A good deal amused and surprised by the negro’s statement, the two hunters hastened back to Makitok’s hut, where they indeed found Captain Vane in a state of great excitement.
“Well, uncle, what’s the news?” asked Leo; “found your latitude higher than you expected?”
“Higher!” exclaimed the Captain, seizing his nephew by both hands and shaking them. “Higher! I should think so—couldn’t be higher. There’s neither latitude nor longitude here, my boy! I’ve found it! Come—come up, and I’ll show you the exact spot—the North Pole itself!”
He dragged Leo to the top of the truncated cone on which he had pitched his observatory.
“There, look round you,” he cried, taking off his hat and wiping the perspiration from his brow.
“Well, uncle, where is it?” asked Leo, half-amused and half-sceptical.
“Where! why, don’t you see it? No, of course you don’t. You’re looking all round it, lad. Look down,—down at your feet. Leonard Vandervell,” he added, in sudden solemnity, “you’re on it! you’re standing on the North Pole now!”
Leo still looked incredulous.
“What I you don’t believe? Convince him, Alf.”
“Indeed it is true,” said Alf; “we have been testing and checking our observations in every possible manner, and the result never varies more than a foot or two. The North Pole is at this moment actually under our feet.”