Reaching my room I dropped into my chair. My faculties had so failed me
that for some minutes I was unable to think. Presently my tired brain
recalled the word "Reported" and to that my last hope began to cling as
a drowning sailor clings to a drifting spar.

After a while I heard some of our boarders talking on the floor below.
Opening my door and listening eagerly I heard one of them say, in such a
casual tone:

"Rather sad--this South Pole business, isn't it?"

"Yes, if it's true."

"Doesn't seem much doubt about that--unless there are two ships of the
same name, you know."

At that my heart leapt up. I had now two rafts to cling to. Just then
the gong sounded, and my anxiety compelled me to go down to tea.

As I entered the drawing-room the old colonel was unfolding a newspaper.

"Here we are," he was saying. "Reported loss of the _Scotia_--Appalling
Antarctic Calamity."

I tried to slide into the seat nearest to the door, but the old actress
made room for me on the sofa close to the tea-table.

"You enjoyed the rehearsal? Yes?" she whispered.

"Hush!" said our landlady, handing me a cup of tea, and then the old
colonel, standing back to the fire, began to read.

_"Telegrams from New Zealand report the picking up of large fragments of
a ship which were floating from the Antarctic seas. Among them were the
bulwarks, some portions of the deck cargo, and the stern of a boat,
bearing the name 'Scotia.'

"Grave fears are entertained that these fragments belong to the schooner
of the South Pole expedition, which left Akaroa a few weeks ago, and the
character of some of the remnants (being vital parts of a ship's
structure) lead to the inference that the vessel herself must have
foundered."_

"Well, well," said the old clergyman, with his mouth full of buttered
toast.

The walls of the room seemed to be moving around me. I could scarcely
see; I could scarcely hear.

_"Naturally there can be no absolute certainty that the 'Scotia' may not
be still afloat, or that the members of the expedition may not have
reached a place of safety, but the presence of large pieces of ice
attached to some of the fragments seem to the best authorities to favour
the theory that the unfortunate vessel was struck by one of the huge
icebergs which have lately been floating up from the direction of the
Admiralty Mountains, and in that case her fate will probably remain one
of the many insoluble mysteries of the ocean."_

"Now