"Don't I!" said the Doctor. Steam was then in its infancy, and the engine on the Victory caused much injurious delay. Captain Ross, after vainly trying to repair it, ended by doing away with it altogether, and left it behind in his first winter quarters."
"Why, Doctor," exclaimed Shandon, "I see you are quite familiar with all the facts."
"I ought to be," replied the Doctor, "for I have read the narratives of Parry, and Ross, and Franklin, and the reports of McClure and Kennedy, and Kane, and McClintock; and then one thing I recollect—this same McClintock's vessel, called the Fox, was a screw brig, like ours, and he succeeded in gaining his object in a more direct and easy manner than any of his predecessors."
"That is perfectly true," said Shandon. "This McClintock was a brave sailor. I have seen him at work; and you may add that, like him, we shall be in Davis's Straits before April is out; and if we can manage to get past the ice, it will greatly shorten our voyage."
"At all events," returned the Doctor, "I hope we'll be better off than the Fox was in 1857, for she got blocked in among the ice to the north of Baffin's Bay, the very first year, and had to stay there all the winter."
"We'll hope for better luck, Mr. Shandon," said Johnson; "and, certainly, if we can't get on with a ship like the Forward, we had better give up trying for good and all."
"Besides," said the Doctor, "if the captain is on board, he will know what's to be done better than we do in our complete ignorance, for this wonderfully laconic letter of his gives us no clue to the object of the voyage."
"We know what route to take, at any rate," said Shandon, rather sharply, "and that is a good deal. We can manage now, I should think, to do without supernatural interventions and instructions for a full month at least. Besides, you know my own opinion of this mysterious captain."
The Doctor laughed, and said, "I thought with you, once, that he would put you in command of the ship, and never come on board; but now———"
"But what? said Shandon in a snappish tone.
"But since the arrival of this second letter my views on the subject are somewhat modified."
