Hans comes down, then stretches his arm to the south, saying:

“ Der nere! ”

“Down there?” repeated my uncle.

Then, seizing his glass, he gazes attentively for a minute, which seems to me an age.

“Yes, yes!” he cried. “I see a vast inverted cone rising from the surface.”

“Is it another sea beast?”

“Perhaps it is.”

“Then let us steer farther westward, for we know something of the danger of coming across monsters of that sort.”

“Let us go straight on,” replied my uncle.