Chapter 57 Chapter 25 Hatteras Peak

After this substantial conversation, everyone in the cave adjusted their best positions as best they could, and fell asleep. Everyone, except Hatteras.Why can't this unique man sleep?Has the purpose of his life not been attained?Haven't the grand plans in his chest been realized yet? Why can't this fiery throbbing soul calm down a little?One wonders whether Hatteras will fall into a state of exhaustion once his plans are realized.Would his hanging nerves yearn to relax?After success, the longing is satisfied, and if there is a trace of sadness, it seems so reasonable. But no, he was super excited.It wasn't the idea of ​​going back that excited him, so could it be that he wanted to go further afield?Is there no limit to his ambition of exploration?Or does he feel the world is too small because he's already gone full circle?

Either way, he couldn't sleep.Although the first night spent in the North Pole was so pure, so peaceful.The isolated island is deserted and uninhabited. In the environment after the volcanic eruption, the earth is covered with ashes, and there will not be a bird; in the boiling lava, there will not be a fish.It's just the dull rumbling sound of hot flames spraying from the hills in the distance. When Bell, Johnson, Altamon, and the doctor woke up, they couldn't find Hatteras again.Restlessly they came out of the cave to find the captain standing on a rock, his eyes fixed on the summit of the volcano.He had the instrument in his hand, and it was obvious that he had just measured the exact position of the mountain.

The doctor approached him.The doctor talked to him again and again before pulling him out of his contemplation.Finally, the captain seemed to hear. "Go!" said the doctor to him, examining him intently. "Go, take a tour of our island; we are ready for the ultimate adventure." "The last time," said Hatteras, in the tone of a master visionary, "yes, the last time, indeed." But at the same time, emphasizing with a most vivid air, "and the most wonderful one." !" As he said this, he stroked his forehead with both hands, as if using them to calm the excitement in his heart.

At this time, Altamon, Johnson and Bell all gathered towards them.Hatteras seemed to have come out of his reverie. "My friends," he said in an agitated tone, "I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your courage, for your perseverance, for your superhuman efforts, which have made us what we are today." To be able to set foot on this ground with our feet!" "Captain," said Johnson, "we are only at your beck and call. All credit goes to you alone." "No! No!" said Hatteras very earnestly. "To me, and to you all, to Altamon, and to the Doctor himself. My heart is full of gratitude and joy that you are all within reach!"

Hatteras held tightly the hands of those brave men around him.He walked up and down, hard on his own. "We just did what the British did," Bell said. "A friend's duty," replied the doctor. "Yes," Hatteras continued, "but this duty, not all know how to fulfill it. Some have succumbed! However, they should be forgiven, those who betray us, as those who have been led to the end I am going as a traitor myself! Poor wretches! I forgive their faults, listen carefully, doctor!" "Of course," replied the doctor.Hatteras' frenzy troubled him immensely.

"At the same time," said the captain, "I don't want them to lose the little fortune they have come here to find. No! Nothing will change my decision. They will be rich... unless they never return to England!" It is impossible for Hatteras not to be excited when he makes this declaration. "But, Captain," Johnson said, with the intention of teasing him, "it sounds like making a will." "Perhaps," Hatteras replied solemnly. "However, beautiful and eternal glory is engraved before you," continued the old sailor. "Who knows?" Hatteras asked rhetorically.

These words elicited a long silence.The doctor was left to venture to ponder the meaning of his last words. But Hatteras soon made it clear, for he said in a sharp tone: "Listen, my friends. We've done a lot so far. But we still have a lot to do." The captain's companions looked at each other with profound shock. "Yes, we've stepped on Arctic soil, but we haven't really reached the North Pole yet." "What's the matter?" Altamon asked. "Ah!" exclaimed the doctor, afraid to guess. "Yes!" Hatteras expressed vigorously: "I said that the British will step on the top of the world with both feet! I have promised that the British will definitely achieve it."

"What...?" the doctor asked back. "We are forty-five seconds away from the unknown pole," said Hatteras, with increasing vividness. "The unknown pole, I must climb!" "But that's the top of the volcano!" said the doctor. "I go!" There was an unshakable conviction in Hatteras' tone.His friends were stunned.They looked at the mountain that kept throwing raging flames into the air with fearful eyes. The doctor then made his statement, and he insisted on forcing Hatteras to abandon his plan; he poured out all the ideas he could think of, and it was really well-intentioned, from humble prayers to kind threats; but nothing changed the captain. That neurotic soul, that nervousness we might call arctic madness.

There is no other way, except to use coercive means to stop this irrational person who is going to the road of destruction.But considering the serious confusion that would be caused by doing so, doctors had no choice but to use it only in desperate situations. How he wished that Hatteras could be prevented from carrying out his plan because of the limit of his physical strength and because of the insurmountable obstacles. "Now that this is the case," he said, "we obey you!" "Good!" said the captain, "up to the middle of the mountain! It won't be farther! Shouldn't we bring back to England a double copy of the testimonial notes to confirm our discovery, if..."

"certainly!……" "It is so decided," said Hatteras in a non-negotiable tone, and since the friend's prayers were not enough, the captain commanded. The doctor didn't want to persist for a long time. After a while, a small group of people were equipped and ready to climb to a higher difficulty. Duck took the lead, and everyone was on the road. The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly.The thermometer reads 11°C.Such a unique light shines through the atmosphere at such a high latitude.It's eight o'clock in the morning. Hatteras played forward with his brave dog, followed by Bell, Altamon, Doc and Johnson.

"I'm scared," Johnson said. "No, no, there's nothing to be afraid of," said the doctor. "We're all in this together." What a unique island.The landscape is so peculiar, so novel, and so young! The volcano does not appear to be very old, and geologists could reasonably be able to date the initial formation of the volcano. The cliffs with layers of hanging rocks are miraculously maintained in balance. The whole mountain is, after all, just a pile of volcanic magma.No soil, not a speck of moss, not a speck of lichen.Not a single clump of plants could be seen.The carbonic acid substances ejected from the crater have neither hydrogenation reaction to produce water nor ammoniation reaction to form clouds. Under the action of sunlight, there are only organic compounds. This island, surrounded by the sea, is nothing but the result of a continuous accumulation of volcanic eruptions. Likewise, many mountains on Earth are formed this way.The magma ejected from their centers is enough to pile up into mountains.Mount Etna, for example, has ejected magma much larger than its original volume.Another example is the Monte-Etnavo volcano near Naples, which erupted in just forty-eight hours. The rock deposits that formed Queen's Island were obviously generated by magma erupted from the earth's core, and it embodies the characteristics of geological igneous theory to the greatest extent.In the past, Queen's Island was a vast ocean.It was then formed in its original form by the condensation of air masses over the cooled Earth. But as the old volcanoes and the new continents die, or rather, the inner crusts of the continents get clogged, they will be replaced by new volcanoes. In fact, one can compare the earth to a huge flat boiler, under the action of a central fire, producing a powerful mass of vapor, storing an infinite number of atmospheric pressures, because the earth has no safety valve (bleeder valve) to control it. ), so the energy can only be released through the crater, and the crater becomes the gas door of this huge boiler.When one closes, the other opens, and at the Earth's poles, where the crust is apparently thin, it's not surprising that the seafloor bulges unexpectedly, forming highlands. As the doctor followed Hatteras, he noticed these prominent features.He stepped on the volcanic tuff made of volcanic rock, volcanic ash, and volcanic cinders. If nature has given the island a more modern look, it is because the sedimentary strata have not had time to form. Queen's Island is also short of water.If Queen's Island is counted centuries old, there will be hot springs shooting out of its center like around the volcano.But here, not only can't find any liquid molecules, even the ejected magma stream seems to be absolutely free of water. From this point of view, this island is still in the new generation, just as it will suddenly come into being, maybe one day it will disappear quietly and be submerged again by the sea. The higher you climb, the harder the road becomes.The sides of the mountain are nearly vertical.Extra care is required to avoid rock avalanches.Usually, a large amount of volcanic ash will rush towards the globe explorers, suffocating people; or they will be blocked by a large number of rock flows.Some of the cross-sectional surfaces of the rock flow have cooled and solidified, but hot magma flows inside.Everyone must carefully detect in case they accidentally step into the dangerous lava. From time to time, the crater spewed hot blocks of rock, and some rocks were thrown into the air like bombs exploding, sending debris flying in all directions. It is conceivable that there are countless dangers lurking in climbing such a mountain, and what kind of madness is needed to take the risk. Hatteras, however, climbed upward with astonishing agility.With the help of the iron rod in his hand, he climbed to the steepest hillside without hesitation. Presently he came to a round rock, a rock platform about ten paces square, surrounded by a hot stream that branched off at the back corner of another taller and larger rock, leaving a Over lava flow.Hatteras bravely stepped across. He stopped, and his companions gathered around him.He visually measured how much distance was left to climb; looking horizontally, there were less than 100 meters left, that is to say, the absolute distance from the North Pole was less than 100 meters.But looking at it vertically, there are at least 1,500 meters left. The climb had lasted three hours, and Hatteras did not show any signs of fatigue, whereas his companions were exhausted. The crater appears inaccessible. The doctor decides to do whatever it takes to stop Hatteras from going any further.At first, he tried to use gentle methods, but the captain's frenzy reached the extreme.On the road, he developed a progressive mental illness; all this became more and more shocking to those who knew him and followed him in his life. As Hatteras climbed, so did his excitement; he no longer lived in a normal human mind; he thought he had become as great as a mountain. "Hatteras," cried the doctor, "that's enough, we can't do it any more." "Then, stop!" the captain said in an unfamiliar tone, "I still have to go up!" "No! What you have done is meaningless! You have climbed to the top of the world!" "No! No! Go higher!" "My friend! It's me talking to you, Dr. Crawburn. Can't you recognize me?" "Higher! Higher!" said the crazy man. "Then, no! We can't stand..." Before the doctor finished speaking, Hatteras crossed the fiery rock flow with superhuman efforts, and disappeared from the sight of his companions in a blink of an eye. There was a scream from all, for they thought Hatteras had been swallowed up by the rocks; and Hatteras reappeared on the other side, unwilling to leave his dog Duck, and followed. He was hidden in a smoke screen of ashes, and people could only make out his screams from the faint voice floating in the distance: "North! North! To the top of Hatteras! Never forget Hatteras!" People can only fantasize about reuniting with Hatteras, the possibility is only one in ten thousand.It was impossible to step over the fire, and it was equally impossible to go around it, to reach the place where he had just landed, and spoke those unique words with the happiness that only a madman can understand.Altamon tried in vain, and he almost risked crossing the lava flow, but his companions stopped him anyway. "Hatteras! Hatteras!" the doctor called.But the captain didn't answer, only the almost indistinguishable barking of Duck echoed in the mountains. At this time, people saw Hatteras pass through the smoke column from time to time, and disappeared in the rain of volcanic ash.Now his arm emerged from the vortex, now his hand flashed out.For a while, he disappeared, and for a while, he flashed in a higher cliff.The figure that soared up the mountain at a miraculous speed gradually became smaller and smaller. After half an hour, the whole figure shrunk in half again. The atmosphere was filled with the dull rumbling of the volcano; the peak roared like a burning furnace; one could feel the trembling of its sides.Hatteras was still climbing.Duck followed him. Collapses happened from time to time behind them.Several boulders on the back of the mountain were held hostage by the increasing speed, and after several rebounds, they finally fell into the abyss of the Arctic Basin. Hatteras didn't even look around.The iron rod in his hand was used as a flagpole, with a Union Jack hanging from it.His petrified companions stared at him intently, not missing a single gesture.Gradually, his figure was so small that it seemed that he could only see clearly with a microscope, and Duck became as big as a big mouse. For a moment the wind threw a mighty curtain of fire down upon them.The doctor let out a shriek of anxiety; but Hatteras reappeared, stood up, and waved his flag. This horrific climbing spectacle lasted more than an hour.An hour of fighting against shaking rocks and hot volcanic ash, the invincible hero disappeared halfway up the mountain. After a while, he clung to the rugged mountain road with his knees and waist and climbed up. After a while, he hangs on the active mountain back with his hands, like a tuft of dry grass, swaying in the wind. Finally, he climbed to the top of the volcano and approached the crater. The doctor hoped that the man who had suffered so much, when he had achieved his goal, might be able to return.In this way, only need to bear the risk of the return trip.He screamed one last time loudly: "Hatteras! Hatteras!" The doctor's cry was so heart-pounding that the American's soul trembled! "I'll save him!" cried Altamon. Then, with a leap, he risked being swallowed by ferocious flames and disappeared among the rocks. Crawford didn't even have time to stop him. By this time Hatteras had reached the summit, crossed a deep ditch, and climbed up a ledge of rock.Small stones were scattered all around him.Duck followed him all the time, the poor animal, who seemed to be possessed by the dizzying pull of the abyss.Hatteras waved his flag, a silk flag that shone in the flames, its red base fluttering in long creases from the volcanic currents. Hatteras shook it with one hand, pointing with the other to the summit—the North Pole of the Earth.At this moment, he seems to hesitate for a while, he is still looking for the absolute highest point, the pole where all the meridians of the earth are concentrated, the peak he is most obsessed with, he wants to insert his own feet. Suddenly, with the soles of his feet in the air, he disappeared.A shrill cry from the companions tore through the top of the mountain.For a second, like a century, Croubney believed that his friend was lost forever and buried in the depths of the volcano.But Altamon was there, and so was Dark.Altamon and Dark caught Hatteras just as he was about to fall into the abyss.Hatteras was rescued, accidentally.Half an hour later, the captain of the "Forward", who had lost all sanity, lay unconscious on the shoulders of his almost desperate companions. When he regained consciousness, the doctor hid his extreme uneasiness and searched his eyes. But there was no consciousness in his eyes, no response, just like a blind man with both eyes open. "My God!" said Johnson, "he's blind!" "No!" said Croubney, "no! my poor friends! We have rescued only his body, and the soul of Hatteras has been left on the top of the volcano! His sanity is dead! " "Crazy!" cried Johnson and Altamon, mournfully. "Crazy!" the doctor affirmed. Big tears rolled out of the eyes.