Scene 4

The message from Aral was deposited in Port Williams, which lay on the southern bank of the Beagle Canal, on the Chilean side. The next boat, on which Maille could find a place, was scheduled to leave for the port only in two days' time. Maille was tempted to make a voyage meanwhile to Cabo de Hornos – perhaps in order to explain to his father exactly how it is there, more real than in his dream, in any case. However, he was cautioned that this voyage would take at least five days.

So, the secret agent boarded the Montes Martial instead, and made the small sail to the outer edge of the Glaciar Martial – in the hope of seeing Cabo de Hornos from there. But although the view was great and generous, it offered no glimpse of the cape. It seemed to lie truly at the end of the world and remained, as such, stubbornly in the realm of fiction.

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