"What do you say, Bell?" asked the Doctor.
"It strikes me the case doesn't need long thinking over," said the carpenter. "We must get back at once without losing a single day or even a single hour, either to the south or east, and make our way to the nearest coast, even if we are two months doing it! "
"We have only food for three weeks," replied Hatteras, without raising his head.
"Very well," said Johnson, "we must make the journey in three weeks, since it is our last chance. Even if we can only crawl on our knees before we get to our destination, we must be there in twenty-five days."
"This part of the Arctic continent is unexplored. We may have to encounter difficulties. Mountains and glaciers may bar our progress," objected Hatteras.
"I don't see that's any sufficient reason for not attempting it. We shall have to endure sufferings, no doubt, and perhaps many. We shall have to limit ourselves to the barest quantities of food, unless our guns should procure us anything."
"There is only about half a pound of powder left," said Hatteras.
"Come now, Hatteras, I know the full weight of your objections, and I am not deluding myself with vain hopes. But I think I can read your motive. Have you any practical suggestion to offer?"
"No," said Hatteras, after a little hesitation.
"You don't doubt our courage," continued the doctor. "We would follow you to the last–you know that. But must we not, meantime, give up all hope of reaching the Pole? Your plans have been defeated by treachery. Natural difficulties you might have overcome, but you have been outmatched by perfidy and human weakness. You have done all that man could do, and you would have succeeded, I am certain; but situated as we are now, are you not obliged to relinquish your projects for the present, and is not a return to England even positively necessary before you could continue them?"
"Well, captain?" asked Johnson, after waiting a considerable time for Hatteras to reply.
Thus interrogated, he raised his head, and said in a constrained tone:
