Pole is
ours," he wrote the day after the supporting party left him. The final
advance to the Pole was, according to plan, to have been made by four
men. We were organized in four-man units: our rations were made up for
four men for a week: our tents held four men: our cookers held four mugs,
four pannikins and four spoons. Four days before the Supporting Party
turned, Scott ordered the second sledge of four men to depot their ski.
It is clear, I suppose, that at this time he meant the Polar Party to
consist of four men. I think there can be no doubt that he meant one of
those men to be himself: "for your own ear also, I am exceedingly fit and
can go with the best of them," he wrote from the top of the glacier.[251]

He changed his mind and went forward a party of five: Scott, Wilson,
Bowers, Oates and Seaman Evans. I am sure he wished to take as many men
as possible to the Pole. He sent three men back: Lieutenant Evans in
charge, and two seamen, Lashly and Crean. It is the vivid story of those
three men, who turned on January 4 in latitude 87 deg. 32', which is told by
Lashly in the next chapter. Scott wrote home: "A last note from a hopeful
position. I think it's going to be all right. We have a fine party going
forward and arrangements are all going well."[252]

Ten months afterwards we found their bodies.

FOOTNOTES:

[247] Lashly's diary.

[248] Lashly's diary.

[249] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 525.

[250] Ibid. p. 521.

[251] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 513.

[252] Ibid. p. 529.

CHAPTER XII

THE POLAR JOURNEY (_continued_)

THE DEVIL. And these are the creatures in whom you discover what
you call a Life Force!

DON JUAN. Yes; for now comes the most surprising part of the
whole business.

THE STATUE. What's that?

DON JUAN. Why, that you can make any of these cowards brave by
simply putting an idea into his head.

THE STATUE. Stuff! As an old soldier I admit the cowardice: it's
as universal as sea sickness, and matters just as little. But
that about putting an idea into a man's head is stuff and
nonsense. In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little
hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than
to win.

DON JUAN. That is perhaps why battles are so useless. But men
never really overcome fear until they imagine they are fighting
to further a universal pur