"Ah!" burst sharp and quick from all. "Click--click--click," and the needle seemed to fondly pat the little brass stud on its right. "Hurrah! we've got him!" cried Hugh, and wild with excitement, he sprang to the key and called, "W-W-W." Again the joyful click, and the "I-I-I-W" of the Washington operator was heard by all. For an hour the instruments clicked, and message upon message had been sent to the President and others in the great, busy world far to the south of them; and from these messages word had been flashed to all the known nations of the globe of the great success--the discovery of the north pole by three American officers. At last came the words, through the instrument: "Your father says Mollie and Marie are in San Francisco yet, and have sent word for you to join them there as soon as possible. They have a surprise in store for Mr. Cobb. He says you are not to delay at the pole, but proceed direct to San Francisco, to your aunt's. Your father further says that, as Captain Hathaway has made such a record for himself with you and Mr. Cobb, he may call upon him, on his return, in regard to a little matter which has been, heretofore, an unpleasant subject between them." Hugh smiled as he translated the message, and looked with a glad expression into the eyes of Lester. That gentleman, as he comprehended the meaning of the message, danced a hornpipe in the snow, and cried, with ecstasy: "She'll be mine at last!" "Let us be up and away!" exclaimed Hugh, as he gave the final answers to the Washington operator. "On to San Francisco, Lester! on to our girls, is our cry!" "Then, take your bearings, Hugh, for Behring Strait," directed Cobb. "It will be necessary for us to go that way to replenish our supply of lipthalite at Port Clarence, or else trust to the currents part of the way." A puzzled expression came over the face of the other, and he seemed lost in a quandary. "Easy enough to say, 'Take your bearings,'" he returned, "but how? I will be hanged if I know one meridian from another here. In fact, we are on all of them." "Don't you know in which direction south is?" asked Lester, with a laugh. "Of course, I do. But do you know in which direction the meridian of ten degrees runs, for that is the meridian which passes through Behring Strait?" In fact, it was quite a puzzling question to answer. All the meridians centered at the pole, and the time there was the apparent time of every meridian on the globe. Standing on the pole, it seemed absolutely impossible for one to know if he were facing London or Washington, or any particular point on the earth's surface. Hugh scratched his head in perplexity. "Take the needle," calmly said Cobb. "Yes; but it don't point north any more; it points somewhere south," he answered. "And where may that south point be?" inquiringly. "Why, the north magnetic pole of the earth, of course," with a glimmer of perception. "And that pole is where?" "In Boothia Felix."