CHAPTER XVII.ALTAMONT'S REVENGE.
The next day the doctor and his two companions woke up after aperfectly quiet night. The cold, although not keen, increased towardsdaybreak, but they were well covered, and slept soundly under thewatch of the peaceful animals.
The weather being pleasant, they resolved to consecrate the day to areconnaissance of the country, and the search of musk-oxen. Altamontinsisted on shooting something, and they decided that, even if theseoxen should be the gentlest animals in the world, they should be shot.Besides, their flesh, although strongly flavored with musk, waspleasant eating, and they all hoped to carry back to Fort Providence agood supply of it.
During the early morning hours nothing noteworthy took place; the landgrew different in the northeast; a few elevations, the beginning of amountainous district, indicated a change. If this New America were nota continent, it was at any rate an important island; but then they didnot have to trouble themselves about its geography.
Duke ran ahead, and soon came across some traces of a herd ofmusk-oxen; he then advanced rapidly, and soon disappeared from theeyes of the hunters. They followed his clear barking, which soon grewso hasty that they knew he had discovered the object of their search.They pushed on, and in an hour and a half they came up to two of theseanimals; they were large, and formidable in appearance. They appearedmuch surprised at Duke's attacks, but not alarmed; they were feedingoff a sort of reddish moss which grew on the thin soil. The doctorrecognized them at once from their moderate height, their horns, whichwere broad at the base, the absence of muzzle, their sheep-likeforehead, and short tail; their shape has earned for them fromnaturalists the name of "ovibos," a compound, and which expresses thetwo sorts of animals whose characteristics they share. Thick, longhair and a sort of delicate brown silk formed their fur.
They ran away when they saw the two hunters, who came running up afterthem. It was hard to reach them for men who were out of breath afterrunning half an hour. Hatteras and his companions stopped.
"The Devil!" said Altamont.
"That's just the word," said the doctor, as soon as he could takebreath. "I'll grant they are Americans, and they can't have a verygood idea of your countrymen."
"That proves we are good hunters," answered Altamont.
Still, the musk-oxen, seeing they were not pursued, stopped in aposture of surprise. It became evident that they could never be rundown; they would have to be surrounded; the plateau on which they wereaided this manoeuvre. The hunters, leaving Duke to harass them,descended through the neighboring ravines, so as to get around theplateau. Altamont and the doctor hid behind a rock at one end, whileHatteras, suddenly advancing from the other end, should drive the oxentowards them. In half an hour each had gained his post.
"You don't object any longer to our shooting?" asked Altamont.
"No, it's fair fighting," answered the doctor, who, in spite ofgentleness, was a real sportsman.
They were talking in this way, when they saw the oxen running, andDuke at their heels; farther on Hatteras was driving them, with loudcries, towards the American and the doctor, who ran to meet thismagnificent prey.
At once the oxen stopped, and, less fearful of a single enemy, theyturned upon Hatteras. He awaited them calmly, aimed at the nearest,and fired; but the bullet struck the animal in the middle of hisforehead, without penetrating the skull. Hatteras's second shotproduced no other effect than to make the beasts furious; they ran tothe disarmed hunter, and threw him down at once.
"He is lost," cried the doctor.
At the moment Clawbonny pronounced these words with an accent ofdespair, Altamont made a step forward to run to Hatteras's aid; thenhe stopped, struggling against himself and his prejudices.
"No," he cried, "that would be cowardice."
He hastened with Clawbonny to the scene of combat. His hesitation hadnot lasted half a second. But if the doctor saw what was taking placein the American's heart, Hatteras understood it, who would rather havedied than have implored his rival's interference. Still, he had hardlytime to perceive it, for Altamont appeared before him. Hatteras, lyingon the ground, was trying to ward off the horns and hoofs of the twoanimals. But he could not long continue so unequal a struggle. He wasabout to be torn in pieces, when two shots were heard. Hatteras heardthe bullets whistling by his head.
"Don't be frightened!" shouted Altamont, hurling his gun to one side,and rushing upon the angry animals.
One of the oxen fell, shot through the heart; the other, wild withrage, was just going to gore the captain, when Altamont faced him, andplunged into his mouth his hand, armed with a snow-knife; with theother he gave him a terrible blow with a hatchet on the head. This wasdone with marvellous rapidity, and a flash of lightning would have litup the whole scene.
"Gave him a terrible blow with a hatchet on the head."]
The second ox fell back dead.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried Clawbonny.
Hatteras was saved. He owed his life to the man whom he detested mostin the world. What was going on in his mind at this time? What emotionwas there which he could not master? That is one of the secrets of theheart which defy all analysis.
However that may be, Hatteras advanced to his rival withouthesitation, and said to him seriously,--
"You have saved my life, Altamont."
"You saved mine," answered the American. There was a moment's silence.Then Altamont added, "We are now quits, Hatteras!"
"No, Altamont," answered the captain; "when the doctor took you fromyour icy tomb, I did not know who you were, and you have saved me atthe risk of your own life, knowing who I was."
"You are a fellow-being," answered Altamont; "and whatever else he maybe, an American is not a coward."
"No, he is not," said the doctor; "he is a man! a man like you,Hatteras!"
"And like me he shall share the glory which is awaiting us!"
"The glory of going to the North Pole?" said Altamont.
"Yes," said the captain, haughtily.
"I had guessed it!" exclaimed the American. "So you dared conceive ofthis bold design! You dared try to reach that inaccessible point! Ah,that is great! It is sublime!"
"But you," asked Hatteras, hurriedly, "were you not on your way to thePole?"
Altamont seemed to hesitate about replying.
"Well?" said the doctor.
"Well, no," answered the American,--"no; tell the truth, and shame theDevil! No, I did not have this great idea, which has brought you here.I was trying simply to sail through the Northwest Passage, that isall."
"Altamont," said Hatteras, holding out his hand to the American,"share our glory, and go with us to the North Pole!"
The two men then shook hands warmly.
When they turned towards the doctor, they saw his eyes full of tears.
"Ah, my friends," he murmured, as he dried his eyes, "how can my hearthold the joy with which you fill it? My dear companions, you havesacrificed a miserable question of nationality in order to unite inyour common success! You know that England and America have nothing todo with all this; that mutual sympathy ought to bind you togetheragainst the dangers of the journey! If the North Pole is discovered,what difference does it make who does it? Why stand bickering aboutEnglish or American, when we can be proud of being men?"
The doctor embraced the reconciled foes; he could not restrain hisjoy. The two new friends felt themselves drawn closer together by thefriendship this worthy man had for them both. Clawbonny spoke freelyof the vanity of competition, of the madness of rivalry, and of theneed of agreement between men so far from home. His words, his tearsand caresses, came from the bottom of his heart.
Still, he grew calm after embracing Hatteras and Altamont for thetwentieth time.
"And now," he said, "to work, to work! Since I was no use as a hunter,let me try in another capacity!"
Thereupon he started to cut up the ox, which he called the "ox ofreconciliation," but he did it as skilfully as if he were a surgeonconducting a delicate auto
psy. His two companions gazed at him inamusement. In a few minutes he had cut from the body a hundred poundsof flesh; he gave each one a third of it, and they again took up theirmarch to Fort Providence. At ten o'clock in the evening, after walkingin the oblique rays of the sun, they reached Doctor's House, whereJohnson and Bell had a good supper awaiting them.
But before they sat down to table, the doctor said in a voice oftriumph, as he pointed to his two companions,--
"Johnson, I carried away with me an Englishman and an American, did Inot?"
"Yes, Dr. Clawbonny," answered the boatswain.
"Well, I've brought back two brothers."
"'Well, I've brought back two brothers.'"]
The two sailors gladly shook Altamont's hand; the doctor told themwhat the American captain had done for the English captain, and thatnight the snow-house held five perfectly happy men.