m to the
officer of the deck, that Greely's party were at Cape Sabine, all well.
The excitement of the moment was intense, and it spread with the
rapidity of lightning through both the ships. It was decided instantly
to go on to the Cape, and a general recall was sounded by three long
blasts from the steam-whistle of the "Thetis."

The first thing to be done before taking definite action was to go
carefully over the papers that Taunt had found. All the officers who had
remained behind in the two ships gathered around the wardroom table of
the "Thetis," and the records were hurriedly read aloud. As one paper
after another was quickly turned over, until the last was reached, it
was discovered with horror that the latest date borne by any of them was
October 21, 1883, and that but forty days' complete rations were left to
live upon. Eight months had elapsed since then, and the belief was
almost irresistible that the whole party must have perished during this
terrible period of waiting and watching for relief....

It was a wonderful story. It told how the expedition, during its two
years at Lady Franklin Bay, had marked out the interior of Grinnell
Land, and how Lockwood had followed the northern shore of Greenland, and
had reclaimed for America the honor of "the farthest north." But there
was no time now to think of what the expedition had accomplished; that
was already a matter of history. The pressing question was, Where was
Greely's party now? and to that question it was too probable that there
was but one answer.

The records had named the wreck-cache as the site of Greely's camp, and
preparations were made at once to go there. The cutter, with Colwell and
his party on board, had not yet got away, having been stopped by the
cries from the shore, and she now steamed back under the stern of the
"Thetis." Colwell was directed to go to the site of the cache and look
for the explorers; and if any were alive,--of which the record gave
little hope,--to tell them that relief was close at hand. As he was
about to leave, he called out for a boat-flag, and one was thrown to him
from the ship. This was bent on a boat-hook and set up in the stern of
the boat.

Before the cutter had disappeared to the northward the commander of the
expedition had gone on board the "Bear," and the ship was under way,
following the track of the cutter around the cape. The detachment under
Harlow, which had found Greely's scientific records and ins