MOUNT HATTERAS.
After this conversation they all made themselves as comfortable as
they could, and lay down to sleep.
All, except Hatteras; and why could this extraordinary man not sleep
like the others?
Was not the purpose of his life attained now? Had he not realized
his most daring project? Why could he not rest? Indeed, might not
one have supposed that, after the strain his nervous system had
undergone, he would long for rest?
But no, he grew more and more excited, and it was not the thought of
returning that so affected him. Was he bent on going farther still?
Had his passion for travel no limits? Was the world too small for
him now he had circumnavigated it.
Whatever might be the cause, he could not sleep; yet this first
night at the Pole was clear and calm. The isle was absolutely
uninhabited—not a bird was to be seen in this burning atmosphere,
not an animal on these scoriae-covered rocks, not a fish in these
seething waters. Next morning, when Altamont, and the others awoke,
Hatteras was gone. Feeling uneasy at his absence, they hurried out
of the grotto in search of him.
[Illustration: There he was standing on a rock, gazing fixedly at
the top of the mountain.—P.242]
There he was standing on a rock, gazing fixedly at the top of the
mountain. His instruments were in his hand, and he was evidently
calculating the exact longitude and latitude.
The Doctor went towards him and spoke, but it was long before he
could rouse him from his absorbing contemplations. At last the
captain seemed to understand, and Clawbonny said, while he examined
him with a keen scrutinizing glance—
"Let us go round the island. Here we are, all ready for our last
excursion."
"The last!" repeated Hatteras, as if in a dream. "Yes!, the
last truly, but," he added, with more animation, "the most
wonderful."
He pressed both hands on his brow as he spoke, as if to calm the
inward tumult.
Just then Altamont and the others came up, and their appearance
seemed to dispel the hallucinations under which he was labouring.
"My friends," he said, in a voice full of emotion, "thanks for
your courage, thanks for your perseverance, thanks for your
superhuman efforts, through which we are permitted to set our feet
on this soil."
"Captain," said Johnson, "we have only obeyed orders to you
alone belongs the honour."
"No, no!" exclaimed Hatteras, with a violent outburst of
emotion, "to all of you as much as to me! To Altamont as much as
any of us, as much as the Doctor himself! Oh, let my heart break in
your hands, it cannot contain its joy and gratitude any longer."
He grasped the hands of his brave companions as he spoke, and paced
up and down as if he had lost all self-control.
"We have only done our duty as Englishmen," said Bell.
"And as friends," added Clawbonny.
"Yes, but all did not do it," replied Hatteras "some gave way.
However, we must pardon them—pardon both the traitors and those
who were led away by them. Poor fellows! I forgive them. You hear
me, Doctor?"
"Yes," replied Clawbonny, beginning to be seriously uneasy at
his friend's excitement.
"I have no wish, therefore," continued the captain, "that they
should lose the little fortune they came so far to seek. No, the
original agreement is to remain unaltered, and they shall be
rich—if they ever see England again."
It would have been difficult not to have been touched by the
pathetic tone of voice in which Hatteras said this.
"But, captain," interrupted Johnson, trying to joke, "one
would think you were making your will!"
"Perhaps I am," said Hatteras, gravely.
"And yet you have a long bright career of glory before you!"
"Who knows?" was the reply.
No one answered, and the Doctor did not dare to guess his meaning;
but Hatteras soon made them understand it, for presently he said, in
a hurried, agitated manner, as if he could scarcely command
himself—
"Friends, listen to me. We have done much already, but much yet
remains to be done."
His companions heard him with profound astonishment.
"Yes," he resumed, "we are close to the Pole, but we are not
on it."
"How do you make that out," said Altamont.
"Yes," replied Hatteras, with vehemence, "I said an Englishman
should plant his foot on the Pole of the world! I said it, and an
Englishman shall."
"What!" cried Clawbonny.
"We are still 45" from the unknown point," resumed Hatteras,
with increasing animation, "and to that point I shall go."
"But it is on the summit of the volcano," said the Doctor.
"I shall go."
"It is an inaccessible cone!"
"I shall go."
"But it is a yawning fiery crater!"
"I shall go."
The tone of absolute determination in which Hatteras pronounced
these words it is impossible to describe.
His friends were stupefied, and gazed in terror at the blazing
mountain.
At last the Doctor recovered himself, and began to urge and entreat
Hatteras to renounce his project. He tried every means his heart
dictated, from humble supplications to friendly threats; but he
could gain nothing—a sort of frenzy had come over the captain, an
absolute monomania about the Pole.
Nothing but violent measures would keep him back from destruction,
but the Doctor was unwilling to employ these unless driven to
extremity.
He trusted, moreover, that physical impossibilities, insuperable
obstacles would bar his further progress, and meantime finding all
protestations were useless, he simply said—
"Very well, since you are bent on it, we'll go too."
"Yes," replied Hatteras, "half-way up the mountain, but not a
step beyond. You know you have to carry back to England the
duplicate of the document in the cairn——"
"Yes; but——"
"It is settled," said Hatteras, in an imperious tone; "and
since the prayers of a friend will not suffice, the captain
commands."
The Doctor did not insist longer, and a few minutes after the little
band set out, accompanied by Duk.
It was about eight o'clock when they commenced their difficult
ascent; the sky was splendid, and the thermometer stood at 52°.
Hatteras and his dog went first, closely followed by the others.
"I am afraid," said Johnson to the Doctor.
"No, no, there's nothing to be afraid of; we are here."
This singular little island appeared to be of recent formation, and
was evidently the product of successive volcanic eruptions. The
rocks were all lying loose on the top of each other, and it was a
marvel how they preserved their equilibrium. Strictly speaking, the
mountain was only a heap of stones thrown down from a height, and
the mass of rocks which composed the island had evidently come out
of the bowels of the earth.
The earth, indeed, may be compared to a vast cauldron of spherical
form, in which, under the influence of a central fire, immense
quantities of vapours are generated, which would explode the globe
but for the safety-valves outside.
These safety-valves are volcanoes, when one closes another opens;
and at the Poles where the crust of the earth is thinner, owing to
its being flattened, it is not surprising that a volcano should be
suddenly formed by the upheaving of some part of the ocean-bed.
The Doctor, while following Hatteras, was closely following all the
peculiarities of the island, and he was further confirmed in his
opinion as to its recent formation by the absence of water. Had it
existed for centuries, the thermal springs would have flowed from
its bosom.
As they got higher, the ascent became more and more difficult, for
the flanks of the mountain were almost perpendicular, and it
required the utmost care to keep them from falling. Clouds of
scoriæ and ashes would whirl round them repeatedly, threatening
them with asphyxia, or torrents of lava would bar their passage. In
parts where these torrents ran horizontally, the outside had become
hardened; while underneath was the boiling lava, and every step the
travellers took had first to be tested with the iron-tipped staff to
avoid being suddenly plunged into the scalding liquid.
At intervals large fragments of red-hot rock were thrown up from the
crater, and burst in the air like bomb-shells, scattering the debris
to enormous distances in all directions.
Hatteras, however, climbed up the steepest ascents with surprising
agility, disdaining the help of his staff.
He arrived before long at a circular rock, a sort of plateau about
ten feet wide. A river of boiling lava surrounded it, except in one
part, where it forked away to a higher rock, leaving a narrow
passage, through which Hatteras fearlessly passed.
Here he stopped, and his companions managed to rejoin him. He seemed
to be measuring with his eye the distance he had yet to get over.
Horizontally, he was not more than two hundred yards from the top of
the crater, but vertically he had nearly three times that distance
to traverse.
The ascent had occupied three hours already. Hatteras showed no
signs of fatigue, while the others were almost spent.
The summit of the volcano appeared inaccessible, and the Doctor
determined at any price to prevent Hatteras from attempting to
proceed. He tried gentle means first, but the captain's excitement
was fast becoming delirium. During their ascent, symptoms of
insanity had become more and more marked, and no one could be
surprised who knew anything of his previous history.
"Hatteras," said the Doctor, "it is enough! we cannot go
further!"
"Stop, then," he replied, in a strangely altered voice; "I am
going higher."
"No, it is useless; you are at the Pole already."
"No, no! higher, higher!"
"My friend, do you know who is speaking to you? It is I, Doctor
Clawbonny."
"Higher, higher!" repeated the madman.
"Very well, we shall not allow it—that is all."
He had hardly uttered the words before Hatteras, by a superhuman
effort, sprang over the boiling lava, and was beyond the reach of
his companions.
A cry of horror burst from every lip, for they thought the poor
captain must have perished in that fiery gulf; but there he was safe
on the other side, accompanied by his faithful Duk, who would not
leave him.
He speedily disappeared behind a curtain of smoke, and they heard
his voice growing fainter in the distance, shouting—
"To the north! to the north! to the top of Mount Hatteras!
Remember Mount Hatteras!"
All pursuit of him was out of the question; it was impossible to
leap across the fiery torrent, and equally impossible to get round
it. Altamont, indeed, was mad enough to make an attempt, and would
certainly have lost his life if the others had not held him back by
main force.
"Hatteras! Hatteras!" shouted the Doctor, but no response was
heard save the faint bark of Duk.
At intervals, however, a glimpse of him could be caught through the
clouds of smoke and showers of ashes. Sometimes his head, sometimes
his arm appeared; then he was out of sight again, and a few minutes
later was seen higher up clinging to the rocks. His size constantly
decreased with the fantastic rapidity of objects rising upwards in
the air. In half-an-hour he was only half his size.
The air was full of the deep rumbling noise of the volcano, and the
mountain shook and trembled. From time to time a loud fall was heard
behind, and the travellers would see some enormous rock rebounding
from the heights to engulph itself in the polar basin below.
[Illustration: Hatteras did not even turn once to look back, but
marched straight on, carrying his country's flag attached to his
staff.—P.249]
Hatteras did not even turn once to look back, but marched straight
on, carrying his country's flag attached to his staff. His
terrified friends watched every movement, and saw him gradually
decrease to microscopic dimensions, while Duk looked no larger than
a big rat.
Then came a moment of intense anxiety, for the wind beat down on
them an immense sheet of flame, and they could see nothing but the
red glare. A cry of agony escaped the Doctor; but an instant
afterwards Hatteras reappeared, waving his flag.
For a whole hour this fearful spectacle went on—an hour of battle
with unsteady loose rocks and quagmires of ashes, where the
foolhardy climber sank up to his waist. Sometimes they saw him hoist
himself up by leaning knees and loins against the rocks in narrow,
intricate winding paths, and sometimes he would be hanging on by
both hands to some sharp crag, swinging to and fro like a withered
tuft.
[Illustration]
At last he reached the summit of the mountain, the mouth of the
crater. Here the Doctor hoped the infatuated man would stop, at any
rate, and would, perhaps, recover his senses, and expose himself to
no more danger than the descent involved.
Once more he shouted—
"Hatteras! Hatteras!"
There was such a pathos of entreaty in his tone that Altamont felt
moved to his inmost soul.
"I'll save him yet!" he exclaimed; and before Clawbonny could
hinder him, he had cleared with a bound the torrent of fire, and was
out of sight among the rocks.
Meantime, Hatteras had mounted a rock which overhung the crater, and
stood waving his flag amidst showers of stones which rained down on
him. Duk was by his side; but the poor beast was growing dizzy in
such close proximity to the abyss.
Hatteras balanced his staff in one hand, and with the other sought
to find the precise mathematical point where all the meridians of
the globe meet, the point on which it was his sublime purpose to
plant his foot.
All at once the rock gave way, and he disappeared. A cry of horror
broke from his companions, and rang to the top of the mountain.
Clawbonny thought his friend had perished, and lay buried for ever
in the depths of the volcano. A second—only a second, though it
seemed an age—elapsed, and there was Altamont and the dog holding
the ill-fated Hatteras! Man and dog had caught him at the very
moment when he disappeared in the abyss.
Hatteras was saved! Saved in spite of himself; and half-an-hour
later he lay unconscious in the arms of his despairing companions.
When he came to himself, the Doctor looked at him in speechless
anguish, for there was no glance of recognition in his eye. It was
the eye of a blind man, who gazes without seeing.
"Good heavens!" exclaimed Johnson; "he is blind!"
"No," replied Clawbonny, "no! My poor friends, we have only
saved the body of Hatteras; his soul is left behind on the top of
the volcano. His reason is gone!"
"Insane!" exclaimed Johnson and Altamont, in consternation.
"Insane!" replied the Doctor, and the big tears ran down his
cheeks.