"Don"t be uneasy, and above all don"t show yourselves before you hear my gun."
The doctor soon reached the hummock which concealed Johnson.
"Well?" the latter asked.
"Well, we must wait. Hatteras is doing all this to save us."
The doctor was agitated; he looked at the bear, which had grown excited, as if he had become conscious of the danger which threatened him. A quarter of an hour later the seal was crawling over the ice; he made a circuit of a quarter of a mile to baffle the bear; then he found himself within three hundred feet of him. The bear then saw him, and settled down as if he were trying to hide. Hatteras imitated skilfully the movements of a seal, and if he had not known, the doctor would certainly have taken him for one.
"That"s true!" whispered Johnson.
The seal, as he approached the bear, did not appear to see him; he seemed to be seeking some hole through which to reach the water. The bear advanced towards him over the ice with the utmost caution; his eager eyes betrayed his excitement; for one or perhaps two months he had been fasting, and fortune was now throwing a sure prey before him.
The seal had come within ten feet of his enemy; the bear hastened towards him, made a long leap, and stood stupefied three paces from Hatteras, who, casting aside the sealskin, with one knee resting on the ground, was aiming at the bear"s heart.
The report was sounded, and the bear rolled over on the ice.
"Forward!" shouted the doctor. And, followed by Johnson, he hastened to the scene of combat. The huge beast rose, and beat the air with one paw while with the other he tore up a handful of snow to stanch the wound. Hatteras did not stir, but waited, knife in hand. But his aim had been accurate, and his bullet had hit its mark; before the arrival of his friends he had plunged his knife into the beast"s throat, and it fell, never to rise.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "He plunged his knife into the beast"s throat."]
"Victory!" shouted Johnson.
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" cried the doctor.
Hatteras, with folded arms, was gazing calmly at the corpse of his foe.
"It"s now my turn," said Johnson; "it"s very well to have killed it, but there is no need of waiting till it"s frozen as hard as a stone, when teeth and knife will be useless for attacking it."
Johnson began by skinning the bear, which was nearly as large as an ox; it was nine feet long and six feet in circ.u.mference; two huge tusks, three inches long, issued from his mouth. On opening him, nothing was found in his stomach but water; the bear had evidently eaten nothing for a long time; nevertheless, he was very fat, and he weighed more than fifteen hundred pounds; he was divided into four quarters, each one of which gave two hundred pounds of meat, and the hunters carried this flesh back to the snow-house, without forgetting the animal"s heart, which went on beating for three hours.
The others wanted to eat the meat raw, but the doctor bade them wait until it should be roasted. On entering the house he was struck by the great cold within it; he went up to the stove and found the fire out; the occupations as well as the excitement of the morning had made Johnson forget his customary duty. The doctor tried to rekindle the fire, but there was not even a spark lingering amid the cold ashes.
"Well, we must have patience!" he said to himself. He then went to the sledge to get some tinder, and asked Johnson for his steel, telling him that the fire had gone out. Johnson answered that it was his fault, and he put his hand in his pocket, where he usually kept it; he was surprised not to find it there. He felt in his other pockets with the same success; he went into the snow-house and examined carefully the covering under which he had slept in the previous night, but he could not find it.
"Well?" shouted the doctor.
Johnson came back, and stared at his companions.
"And haven"t you got the steel, Dr. Clawbonny?" he asked.
"No, Johnson."
"Nor you, Captain?"
"No," answered Hatteras.
"You have always carried it," said the doctor.
"Well, I haven"t got it now--" murmured the old sailor, growing pale.
"Not got it!" shouted the doctor, who could not help trembling. There was no other steel, and the loss of this might bring with it terrible consequences.
"Hunt again!" said the doctor.
Johnson ran to the piece of ice behind which he had watched the bear, then to the place of combat, where he had cut him up; but he could not find anything. He returned in despair. Hatteras looked at him without a word of reproach.
"This is serious," he said to the doctor.
"Yes," the latter answered.
"We have not even an instrument, a gla.s.s from which we might take the lens to get fire by means of it!"
"I know it," answered the doctor; "and that is a great pity, because the rays of the sun are strong enough to kindle tinder."
"Well," answered Hatteras, "we must satisfy our hunger with this raw meat; then we shall resume our march and we shall try to reach the ship."
"Yes," said the doctor, buried in reflection; "yes, we could do that if we had to. Why not? We might try--"
"What are you thinking of?" asked Hatteras.
"An idea which has just occurred to me--"
"An idea," said Johnson; "one of your ideas! Then we are saved!"
"It"s a question," answered the doctor, "whether it will succeed."
"What is your plan?" said Hatteras.
"We have no lens; well, we will make one."
"How?" asked Johnson.
"With a piece of ice which we shall cut out."
"Why, do you think--"
"Why not? We want to make the sun"s rays converge to a common focus, and ice will do as much good as crystal."
"Is it possible?" asked Johnson.
"Yes, only I should prefer fresh to salt water; it is more transparent, and harder."
"But, if I am not mistaken," said Johnson, pointing to a hummock a hundred paces distant, "that dark green block shows--"
"You are right; come, my friends; bring your hatchet, Johnson."
The three men went towards the block which, as they supposed, was formed of fresh water.
The doctor had a piece, a foot in diameter, cut through, and he began to smooth it with the hatchet; then he equalized the surface still further with his knife; then he polished it with his hand, and he obtained soon a lens as transparent as if it had been made of the most magnificent crystal. Then he returned to the snow-house, where he took a piece of tinder and began his experiment. The sun was shining brightly; the doctor held the lens so that the rays should be focused on the tinder, which took fire in a few seconds.