we must. We hustled along for ten hours again, as we
had before, making only twenty miles, because of the early delay with
the pickaxes and another brief delay at a narrow lead. We were now
half-way to the 89th parallel, and I had been obliged to take up another
hole in my belt.

Some gigantic rafters were seen during this march, but they were not in
our path. All day long we had heard the ice grinding and groaning on all
sides of us, but no motion was visible to our eyes. Either the ice was
slacking back into equilibrium, sagging northward after its release from
the wind pressure, or else it was feeling the influence of the spring
tides of the full moon. On, on we pushed, and I am not ashamed to
confess that my pulse beat high, for the breath of success seemed
already in my nostrils.

CHAPTER XXXI

ONLY ONE DAY FROM THE POLE

With every passing day even the Eskimos were becoming more eager and
interested, notwithstanding the fatigue of the long marches. As we
stopped to make camp, they would climb to some pinnacle of ice and
strain their eyes to the north, wondering if the Pole was in sight, for
they were now certain that we should get there this time.

We slept only a few hours the next night, hitting the trail again a
little before midnight between the 3d and 4th of April. The weather and
the going were even better than the day before. The surface of the ice,
except as interrupted by infrequent pressure ridges, was as level as the
glacial fringe from Hecla to Cape Columbia, and harder. I rejoiced at
the thought that if the weather held good I should be able to get in my
five marches before noon of the 6th.

Again we traveled for ten hours straight ahead, the dogs often on the
trot and occasionally on the run, and in those ten hours we reeled off
at least twenty-five miles. I had a slight accident that day, a sledge
runner having passed over the side of my right foot as I stumbled while
running beside a team; but the hurt was not severe enough to keep me
from traveling.

Near the end of the day we crossed a lead about one hundred yards wide,
on young ice so thin that, as I ran ahead to guide the dogs, I was
obliged to slide my feet and travel wide, bear style, in order to
distribute my weight, while the men let the sledges and dogs come over
by themselves, gliding across where they could. The last two men came
over on all fours.

I watched them from the other side with my heart in my mouth--watched