had been the source of the greatest
trouble and uneasiness since he had left Cape Tariff. While there he had
found that he could not possibly get ashore, and so had kept quiet; but
when on board the vessel which had been sent to them from St. John's, he
had soon begun to talk to the crew, and there seemed to be but one way
of preventing him from making known what had been done by the expedition
before its promoters were ready for the disclosure, and this was to
declare him a maniac, whose utterances were of no value whatever. He was
put into close confinement, and it was freely reported that he had gone
crazy while in the arctic regions, and that his mind had been filled
with all sorts of insane notions regarding that part of the world.

It had been intended to put him in jail on a criminal charge, but this
would not prevent him from talking; and so, when he arrived in New
Jersey, he was sent to an insane asylum, the officers of which were not
surprised to receive him, for, in their opinion, a wilder-looking maniac
was not, to be found within the walls of the institution.

Early on the morning of the day before the world was to be electrified
by the announcement of the discovery of the pole, a man named William
Cunningham, employed in the Sardis Works, entered the large building
which had been devoted to the manufacture of the automatic shell, but
which had not been used of late and had been kept locked. Cunningham was
the watchman, and had entered to make his usual morning rounds. He
had scarcely closed the door behind him when, looking over towards
the engines which still stood by the mouth of the shaft made by the
automatic shell, he was amazed to see that the car which had been used
by Roland Clewe in his descent was not hanging above them.

Utterly unable to understand this state of affairs, he ran to the mouth
of the shaft. He found the great trap-door which had closed it thrown
back, and the grating which had been made to cover the orifice after
the car had descended in its place. The engines were not moving, and
the chain on the windlass of one of them appeared not to have been
disturbed, but on the other windlass one of the chains had been unwound.
Cunningham was so astonished that he could not believe what he saw. He
had been there the night before; everything had been in order, the shaft
closed, and the trap-door locked. He leaned over the grating and looked
down; he could see nothing but a black hole witho