No reply.
"Has nobody seen Dirk Peters during the day ?" inquired the captain.
"Nobody," answered the boatswain.
"Can anything have happened to him ?" "Don't be afraid," cried the boatswain.

"Dirk Peters is in his element, and as much at his ease in the fog as a polar bear.

He has got out of one bad scrape; he will get out of a second!" I let Hurliguerly have his say, knowing well why the half-breed kept out of the way.
That night none of us, I am sure, could sleep.

We were smothered in the tents, for lack of oxygen.

And we were all more or less under the influence of a strange sort of presentiment, as though our fate were about to change, for better or worse, if indeed it could be worse.
The night wore on without any alarm, and at six o'clock in the morning each of us came out to breathe a more wholesome air.
The state of things was unchanged, the density of the fog was extraordinary.