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There was no room for further hesitation. "Why, Massa Bunjay, I thought my woolly scalp he hoed up 'long wid my hat!" cried Butterface, leaping up in obedience to the Captain's hurried order to look sharp and lend a hand. In a short time all the instruments were removed from the observatory and carefully housed in Makitok's hut.
Chingatok, who was listening to the conversation, without of course understanding it, and to whom the Captain had made sundry spasmodic remarks during the day in the Eskimo tongue, went that night to Amalatok, who was sitting in Makitok's hut, and said "My father, Blackbeard has found it!" "Found what, my son? his nothing his Nort Pole?" "Yes, my father, he has found his Nort Pole."
"Confusion worse confounded!" gasped Leo, as he staggered past Alf with the last load on his shoulder. "And yet there must be order everywhere," observed Chingatok, when, after all were safely housed in Makitok's hut that evening, he heard Leo repeat that sentiment. "Why do you think so, Chingatok?" asked the Captain with some curiosity.
At the centre and lowest part of the valley, Makitok, or rather Makitok's forefathers, had built their dwelling. It was a hut, resembling the huts of the Eskimos. No other hut was to be seen. The angekok loved solitude. Beside the hut there stood a small truncated cone about fifteen feet high, on the summit of which sat an old white-bearded man, who intently watched the approaching travellers.
The Captain therefore employed the time in erecting an observatory. For this purpose he selected, with Makitok's permission, the truncated cone close to the recluse's dwelling. Here, after taking formal possession and hoisting the Union Jack, he busied himself, in a state of subdued excitement, preparing for the intended observations. "I'll fix the latitude and longitude in a few hours," he said.
"I mean dat de Capp'n he's hoed mad, or suffin like it, an' Massa Alf not mush better." A good deal amused and surprised by the negro's statement, the two hunters hastened back to Makitok's hut, where they indeed found Captain Vane in a state of great excitement. "Well, uncle, what's the news?" asked Leo; "found your latitude higher than you expected?"
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