drop, but no whimpering.... Who said there were steam whalers off
the floe? That's a lie! Forward, forward, get forward to the
south--no, not the south; to the _north_, to the north! We'll reach
it, we'll succeed; we're most there, men; come on, come on! I tell
you this time we'll reach it; one more effort, men! We're most
there! What's the latitude? Eighty-five-twenty--eighty-six." The
voice began to grow louder: "Come on, men; we're most there!
Eighty-seven--eighty-eight--eighty-nine-twenty-five!" He rose to a
sitting position. "Eighty-nine-thirty--eighty-nine-forty-five." Suddenly
the voice rose to a shout. "Ninety degrees! _By God, it's the Pole!_"

The voice died away to indistinct mutterings.

Lloyd was at the bedside by now, and quietly pressed Bennett down upon
his back. But as she did so a thrill of infinite pity and compassion
quivered through her. She had forced him down so easily. He was so
pitifully weak. Woman though she was, she could, with one small hand
upon his breast, control this man who at one time had been of such
colossal strength--such vast physical force.

Suddenly Bennett began again. "Where's Ferriss? Where's Richard Ferriss?
Where's the chief engineer of the Freja Arctic Exploring Expedition?"

He fell silent again, and but for the twitching, dancing hands, lay
quiet. Then he cried:

"Attention to the roll-call!"

Rapidly and in a low voice he began calling off the muster of the
Freja's men and officers, giving the answers himself.

"Adler--here; Blair--here; Dahl--here; Fishbaugh--here; Hawes--here;
McPherson--here; Muck Tu--here; Woodward--here; Captain Ward
Bennett--here; Dr. Sheridan Dennison--here; Chief Engineer Richard
Ferriss--" no answer. Bennett waited for a moment, then repeated the
name, "Chief Engineer Richard Ferriss--" Again he was silent; but after
a few seconds he called aloud in agony of anxiety, "Chief Engineer
Richard Ferriss, answer to the roll-call!"

Then once more he began; his disordered wits calling to mind a different
order of things:

"Adler--here; Blair--died from exhaustion at Point Kane; Dahl--here;
Fishbaugh--starved to death on the march to Kolyuchin Bay; Hawes--died
of arctic fever at Cape Kammeni; McPherson--unable to keep up, and
abandoned at ninth camp; Muck Tu--here; Woodward--died from starvation
at twelfth camp; Dr. Sheridan Dennison--frozen to death at Kolyuchin
Bay; Chief Engineer Richard Ferriss--died by the act of his best friend,
Captain