So they drifted on until the bleak, snow-capped peaks showed plainly.  Morning revealed a bay lying between the two points.  Toward the entrance to this bay they were drifting.  One obstacle remained between them and land.  A half mile of the floe in which they were drifting lay between them and the black stretch of open water which extended to the edge of the solid shore ice, upon which the submarine might be dragged and over which the shaft might be carried to land.  But how was that stretch of tumbled icefloe to be crossed?  This, indeed, was a problem.

It was finally decided that Dave and the old engineer should spend the forenoon exploring the ice to landward for a possible narrow channel that would open a way to the water beyond.  For this journey they took only field-glasses, alpine staffs and a lunch in a sealskin sack.  Had they known better the nature of the land they were about to visit, they might have gone more fully equipped.

“H’I don’t mind tell’ y’, lad, that we was ’eaded for this point way back some’ers in the late nineties,” said the engineer, “but there come a Nor’wester, an’ the cap’in, ’e lost ’is ’ead and turned to run.  We’d froze in for the winter, but we’d a seen things if we ’ad.  We’d a seen ’um.”

They were struggling over some pressure ridges and neither had breath to spare for further talk just then.  But presently, as they paused on a high ridge of ice for a survey of their surroundings, Jarvis said: 

“H’I said back there they might be coal in the banks.  There is, an’ other minerals there are ‘ere, too.  H’it’s a rich land, an’ now we’re ’ere we’d make our fortunes if that daffy doctor wasn’t ’eaded straight fer the Pole, an’ nobody ’ere to stop ’im.”

“What do you make of it?” Dave, who had been studying the shore with the glass, handed it to Jarvis:  “Do you see something like a village?”

“Sure I do!” exclaimed the other excitedly.  “Sure, there’s a village, a ’ole ‘eap of bloomin’ ’eathen live up ’ere, h’only they hain’t dull and stupid like them down below.”

“It’s a strange-looking village.”

“Sure, it is.  Made all of reindeer skins and walrus pelts.  Sure it’s different.  Them natives up ’ere ’ave got reindeer, ’erds and ’erds of ’em.”

“I suppose they’ve got walrus ivory, too,” said Dave, warming to the subject.

“Ho, yes, walrus h’ivory a-plenty, them ’eathen ’ave got.  But walrus h’ivory hain’t so much.  Too ‘eavy to make a good cargo, an’ not ’alf so good as h’elephant h’ivory.  But there’s minerals, ‘eaps of minerals, an’ we’d all be rich men an’ it wasn’t for the bloomin’ doctor.”

No channel to the shore having appeared, they were now making their way along the edge of the open water.  Suddenly the old engineer started: 

“Did you see ’im?” he whispered.

“What?  Where?” Dave stared at the old man, thinking he had suddenly lost his head.

“H’it was a man.  ’E popped ’is ‘ead out, then beat it.  One o’ them bloomin’ ’eathens.”