ch was to say we had not been
shipwrecked.

It was a thrilling moment. Exactly at the stroke of midnight on January
21, while the midnight sun was shining with its dull sullen glow, the
whole of our company having gathered round, the wireless man prepared to
despatch my message.

As we were not sure of our machinery I had drawn up the words to suit
any place into which they might fall if they missed their intended
destination:

"South Pole Expedition safe. All well. Send greetings to dear ones at
home."

For some forty seconds the sparks crackled out their snappy signals into
the crisp night air, and then the settled calm returned, and we stood in
breathless silence like beings on the edge of a world waiting for the
answer to come as from another planet.

It came. After a few minutes we heard from our magnetic detector the
faint sound of the S signals, and then we broke into a great cheer. It
was not much, but it was enough; and while our scientific staff were
congratulating themselves that electric-wave telegraphy was not
inhibited by long distance, or by the earth's curvature over an arc of a
great circle, I was thinking of my dear one--that one way or another my
message would reach her and she would be relieved.

Then in splendid health and spirits--dogs, ponies, and men all A1--we
started on our journey, making a bee-line for the Pole.

Owing to the heavy weights we had to transport our progress was slow,
much slower than we had expected; and though the going was fair and we
kept a steady pace, travelling a good deal by night, it was not until
the end of March that we reached Mount Darwin, which I had fixed on for
the second of our electric power stations.

By this time winter was approaching, the nights were beginning to be
dark and cold, and the altitude (8000 ft.) was telling on some of us.

Nevertheless our second installation got finished about the last week in
April, and again we gathered round (not quite such a hearty company as
before) while the wireless man spoke to the operator we had left on
Erebus.

Again the electrical radiations went crackling into space, and again we
gave a cheer when the answer came back--all well and instruments in
perfect order.

Then, late as it was, we began on the last stage of our journey, which
we knew would be a hard one. Three hundred geographical miles in front;
temperature down to minus 40 deg.; the sun several weeks gone, and nothing
before us but thickenin