Jules Verne's Captain Hatteras - Part 2: Ice Desert

Chapter 12 - Ice Prison

The next day there came the problem of organizing a hunt, where, Hatteras, Altamont and the carpenter had to participate; the worrying tracks had not yet appeared, and the bears had certainly gathered in the attack either for fear of these unknown enemies, or because nothing new had indicated to them the presence of beings under this mass of snow.

During the absence of the three hunters, the doctor had to go to Johnson Island to observe the state of the ice and to make some hydrographic surveys. The frost seemed quite intense, but they seemed to bear it easily; their skin seemed to behave well at these exaggerated temperatures.

The crew chief had to stay in the Doctor's House to supervise it.

The three hunters prepared to leave; each armed with a rifle with two pipes and conical bullets; they took with them a small supply of pemmican, in case the night caught them before the end of their journey; they took with them the indispensable snow knife, the most important tool for these regions, and an axe, fastened to the belt of their deer skin coat.

Thus equipped, dressed and armed, they could set out and, bold and very skillful, they could count on the success of their hunters.

At 8 AM they were ready to leave. Duk followed them hopping; they climbed the eastern hill, headed for the lighthouse cone, and sank into the southern plains bordering Bell-Mount.

In turn, the doctor, after setting an alarm signal with Johnson in case of danger, descended to shore, and headed for the multiform ice scattered across Victoria Gulf.

The crew chief was left alone in Fort Providence, but not without occupation. He began the work by freeing the Greenlandic dogs that were already agitated in Dog's Palace; they, happy, began to fly through the snow. Then Johnson takes care of the complicated details of the household. They had to refresh their supplies and fuel, tidy up their warehouses, repair broken utensils, patch up broken and unstitched blankets, and put on their shoes for long summer trips. There was no shortage of occupation, and the crew chief worked with the skill of a sailor to whom nothing was foreign to any trade.

As he worked, he thought of the discussion the night before, the captain and his stubbornness, very heroic and honorable in fact, not to allow an American or even an American ship to reach the North Pole before him or with him.

He told himself: "It seems difficult to me to cross the ocean without a boat. If we had the high seas in front of us, it would be good to sail. We can't swim three hundred miles, even if we were the best British on earth. Patriotism has its limits. At last, we'll see. We still have time; Mr Clawbonny didn't say the last word in this regard; he's smart, he can make the captain think again. I'm sure, as he walks along the coast of the island, he'll take a look at the wreckage of the Porpoise and know for sure what to do with it."

Johnson was lost in thought, and the hunters had left the fort for more than an hour when a loud, clear detonation sounded two or three miles away.

Johnson thought: "Okay, they found something, and they didn't go too far, considering it sounded so good. And then, the air is so clean!" A second blast, then a third, repeated one after the other.

He thought: "Well, it looks like they've come to the right place."

Three more gunshots were heard, this time closer.

He thought: "Six shots! Their rifles are unloaded now. Looks like it was a big deal! What if by chance?... "

At the idea that flashed through him, Johnson paled; he immediately left the snow house and ran quickly to the top of the cone.

What he saw made him tremble.

Johnson: The bears!

The three hunters, followed by Duk, ran back, chased by the five giant animals; Hatteras, left behind, could only keep his distance from the animals by throwing his hat, axe, and even rifle in turn. The bears stopped, as was their custom, to smell the thrown object, which aroused their curiosity, and they lost little ground, for otherwise they would have overtaken even the quickest horse.