Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-13

blood that was to stain the VOYAGE. nor
that four men out of the ten We're des-
Unknown.
We had hardly pulled out of sight
from the Hansen when the captain
said. with new rasp of authority in his
voice:
Now, the first thing to do is to pick
up couple of natives
I asked him why and he replied that
they would come in handy. They re
lazy DEVILS he added, but they can
hunt; then they know the neighborhood
and the Winds
With that we veered off and ran all tho
way back to Siberia. At BIubber bay
we took on three Eskimos, Feathers,
'Jawbone and Coma They all
brought their wives moreover, for they
wouldn't ship without them. After that
we came about and Rugged very close
to the North American continent.
What are YOU doing that for?'' | in
CURED. 1T was taking valuable time.
Il got TO go along here" answered the
captain, shortly. And the reason was
soon made apparent
At Cape Schmidt he cast anchor and
went ashore. When he came aboa I'd
again he brought his wife and two chill
dren. There had been nothing said in
the articles about wife and children
but the captain made no explanation
He merely weighed anchor and put to
sea.
Now, all we had was a small seventy
five-foot schooner of eighty-four tons
proVisioned for ten men for four months
We had already lost several weeks, and
in addition We're loaded up with Eskimo
women and children.
Leaving Cape Schmidt. we still. Rugged
the continent. This worried me- | finally
a lSa6 in -hnr
my question was set aside. Furthermore.
l did not like the way the captain was
acting. 1t was not only that he became
more of a believing seadog every day,
and he and the engineer We're becoming
suspiciously thick. They would sit by
the rail conversing for hours at a time
in an undertone.
We had already begun to feel the pre-
liminary sting of winter through the nor
shadow of Oncoming night. Not more
than forty-eight hours after we had left
Herschel Island we skirted up too close
to some floating ice and suddenly were
sucked into pack which made our heads
swim. Acres of rocking slinting bowl
ders seemed to be throwing great tenta-
cles around us to gather in and crush the
Olga like d. shell Lightning work by the
engineer with the auxiliary and by the
captain at the helm enabled us to race
through the closing aperture and saved
us by Il whisper. We kept on then, but
we were sobered-not so much by the i'm
mediate danger as by the inflexible de-
scent of winter.
We stecrcd north now, nevertheless,
and took our chances through the gath
er'nS ice to observe a dull, low sembla nee
of land ahead. 1t was becoming so FROST
ed over now that it was difficult to dis
tinsuiSh it from an iceberg but by COM
pairing his observations with the map the
captain decided that it must be Prince
Albcrts perhaps Banks Land. We
sailed along the shore for distance I'M
til the sea opened out to the north again.
and once more our PROV was pointed i'm
that mysterious direction.
About this time | noticed that a diff
ference had sprung up between the cap-
tain and the engineer. Something plain
~, mad gone aSkeW. The former palayer-
ing intimacy was exchanged for gruff
avoidance i did not then know what
the trouble was-but | was to figure it
out long afterward.
Al length we got into the vicinity of
i'r1nce Alberts Land again-a faint streak
Tar off on the StarbOard bow but that
soon slipped behind us into the sea-
few watches further on we saw
that the voyage was to be abruptly
terminated y vast cavalcade of ice
bearing down on compelled us has
tly to put about and fly before it, 1t
drove us back toward Prince Albert's
Land. and eventually when we found
an oasis of d little bay under an iso-
lated craS we beat in there to wait for
the pack to go by
AS soon as we cast anchor, of course
we hurried ashore to stretch our mus
cles after the crampfng weeks on the
Olga. The captain. Mitch Detroit
and i went first in a dory. We had
scarcely jumped out of the boat and
touched the ground before we stopped
and looked at each other in stupefac-
ton. L was myself almost as over
come as the others. 1t was the Cop
per Island.
l never shall forget the thrill of that
discovery. L knew that we had become
millionaires on the Observation-Disclosures
If you understanding on single, in
computable mass of wealth Worth
more than all the gold of Alaska''-and
it was ours!
There Is no need to dwell on the trans
ports of those first two or three days
You can Well ina CINE them We sur
veyed the island and walked around
the shores. finding il to be seven miles
long. two miles across. and composed,
as j had been told. of solid conner
Everywhere there were chunks stick
ing out of the surface like ordinary,