He returned to Altamont, while Hatteras remained pensive. The doctor succeeded in recalling the unfortunate man to life, but not to consciousness; he neither saw, heard, nor spoke, but at any rate he was alive!
The next morning Hatteras said to the doctor,—
"We must start."
"All right, Hatteras! The sledge is not loaded; we shall carry this poor fellow back to the ship with us.
"Very well," said Hatteras. "But first let us bury these corpses."
The two unknown sailors were placed beneath the ruins of the snow-house; Simpson's body took the place of Altamont's.
The three travellers uttered a short prayer over their companion, and at seven o'clock in the morning they set off again for the ship.
Two of the dogs were dead. Duke volunteered to drag the sledge, and he worked as resolutely as a Greenland dog.
For twenty days, from January 31st to February 19th, the return was very much like the first part of the journey. Save that it was in the month of February, the coldest of the whole year, and the ice was harder; the travellers suffered terribly from the cold, but not from the wind or snow-storm.
The sun reappeared for the first time January 31st; every day it rose higher above the horizon. Bell and the doctor were at the end of their strength, almost blind and quite lame; the carpenter could not walk without crutches. Altamont was alive, but continued insensible; sometimes his life was despaired of, but unremitting care kept him alive! And yet the doctor needed to take the greatest care of himself, for his health was beginning to suffer.