"What is that?"
"To take some food. It can't hurt us. What do you think, Mr. Altamont?"
"Let us eat if you care to," was the answer; "although our condition is stupid, not to say disgraceful."
"I'll bet," said Johnson, "that we'll find some way of driving them off after dinner."
They made no reply, but sat down to dinner. Johnson, as a pupil of the doctor, tried to be a philosopher in the face of danger, but he succeeded ill; his jokes stuck in his throat. Besides, they began to feel uncomfortable; the air was growing bad in this hermetically sealed prison; the stove-pipe drew insufficiently, and it was easy to see that in a short time the fire would go out; the oxygen, consumed by their lungs and the fire, would be replaced by carbonic acid, which would be fatal to them, as they all knew. Hatteras was the first to detect this new danger; he was unwilling to hide it from the others.
"So, at any risk we must get out!" said Altamont.
"Yes," answered Hatteras; "but let us wait till night; we will make a hole in the snow that we may get fresh air; then one shall take his place here and fire at the bears."
"It's the only thing we can do," said the American.