A dull roar was alone heard.
"Ah!" thought the doctor, "what is that?"
The object approached; it lost its first size and appeared in more definite shape. A terrible thought flashed into the doctor"s mind.
"A bear!" he said to himself.
In fact, it was a huge bear; lost in the fog, it came and went with great danger to the men, whose presence it certainly did not suspect.
"Matters are growing complicated!" thought the doctor, standing still.
Sometimes he felt the animal"s breath, which was soon lost in the frost-rime; again he would see the monster"s huge paws beating the air so near him that his clothes were occasionally torn by its sharp claws; he jumped back, and the animal disappeared like a phantasmagoric spectre.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
But as he sprang back he found an elevation beneath his feet; he climbed up first one block of ice, then another, feeling his way with his staff.
"An iceberg!" he said to himself; "if I can get to the top I am safe."
With these words he climbed up an elevation of about ninety feet with surprising agility; he arose above the frozen mist, the top of which was sharply defined.
"Good!" he said to himself; and looking about him he saw his three companions emerging from the vapor.
"Hatteras!"
"Dr. Clawbonny!"
"Bell!"
"Simpson!"
These names were shouted out almost at the same time; the sky, lit up by a magnificent halo, sent forth pale rays which colored the frost-rime as if it were a cloud, and the top of the icebergs seemed to rise from a ma.s.s of molten silver. The travellers found themselves within a circle of less than a hundred feet in diameter. Thanks to the purity of the air in this upper layer in this low temperature, their words could be easily heard, and they were able to talk on the top of this iceberg. After the first shots, each one, hearing no answer, had only thought of climbing above the mist.
"The sledge!" shouted the captain.
"It"s eighty feet beneath us," answered Simpson.
"Is it all right?"
"All right."
"And the bear?" asked the doctor.
"What bear?" said Bell.
"A bear!" said Hatteras; "let"s go down."
"No!" said the doctor; "we shall lose our way, and have to begin it all over again."
"And if he eats our dogs--" said Hatteras.
At that moment Duke was heard barking, the sound rising through the mist.
"That"s Duke!" shouted Hatteras; "there"s something wrong. I"m going down."
All sorts of howling arose to their ears; Duke and the dogs were barking furiously. The noise sounded like a dull murmur, like the roar of a crowded, noisy room. They knew that some invisible struggle was going on below, and the mist was occasionally agitated like the sea when marine monsters are fighting.
"Duke, Duke!" shouted the captain, as he made ready to enter again into the frost-rime.
"Wait a moment, Hatteras,--wait a moment! It seems to me that the fog is lifting."
It was not lifting, but sinking, like water in a pool; it appeared to be descending into the ground from which it had risen; the summits of the icebergs grew larger; others, which had been hidden, arose like new islands; by an optical illusion, which may be easily imagined, the travellers, clinging to these ice-cones, seemed to be rising in the air, while the top of the mist sank beneath them.
Soon the top of the sledge appeared, then the harnessed dogs, and then about thirty other animals, then great objects moving confusedly, and Duke leaping about with his head alternately rising and sinking in the frozen mist.
"Foxes!" shouted Bell.
"Bears!" said the doctor; "one, two, three."
"Our dogs, our provisions!" cried Simpson.
A troop of foxes and bears, having come across the sledge, were ravaging the provisions. Their instinct of pillaging united them in perfect harmony; the dogs were barking furiously, but the animals paid no heed, but went on in their work of destruction.
"Fire!" shouted the captain, discharging his piece.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""Fire!" shouted the captain, discharging his piece."]
His companions did the same. But at the combined report the bears, raising their heads and uttering a singular roar, gave the signal to depart; they fell into a little trot which a galloping horse could not have kept up with, and, followed by the foxes, they soon disappeared amid the ice to the north.
CHAPTER x.x.x.
THE CAIRN.
This phenomenon, which is peculiar to the polar regions, had lasted three quarters of an hour; the bears and foxes had had plenty of time; these provisions arrived opportunely for these animals, who were nearly starved during the inclement weather; the canvas cover of the sledge was torn by their strong claws, the casks of pemmican were opened and emptied; the biscuit-sacks pillaged, the tea spilled over the snow, a barrel of alcohol torn open and its contents lost, their camping materials scattered and damaged, bore witness to the ferocity of these wild beasts, and their greediness.
"This is a misfortune," said Bell, gazing at this scene of ruin.
"Which is probably irreparable," said Simpson.
"Let us first estimate the loss," interrupted the doctor, "and we"ll talk about it afterwards."
Hatteras, without saying a word, began to gather the scattered boxes and sacks; they collected the pemmican and biscuits which could be eaten; the loss of part of their alcohol was much to be regretted; for if that was gone there would be nothing warm to drink; no tea, no coffee. In making an inventory of the supplies left, the doctor found two hundred pounds of pemmican gone, and a hundred and fifty pounds of biscuit; if their journey continued they would have to subsist on half-rations.
They then began to discuss what should be done, whether they should return to the ship and start out again. But how could they make up their minds to lose the hundred and fifty miles they had already made?
To return without fuel would have a depressing effect upon the spirits of the crew. Could men be found again to resume their march across the ice?