mpany.

All were exceedingly happy and jubilant. The wind continued very nearly
as before, and within twenty-four hours, nothing preventing, they would
stand at the coveted spot--the North Pole.

At dinner time Franz Joseph Land was far behind them, and they were
sailing over the dark blue waters of the Arctic Ocean, more or less
filled with great floes and icebergs, illustrating to the voyagers the
terrible perils and hardships through which Arctic explorers had passed,
and amidst which so many of them had died.

"What wonder," said the Professor, as he scanned the unnavigable seas
with his glass, "that man has thus far utterly failed in his attempts to
overcome these insuperable obstacles. Think of the cold, hunger, and
awful wretchedness these poor fellows have suffered. And Doctor, see! Is
not that a ship I see yonder? It is! It is!" cried the Professor
excitedly, pointing to an object sailing in a bit of open sea, her nose
pointing stubbornly toward the North.

"We can hail them," cried the Doctor.

The upper and lower traps of the air chamber were opened, and Silver
Cloud settled like a great roc toward the toiling little ship. They
passed nearly directly over it, and at an altitude of but 300 feet.

"Ship ahoy!" shouted the Doctor through a speaking trumpet.

"Ahoy!" came from the vessel.

"Where are you bound?"

"North Pole!"

"Sail due west twenty miles and you will find an open sea to the North.
All closed ahead. Good luck to you! Good-bye!"

"Aye, aye, sir! Good-bye!" came cheerily from the quarterdeck of the
little ship, and they had passed beyond hailing distance.

"Poor, brave fellows," sighed the Doctor.

"They have reached an amazingly high latitude," said the Professor.
"They have crossed the 83rd parallel, very nearly as high as Nansen got
with his expedition last year."

"I declare that I am sorry for them, and really dislike to take the
glory of the discovery from them. But we cannot stop now, and it is
utterly impossible for them to get there anyway."

"They would have soon been shut in, and probably forever as they were
heading," observed Will.

North and east, as they could distinctly see from their elevation of two
thousand feet, far as the eye could reach, all was one vast field of
huge piles of ice, exceedingly rough and broken, with here and there
towering spires that seemed to reach up toward the globe like grizzly
arms that would prevent them from penetrating the secrets