At this moment Hugh came, and announced that he made the latitude 79 degrees 55 minutes. Seven minutes later the course of the Orion was laid due west.
On the 17th of January, at 1 dial, the vessel lay to over Napoleon Island. From this point they proceeded due north, Cobb carefully watching the earth below them. For three degrees the course of Smith’s Sound was plainly visible, then it terminated in a great sea of floating ice to the north. “As I thought,” he murmured: “There is no road to the pole from the continent of North America.”
At 6 dial the Orion’s course was still due north.
Returning to the cabin, breakfast was served, and all enjoyed the good things which had been prepared, and, also, the warmth of the interior. As the hour of 10 dial drew near, Cobb took the sextant, and passed out of the cabin, and stationed himself at the rail near the pilot’s house. There, with instrument in hand, he carefully watched Polaris rise toward the zenith as the ship moved north. Suddenly he dropped the instrument to his side, and cried, in a quick, sharp voice: “Ninety degrees to the right; quick!”
The Orion turned in a graceful curve, and bore due east.
At 16 dial Cobb again came on deck and consulted his sextant. After a moment he laid aside the instrument, and took his watch in his fur-covered hand, and noted the revolution-counter on the side of the pilot’s house. “We are moving due east on the parallel of 83 degrees 24 minutes,” he replied to Hugh and Lester, as the two men came from the cabin and inquired why he was consulting his watch, “and if I am not mistaken, will be on the meridian of 40 degrees 46 minutes in five minutes,” and he put the telescope to his eye and intently examined the earth below them. “Ha! As I thought!” he suddenly cried, excitedly: “Stop her! Stop her! Stop the engines!”
The pilot threw over the electric switch, and the great propeller gradually ceased to revolve. Jumping quickly to the escape-valve, Cobb carefully allowed the gas to escape, and the Orion began gently to settle. Hugh and Lester looked at the man in amazement. Was he crazy? Why was he thus descending into a barren, icy plain miles yet from the pole?
“Make ready, Hugh, to alight,” cried Cobb. “I will explain all afterward.”
The Orion touched the snowy plain. Still discharging gas that the vessel might not ascend, when relieved of the weight of himself and companions, he pointed to a cone of rocks standing high and bare above the snow, some four hundred yards away.
“That is why I have landed,” he quietly said: “Come; follow me, and I will explain.”