"Hit!" repeated Bell.
"Let us try again," said Hatteras, closing the opening for a moment.
The poker was put again into the fire; in a few minutes it was red hot.
Altamont and Bell returned to their place after loading their guns; Hatteras again pushed the poker through the loop-hole. But this time an impenetrable substance stopped it.
"Curse it!" cried the American.
"What's the matter?" asked Johnson.
"The matter! These cursed animals are heaping up the ice and snow so as to bury us alive!"
"Impossible!"
"See, the poker can't go through! Really, this is absurd!"