Sprott was so overwhelmed with delight that he scooped up a huge pile
of snow, pressed it together, and popped McCracken on the nose with it.
McCracken threw him down and poured snow down his back.
Lamoureux said angrily, "Stop that, you fools! You're not a bunch of
kids."
The horseplay came to an abrupt halt. They marched on a little more
soberly, and in a few minutes the snow had stopped falling altogether.
Instead of being as happy as Lamoureux had expected, McCracken seemed
puzzled. He scratched his head and scowled.
"What's wrong, McCracken? Termites?"
"It's this snow, Captain. We walk two or three miles and it stops. It
don't make sense."
"It's got to stop sometime."
"The point is, Captain, it didn't snow here at all. There's none on the
ground. It just snowed around the ship."
It cost Lamoureux an effort to admit it, but McCracken was right. He
was not as stupid as he had seemed.
It was Lamoureux's turn to scowl. He got in touch with the ship.
"Haskell!"
"Yes, sir?"
"How's the weather where you are?"
"Are you joking, Captain?"
"I'm serious, Haskell. Is it clear?"
"It's still snowing, Captain, just as it was less than an hour ago when
you left."
Lamoureux grunted. "You may be interested to know that it hasn't
snowed here at all."
He cut off Haskell's astonished voice, and turned to the others, who
now seemed a little uneasy. The unexpected changes in the weather were
a little too much for them.
"Now that it's cleared up, we should be able to find that mountain.
We'll spread out just a little, but not too far. For all we know, it
may start to snow again. Carvalho, you take your group off to the
left--"