the
iceberg should be freed from mist. The oblique rays from the sun did
not succeed in piercing it, and the red disk could hardly be
perceived through the opaque mass.

However, we could distinguish each other at about twelve feet apart.
As for the _Halbrane_, she looked like a confused blackish mass
standing out sharply against the whiteness of the ice.

We had now to ascertain whether any of those who were on the deck at
the time of the catastrophe had been thrown over the bulwarks and
precipitated, into the sea?

By Captain Len Guy's orders all the sailors then present joined
the group in which I stood with the mate, the boatswain, Hardy and
Martin Holt.

So far, this catastrophe had cost us five men--these were the first
since our departure from Kerguelen, but were they to be the last?

There was no doubt that these unfortunate fellows had perished,
because we called them in vain, and in vain we sought for them, when
the fog abated, along the sides of the iceberg, at every place where
they might have been able to catch on to a projection.

When the disappearance of the five men had been ascertained, we fell
into despair. Then we felt more keenly than before the dangers which
threaten every expedition to the Antarctic zone.

"What about Hearne?" said a voice.

Martin Holt pronounced the name at a moment when there was general
silence. Had the sealing-master been crushed to death in the narrow
part of the hold where he was shut up?

West rushed towards the schooner, hoisted himself on board by means
of a rope hanging over the bows, and gained the hatch which gives
access to that part of the hold.

We waited silent and motionless to learn the fate of Hearne,
although the evil spirit of the crew was but little worthy of our
pity.

And yet, how many of us were then thinking that if we had heeded his
advice, and if the schooner had taken the northern course, a whole
crew would not have been reduced to take refuge on a drifting
ice-mountain! I scarcely dared to calculate my own share of the vast
responsibility, I who had so vehemently insisted on the prolongation
of the voyage.

At length the mate reappeared on deck and Hearne followed him! By a
miracle, neither the bulkheads, nor the ribs, nor the planking had
yielded at the place where the sealing-master was confined.

Hearne rejoined his comrades without opening his lips, and we had no
further trouble about him.

Towards six o'clock in the morning