shall take it, and to-morrow. Let Sunday be a day of rest;
you will see, Shandon, that the Bible is read as usual; the religious
exercises do the men good, and a sailor more than any one ought to put
his trust in God."

"Very well, Captain," answered Shandon, who went away with the second
officer and the boatswain.

"Doctor," said Hatteras, pointing at Shandon, "there's an offended
man, whose pride has ruined him; I can no longer depend upon him."

Early the next day the captain had the launch lowered; he went to
reconnoitre the icebergs about the basin, of which the diameter was
hardly more than two hundred yards. He noticed that by the gradual
pressure of the ice, this space threatened to grow smaller; hence it
became necessary to make a breach somewhere, to save the ship from
being crushed; by the means he employed, it was easy to see that John
Hatteras was an energetic man.

In the first place he had steps cut, by which he climbed to the top of
an iceberg; from that point he saw it would be easy to open a path to
the southwest; by his orders an opening was made in the middle of an
iceberg, a task which was completed by Monday evening.

[Illustration]

Hatteras could not depend on his blasting-cylinders of eight or ten
pounds of powder, whose action would have been insignificant against
such large masses; they were only of use to break the field-ice; hence
he placed in the opening a thousand pounds of powder, carefully laying
it where it should be of the utmost service. This chamber, to which
ran a long fuse, surrounded by gutta-percha, opened on the outside.
The gallery, leading thereto, was filled with snow and lumps of ice,
to which the cold of the next night gave the consistency of granite.
In fact, the temperature, under the influence of the east-wind, fell
to 12 degrees.

The next day at seven o'clock the _Forward_ was under steam, ready to
seize any chance of escape. Johnson was charged with lighting the
mine; the fuse was calculated to burn half an hour before exploding
the powder. Hence Johnson had plenty of time to get back to the ship;
indeed, within ten minutes he was at his post.

The crew were all on deck; the day was dry and tolerably clear; the
snow was no longer falling; Hatteras, standing on the deck with
Shandon and the doctor, counted the minutes on his watch.

At thirty-five minutes after eight a dull explosion was heard, much
less deafening than had been anticipated. The outline of t