"A niche in heaven."
"For those who go to heaven; for those who go elsewhere it is another affair." And he emphasized these enigmatical words with an appalling expression which was unseen in the darkness.
A silence ensued. The skipper, remembering the two names given by the chief to this man, asked himself the question,—
"Is he a madman, or is he a sage?"
The stiff and bony finger of the doctor remained immovably pointing, like a sign-post, to the misty blue spot in the sky.
The skipper looked at this spot.
"In truth," he growled out, "it is not sky but clouds."
"A blue cloud is worse than a black cloud," said the doctor; "and," he added, "it's a snow-cloud."
"La nube de la nieve," said the skipper, as if trying to understand the word better by translating it.
"Do you know what a snow-cloud is?" asked the doctor.