"Has he come on the track of some animal, do you think? " asked Johnson.
"No, no!" said Clawbonny, shuddering. "His bark is too sorrowful; it is the dog's tear. He has found the body of Hatteras."
They all four rushed forward, in spite of the blinding cinder-dust, and came to the far-end of a fiord, where they discovered the dog barking round a corpse wrapped in the British flag!
"Hatteras! Hatteras!" cried the Doctor, throwing himself on the body of his friend. But next minute he started up with an indescribable cry, and shouted, "Alive! alive!"
"Yes!" said a feeble voice; "yes, alive at the North Pole, on Queen's Island."
"Hurrah for England!" shouted all with one accord.
"And for America!" added Clawbonny, holding out one hand to Hatteras and the other to Altamont.
Duk was not behind with his hurrah, which was worth quite as much as the others.
For a few minutes the joy of recovery of their captain filled all their hearts, and the poor fellows could not restrain their tears.
The Doctor found, on examination, that he was not seriously hurt. The wind threw him on the coast where landing was perilous work, but, after being driven back more than once into the sea, the hardy sailor had managed to scramble on to a rock, and gradually to hoist himself above the waves.