ll probably get to the end
of our misfortunes."

"Brunton! stir up the fires, and as soon as there's enough pressure
let me know. In the meantime our men will pluck up their courage--that
will be so much gained. They are in a hurry to run away from the Devil's
Thumb; we'll take advantage of their good inclinations!"

All at once the progress of the _Forward_ was abruptly arrested.

"What's up?" cried Shandon. "I say, Wall! have we broken our
tow-ropes?"

"Not at all, commander," answered Wall, looking over the side. "Hallo!
Here are the men coming back again. They are climbing the ship's side
as if the devil was at their heels."

"What the deuce can it be?" cried Shandon, rushing forward.

"On board! On board!" cried the terrified sailors.

Shandon looked in a northerly direction, and shuddered in spite of
himself. A strange animal, with appalling movements, whose foaming
tongue emerged from enormous jaws, was leaping about at a cable's
length from the ship. In appearance he seemed to be about twenty feet
high, with hair like bristles; he was following up the sailors, whilst
his formidable tail, ten feet long, was sweeping the snow and throwing
it up in thick whirlwinds. The sight of such a monster riveted the
most daring to the spot.

"It's a bear!" said one.

"It's the Gevaudan beast!"

"It's the lion of the Apocalypse!"

Shandon ran to his cabin for a gun he always kept loaded. The doctor
armed himself, and held himself in readiness to fire upon an animal
which, by its dimensions, recalled the antediluvian quadrupeds. He
neared the ship in immense leaps; Shandon and the doctor fired at
the same time, when, suddenly, the report of their firearms, shaking
the atmospheric stratum, produced an unexpected effect. The doctor
looked attentively, and burst out laughing.

"It's the refraction!" he exclaimed.

"Only the refraction!" repeated Shandon. But a fearful exclamation
from the crew interrupted them.

"The dog!" said Clifton.

"The dog, captain!" repeated all his comrades.

"Himself!" cried Pen; "always that cursed brute."

They were not mistaken--it was the dog. Having got loose from his
shackles, he had regained the surface by another crevice. At that
instant the refraction, through a phenomenon common to these
latitudes, caused him to appear under formidable dimensions, which
the shaking of the air had dispersed; but the vexatious effect was
none the less produced upon the minds of the sailors,