When the men were assembled around him, he said,-- "Listen to me, Hunt, and seriously consider the gravity of the questions I am about to put to you." Hunt held his head up, and ran his eyes over the crew of the _Halbrane_. "You assert, Hunt, that all you have told us concerning Arthur Pym is true?" "Yes." "You knew Dirk Peters?" "Yes." "You lived some years with him in Illinois?" "Nine years." "And he often related these things to you?" "Yes." "And, for your own part, you have no doubt that he told you the exact truth?" "None." "Well, then, did it never occur to him that some of the crew of the _Jane_ might have remained on Tsalal Island?" "No." "He believed that William Guy and his companions must all have perished in the landslip of the hill of Klock-Klock?" "Yes, and from what he often repeated to me, Pym believed it also." "Where did you see Dirk Peters for the last time?" "At Vandalia." "How long ago?" "Over two years." "And which of you two was the first to leave Vandalia?" I thought I detected a slight hesitation in Hunt before he answered,-- "We left the place together." "You, to go to?" "The Falklands." "And he?" "He?" repeated Hunt. And then his wandering gaze fixed itself on Martin Holt, our sailing-master, whose life he had saved at the risk of his own during the tempest. "Well!" resumed the captain, "do you not understand what I am asking you?" "Yes." "Then answer me. When Dirk Peters left Illinois, did he finally give up America?" "Yes." "To go whither? Speak!" "To the Falklands." "And where is he now?" "He stands before you." Dirk Peters! Hunt was the half-breed Dirk Peters, the devoted companion of Arthur Pym, he whom Captain Guy had so long sought for in the United States, and whose presence was probably to furnish us with a fresh reason for pursuing our daring campaign. I shall not be at all surprised if my readers have already recognized Dirk Peters in Hunt; indeed, I shall be astonished if they have failed to do so. The extraordinary thing is that Captain Len Guy and myself, who had read Edgar Poe's book over and over again, did not see at once, when Hunt came on the ship at the Falklands, that he and the half-breed were identical! I can only admit that we were both blindfolded by some hidden action of Fate, just when certain pages of that book ought to have effectually cleared our vision. There was no doubt whatever that Hunt really was Dirk Peters. Although he was eleven years older, he answered in every particular to the description of him given by Arthur Pym, except that he was no longer "of fierce aspect." In fact, the half-breed had changed with age and the experience of terrible scenes through which he had passed; nevertheless, he was still the faithful companion to whom Arthur Pym had often owed his safety, that same Dirk Peters who loved him as his own son, and who had never--no, never--lost the hope of finding him again one day amid the awful Antarctic wastes.