Evening star., 1923-10-21

day in March. 1915. when I, boy Of
twenty, ran away from the metallurgical
school in Seattle TO join a madeap
moving picture expedition TO the arctic.
The Polar Bear. the fifty-fve ton
whaler on which l had embarked to
see the great white north, was just
about to cast off. when large man
shouldered his way through the
crowd and came aboard. He was the
father of Lorne knight. How little
suspected that. years later should
be coming back to that same post TO
bring back to that same father the
gruesome story of my finding and
burial of his son. How little I sus
pected that tLorne Knight himself
would play such an important role
in determining my future career.
At that time ] was in search Of
moving pictures that never material
lied. knight was in search Of
whales. Neither of us had any idea
that we would be fellow members of
an arctic expedition. Accident set
our feet In the path which was ulti-
mately to become our life work. To-
gether we were cruising about the
Arctic ocean in search of whales, on
this same little power schooner Polar
Bear, when we came to Banks Island.
There we met the man who was to
play such an important part In our
subsequent careers.
Sailed With stefansson.
That man was Stefansson, COM
mander of the Canadian arctic ex-
pedition, who was believed, at that
time, to have been lost. Though his
ship had been sunk some months be-
fore, he was planning further ex-
ploratfoDs. Since his crew and equip
ment were both inadequate for this
work, he bought the Polar Bear and
took most Of us over Then it was
that Knight and / went into training
as explorers.
knight was about my age. He was
then, as always, a piece OF drift
wood, taking life lightly, never
caring much where he was or how
natured chap. full of stories. full of
run When l can get out of my mind
the feel of that featherweight skele-
ton OF body, eaten by starvation
and scurvy. which had once been
Lorne Knight. 1 think of him most
orten as ! remember him In the fore
castle Of the Polar Bear, amusing
himself and the rest of us off watch
Diary Written With Numbed Fingers.
see him sitting on the edge of his
punk under the kerosene lamp play
ing the accordion. His huge body
ne must have weighed at least 200
swayed back and forth in time to the
music. His blue eyes always trinkIed
ana MS lips puckered into q gay.
written: no doubt. with fingers nunbed
and aching, written when death was
at best only a few rods away from
his himsy tent. l seemed TO hear still
that careless whistle. and l knew that
almost to the last he was, like Mr..
Macawber. always trusting that
something would turn up"
on March %. long after he had
taken permanently to his sleeping
bag 1 nnd the. last entry. 1t is
rF fNr
preston.
Caught myself whistling this
| morning. Not that / don't want TO
whistle. God knows. However. this is
IN spirit only, for am as weak az a
Hardships Knit Ties.
Hardship. shared makes blood
oratners ,ee OF men When you have
suffered cold and hunger and scurvy
ana faced death with a man, there
! Is bond that ties you together even
though the years send you In differ
ent directions.
l had not seen Knight since 1917,
untll the day the Esquimaux woman
ied me to the tent in which he had
ialn dead for two months Our Ia ST
/ trip together had been with Stefans-
son. IN search OF new lands on the
IL was on that trip that we nearly
! perished, Notwithstanding expert
| ence that made Knight decide that he
was through with the north. When
we parted he said he was going out tc
puy a scow and start a floating gro
cery But no man is ever through
! with the north till the north is
| through with him. Ultimately he was
TO be drawn back again. and for the
| last time. The white cross on wran-
gel island marks his final abode.
Cites Arctic Imam ensitfes.
| Time is of little consequence in
the Arctic tmmensities. The years
leave little to mark their passage.
For the next four years / was isolat-
| ed from the outside world. Returning
from an exploratory trip in Corona
| tion gulf / touched the last outpost
| OF the Hudson Bay Company. There,
from grizzled old Hudson Bay fac
1 tor, who had got the news from the
captain of supply boat that had
called the previous summer. I learned
that Knight was once more on the ice
Coming back to civilization in 1921,
l got tidlngs of him again, at Barrow,
the northmost point of Alaska. Stef-
ansson, l learned. had sent an expe-
dition to Wrangel Island and Knight
was second in command.
Mystery About Venture.
Coming down the Alaskan coast. I
| tried to find out more about the ex-
| to be shrouded in mystery. learned
! that five people-Knight was one OF
| them-had chartered a boat at Nome
and that this boat. after dropping, the
! party at Wrangel Island. had re-
| turned to port. The landing party
was said to have raised the British
| flag.
| When I got to New York, I met Mr.
| Stefansson and learned some of the
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