r last, for the letter from
Aberdeen had ordered that all the crew, from the captain to the stoker,
should be teetotallers, and that there should be no wine, beer, nor
spirits on board except those given by the doctor's orders. The
conversation had been going on about the departure for the last hour.
If the instructions of the captain were realised to the end, Shandon
would receive his last instructions the next day.

"If the letter," said the commander, "does not tell me the captain's
name, it must at least tell me the destination of the brig, or I shall
not know where to take her to."

"If I were you," said the impatient doctor, "I should start whether
I get a letter or no; they'll know how to send after you, you may
depend."

"You are ready for anything, doctor; but if so, to what quarter of
the globe should you set sail?"

"To the North Pole, of course; there's not the slightest doubt about
that."

"Why should it not be the South Pole?" asked Wall.

"The South Pole is out of the question. No one with any sense would
send a brig across the whole of the Atlantic. Just reflect a minute,
and you'll see the impossibility."

"The doctor has an answer to everything," said Wall.

"Well, we'll say north," continued Shandon. "But where north? To
Spitzbergen or Greenland? Labrador or Hudson's Bay? Although all
directions end in insuperable icebergs, I am not less puzzled as to
which to take. Have you an answer to that, doctor?"

"No," he answered, vexed at having nothing to say; "but if you don't
get a letter what shall you do?"

"I shall do nothing; I shall wait."

"Do you mean to say you won't start?" cried Dr. Clawbonny, agitating
his glass in despair.

"Certainly I do."

"And that would be the wisest plan," said Johnson tranquilly, while
the doctor began marching round the table, for he could not keep still;
"but still, if we wait too long, the consequences may be deplorable;
the season is good now if we are really going north, as we ought to
profit by the breaking up of the ice to cross Davis's Straits; besides,
the crew gets more and more uneasy; the friends and companions of
our men do all they can to persuade them to leave the _Forward_, and
their influence may be pernicious for us."

"Besides," added Wall, "if one of them deserted they all would, and
then I don't know how you would get another crew together."

"But what can I do?" cried Shandon.

"What you said you would do," replied the doctor;