and
quiet and unbroken silence was to last forever.

Then suddenly there was an _alerte_. One morning, a day or so after
Hattie Campbell had returned to the City, just as Lloyd and Bennett were
finishing their breakfast in the now heavily awninged glass-room, they
were surprised to see Adler running down the road toward the house,
Kamiska racing on ahead, barking excitedly. Adler had gone into the town
for the mail and morning's paper. This latter he held wide open in his
hand, and as soon as he caught sight of Lloyd and Bennett waved it about
him, shouting as he ran.

Lloyd's heart began to beat. There was only one thing that could excite
Adler to this degree--the English expedition; Adler had news of it; it
was in the paper. Duane had succeeded; had been working steadily
northward during all these past months, while Bennett--

"Stuck in the ice! stuck in the ice!" shouted Adler as he swung wide the
front gate and came hastening toward the veranda across the lawn. "What
did we say! Hooray! He's stuck. I knew it; any galoot might 'a' known
it. Duane's stuck tighter'n a wedge off Bache Island, in Kane Basin.
Here it all is; read it for yourself."

Bennett took the paper from him and read aloud to the effect that the
Curlew, accompanied by her collier, which was to follow her to the
southerly limit of Kane Basin, had attempted the passage of Smith Sound
late in June. But the season, as had been feared, was late. The enormous
quantities of ice reported by the whalers the previous year had not
debouched from the narrow channel, and on the last day of June the
Curlew had found her further progress effectually blocked. In essaying
to force her way into a lead the ice had closed in behind her, and,
while not as yet nipped, the vessel was immobilised. There was no hope
that she would advance northward until the following summer. The
collier, which had not been beset, had returned to Tasiusak with the
news of the failure.

"What a galoot! What a--a professor!" exclaimed Adler with a vast
disdain. "Him loafing at Tasiusak waiting for open water, when the Alert
wintered in eighty-two-twenty-four! Well, he's shelved for another year,
anyhow."

Later on, after breakfast, Lloyd and Bennett shut themselves in
Bennett's workroom, and for upward of three hours addressed themselves
to the unfinished work of the previous day, compiling from Bennett's
notes a table of temperatures of the sea-water taken at different
soundings. Alte