“Nor I,” said the colonel.
“Nor I,” added Mildmay.
“You are wise, gentlemen,” remarked the professor. “I can quite understand your curiosity; but, were you to gratify it, your pleasure would be effectually destroyed for the remainder of the voyage.”
“That reminds me to ask the question, Where are we going next?” said Sir Reginald.
The professor shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands, palms upwards.
“The world is all before you where to choose,” he replied. “You have only to name a place, and it will be strange indeed if we cannot get there.”
“Well, for my own part, I am of opinion that it will be wise for us to devote this trip as far as possible to the visiting of such spots as it is difficult or impossible to reach by any other means. What say you, gentlemen?”
This from the baronet.
The others expressed their full coincidence in this opinion.
“Very well, then,” continued Sir Reginald; “my proposal is that, as the days are now at their longest, and this is therefore the most favourable time for such an expedition—and as, moreover, the Flying Fish’s stores have as yet been barely broached—we make the best of our way forthwith to the North Pole, there to enjoy a little of the choice sport which we may reasonably hope to find among animals that have never yet seen the face of man.”