and now Patrick O’Donoghan appeared to be living.  But they could not prove that Tudor Brown had willfully deceived them in this matter, and the committee would require some sufficient cause before rejecting so large a sum.  Tudor Brown could easily declare that he had been truthful.  His present attitude seemed to prove it.  Perhaps he intended to go himself, only to find out how Patrick O’Donoghan, whom he believed to have been drowned in the Straits of Madeira, could now be living on the shores of Siberia.  But even supposing that Tudor Brown had other projects, it would be to their interest to find them out, and keep him in their hands.  For, one of two facts was certain:  either Tudor Brown had no interest in the search which had occupied Erik’s friends for so long a time, and in that case it would be useless to treat him as an enemy; or he had some slight personal interest in the matter, and then it would be better to watch his plans, and overthrow them.

The doctor and Mr. Bredejord therefore concluded that they would not oppose his becoming a passenger.  Then they gradually were filled with a desire to study this singular man, and find out why he wished to take passage on the “Alaska.”  But how could they do this without sailing with him.  It would not be such an absurd thing to do after all.  The course which the “Alaska” was to take was a very attractive one, at least the first part of it.  To be brief, Dr. Schwaryencrona, who was a great traveler, asked to be taken as a passenger, to accompany the expedition as far as the China seas, by paying such a price as the committee might judge proper.

This example immediately acted with irresistible force upon Mr. Bredejord, who had dreamed for a long time about an excursion to the land of the Sun.  He also solicited a cabin under the same conditions.

Every one in Stockholm now believed that Mr. Hochstedt would do the same, partly out of scientific curiosity, and partly from terror at the thought of passing so many months without the society of his friends.  But all Stockholm was deceived.  The professor was strongly tempted to go, and he reviewed all the arguments for and against it, and found it almost impossible to arrive at any decision, but fate ordained that he should stay at home.

The time of their departure was irrevocably fixed for the 10th of February.  On the 9th Erik went to meet Mr. Malarius, and was agreeably surprised to see Dame Hersebom, and Vanda, who had come to bid him farewell.  They were modestly intending to go to a hotel in the town, but the doctor insisted that they should come and stay with him, to the great displeasure of Kajsa, who did not think that they were sufficiently distinguished.