor.
Johnson ran to the piece of ice behind which he had watched the bear,then to the place of combat, where he had cut him up; but he could notfind anything. He returned in despair. Hatteras looked at him withouta word of reproach.
"This is serious," he said to the doctor.
"Yes," the latter answered.
"We have not even an instrument, a glass from which we might take thelens to get fire by means of it!"
"I know it," answered the doctor; "and that is a great pity, becausethe rays of the sun are strong enough to kindle tinder."
"Well," answered Hatteras, "we must satisfy our hunger with this rawmeat; then we shall resume our march and we shall try to reach theship."
"Yes," said the doctor, buried in reflection; "yes, we could do thatif we had to. Why not? We might try--"
"What are you thinking of?" asked Hatteras.
"An idea which has just occurred to me--"
"An idea," said Johnson; "one of your ideas! Then we are saved!"
"It's a question," answered the doctor, "whether it will succeed."
"What is your plan?" said Hatteras.
"We have no lens; well, we will make one."
"How?" asked Johnson.
"With a piece of ice which we shall cut out."
"Why, do you think--"
"Why not? We want to make the sun's rays converge to a common focus,and ice will do as much good as crystal."
"Is it possible?" asked Johnson.
"Yes, only I should prefer fresh to salt water; it is moretransparent, and harder."
"But, if I am not mistaken," said Johnson, pointing to a hummock ahundred paces distant, "that dark green block shows--"
"You are right; come, my friends; bring your hatchet, Johnson."
The three men went towards the block which, as they supposed, wasformed of fresh water.
The doctor had a piece, a foot in diameter, cut through, and he beganto smooth it with the hatchet; then he equalized the surface stillfurther with his knife; then he polished it with his hand, and heobtained soon a lens as transparent as if it had been made of the mostmagnificent crystal. Then he returned to the snow-house, where he tooka piece of tinder and began his experiment. The sun was shiningbrightly; the doctor held the lens so that the rays should be focusedon the tinder, which took fire in a few seconds.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried Johnson, who could hardly trust his eyes. "ODoctor, Doctor!"
The old sailor could not restrain his joy; he was coming and goinglike a madman. The doctor had returned to the house
; a few minuteslater the stove was roaring, and soon a delicious odor of cookingaroused Bell from his torpor. It may be easily imagined how the feastwas enjoyed; still the doctor advised his friends to partake inmoderation; he set an example, and while eating he again began totalk.
"To-day is a lucky day," he said; "we have food enough for ourjourney. But we mustn't fall asleep in the delights of Capua, and we'dbetter start out again."
"We can't be more than forty-eight hours from the _Porpoise_," saidAltamont, who could now begin to speak once more.
"I hope," said the doctor, smiling, "that we shall find material for afire there."
"Yes," said the American.
"For, if my ice lens is good," continued the doctor, "there wouldstill be something desired on cloudy days, and there are many of themless than four degrees from the Pole."
"True!" said Altamont with a sigh, "less than four degrees! My shiphas gone nearer than any yet has been!"
"Forward!" said Hatteras, quickly.
"Forward!" repeated the doctor, gazing uneasily at the two captains.
The strength of the travellers soon returned; the dogs had eatenfreely of the bear's flesh, and they continued their journeynorthward. During their walk the doctor tried to draw from Altamontthe object of his expedition, but the American gave only evasiveanswers.
"There are two men to be watched," he whispered to the boatswain.
"Yes," answered Johnson.
"Hatteras never says a word to the American, and the American seems toshow very little gratitude. Fortunately I am here."
"Dr. Clawbonny," answered Johnson, "since this Yankee has returned tolife, I don't like his face much."
"Either I'm mistaken," answered the doctor, "or he suspects Hatteras'splans."
"Do you think that the stranger has the same plans?"
"Who can tell? The Americans are bold; an American may well try whatan Englishman tries!"
"You think that Altamont--"
"I don't think anything about it," answered the doctor; "but thesituation of this ship on the way to the Pole gives one material forthought."
"But Altamont said he had drifted there."
"He said so! Yes, but he was smiling in a very strange way."
"The devil, Dr. Clawbonny; it would be unfortunate if there should beany rivalry between two such men."
"Heaven grant that I may be mistaken, Johnson, for this misfortunemight produce serious complications, if not some catastrophe."
"I hope Altamont will not forget that we saved his life."
"But isn't he going to save us? I confess that without us he would notbe alive; but what would become of us without him, without his ship,without its resources?"
"Well, Doctor, you are here, and I hope with your aid all will gowell."
"I hope so, Johnson."
The voyage went on without incident; there was no lack of bear'sflesh, and they made copious meals of it; there was a certaingood-humor in the little band, thanks to the jests of the doctor andhis pleasant philosophy; this worthy man always had some scrap ofinformation to give to his companions. His health continued good; hehad not grown very thin, in spite of his fatigues and privations; hisfriends at Liverpool would have recognized him without difficulty;especially would they have recognized his unaltered good-humor.
During the morning of Saturday the appearance of the plain of icechanged materially; the perturbed fragments, the frequent packs, thehummocks, showed that the ice-field was enduring some severe pressure;evidently some unknown continent, some new island, might have causedthis by narrowing the passes. Blocks of fresh water, more frequent andlarger, indicated the coast to be near. Hence, there was near them anew land, and the doctor yearned with a desire to add to the charts ofthe northern regions. Great is the pleasure of ascertaining the lineof these unknown coasts, and of tracing it with a pencil; that was thedoctor's aim, while that of Hatteras was merely to place his foot uponthe Pole, and he took pleasure in advance in thinking of the names hewas going to give to the seas, straits, bays, and slightestpromontories in these new continents; certainly he would not forgetthe names of his companions, his friends, nor her Gracious Majesty,nor the royal family; and he foresaw a certain "Cape Clawbonny" withgreat satisfaction.
These thoughts kept him busy all day; that evening they encamped asusual, and each one took his turn at watching near these unknownlands. The next day, Sunday, after a heavy breakfast of bear's paws,which were very good, the travellers pushed on to the north, inclininga little to the west; the road grew difficult, but yet they advancedrapidly. Altamont, from the top of the sledge, scanned the horizonwith feverish attention; his companions were the victims ofinvoluntary uneasiness. The last solar observations gave them latitude83 degrees 35 minutes, and longitude 120 degrees 15 minutes; that wasthe place where the American ship was said to be lying; the questionof life and death was to be solved that day. At last, at about halfpast two in the afternoon, Altamont stood straight, stopped the littleband by a loud cry, and, pointing with his hand to a white mass, whichall the rest had taken for an iceberg, he cried with a loud voice,--
"The _Porpoise_!"