Free Laura by George Sand

a band of Eskimo hunters, who are to join us this very night. Together, we shall continue my journey over the sea of pack ice to the open sea that is the sole goal of my labours. So prepare yourself to leave in a few hours and arm yourself with everything necessary to write down the details of our journey, which from now on will become interesting.
    I remained stunned for a few moments.
    Is that what you are planning, Uncle? I said at last, forcing myself not to sound indignant and so irritate the man to whom I had so imprudently entrusted my fate; are you not pleased to have reached unhindered a limit that no other ship before yours has been able to choose for its winter quarters, not to have yet lost a single man, nor seen any part of your provisions spoiled? How can you believe it possible to go further, during the sun’s long absence, through the bitterest cold that wild animals can bear? How can you be so sure that you will see natives arrive, when you know that those unfortunates are now huddled several hundred leagues to the south, their igloos heated to ninety degrees? And, still more astonishingly, how can you countenance the idea of allowing such a valiant and excellent crew to perish here, scorning all the laws of God and man? This is one of those terrible jokes you have sworn to test me with, but which even a four-year -old child would not be taken in by; for, if you do not care about your brave travelling companions, you surelydo care a little, I imagine, about the means of returning to Europe and about a magnificent ship which cannot survive without daily maintenance and running repairs.
    Nasias burst out laughing.
    I see that your preoccupations are an agreeable blend of prudence and humanity. I see also that fear and cold have weakened your poor brain and that it is time to enliven you again by a method you are unaware of, but which has never failed to work upon you.
    What are you planning to do? I cried out, terrified by his cruelly mocking gaze.
    But, before I could reach the door of his cabin, he pulled from his breast the little bronze box that never left him, opened it, and promptly showed me the enormous diamond whose inexplicable effect had placed me in his power. This time, I bore its brilliance, and despite the unspeakable pain that the gem’s heat produced in my head, I felt at the same time a kind of bitter sensual pleasure as I allowed it to enter me.
    Very good, said Nasias, replacing it in the box, you are becoming accustomed to it, I can see that, and the effect is becoming excellent. Another two or three trials , and you will see into this pole star as clearly as into your poor amethyst geode. Now your doubts have been dispelled, your confidence has returned, and your touching sensitivity has been suitably dulled. Do you not also experience a certain pleasure in undergoing this sort of magnetic operation, which delivers you from the burden of your vain reason and the heavy baggage of your petty pedagogical science?
    Now then, all goes well. I hear the delicious songs ofour new travelling companions. They will be here in a moment. Let us go and greet them.
    I followed him on to the deserted deck, where a profound silence reigned, and, straining to hear, I distinguished in the distance the strangest and most horrible clamour. It was an immense yapping of sharp, plaintive, sinister, grotesque voices, and with each moment that passed the Sabbath was coming closer, as though borne by a gale. And yet the air was calm, and no breath of wind tore at the compacted mist. Soon, the invisible bacchanal was so close to us, that my heart skipped a beat with terror; it seemed to me that a band of famished wolves was about to lay siege to us. I questioned my uncle, who answered me calmly:
    These are our guides, our friends and their draught animals, intelligent, robust and faithful creatures, which I did not want to squeeze on board, and which are coming to join us in accordance with the agreement made in