; we can, or
rather we ought, to make twenty miles a day, which would bring us to
the coast in a month, that is to say, towards March 26th."

"But," said Hatteras, "can't we wait a few days?"

"What do you hope for?" answered Johnson.

"I don't know. Who can foretell the future? Only a few days yet! It's
hardly enough to rest your wearied bodies. We couldn't go two stages
without dropping from weariness, without any snow-house to shelter
us!"

"But a terrible death certainly awaits us here!" cried Bell.

"My friends," continued Hatteras in a tone almost of entreaty, "you
are despairing too soon! I should propose to seek safety to the north,
were it not that you would refuse to follow me. And yet are there not
Esquimaux near the Pole, as well as at Smith's Sound? That open sea,
of which the existence is uncertain, ought to surround a continent.
Nature is logical in everything it does. Well, we ought to believe
that vegetation appears when the greatest cold ceases. Is there not a
promised land awaiting us at the north, and which you want to fly from
without hope of return?"

Hatteras warmed as he spoke; his heated imagination called up
enchanting visions of these countries, whose existence was still so
problematical.

"One more day," he repeated, "a single hour!"

Dr. Clawbonny, with his adventurous character and his glowing
imagination, felt himself gradually aroused; he was about to yield;
but Johnson, wiser and colder, recalled him to reason and duty.

"Come, Bell," he said, "to the sledge!"

"Come along!" answered Bell.

The two sailors turned towards the door of the snow-house.

"O Johnson! you! you!" shouted Hatteras. "Well, go! I shall stay!"

"Captain!" said Johnson, stopping in spite of himself.

"I shall stay, I say! Go! leave me like the rest! Go!--Come, Duke, we
two shall stay!"

The brave dog joined his master, barking. Johnson looked at the
doctor. He did not know what to do; the best plan was to calm
Hatteras, and to sacrifice a day to his fancies. The doctor was about
making up his mind to this effect, when he felt some one touch his
arm.

He turned round. The American had just left the place where he had
been lying; he was crawling on the floor; at last he rose to his
knees, and from his swollen lips a few inarticulate sounds issued.

The doctor, astonished, almost frightened, gazed at him silently.
Hatteras approached the American, and examined him closely. He tried
to make out the