| "Then a terrible explosion was heard." |
At that moment the doctor and Bell came up to Hatteras. He roused himself suddenly from his despair.
"My friends," he said energetically, "the cowards have taken flight! The brave will succeed! Johnson, Bell, you are bold; Doctor, you are wise; as for me, I have faith! There is the North Pole! Come, to work!"
Hatteras's companions felt their hearts glow at these brave words.
And yet the situation was terrible for these four men and the dying man, abandoned without supplies, alone at the eighty-fourth degree of latitude,[*] in the very heart of the polar regions.
END OF PART I.