"A blue spot? Yes."

"What is it?"

"A niche in heaven."

"For those who go to heaven; for those who go elsewhere it is another
affair." And he emphasized these enigmatical words with an appalling
expression which was unseen in the darkness.

A silence ensued. The skipper, remembering the two names given by the
chief to this man, asked himself the question,--

"Is he a madman, or is he a sage?"

The stiff and bony finger of the doctor remained immovably pointing,
like a sign-post, to the misty blue spot in the sky.

The skipper looked at this spot.

"In truth," he growled out, "it is not sky but clouds."

"A blue cloud is worse than a black cloud," said the doctor; "and," he
added, "it's a snow-cloud."

"La nube de la nieve," said the skipper, as if trying to understand the
word better by translating it.

"Do you know what a snow-cloud is?" asked the doctor.