Evening star., 1923-10-23
3 Basic Errors Caused Death
Of Men on Wrar,gel, Noice Says

bringing to the moment the philoso-
ply the north had taught him.
In few minutes it was all over ]
looked at my watch. 1t was o'clock.
We still had four good hours of day
light in which to clean the camp
Ada went to her tent and packed her
things while we worked.
l went through the rusty trunks
which had been left in the open, ex-
posed to all .weathers. The search
were confident of making Siberia and
getting to- civilization, for they had
taken their diaries. records and maps
with them, with the exception of a
few uninforming notes by Gale and
some, letters of earlier date. With
the exception of Gale, each of them
had left a letter addressed to his
parents; Maurer had left letters to
Crawford had written to Mr.. Stefans-
son.
My fears of insufficient ammunition
and clothing were ungrounded. l
found three and a half cases of
cartridges untouched, making $500
rounds of thirty-forty ammunition,
with a case and a half of shotgun
ammunition. Besides an abundance
of woolen cloth, there were seventeen
unused deerskins
I carefully collected the few keep
sakes which the boys parents would
value-Knight's ring and watch and
few other trinkets. Maurer had
been married only a few days before
he Joined the expedition and his sea
chest contained several packages Of
letters from his wife.
We decided that for the new colony
we must choose new site and make
tents and carried them to the beach,
together with the ammunition and
everything else which could be of any
future use.
Had Letter for Help.
When all was finished 1 went back
to Ada's tent. She had packed her
belongings into a dilapidated old suit
case and now sat on a box stroking
the gray cat. On the floor beside her
lay half dozen small tubes that
had once contained developing pow
der. picked one up and found in
IL note written on typewriter. 1t
was headed Wrangel Island and read:
Hello somebody! This important
notice is to say that Knight is daid
and l with my kitten is all alone
please send somebody to get me.
(Signed)
MRS. ADA BLACKJACK"
Poking around in the debris of the
camp, searching for bits of things
that might be of use in the fight for
life she was preparing to make, the
Eskimo girl had come upon the
empty tubes. She had seen the boys
write their proclamation of owner
ship and put 1t in a bottle and de-
vised the plan of sealing the glass
tubes with tallow and using them as
message carriers.
1 looked at her. How little she
seemed! What pluck she had! L,
who had long since ceased to believe
in hero worship, found myself un-
consciously little thrilled by the
quality of her spirit.
Alone there on the island, down
almost to her last morsel of food,
Ada Blackjack was making ready to
toss her pathetic appeal for help into
the sea and entreat the waves to
carry it safely to an inhabited shore
OF the wild Robinson Crusoe exist
ence of this little Eskimo woman 1
shall tell more in my next chapter.
Continued In The Star tomorrow
Copyright, 1923, in United States and Canada
by North American Newspaper Alliance
Copyright British Isles by London Daily
News. Copyright Australia by Melbourne
Herald. Copyright South America by La
Nacion. All rights reserved)