Shandon, Hatteras will fail?"

"Exactly; he will fail. In such an enterprise, there should be an
identity of interests among the leaders, a sympathy which is lacking
here. Besides, Hatteras is mad; his whole past proves it! But we shall
see! Circumstances may arise in which the command of the ship will
have to be given to a less foolhardy captain--"

"Still," said Wall, shaking his head doubtfully, "Hatteras will always
have on his side--"

"He will have," interrupted Shandon,--"he will have that Dr.
Clawbonny, who only cares to study; Johnson, who is a slave to
discipline, and who never takes the trouble to reason; perhaps one or
two besides, like Bell, the carpenter,--four at the most, and there
are eighteen on board! No, Wall, Hatteras has not the confidence of
the crew; he knows it well, and he tries to make up for it by bribery;
he made a good use of the account of Franklin's catastrophe to create
a different feeling in their excited minds; but that won't last, I
tell you; and if he don't reach Beechey Island, he is lost!"

"If the crew suspected--"

"I beg of you," said Shandon, quickly, "not to say a word about this
to the crew; they'll find it out for themselves. Now, at any rate, it
is well to go on towards the north. But who can say whether what
Hatteras takes for a step towards the Pole may not be really retracing
our steps? At the end of MacClintock Channel is Melville Bay, and
thence open the straits which lead back to Baffin's Bay. Hatteras had
better take care! The way west is easier than the way north."

From these words Shandon's state of mind may be judged, and how
justified the captain was in suspecting a treacherous disposition in
him.

Shandon, moreover, was right when he ascribed the present satisfaction
of the crew to the prospect they had of passing latitude 72 degrees.
This greed of gold seized the least audacious. Clifton had made out
every one's share with great exactness. Leaving out the captain and
the doctor, who could not be admitted to the division, there were
sixteen men on board the _Forward_. The amount was a thousand pounds,
that was 72 pounds 10_s_. for each man, for every degree. If they
should ever reach the Pole the eighteen degrees to be crossed would
give each one a sum of 1,125 pounds, a fair fortune. This whim would
cost the captain 18,000 pounds; but he was rich enough to pay for such
a costly trip to the Pole.

These calculations aroused wonderfully the avarice of