Part 34 (1/2)
”Hatteras,” said the Doctor, ”it is enough! we cannot go further!”
”Stop, then,” he replied, in a strangely altered voice; ”I aher”
”No, it is useless; you are at the Pole already”
”No, no! higher, higher!”
”My friend, do you knoho 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 superhu lava, and was beyond the reach of his companions
A cry of horror burst froht the poor captain ulf; but there he was safe on the other side, accompanied by his faithful Duk, ould not leave him
He speedily disappeared behind a curtain of s 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 ih 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 glih the clouds of smoke and showers of ashes Sometimes his head, soain, and a fewto 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 ru noise of the volcano, and the mountain shook and trembled From time to time a loud fail was heard behind, and the travellers would see soulph itself in the polar basin below
[Illustration: Hatteras did not even turn once to look back, butattached to his staff--P249]
Hatteras did not even turn once to look back, butattached to his staff His terrified friends watched every radually decrease torat
Then came a moment of intense anxiety, for the wind beat down on the 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 So knees and loins against the rocks in narrow, intricate winding paths, and so on by both hands to so 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 hier than the descent involved
Once more he shouted--
”Hatteras! Hatteras!”