the 6th I made the following note in my diary:

"A long and wearisome night. If only I could get on; but I must stop
with Xavier. He does not appear to be improving and both our chances are
going now."

"January 7.--Up at 8 A.M., it having been arranged last night that we
would go on to-day at all costs, sledge-sailing, with Xavier in his bag
on the sledge." It was a sad blow to me to find that Mertz was in a weak
state and required helping in and out of his bag. He needed rest for a
few hours at least before he could think of travelling. "I have to turn
in again to kill time and also to keep warm, for I feel the cold very
much now."

"At 10 A.M. I get up to dress Xavier and prepare food, but find him in a
kind of fit." Coming round a few minutes later, he exchanged a few words
and did not seem to realize that anything had happened. "... Obviously
we can't go on to-day. It is a good day though the light is bad, the
sun just gleaming through the clouds. This is terrible; I don't mind for
myself but for others. I pray to God to help us."

"I cook some thick cocoa for Xavier and give him beef-tea; he is better
after noon, but very low--I have to lift him up to drink."

During the afternoon he had several more fits, then became delirious and
talked incoherently until midnight, when he appeared to fall off into a
peaceful slumber. So I toggled up the sleeping-bag and retired worn out
into my own. After a couple of hours, having felt no movement from my
companion, I stretched out an arm and found that he was stiff.

My comrade had been accepted into "the peace that passeth all
understanding." It was my fervent hope that he had been received where
sterling qualities and a high mind reap their due reward. In his life we
loved him; he was a man of character, generous and of noble parts.

For hours I lay in the bag, rolling over in my mind all that lay behind
and the chance of the future. I seemed to stand alone on the wide shores
of the world--and what a short step to enter the unknown future!

My physical condition was such that I felt I might collapse in a moment.
The gnawing in the stomach had developed there a permanent weakness, so
that it was not possible to hold myself up in certain positions. Several
of my toes commenced to blacken and fester near the tips and the nails
worked loose.

Outside, the bowl of chaos was brimming with drift-snow and I wondered
how I would manage to break and pitch camp single-handed.