d or had not succeeded in inspiring
my companions with my own belief, when Captain Len Guy spoke:

"Dirk Peters," he said, "doyou assert that Arthur Pym and you
after your departure from Tsalal Island saw land in the direction of
the south?"

"Yes, land," answered the half-breed. "Islands or
continent--understand me--and I believe that Pym, poor Pym, is
waiting there until aid comes to him."

"There, where perhaps William Guy and his companions are also
waiting," said I, to bring back the discussion to more practical
points.

Captain Len Guy reflected for a little while, and then spoke:

"Is it true, Dirk Peters," he asked, "that beyond the
eighty-fourth parallel the horizon is shut in by that curtain of
vapour which is described in the narrative? Have you seen--seen
with your own eyes--those cataracts in the air, that gulf in which
Arthur Pym's boat was lost?"

The half-breed looked from one to the other of us, and shook his big
head.

"I don't know," he said. "What are you asking me about,
captain? A curtain of vapour? Yes, perhaps, and also appearances of
land towards the south."

Evidently Dirk Peters had never read Edgar Poe's book, and very
likely did not know how to read. After having handed over Pym's
journal, he had not troubled himself about its publication. Having
retired to Illinois at first and to the Falklands afterwards, he had
no notion of the stir that the work had made, or of the fantastic
and baseless climax to which our great poet had brought those
strange adventures.

And, besides, might not Arthur Pym himself, with his tendency to the
supernatural, have fancied that he saw these wondrous things, due
solely to his imaginative brain?

Then, for the first time in the course of this discussion, West's
voice made itself heard. I had no idea which side he would take. The
first words he uttered were:

"Captain, your orders?"

Captain Len Guy turned towards his crew, who surrounded him, both
the old and the new. Hearne remained in the background, ready to
intervene if he should think it necessary.

The captain questioned the boatswain and his comrades, whose
devotion was unreservedly his, by a long and anxious look, and I
heard him mutter between his teeth,--

"Ah! if it depended only on me! if I were sure of the assent and
the help of them all!

"Then Hearne spoke roughly:

"Captain," said he, "it's two months since we left the
Falklands. Now, my companions were engaged for a voya