"Is not the sledge there?" cried Vasling. "Then we are lost!"
"Let us look for it," replied Penellan.
They went around the hut, which formed a block more than fifteen feet high. An immense quant.i.ty of snow had fallen during the whole of the storm, and the wind had ma.s.sed it against the only elevation which the plain presented. The entire block had been driven by the wind, in the midst of the broken icebergs, more than twenty-five miles to the north-east, and the prisoners had suffered the same fate as their floating prison. The sledge, supported by another iceberg, had been turned another way, for no trace of it was to be seen, and the dogs must have perished amid the frightful tempest.
Andre Vasling and Penellan felt despair taking possession of them. They did not dare to return to their companions. They did not dare to announce this fatal news to their comrades in misfortune. They climbed upon the block of ice in which the hut was hollowed, and could perceive nothing but the white immensity which encompa.s.sed them on all sides. Already the cold was beginning to stiffen their limbs, and the damp of their garments was being transformed into icicles which hung about them.
Just as Penellan was about to descend, he looked towards Andre.
He saw him suddenly gaze in one direction, then shudder and turn pale.
"What is the matter, Vasling?" he asked.
"Nothing," replied the other. "Let us go down and urge the captain to leave these parts, where we ought never to have come, at once!"
Instead of obeying, Penellan ascended again, and looked in the direction which had drawn the mate"s attention. A very different effect was produced on him, for he uttered a shout of joy, and cried,--
"Blessed be G.o.d!"
A light smoke was rising in the north-east. There was no possibility of deception. It indicated the presence of human beings. Penellan"s cries of joy reached the rest below, and all were able to convince themselves with their eyes that he was not mistaken.
Without thinking of their want of provisions or the severity of the temperature, wrapped in their hoods, they were all soon advancing towards the spot whence the smoke arose in the north-east.
This was evidently five or six miles off, and it was very difficult to take exactly the right direction. The smoke now disappeared, and no elevation served as a guiding mark, for the ice-plain was one united level. It was important, nevertheless, not to diverge from a straight line.
"Since we cannot guide ourselves by distant objects," said Jean Cornb.u.t.te, "we must use this method. Penellan will go ahead, Vasling twenty steps behind him, and I twenty steps behind Vasling. I can then judge whether or not Penellan diverges from the straight line."
They had gone on thus for half an hour, when Penellan suddenly stopped and listened. The party hurried up to him.
"Did you hear nothing?" he asked.
"Nothing!" replied Misonne.
"It is strange," said Penellan. "It seemed to me I heard cries from this direction."
"Cries?" replied Marie. "Perhaps we are near our destination, then."
"That is no reason," said Andre Vasling. "In these high lat.i.tudes and cold regions sounds may be heard to a great distance."
"However that may be," replied Jean Cornb.u.t.te, "let us go forward, or we shall be frozen."
"No!" cried Penellan. "Listen!"
Some feeble sounds--quite perceptible, however--were heard. They seemed to be cries of distress. They were twice repeated. They seemed like cries for help. Then all became silent again.
"I was not mistaken," said Penellan. "Forward!"
He began to run in the direction whence the cries had proceeded.
He went thus two miles, when, to his utter stupefaction, he saw a man lying on the ice. He went up to him, raised him, and lifted his arms to heaven in despair.
Andre Vasling, who was following close behind with the rest of the sailors, ran up and cried,--
"It is one of the castaways! It is our sailor Courtois!"
"He is dead!" replied Penellan. "Frozen to death!"
Jean Cornb.u.t.te and Marie came up beside the corpse, which was already stiffened by the ice. Despair was written on every face.
The dead man was one of the comrades of Louis Cornb.u.t.te!
"Forward!" cried Penellan.
They went on for half an hour in perfect silence, and perceived an elevation which seemed without doubt to be land.
"It is Shannon Island," said Jean Cornb.u.t.te.
A mile farther on they distinctly perceived smoke escaping from a snow-hut, closed by a wooden door. They shouted. Two men rushed out of the hut, and Penellan recognized one of them as Pierre Nouquet.
"Pierre!" he cried.
Pierre stood still as if stunned, and unconscious of what was going on around him. Andre Vasling looked at Pierre Nouquet"s companion with anxiety mingled with a cruel joy, for he did not recognize Louis Cornb.u.t.te in him.
"Pierre! it is I!" cried Penellan. "These are all your friends!"
Pierre Nouquet recovered his senses, and fell into his old comrade"s arms.
"And my son--and Louis!" cried Jean Cornb.u.t.te, in an accent of the most profound despair.
CHAPTER XII.
THE RETURN TO THE SHIP.
At this moment a man, almost dead, dragged himself out of the hut and along the ice.
It was Louis Cornb.u.t.te.
[Ill.u.s.tration: It was Louis Cornb.u.t.te.]
"My son!"
"My beloved!"
These two cries were uttered at the same time, and Louis Cornb.u.t.te fell fainting into the arms of his father and Marie, who drew him towards the hut, where their tender care soon revived him.
"My father! Marie!" cried Louis; "I shall not die without having seen you!"
"You will not die!" replied Penellan, "for all your friends are near you."