His companions gazed at him in astonishment.
"Yes, we are on the land of the Pole, but we are not on the Pole itself!"
"How so?" asked Altamont.
"You don't mean it!" cried the doctor, anxiously.
"Yes!" resumed Hatteras, earnestly, "I said that an Englishman should set foot on the Pole; I said it, and an Englishman shall do it."
"What!" ejaculated the doctor.
"We are now forty-five seconds from the unknown point," Hatteras went on, with increasing animation; "where it is, I am going!"
"But that is the top of the volcano!" said the doctor.
"I'm going!"
"It's an inaccessible spot!"