The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne

Author:Jules Verne [Verne, Jules]
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure stories, Sea stories
Published: 2010-02-17T15:59:50.728057+00:00

....tamont

....orpoise

....w York.

"Altamont!" shouted the doctor, "of the Porpoise! of New York!"

"An American!" said Hatteras.

"I shall save him," said the doctor; "I'll answer for it, and we shall find out the explanation of this puzzle."

He returned to Altamont, while Hatteras remained pensive. The doctor succeeded in recalling the unfortunate man to life, but not to consciousness; he neither saw, heard, nor spoke, but at any rate he was alive!

The next morning Hatteras said to the doctor,—

"We must start."

"All right, Hatteras! The sledge is not loaded; we shall carry this poor fellow back to the ship with us.

"Very well," said Hatteras. "But first let us bury these corpses."

The two unknown sailors were placed beneath the ruins of the snow-house; Simpson's body took the place of Altamont's.

The three travellers uttered a short prayer over their companion, and at seven o'clock in the morning they set off again for the ship.

Two of the dogs were dead. Duke volunteered to drag the sledge, and he worked as resolutely as a Greenland dog.

For twenty days, from January 31st to February 19th, the return was very much like the first part of the journey. Save that it was in the month of February, the coldest of the whole year, and the ice was harder; the travellers suffered terribly from the cold, but not from the wind or snow-storm.

The sun reappeared for the first time January 31st; every day it rose higher above the horizon. Bell and the doctor were at the end of their strength, almost blind and quite lame; the carpenter could not walk without crutches. Altamont was alive, but continued insensible; sometimes his life was despaired of, but unremitting care kept him alive! And yet the doctor needed to take the greatest care of himself, for his health was beginning to suffer.

Hatteras thought of the Forward! In what condition was he going to find it? What had happened on board? Had Johnson been able to withstand Shandon and his allies? The cold had been terrible! Had they burned the ship? Had they spared her masts and keel?

While thinking of this, Hatteras walked on as if he had wished to get an early view of the Forward.

February 24th, in the morning, he stopped suddenly. Three hundred paces before him appeared a reddish glow, above which rose an immense column of black smoke, which was lost in the gray clouds of the sky.

"See that smoke!" he shouted.

His heart beat as if it would burst.

"See that smoke!" he said to his companions. "My ship is on fire!"

"But we are more than three miles from it," said Bell. "It can't be the Forward!"

"Yes, but it is," answered the doctor; "the mirage makes it seem nearer."

"Let us run!" cried Hatteras.

They left the sledge in charge of Duke, and hastened after the captain. An hour later they came in sight of the ship. A terrible sight! The brig was burning in the midst of the ice, which was melting about her; the flames were lapping her hull, and the southerly breeze brought to Hatteras's ears unaccustomed sounds.

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