The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 76

Johnson urged on the dogs, who quickened their pace.

In twenty minutes the five were together, and Hatteras, the doctor, and Johnson were as much surprised as Bell and Altamont.

There were in the snow indubitable traces of men, as fresh as if they had just been made.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"They are Esquimaux," said Hatteras.

"Yes," said the doctor, "there is no doubt of that!"

"You think so?" said Altamont.

"Without any doubt."

"Well, and this mark?" continued Altamont, pointing to another print, which was often repeated.

"That one?"

"Do you think it was made by an Esquimau?"

The doctor examined it carefully, and was stupefied. The print of a European shoe, with nails, sole, and heel, was clearly stamped in the snow. There could be no further doubt; a man, a stranger, had been there.

"Europeans here!" cried Hatteras.

"Evidently," said Johnson.

"And still," said the doctor, "it is so unlikely, that we ought to look twice before being sure."

Thereupon he looked twice, three times, at the print, and he was obliged to acknowledge its extraordinary origin.

De Foe's hero was not more amazed when he saw the footprint on the sand of his island; but if he was afraid, Hatteras was simply angry. A European so near the Pole!

They pushed on to examine the footprints; for a quarter of a mile they were continually repeated, mingled with marks of moccasins; then they turned to the west. When they had reached this point they consulted as to whether they should follow them any farther.

"No," said Hatteras. "Let us go on--"

He was interrupted by an exclamation of the doctor, who had just picked up on the snow an object even more convincing, and of the origin of which there could be no doubt. It was the object-gla.s.s of a pocket telescope.

"Now," he said, "we can't doubt that there is a stranger here--"

"Forward!" cried Hatteras.

He uttered this word so sharply that each one obeyed, and the sledge resumed its monotonous progress.

They all scanned the horizon attentively, except Hatteras, who was filled with wrath and did not care to see anything. Still, since they ran the risk of coming across a band of travellers, they had to take precautions; it was very disappointing to see any one ahead of them on the route. The doctor, although not as angry as Hatteras, was somewhat vexed, in spite of his usual philosophy. Altamont seemed equally annoyed; Johnson and Bell muttered threatening words between their teeth.

"Come," said the doctor, "let us take heart against our bad fortune."

"We must confess," said Johnson, without being heard by Altamont, "that if we find the place taken, it would disgust us with journeying to the Pole."

"And yet," answered Bell, "there is no possibility of doubting--"

"No," retorted the doctor; "I turn it all over in vain, and say it is improbable, impossible; I have to give it up. This shoe was not pressed into the snow without being at the end of a leg, and without the leg being attached to a human body. I could forgive Esquimaux, but a European!"

"The fact is," answered Johnson, "that if we are going to find all the rooms taken in the hotel of the end of the world, it would be annoying."

"Very annoying," said Altamont.

"Well, we shall see," said the doctor.

And they pushed on. The day ended without any new fact to indicate the presence of strangers in this part of New America, and they at last encamped for the evening.

A rather strong wind from the south had sprung up, and obliged them to seek a secure shelter for their tent in the bottom of a ravine. The sky was threatening; long clouds pa.s.sed rapidly through the air; they pa.s.sed near the ground, and so quickly that the eye could hardly follow them. At times some of the mist touched the ground, and the tent resisted with difficulty the violence of the hurricane.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The hut was pitched in a ravine for shelter.]

"It's going to be a nasty night," said Johnson, after supper.

"It won't be cold, but stormy," answered the doctor; "let us take precautions, and make the tent firm with large stones."

"You are right, Doctor; if the wind should carry away the canvas, Heaven alone knows where we should find it again."

Hence they took every precaution against such a danger, and the wearied travellers lay down to sleep. But they found it impossible.

The tempest was loose, and hastened northward with incomparable violence; the clouds were whirling about like steam which has just escaped from a boiler; the last avalanches, under the force of the hurricane, fell into the ravines, and their dull echoes were distinctly heard; the air seemed to be struggling with the water, and fire alone was absent from this contest of the elements.

Amid the general tumult their ears distinguished separate sounds, not the crash of heavy falling bodies, but the distinct cracking of bodies breaking; a clear snap was frequently heard, like breaking steel, amid the roar of the tempest. These last sounds were evidently avalanches torn off by the gusts, but the doctor could not explain the others. In the few moments of anxious silence, when the hurricane seemed to be taking breath in order to blow with greater violence, the travellers exchanged their suppositions.

"There is a sound of cras.h.i.+ng," said the doctor, "as if icebergs and ice-fields were being blown against one another."

"Yes," answered Altamont; "one would say the whole crust of the globe was falling in. Say, did you hear that?"

"If we were near the sea," the doctor went on, "I should think it was ice breaking."

"In fact," said Johnson, "there is no other explanation possible."

"Can we have reached the coast?" asked Hatteras.

"It's not impossible," answered the doctor. "Hold on," he said, after a very distinct sound; "shouldn't you say that was the cras.h.i.+ng of ice? We may be very near the ocean."

"If it is," continued Hatteras, "I should not be afraid to go across the ice-fields."

"O," said the doctor, "they must be broken by such a tempest! We shall see to-morrow. However that may be, if any men have to travel in such a night as this, I pity them."

The hurricane raged ten hours without cessation, and no one of those in the tent had a moment's sleep; the night pa.s.sed in profound uneasiness. In fact, under such circ.u.mstances, every new incident, a tempest, an avalanche, might bring serious consequences. The doctor would gladly have gone out to reconnoitre, but how could he with such a wind raging?

Fortunately the hurricane grew less violent early the next day; they could leave the tent which had resisted so st.u.r.dily. The doctor, Hatteras, and Johnson went to a hill about three hundred feet high, which they ascended without difficulty. Their eyes beheld an entirely altered country, composed of bare rocks, sharp ridges entirely clear of ice. It was summer succeeding winter, which had been driven away by the tempest; the snow had been blown away by the wind before it could melt, and the barren soil reappeared.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "They climbed a hill which commanded a wide view."]