"Chance!" shouted Altamont; "do you dare to say that this great discovery is not due to Kane's energy and knowledge?"
"I say," answered Hatteras, "that Kane's name is not fit to be pronounced in a country made famous by Parry, Franklin, Ross, Belcher, and Penny in these seas which opened the Northwest Passage to MacClure—"
"MacClure!" interrupted the American; "you mention that man, and yet you complain of the work of chance? Wasn't it chance alone that favored him?"
"No," answered Hatteras, warmly,—"no! It was his courage, his perseverance in spending four winters in the ice—"
"I should think so!" retorted the American; "he got caught in the ice and couldn't get out, and he had to abandon the Investigator at last to go back to England."
"My friends—" said the doctor.
"Besides," Altamont went on, "let us consider the result. You speak of the Northwest Passage; well, it has yet to be discovered!"
Hatteras started at these words; no more vexatious question could have arisen between two rival nationalities. The doctor again tried to intervene.
"You are mistaken, Altamont," he said.
"No, I persist in my opinions," he said obstinately; "the Northwest Passage is yet to be found, to be sailed through, if you like that any better! MacClure never penetrated it, and to this day no ship that has sailed from Behring Strait has reached Baffin's Bay!"