hopefully. "What a fine chance for me if we find the ship."

"Have you the latitude and longitude in which the whalers saw the
frozen vessel?" asked Frank.

"I have them, yes," replied the captain, "and when the winter is over
we will set out on a search for it. On our march toward the pole that
will make only a slight detour."

"Was it for this that you wanted to have our aeroplane along?" asked
Frank, his eyes sparkling.

"Yes," was the reply, "in an airship you can skim high above the
ice-fields and at a pace that would make an attempt to cover unknown
tracts on foot ridiculous. If the Viking ship is to be found it will
have to be your achievement."

Captain Hazzard was called out on deck at this juncture and the boys,
once he was out of the room, joined in a war dance round the swinging
cabin table.

"Boys, will you take me along when you go?" asked the professor
anxiously. "If there is any chance of getting a Viking flea I would
like to. It would make my name famous. I could write a book about it,
too."

"But you've got a book to write already about the Patagonians,"
objected Frank.

"Bless me, so I have," exclaimed the absent-minded old man. "However