"What shall we do, then?" said the doctor.
"I don't know. This cursed year has been unfavourable from the beginning."
"Well," answered the doctor, "if we must winter here, we must. One place is as good as another."
"But," said Hatteras, lowering his voice, "we must not winter here, especially in the month of June. Wintering is full of physical and moral danger. The crew would be unmanageable during a long inaction in the midst of real suffering. I thought I should be able to stop much nearer the Pole than this!"
"Luck would have it so, or Baffin's Bay wouldn't have been closed."
"It was open enough for that American!" cried Hatteras in a rage.
"Come, Hatteras," said the doctor, interrupting him on purpose, "to-day is only the 5th of June; don't despair; a passage may suddenly open up before us; you know that the ice has a tendency to break up into several blocks, even in the calmest weather, as if a force of repulsion acted upon the different parts of it; we may find the sea free at any minute."
"If that minute comes we shall take advantage of it. It is quite possible that, once out of Bellot Strait, we shall be able to go north by Peel Strait or McClintock Channel, and then——"
"Captain," said James Wall, who had come up while Hatteras was speaking, "the ice nearly carries off our rudder."
"Well," answered Hatteras, "we must risk it. We must be ready day and night. You must do all you can to protect it, Mr. Wall, but I can't have it removed."