Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/378

 stopped up. This was necessary for the safety of the rest, and each man had charge in his turn.

Duk shared his master's quarters. His brethren were outside, and found a bed for themselves among the snow. Sleep soon came to the weary men, and at 3 the Doctor rose to mount guard. He could hear the storm raging without, but within the hut the temperature was tolerably comfortable.

Next morning at six o'clock the monotonous march began once more. It was easier walking, however, for the snow had hardened. They often came across what looked like cairns, or possibly Esquimaux hiding-places, and the Doctor could not rest easy till he had demolished one; but, to his disappointment, he found it was nothing but a block of ice.

"What did you hope to find, Mr. Clawbonny?" asked Hatteras. "Are we not the first that have ever trod this ice?"

"Likely enough, and yet who knows!"

"Don't let us waste time in useless searches," returned the captain. "I am in haste to get back to my ship, even without the coal we so need!"

"Doctor," said Hatteras, often, "I was wrong to leave the brig. It was a mistake. A captain's place is on board, and nowhere else."

"Johnson is there."

"I know that, but let us make haste."

The sledge went swiftly on, and owing to some peculiar phosphorence in the snow, seemed traversing red-hot ground, raising a cloud of sparks as it ran along. The Doctor hurried forward to examine this phenomenon more closely, but all of a sudden, in trying to jump over a hummock, he disappeared. Bell ran towards the spot immediately, but the Doctor was nowhere to be seen, and though he shouted his name, there was no reply till the captain, who came up just then with Simpson, called out:

"Doctor! where are you?"

"Down here, in a hole," was the reassuring answer.

"Throw me the end of a rope, and let me get to the earth's surface again."

The hole into which he had fallen was full ten feet deep, but his three companions succeeded in drawing him safely up, though not without difficulty.