Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-29
CHAPTER TX.

THE POLE.
''The Aagp' cried the Sergeant, dropping
his load when only quarter of a mile
away. "Where are my senses? forgot
the flag"
'T'll go back" said Royal 'Wait here,
I'll be right back"
The two were still standing there before
the disabled airship, stunned by their de-
sertion. Royal ran to the pole set up out
side the ship, tore off the glorious United
States emblem-the flag of liberty-and
hurried back The Sergeant kissed the
piece of silk with the only dramatic action
of which he had ever been guilty. But this
| was dramatic moment, and he was SOL
dier. He rolled the Stars and Stripes up
reverently, and put them under his i'm
mense fur garment.
"But what shall we do for fag?" asked
Jack Hardy, in burst of patriotism.
'Iook in the third locker from the top, !"
called back the Sergeant, as he tramped
away. you'll find flag there" With
these commonplace words the hero vanished
upon his uncommon errand.
Sixteen days! Only sixteen days! 1t
might have been 16 years to look at them.
Two haggard spirits, blasted by the bolster
GUS conflict against icy chasms, binding
snow, terrible wind and deadly cold, starva-
tion and sleepless anxiety, staggered slowly
on.
He who walked in advance had resolute
air and bore his head high. His eyes, fever
ish and bleared with privation, still looked
about the desolate "ice-scape" with the un-
moving intelligence of q ptarmigan. He
sought the sun itself, which no longer rose
and fell with the day, but circled endlessly
on its parallel course with the maledict
horizon. Here is no rising and no setting,
no night, no day, no revolution, and no
change. Here upon the apex Of the globe,
upon the axis of the earth, the prophecy is
fulfilled that "there shall be no more time. :"
That delusive mode of duration which is
formed in the mind by its own power of OBJ
serving and measuring passing objects has
no place here. Why? Because the idea of
time refers to the only particular meridian
on which person happens to be placed, and
is marked by the distance of some heavenly
body from that meridian. But where all
meridians meet-namely, at the Pole-ap-
parent time has no existence.
They were now less than a twelfth of a
degree from the Goth latitude. Long since
the needle in the compass had turned right
about face, and pointed steadily backward
at the magnetic pole, which Sir James Ross
had determined to be at 70 degrees min
utes north and Sc degrees 43 minutes west;
nearly 1,200 miles south of the geographical
Pole, OH which these two madmen soon
hoped to stand.
The last observation placed them within
five miles of the Goth degree latitude
within five miles of their stupendous
destination.
"Let me stay here until you come back?"
urged the tutor after the eleventh day.
"By heavens, no!' answered the Ser
geant with strong exclamation. He
shouldered all of the tutors traps, almost
the man himself, and with tigbtened lips
set forth again to the north.
Not living thing had they seen in this
accursed frozen field; not even bear, not a
bird. They had not even heard a sound of
sweet life, except the crunch of their tat
tered moccasins, or the infrequent word that
startled their ear as they uttered it; the
grinding of teeth upon frozen pemmican;
the suppressed groans of assimilation; the
cry of frantic nightmare, mingled with the
bowling of the everlasting storm that
knocked at their sleeping bags. They sell
dom spoke. They toiled and slipped, ad-
vanced and retreated, baffled BY unsurpass-
able ravines of ice. and advanced again,
ever slower, even more doggedly.
The Sergeant with the dexterity of an Es-
quImau quickly cut blocks of snow and
fashioned low hut. This would protect
them at any rate, and form a cairn to de-
post their records in. The tutor crawled
into the manhole and the opening was i'm
mediately stopped up with a square of
snow.
"At any rate" said the tutor languidly,
nd
hole in the ground. 1t isn't remarkable,
the Pole isn't" continued the young man,
slipping his hot tea with great relish. II
am awfully disappointed.
"You will let me axe the final observa
ticns, won't your" The tutor spoke teebly.
His frail constitution was shattered. The
commander, who had seen so men die be-
side him of starvation and exposure, knew
the symptoms too we'll. He bent over his
young companion as tenderly as father.
care you warm now?" he asked.
"Almost! If 1 could only get dry 1 should
feel comfortable. Say, old fellow, I'm
sorry I'm done up. You'll let 'em know
that L"
"Hush, my boy, of course I will. You'll
turn out all right after couple of DAYS
rest. Don't think about the internal Pole.
Go to sleepP'
Inc wall Idcc lOOhCu DdCh SpcdhcTJ
as if pitying his forlorn hope, and then his
lips closed. His mind wandered. He
dreamt of warmth and dryness, of food and
home, and a happy look carae over his
pinched face, even as the visions passed.
But the Sergeant could not sleep. He
threw himself down beside the tutor that
his warmth might animate the youth. He
thought what madness it was to be where
he was, and of the same madness that had
killed hundreds, before this boy. He no
longer felt the impatience of his self-im-
posed mission. He wondered if the world
were benefited by his animal endurance or
not He began to perceive that there was
folly in his heroism. One life already lay
at his door; he went so tar as to wish that
he had never made this triumphant attempt
and then he slept.
The Sergeant awoke. He arose with
start. A iaint light streamed through the
Opaque blocks OF snow about him. He felt
for the bottle of alcohol by his side, and
with care lighted the spirit lamp. He had
20 matches left and he gloated over them as
he replaced them in the tin box. These
would last him at the rate of one day until