But in the morning he was obliged to stop before the insuperable ice-bank. The doctor joined him on the poop. Hatteras went with him apart where they could talk without fear of being overheard. "We are in for it," began Hatteras; "it is impossible to go any further." "Is there no means of getting out?" asked the doctor. "None. All the powder in the _Forward_ would not make us gain half a mile!" "What shall we do, then?" said the doctor. "I don't know. This cursed year has been unfavourable from the beginning." "Well," answered the doctor, "if we must winter here, we must. One place is as good as another." "But," said Hatteras, lowering his voice, "we must not winter here, especially in the month of June. Wintering is full of physical and moral danger. The crew would be unmanageable during a long inaction in the midst of real suffering. I thought I should be able to stop much nearer the Pole than this!" "Luck would have it so, or Baffin's Bay wouldn't have been closed." "It was open enough for that American!" cried Hatteras in a rage. "Come, Hatteras," said the doctor, interrupting him on purpose, "to-day is only the 5th of June; don't despair; a passage may suddenly open up before us; you know that the ice has a tendency to break up into several blocks, even in the calmest weather, as if a force of repulsion acted upon the different parts of it; we may find the sea free at any minute." "If that minute comes we shall take advantage of it. It is quite possible that, once out of Bellot Strait, we shall be able to go north by Peel Strait or McClintock Channel, and then----" "Captain," said James Wall, who had come up while Hatteras was speaking, "the ice nearly carries off our rudder." "Well," answered Hatteras, "we must risk it. We must be ready day and night. You must do all you can to protect it, Mr. Wall, but I can't have it removed." "But----" added Wall. "That is my business," said Hatteras severely, and Wall went back to his post. "I would give five years of my life," said Hatteras, in a rage, "to be up north. I know no more dangerous passage. To add to the difficulty, the compass is no guide at this distance from the magnetic pole: the needle is constantly shifting its direction." "I acknowledge," answered the doctor, "that navigation is difficult, but we knew what we had to expect when we began our enterprise, and we ought not to be surprised at it." "Ah, doctor, my crew is no longer what it was; the officers are spoiling the men. I could make them do what I want by offering them a pecuniary reward, but I am not seconded by my officers, but they shall pay dearly for it!" "You are exaggerating, Hatteras."