ctor had recognized Shandon, Pen, and the wretched crew of
the _Forward_; their strength and food had failed them; their launch
had probably been crushed by an avalanche, or carried into some
ravine, and they could not take to the open sea; probably they were
lost among these unknown continents. Besides, men who had left in
mutiny could not long be united with the closeness which is necessary
for the accomplishment of great things. A ringleader of a revolt has
never more than a doubtful authority in his hands. And, without doubt,
Shandon was promptly deposed.

However that may have been, the crew had evidently undergone a
thousand tortures, a thousand despairs, to end with this terrible
catastrophe; but the secret of their sufferings is forever buried
beneath the arctic snows.

"Let us flee!" cried the doctor.

And he dragged his companions far from the scene of the disaster.
Horror lent them momentary strength. They set out again.

CHAPTER XXVII.
CONCLUSION.

Why linger over the perpetual sufferings of the survivors? They
themselves could never recall to their memory a clear vision of what
had happened in the week after their horrible discovery of the remains
of the crew. However, September 9th, by a miracle of energy, they
reached Cape Horsburgh, at the end of North Devon.

They were dying of hunger; they had not eaten for forty-eight hours,
and their last meal had been the flesh of their last Esquimaux dog.
Bell could go no farther, and old Johnson felt ready to die. They were
on the shore of Baffin's Bay, on the way to Europe. Three miles from
land the waves were breaking on the edges of the ice-field. They had
to await the uncertain passage of a whaler, and how many days yet?

But Heaven took pity on them, for the next day Altamont clearly saw a
sail. The anguish which follows such an appearance of a sail, the
tortures of disappointment, are well known. The ship seemed to
approach and then to recede. Terrible are the alternations of hope and
despair, and too often at the moment the castaways consider themselves
saved the sail sinks beneath the horizon.

[Illustration]

The doctor and his companions went through all these emotions; they
had reached the western limit of the ice-field, and yet they saw the
ship disappear, taking no note of their presence. They shouted, but in
vain.

Then the doctor had a last inspiration of that busy mind which had
served him in such good stead.

A floe had dri