gain, but
Pym--poor Pym--he is still beyond there!"

"Dirk Peters," I asked, "have you any idea of the route which
you and Arthur Pym followed in the boat after your departure from
Tsalal Island?"

"None, sir! Poor Pym had no longer any instrument--you
know--sea machines--for looking at the sun. We could not know,
except that for the eight days the current pushed us towards the
south, and the wind also. A fine breeze and a fair sea, and our
shirts for a sail."

"Yes, white linen shirts, which frightened your prisoner Nu
Nu--"

"Perhaps so--I did not notice. But if Pym has said so, Pym must
be believed."

"And during those eight days you were able to supply yourselves
with food?"

"Yes, sir, and the days after--we and the savage. You know--the
three turtles that were in the boat. These animals contain a store
of fresh water--and their flesh is sweet, even raw. Oh, raw flesh,
sir?"

He lowered his voice, and threw a furtive glance around him. It
would be impossible to describe the frightful expression of the
half-breed's face as he thus recalled the terrible scenes of the
_Grampus_. And it was not the expression of a cannibal of Australia or
the New Hebrides, but that of a man who is pervaded by an
insurmountable horror of himself.

"Was it not on the 1st of March, Dirk Peters," I asked, "that
you perceived for the first time the veil of grey vapour shot with
luminous and moving rays?"

"I do not remember, sir, but if Pym says It was so, Pym must be
believed."

"Did he never speak to you of fiery rays which fell from the
sky?" I did not use the term "polar aurora," lest the
half-breed should not understand it.

"Never, sir," said Dirk Peters, after some reflection. "Did
you not remark that the colour of the sea changed, grew white like
milk, and that its surface became ruffled around your boat?"

"It may have been so, sir; I did not observe. The boat went on and
on, and my head went with it."

"And then, the fine powder, as fine as ashes, that fell--"

"I don't remember it."
"Was it not snow?"

"Snow? Yes! No! The weather was warm. What did Pym say? Pym must
be believed." He lowered his voice and continued: "But Pym will
tell you all that, sir. He knows. I do not know. He saw, and you
will believe him."

"Yes, Dirk Peters, I shall believe him."

"We are to go in search of him, are we not?"

"I hope so."

"After we shall have found William Guy and the sailors of the
_Jane_!"

"Yes, after."