Under the Sea to the North Pole (2 page)

Now he was a full-blown lieutenant. Unlimited leave granted by the minister for the encouragement of the generous and patriotic attempt of De Keralio, had permitted him to share in the risk as well as in the glory to come of this expedition into those fatal regions from which so few explorers have returned.

Hubert’s elder brother Marc, was of a delicate and sickly constitution, but of rare intelligence, and had devoted himself to the study of physical science. At thirty he was one of the most distinguished scientists of the capital; his name had on many occasions come to the front on account of his useful discoveries. He had been unable to accompany his brother and uncle in their expedition; but for two years he and Hubert had been engaged in mysterious and difficult researches for increasing the voyage’s chances of success by new means and methods due to the invincible power of science.

Isabelle dc Keralio was a somewhat peculiar personage, whose character and education did not in many ways resemble those of an ordinary French girl. To her long sojourn in America she owed, perhaps by mere force of habit slowly acquired, that virile energy which contrasted so strongly with the gentleness, the languor even, and the timid graces of the women of old Europe. Accustomed to all bodily exercises and equipped with high intellectual culture, she would doubtless have frightened any other lover than Hubert.

But Hubert knew her well. He knew that her ways, differ as they might from those of young Frenchwomen, in no way detracted from her good qualities, that they only concealed from the unobservant eye the treasures of tenderness and charity in which her noble heart abounded. Besides, Isabelle put off this strange exterior in the intimacy of home. She recovered all the charms of her sex, and that with a rare power of fascination. An accomplished musician, whether she ran her fingers over the keyboard or used her admirable voice in all its ringing fullness. She then manifested the inward harmony of which her beauty was but the external robe.

They had been engaged of their own accord, with her father’s consent, and it had been arranged that the wedding should take place on the day Hubert won his epaulettes. He had won them in good time, when he was only twenty-seven; but then a fresh delay had intervened to postpone the union which both so much desired.

Pierre de Keralio was not a sailor, but he had been sufficiently on the sea to have no fear of it. More than this he had contracted a love for it, and at an age when most men retire from work he had conceived the idea of devoting a part of his immense fortune to the service of science. Patriotism had given to this noble thought a character of touching grandeur, and one day, he had said in a loud voice before an audience of friends invited to the betrothal of Hubert and Isabelle,—

“When my daughter is married, I will put into execution a grand scheme I have been thinking of for many years. I will go to the Pole. It shall not be said that Nares and Stephenson, and Aldrich, and Markham, that is to say Saxons, in 1876; that Greely, and Lockwood, and Brainard, Americans, that is to say other Saxons, in 1882 went beyond the 83rd parallel, without its also being said the French have beaten them.”

There was an exclamation from Isabelle.

“When I am married! Well! Our friends may blame my agreeing with you, but it shall never be said that Isabelle de Keralio did not have her share in such glory. I know Hubert’s heart well enough to know that he will give me permission to follow my father to the top of the world.”

Some of the friends applauded; the majority of them objected.

“My daughter!” said De Keralio, endeavouring to get in a word.

Isabelle would not allow him to finish. Throwing her arms around his neck with irresistible tenderness, she replied,—

“Hush, father! Not a word more! It is agreed. You have educated me in such a way that I am not a spoilt boy. I will go to the North Pole. And then you know, father, I shall not have disobeyed you, for you have just betrothed me to Hubert, and his authority over me now is as much as yours was. Now let us talk of the expedition.”

Then De Keralio said to Hubert,—

“To you, my future son-in-law, I must appeal. Will you be good enough to teach this unreasonable young person a little reason?”

Hubert, being thus cornered, arose.

“My dear father,” he replied, “for I can so call you, I will try and dissuade your daughter from a scheme so full of danger. I will endeavour to show her why such a resolve is so difficult of accomplishment for a woman. But if she refuses to yield to your opinion and to mine, and persists in a decision which, brave as it may be, ought to yield to more prudent considerations, I will ask you to let me share in the danger. Where Isabelle de Keralio goes, Hubert. D’Ermont, her betrothed and future husband, ought to go.”

De Keralio had no more to say.

As to the company, extravagant as the hypothesis mi^ht appear, they knew that those who had just spoken were quite capable of realizing it. And they contented themselves with wishing success to the future expedition.

It was thus that this idea of a campaign at the North Pole arose. But once it had been agreed upon, the plan had to be thought out.

At the outset De Keralio had obtained the necessary leave for Hubert. Then he had called in his old friend Bernard Lacrosse, an old officer of the French Navy, whose moderate fortune had compelled him to abandon the service of the State for the command of a transatlantic steamer. After five years of this new life Captain Lacrosse had taken part as a volunteer in a Russian expedition to the North Pole by way of Nova Zembla. When he was forty-two he had started for the Antarctic, as mate of a French ship. He had only just returned when a letter from Keralio claimed him in the name of friendship and science, .and he hastened to comply with it.

In company with Keralio and Hubert he had chosen the crew of the
Polar Star,
such being the vessel’s destined name.

They were all good fellows, these navigators to the Pole, for one knows to how great an extent gaiety and good spirits are indispensable among those who go on such adventures. The three initiators of the campaign chose the staff with scrupulous discernment, beginning with the officers and the doctors; and hardly any but cheery faces could be found on the muster roll,

The principal officers were as follows:—

Chief of the Expedition.
—Pierre de Keralio, aged 50.

Captain of the Polar Star,—
Bernard Lacrosse, naval lieutenant, aged 48.

Lieutenants.—
Paul Hardy, aged 28; Louis Pol, aged 27, passed midshipmen resigned. Jean Remois, master mariner, formerly passed midshipman of reserve, aged 34.

Surgeons.
—Andre Servan, aged 40;
Assistant
—Felix Le Sieur, aged 48.

Chief Engineer.—
Albert Mohizan, aged 30.
Chemist and Naturalist.—
Hermann Schnecker, aged 36.

To this list of officers we must add Lieutenant Hubert D’Ermont, engaged to Isabelle de Keralio, who held his place on board by virtue of unlimited leave from headquarters.

All of them had been in the navy, and everyone represented a considerable amount of knowledge, experience and energy. The sailors were of similar character and capacity. By a sort of national egotism De Keralio had chosen only Bretons or Canadians, that is to say compatriots of both his countries.

Then they had proceeded to fit out the ship. The
Polar Star
had not yet been afloat. She was in a shipyard at Cherbourg, begun by a builder whom bankruptcy had prevented from launching her. She was a steamer of 8oo tons, rigged as a barque. Bernard Lacrosse, who had visited all the French ports in the course of two months, had been fortunate enough to find her in her cradle. He had immediately bought her for De Keralio, and resumed work on her with a view to specially fitting her for her work in the icy seas. The ship had two compound triple expansion engines of 500 horse power. She had three decks and was coated with teak wood, between which and the hull was a space of about nine inches filled with oakum and palm fibre. Keel, carlines, stem and sternpost were of steel covered with a sort of copper sheathing.

Copper had been employed with the intention of giving more elasticity to the hull. It was used in all the beams and Joints in order that great pressures could be borne without breakage. A longitudinal bulkhead made her all the stronger. The thickness of the teak planking varied from nine inches amidships, to five forward and four aft. The entire hull was in water-tight compartments. Besides the fibre packing between the two skins, the sides of the ship and the walls of the compartments had been ornamented with thin layers of compressed felt, to prevent the loss of heat and the penetration of damp. To save the rudder from the pressure of the ice, long beams covered with copper had been rigged put, forming davits, by the aid of which it would be possible to unship it and hoist it on deck.

The curved prow ended in a ram of steel, ten feet in length. Forward were steam windlasses, and the Pinkey and Collins apparatus used by whalers to save them from having- to go aloft to reef the sails in bad weather. Sheet iron elbow pipes above the waste valves allowed of the steam being turned on the neighbouring ice, within a radius of sixteen feet on each side of the hull.

The armament had been as carefully looked after. Besides the two 10-centimetre guns on deck, the
Polar Star
possessed two Hotchkiss revolving guns, four harpoon guns, two buoy guns. There were three whaleboats, five ice boats entirely sheathed with copper, the keels of which could be fitted with either runners or axles. And finally under a protecting tarpaulin aft, sheltered the mysterious submarine boat on which De Keralio had just been congratulating Hubert D’Ermont.

The conversation interrupted for a moment by Isabelle’s arrival, became more animated than ever between the three.

“My dear cousin,” said the girl, returning to what they were all thinking about. “I say that now is a favourable opportunity for putting your discovery to the
proof.”

The lieutenant gaily replied,—

“Is it only curiosity, Isabelle, which makes you speak like that, or am I to infer that you have a certain feeling of interest in what has been done by my brother and myself?”

Isabelle frowned, but the passing irritation almost immediately gave place to her usual playfulness,, as she replied with her sweetest smile,—

“Can you doubt for a moment, Hubert? Do you think me such a stranger to scientific matters? Of course my affection for the author, or rather for the authors, of an invention which, owing to the faith I have in them, I hold to be admirable, is not free from a certain amount of fear. But to be frank, I am prepared to confess that in all this, I am chiefly thinking of the practical results of our expedition and that I am all the more attached to you because I know that you are the bearer of an invention which we can call the panacea for mis-reckonings in attempted discovery.”

A vaguely sceptical smile rested for a moment on the girl’s lips.

Hubert was not yet of an age when impatience is mastered in a moment. This smiling banter might have driven him into exceeding the limits he had imposed upon himself; but strong as was the temptation to give the girl the irrefutable proof of his merits, he remembered just in time that he had no right to do this before a day and hour fixed in advance.

But if he had no right to do this he could at least defend himself by means of favourable appearances. He rose from his chair and, holding out his hand to his cousin, said,—

“If it pleases you to come down to my cabin with my uncle, I can show you, if not the discovery at work, at least the instruments on which it is based.”

Isabelle rose laughing.

“Ho! ho! Hubert, you seem to take matters more seriously than I intended. Let me tell you my doubts are only on the surface, and that I have the greatest confidence in your wisdom united to that of your dear Marc.”

“Of course,” said De Keralio with a laugh; “but you seem rather to belong to the school of St. Thomas Didymus, who believed nothing until he had seen it. Well, Hubert, as you proposed it, let us go and see.”

The three moved towards the hatchway. As they were about to descend the iron ladder they were met by Captain Lacrosse.

“Hallo, Bernard,” said De Keralio, “you will not be sorry to see with us the treasures of science stored in the cabin of my future sonin-law.”

And passing his arm into Lacrosse’s, he led him off behind the young people.

The
Polar Star
had been fitted up below like a pleasure yacht. The gangway, the saloon, the dining-room, the smoking-room were decorated in mahogany, along which ran a well-stuffed rail. The officers’ cabins opened on the gangway
’,
around the saloon were those of De Keralio and his daughter, and Captain Lacrosse and Hubert D’Ermont.

It was the last which the four visitors entered.

It was furnished with extreme simplicity, every corner being utilized with consummate art. The bed in one of the angles rested on a chest of drawers. The washbasin was pivoted in a niche, so that it could be turned up and form a desk. In the opposite corner was a strong steel safe, thick enough to defy any attempt to force it, a combination of ciphers further assuring its impenetrability. Hubert pointed to seats for his companions.

“Uncle,” he began, “although I am your guest, I am here at home, with your consent, be it understood. It is for me to do the honours of my apartment, and to my dear cousin I pay the first homage.”

He took a bunch of keys from the desk, and handing it to the girl,, said,—

“Will you place that key in. the lock of this strongbox?”

At the same time, with singular quickness, he combined the figures that lay under the steel knobs on the door.

Isabelle had but to turn the key. The sharp click of six bolts withdrawn together, accompanied by the sound of a spring snapping, preceded the opening of the door, and the interior of the safe appeared arranged in symmetrical pigeon-holes.

“Behold the treasure!” said Hubert, with a gesture of comic declamation.

“Let us look at the contents i “remarked De Keralio.