"And even if we do not find them?"

"Yes, even in that case. I think I shall induce our captain. I
think he will not refuse--"

"No, he will not refuse to bring help to a man--a man like him
g"

"And yet," I said, "if William Guy and his people are living,
can we admit that Arthur Pym--"

"Living? Yes! Living!" cried the half-breed. "By the great
spirit of my fathers, he is--he is waiting for me, my poor Pym! How
joyful he will be when he clasps his old Dirk in his arms, and
I--I, when I feel him, there, there."

And the huge chest of the man heaved like a stormy sea. Then he went
away, leaving me inexpressibly affected by the revelation of the
tenderness for his unfortunate companion that lay deep in the heart
of this semi-savage.

In the meantime I said but little to Captain Len Guy, whose whole
heart and soul were set on the rescue of brother, of the possibility
of our finding Arthur Gordon Pym. Time enough, if in the course of
this strange enterprise of ours we succeeded in that object, to urge
upon him one still more visionary.

At length, on the 7th of January--according to Dirk Peters, who had
fixed it only by the time that had expired--we arrived at the
place where Nu Nu the savage breathed his last, lying in the bottom
of the boat. On that day an observation gave 86 deg. 33' for the
latitude, the longitude remaining the same between the and the
forty-third meridian. Here it was, according the half-breed, that
the two fugitives were parted after the collision between the boat
and the floating mass of ice. But a question now arose. Since the
mass of ice carrying away Dirk Peters had drifted towards the north,
was this because it was subjected to the action of a countercurrent?

Yes, that must have been so, for oar schooner had not felt the
influence of the current which had guided her on leaving the
Falklands, for fully four days. And yet, there was nothing
surprising in that, for everything is variable in the austral seas.
Happily, the fresh breeze from the north-east continued to blow, and
the _Halbrane_ made progress toward higher waters, thirteen degrees in
advance upon Weddells ship and two degrees upon the fane. As for the
land--islands or continent--which Captain Len Guy was seeking on
the surface of that vast ocean, it did not appear. I was well aware
that he was gradually losing confidence in our enterprise.

As for me, I was possessed by the desire to rescue Arthur Pym as
well as the su