The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 83

"Our last," said Hatteras, with the intonation of people who are dreaming aloud; "yes, the last, indeed. But also," he continued with great animation, "the most wonderful!"

He spoke in this way, rubbing his hands over his brow as if to allay its throbbing. At that moment, Altamont, Johnson, and Bell joined him; Hatteras appeared to awaken from his revery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Hatteras appeared to wake from his revery."]

"My friends," he said with emotion, "thanks for your courage, thanks for your perseverance, thanks for your superhuman efforts, which have allowed us to set foot on this land!"

"Captain!" said Johnson, "we have only obeyed; all the honor is due to you alone!"

"No, no!" resumed Hatteras with emotion; "to you as much as to me! to Altamont as well as to all of us! as to the doctor himself-- O, let my heart well over in your hands! It can no longer restrain its joy and grat.i.tude!"

Hatteras clasped the hands of his companions. He walked to and fro, no longer master of himself.

"We have only done our duty as Englishmen," said Bell.

"Our duty as friends," continued the doctor.

"Yes," said Hatteras, "but all have not performed this duty. Some have given way! Still, they must be pardoned, both who were treacherous, and those who were led away to it! Poor men! I forgive them. You understand me, Doctor?"

"Yes," answered the doctor, who was very uneasy at Hatteras's excitement.

"So," went on the captain, "I don't want them to lose the money they came so far to seek. No, I shall not alter my plan; they shall be rich,--if they ever see England again!"

Few could have withstood the tenderness with which Hatteras spoke these last words.

"But, Captain," said Johnson, with an effort at pleasantry, "one would say you were making your will."

"Perhaps I am," answered Hatteras, seriously.

"Still you have before you a long and glorious life," continued the old sailor.

"Who can say?" said Hatteras.

A long silence followed these words. The doctor did not dare to try to interpret the last remark. But Hatteras soon expressed his meaning, for in a hasty, hardly restrained voice, he went on:--

"My friends, listen to me. We have done a good deal so far, and yet there is a good deal to do."

His companions gazed at him in astonishment.

"Yes, we are on the land of the Pole, but we are not on the Pole itself!"

"How so?" asked Altamont.

"You don't mean it!" cried the doctor, anxiously.

"Yes!" resumed Hatteras, earnestly, "I said that an Englishman should set foot on the Pole; I said it, and an Englishman shall do it."

"What!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the doctor.

"We are now forty-five seconds from the unknown point," Hatteras went on, with increasing animation; "where it is, I am going!"

"But that is the top of the volcano!" said the doctor.

"I'm going!"

"It's an inaccessible spot!"

"I'm going!"

"It's a fiery crater!"

"I'm going!"

The firmness with which Hatteras uttered these words cannot be given.

His friends were stupefied; they gazed with horror at the volcano tipped with flame. Then the doctor began; he urged and besought Hatteras to give up his design; he said everything he could imagine, from entreaty to well-meant threats; but he obtained no concession from the nervous captain, who was possessed with a sort of madness which may be called polar madness. Only violent means could stop him, rus.h.i.+ng to his ruin. But seeing that thereby they would produce serious results, the doctor wished to keep them for a last resource.

He hoped, too, that some physical impossibility, some unsurmountable difficulty, would compel him to give up his plan.

"Since it is so," he said, "we shall follow you."

"Yes," answered the captain, "half-way up the mountain! No farther!

Haven't you got to carry back to England the copy of the doc.u.ment which proves our discovery, in case--"

"Still--"

"It is settled," said Hatteras, in a tone of command; "and since my entreaties as a friend are not enough, I order it as captain."

The doctor was unwilling to urge him any further, and a few moments later the little band, equipped for a hard climb, and preceded by Duke, set out. The sky was perfectly clear. The thermometer stood at 52. The air had all the brilliancy which is so marked at this high lat.i.tude. It was eight o'clock in the morning. Hatteras went ahead with his dog, the others followed close behind.

"I'm anxious," said Johnson.

"No, no, there's nothing to fear," answered the doctor; "we are here."

It was a strange island, in appearance so new and singular! The volcano did not seem old, and geologists would have ascribed a recent date to its formation.

The rocks were heaped upon one another, and only kept in place by almost miraculous balancing. The mountain, in fact, was composed of nothing but stones that had fallen from above. There was no soil, no moss, no lichen, no trace of vegetation. The carbonic acid from the crater had not yet had time to unite with the hydrogen of the water; nor the ammonia of the clouds, to form under the action of the light, organized matter. This island had arisen from successive volcanic eruptions, like many other mountains; what they have hurled forth has built them up. For instance, Etna has poured forth a volume of lava larger than itself; and the Monte Nuovo, near Naples, was formed by ashes in the short s.p.a.ce of forty-eight hours. The heap of rocks composing Queen's Island had evidently come from the bowels of the earth. Formerly the sea covered it all; it had been formed long since by the condensation of the vapor on the cooling globe; but in proportion as the volcanoes of the Old and New World disappeared, they were replaced by new craters.

In fact, the earth can be compared to a vast spheroidal boiler. Under the influence of the central fire an immense quant.i.ty of vapor is generated, which is exposed to a pressure of thousands of atmospheres, and which would blow up the globe, were it not for the safety-valves opening on the outside.

These safety-valves are the volcanoes; when one closes, another opens; and at the poles, where, doubtless in consequence of the flattening of the earth's surface, the crust is thinner, it is not strange that a volcano should be suddenly formed by the upheaval of the bottom of the waves. The doctor noticed all this as he followed Hatteras; his foot sank into a volcanic tufa, and the deposits of ashes, volcanic stones, etc., like the syenite and granite of Iceland. But he attributed a comparatively recent origin to the island, on account of the fact that no sedimentary soil had yet formed upon it. Water, too, was lacking.

If Queen's Island had existed for several years, there would have been springs upon it, as there are in the neighborhood of volcanoes. Now, not only was there no drop of water there, but the vapors which arose from the stream of lava seemed absolutely anhydrous.

This island, then, was of recent formation; and since it appeared in one day, it might disappear in another and sink beneath the ocean.

The ascent grew more difficult the higher they went; the sides of the mountain became nearly perpendicular, and they had to be very careful to avoid accident. Often columns of cinders were blown about them and threatened to choke them, or torrents of lava barred their path. On some such places these streams were hard on top, but the molten stream flowed beneath. Each one had to test it first to escape sinking into the glowing ma.s.s. From time to time the crater vomited forth huge red-hot rocks amid burning gases; some of these bodies burst in the air like sh.e.l.ls, and the fragments were hurled far off in all directions. The innumerable dangers of this ascent may be readily perceived, as well as the foolhardiness of the attempt.

Still, Hatteras climbed with wonderful agility, and while spurning the use of his iron-tipped staff, he ascended the steepest slopes. He soon reached a circular rock, which formed a sort of plateau about ten feet broad; a glowing stream surrounded it, which was divided at the corner by a higher rock, and left only a narrow pa.s.sage through which Hatteras slipped boldly. There he stopped, and his companions were able to join him. Then he seemed to estimate the distance yet remaining; horizontally there were only about six hundred feet of the crater remaining, that is to say, from the mathematical point of the Pole; but vertically they had fifteen hundred feet yet to climb. The ascent had already taken three hours; Hatteras did not seem tired; his companions were exhausted.

The top of the volcano seemed inaccessible. The doctor wished at any risk to keep Hatteras from going higher. At first he tried gentle means, but the captain's excitement amounted to delirium; on the way he had exhibited all the signs of growing madness, and whoever has known him in the different scenes of his life cannot be surprised. In proportion as Hatteras rose above the ocean his excitement increased; he lived no longer with men; he thought he was growing larger with the mountain itself.