An Antarctic Mystery

ays, if this state of things lasted, she might reach Tristan d'Acunha. Captain Len Guy left the working

t," said Hurliguerly to me one day. "He

"he seems to be a t

f, Mr. Jeorling, and congratulate yourself also that I succ

ned that result, boatswa

, was our captain, in spite of all old man Atkins

thanks to your intervention, instead of moping at Kerguel

nes in their insides, and wheels which they use as a duck uses its paddles. All right, we shall know what's the good of them when the

*

ur schooner would be in sight of port in three days. The chief

. We were sliding smoothly over the surface of an undulating sea. The Halbrane resembled an enormous bird, one of the gigantic

t an object floating two or three miles away, and several sai

as an irregularly formed mass about twelve yards in lengt

sailing-master. "It would have blown once

y. "Perhaps it is the carc

ould be a bad job to come up against it in the dark; it m

are more dangerous than a rock, for they are now h

ment and planted his elbows on

ink of it, boat

boatswain, "that what we see there is neither

"it is a lump of ice, a piece of an icebe

"to the forty-

gets up as high as the Cape, if we are to take the word of a French

bserved, feeling not a little surprised tha

e continued, "and what we see is the remains of a moun

ew words were exchanged in a low tone between the captain and the lieutenant, and the latter passed

is dissolving. The Halbrane might have come to

an under the obsession of a fixed idea. This fragment of ice, torn from the southern icebergs, came from those waters wherein his thoughts continually ranged. He wanted to see it more near, perhaps at

he day nothing would remain of the fragment of ice which had bee

began to distinguish a second object which little by little detached itself from the ma

arm, then a leg, then a trunk, then a head appear, forming a huma

at the limbs moved, that the h

o! this body was not moving, but it wa

e body of the unfortunate man, and who can tell whether a faint breath of life did not animate it even then? In any case his pockets might perhaps contain some document that would

ith my eyes as it neared the side of

ntil they reached the corpse, then drew it to them by the arms and legs and so got it into the boat. A few strokes of the oars and the boatswain had rejoined the schooner. T

is death had evidently occurred some months previously, probably very soon after the unfortunate man had been carried away by the

eserved by the cold, raised the head, gazed upon the

son! Pa

on?" I e

ome chord in my memory. When had I he

ets of the dead man, and took out of them a knife, some string, an empty to

rds on the last page which were still legible, and my emotion may be imagined when I heard him read aloud in a trembling voice: "The Jane . . .

as a name, a signature,

h had picked up Arthur Pym and Dirk Peters on the wreck of the Grampus, the Jane having reached

etween them! Arthur Pym existed, or rather he had existed, he was a real being! And he had died, by a sudden and deplorable death under circumstances not revealed before he had completed the narr

cused Captain Guy of being insane! No! I had not heard arigh

words were supported by ascertained dates? And above all, how could I retain a doubt, after James West, wh

f the men of the Jane-the piece of ice I am on is drifting across the iceberg...food will soon fail me.

face of this ice-waif which we had met on our way from the Kerguelen

ompanied the captain of the Jane when he had interred that bottle, containing the letter which I had refused to believe authentic,

me and said, "Do

ut Captain William Guy of the Jane,

in a loud voice, which

but the double influence of the solar rays and the waters in this latitude had produce