as so well advanced that it seemed that he would be
home much earlier than had been anticipated.

A blizzard which had been threatening on the Barrier, and actually
blowing at Hut Point, during Crean's solitary journey, but which had
lulled as he arrived, now broke with full force, and nothing could be
done for Evans until it took off sufficiently for the dog-teams to
travel. But in the meantime Crean urgently wanted food and rest and
warmth. As these were supplied to him Atkinson learned bit by bit the
story of the saving of Evans' life, told so graphically in Lashly's diary
which is given in the preceding chapter, and pieced together the details
of Crean's solitary walk of thirty-five statute miles. This effort was
made, it should be remembered, at the end of a journey of three and a
half months, and over ground rendered especially perilous by crevasses,
from which a man travelling alone had no chance of rescue in case of
accident. Crean was walking for eighteen hours, and it was lucky for him,
as also for his companions, that the blizzard which broke half an hour
after his arrival did not come a little sooner, for no power on earth
could have saved him then, and the news of Evans' plight would not have
been brought.

The blizzard raged all that day, and the next night and morning, and
nothing could be done. But during the afternoon of the 20th the
conditions improved, and at 4.30 P.M. Atkinson and Dimitri started with
the two dog-teams, though it was still blowing hard and very thick. They
travelled, with one rest for the dogs, until 4.30 P.M. the next day, but
had a very hazy idea where they were most of the time, owing to the vile
weather: once at any rate they seem to have got right in under White
Island. When they camped the second time they thought they were in the
neighbourhood of Lashly's tent, and in a temporary clearance they saw the
flag which Lashly had put up on the sledge. Evans was still alive, and
Atkinson was able to give him immediately the fresh vegetables, fruit,
and seal meat which his body wanted. Atkinson has never been able to
express adequately the admiration he feels for Lashly's care and
nursing.

All that night and the next day the blizzard continued and made a start
impossible, and it was not until 3 A.M. on the morning of the 22nd that
they could start for Hut Point, Evans being carried in his sleeping-bag
on the sledge. Lashly has told how they got home.

At Cape Evans we knew nothin