?" asked Altamont, proudly.

"You are," answered Hatteras, who could hardly control his
voice,--"you are a man who presumes to accord equal glory to science
and to chance! Your American captain went far to the north, but as
chance alone--"

"Chance!" shouted Altamont; "do you dare to say that this great
discovery is not due to Kane's energy and knowledge?"

"I say," answered Hatteras, "that Kane's name is not fit to be
pronounced in a country made famous by Parry, Franklin, Ross, Belcher,
and Penny in these seas which opened the Northwest Passage to
MacClure--"

"MacClure!" interrupted the American; "you mention that man, and yet
you complain of the work of chance? Wasn't it chance alone that
favored him?"

"No," answered Hatteras, warmly,--"no! It was his courage, his
perseverance in spending four winters in the ice--"

"I should think so!" retorted the American; "he got caught in the ice
and couldn't get out, and he had to abandon the _Investigator_ at last
to go back to England."

"My friends--" said the doctor.

"Besides," Altamont went on, "let us consider the result. You speak of
the Northwest Passage; well, it has yet to be discovered!"

Hatteras started at these words; no more vexatious question could have
arisen between two rival nationalities. The doctor again tried to
intervene.

"You are mistaken, Altamont," he said.

"No, I persist in my opinions," he said obstinately; "the Northwest
Passage is yet to be found, to be sailed through, if you like that any
better! MacClure never penetrated it, and to this day no ship that has
sailed from Behring Strait has reached Baffin's Bay!"

That was true, speaking exactly. What answer could be made?

Nevertheless, Hatteras rose to his feet and said,--

"I shall not permit the good name of an English captain to be attacked
any further in my presence."

"You will not permit it?" answered the American, who also rose to his
feet; "but these are the facts, and it is beyond your power to destroy
them."

"Sir!" said Hatteras, pale with anger.

"My friends," said the doctor, "don't get excited! We are discussing a
scientific subject."

Clawbonny looked with horror at a scientific discussion into which the
hate of an American and an Englishman could enter.

"I am going to give you the facts," began Hatteras, threateningly.

"But I'm speaking now!" retorted the American.

Johnson and Bell became very uneasy.

"Gentlemen," said the doctor, severely, "l