Ward Bennett!" Again and again Bennett repeated this phrase,
calling: "Richard Ferriss! Richard Ferriss!" and immediately adding in a
broken voice: "Died by the act of his best friend, Captain Ward
Bennett." Or at times it was only the absence of Ferriss that seemed to
torture him. He would call the roll, answering "here" to each name until
he reached Ferriss; then he would not respond, but instead would cry
aloud over and over again, in accents of the bitterest grief, "Richard
Ferriss, answer to the roll-call; Richard Ferriss, answer to the
roll-call--" Then suddenly, with a feeble, quavering cry, "For God's
sake, Dick, answer to the roll-call!"

The hours passed. Ten o'clock struck, then eleven. At midnight Lloyd
took the temperature (which had decreased considerably) and the pulse,
and refilled the ice-pack about the head. Bennett was still muttering in
the throes of delirium, still calling for Ferriss, imploring him to
answer to the roll-call; or repeating the words: "Dick Ferriss, chief
engineer--died at the hands of his best friend, Ward Bennett," in tones
so pitiful, so heart-broken that more than once Lloyd felt the tears
running down her cheeks.

"Richard Ferriss, Richard Ferriss, answer to the roll-call; Dick, old
man, won't you answer, won't you answer, old chap, when I call you?
Won't you come back and say 'It's all right?' Ferriss, Ferriss, answer
to my roll-call. ... Died at the hands of his best friend. ... At
Kolyuchin Bay. ... Killed, and I did it. ... Forward, men; you've got to
do it; snowing to-day and all the ice in motion. ... H'up y'r other
sledge. Come on with y'r number four; more pressure-ridges, I'll break
you yet! Come on with y'r number four! ... Lloyd Searight, what are you
doing in this room?"

On the instant the voice had changed from confused mutterings to
distinct, clear-cut words. The transition was so sudden that Lloyd, at
the moment busy at her nurse's bag, her back to the bed, wheeled sharply
about to find Bennett sitting bolt upright, looking straight at her with
intelligent, wide-open eyes. Lloyd's heart for an instant stood still,
almost in terror. This sudden leap back from the darkness of delirium
into the daylight of consciousness was almost like a rising from the
dead, ghost-like, appalling. She caught her breath, trembling in spite
of her best efforts, and for an instant leaned a hand upon the table
behind her.

But on Bennett's face, ghastly, ravaged by disease, with i