And this meal, though the same as the dinner, was shared by all. When it was finished their only thought was sleep; the mackintoshes, spread out upon the snow, protected them from the dampness. At the flame of the portable stove they dried their clothes; then three of them, wrapped up in their woollen coverings, fell asleep, while one was left on watch; he had to keep a lookout on the safety of all, and to prevent the opening from being closed, otherwise they ran a risk of being buried alive.
Duke shared their quarters; the other dogs remained without, and after they had eaten their supper they lay down and were soon hidden by the snow.
Their fatigue soon brought sound sleep. The doctor took the watch until three of the morning. In the night the hurricane raged furiously. Strange was the situation of these lonely men lost in the snow, enclosed in this vault with its walls rapidly thickening under the snow-fall.
The next morning at six o'clock their monotonous march was resumed; there were ever before them the same valleys and icebergs, a uniformity which made the choice of a path difficult. Still, a fall of several degrees in the temperature made their way easier by hardening the snow. Often they came across little elevations, which looked like cairns or storing-places of the Esquimaux; the doctor had one destroyed to satisfy his curiosity, but he found nothing except a cake of ice.
"What do you expect to find, Clawbonny?" asked Hatteras; "are we not the first men to penetrate into this part of the globe?"
"Probably," answered the doctor, "but who knows?"
"Don't let us waste our time in useless searching," resumed the captain; "I am in a hurry to rejoin the ship, even if this long-wanted fuel should not be found."
"I have great hopes of finding it," said the doctor.
"Doctor," Hatteras used to say frequently, "I did wrong to leave the Forward; it was a mistake! The captain's place is on board, and nowhere else."
"Johnson is there."