Hatteras was still silent.
"No," said Clawbonny, "let us talk frankly; it's not the boat you mind, it's the man."
"Yes, Doctor, yes," answered the captain, "that American; I hate him with real English hate, that man thrown in my way by chance—"
"To save you!"
"To ruin me! He seems to defy me, to act as master, to imagine he holds my fate in his hands, and to have guessed my plans. Didn't he show his character when we were giving names to the new lands? Has he ever said what he was doing here? You can't free me of the idea which is killing me, that this man is the head of an expedition sent out by the government of the United States."
"And if he is, Hatteras, what is there to show that he is in search of the Pole? Can't America try to discover the Northwest Passage as well as England? At any rate, Altamont is perfectly ignorant of your plans; for neither Johnson nor Bell nor you nor I has said a single word about them in his presence."
"Well, I hope he'll never know them!"
"He will know them finally, of course, for we can't leave him alone here."
"Why not?" asked the captain, with some violence; "can't he remain at Fort Providence?"
"He would never give his consent, Hatteras; and then to leave him here, uncertain of finding him again, would be more than imprudent, it would be inhuman. Altamont will come with us; he must come! But since there is no need of suggesting new ideas to him, let us say nothing, and build a launch apparently for reconnoitring these new shores."