Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-29

eyes. g.. .,t,.ot,,, ~
had smoked my very last nlpeful OF
tobacco that day Although my plpe
had previously always oeen my COM
forter and good conrade now mao let
cigarettes take its place, AS / men"
tioned in previous article packages
az cigarettes had been dropped oy
Swedish Hansa machines. They were
d,,, and In excellent condition.
The night OF July l. it was very cold
with al, degrees below zero, To the
great delight Of all Of us l. could now
renort that landing with light ma
chine was nosSlble The wind was
fron, THE southeast. and fine dust
ike snow was falling. The wind was
refreshing and when now and again
the light improved we could see taat
we were drifting farther and farther
from tho big island.
Takes Morphla to sleep
For several nights and days ] had had
,,o sIeen 50 in the morning, after hat-
INC NV chocolate. tried two morphla
tablets from the medicine box OF my
wrecked Fokker. I Immediately dozeo
off. a toy,
wonderful It was that up here far away
from Sweden one Of my countrymen
had obtained fresh food for his CONRAD
&C and for myself while he had wand
cred away possibly without food. per-
hans 10 meet his death IL WIS
Malmcren who had shot the bear
Virlieri's twenty-eighth birthday the
remainder OF the bear meat was eaten.
A pleasing fact was that the raolo va. Was
again functioning satisfactorily Inc
birthday and the radios good oenavlol
we're made excuses for celeoraeloa
that night and we each received al
evtra mouthful of chocolate. But IT
was scarcely worth the trouble 10
stretch out our hands for such tiny
hit not to- mention those miserable
crumbs which one of us later won oy
ballot and which were watched with
greedy eyes by the rest Of us until they
disappeared.
That night ] sent a message to my
wife through the steamship Citta dl
MiIano. as / thought this would re-
assure and please her.
on the night of July 2 VIC were
fairly close to Foyn Island again. The
barometer was falling badly. and our
curve which was noted down every
hour. showed steep downward move
ment. But our connection with the
outside world was good and we re-
ceived so many cheerful messages that
our spirits were not dampened by bad
weather prospects.
Half a Gale Blowing.
On July 4 half q gale was blowing,
The weather was now clear. now snowy
with fog and low temperature. That
day We drifted 30 English miles south
southeast Owing to the continual
changing of the wind canals were
forming all the time on the windy side
OF the foe When towering masses OF
ice fell over with tremendous crashes.
or were piled up higher than ever, We
were seized with nerves and fresh de-
SPAR On July 5. at In the morning.
the drift of ice toward the big island
stopped, although the wind was very
strong.
We were now about seven kilometers
from the island and IL kilometers
from Cape Leighsmith In the fore
noon the wind slackened completely,
and at III o'clock the weather was
beautiful and brilliant again The sun
vas shining and the air was warm and
delightful
During the preceding days and
nights had worked hard. filling all
the big holes In the ice foe Now my
strength was failing. could get little
assistance from my tired comrades. and
I was very much afraid the sun would
spoil my work.
We were sitting on the wings of my
crippled Fokker. and were again dis
cussing the possibilities OF walking to-
ward land. The Swedish and Italian
airmen who had been expected to reach
us early today had not turned up in
spite OF the beautiful weather The
wireless again was not acting properly
Rations were becoming insufficient
We for a long time had been frozen.
dirty and ragged. Our nerves were
now strained 70 the breaking point,
In consequence we no longer ex~
changed opinions In friendly tones.
We began TO quarrel. To cap all this
Biagi was lying III with fever, in the
tnst--he who formerly had worked so
theoretically.
Hear Plane Near.
One of us demanded excitedly that
We should all try to reach land An
other replied that this proposal was
unmilitary. This caused discussion
whether military form had any tusti-
f1cation among six men shipwrecked
not far from the North Pole.
Ceccioni shook cur last hope--our
confidence that the Kragsin would
rescue lis. For several days he had
done nothing but express great doubt
mat the ship would be able to pene-
trate the pack ice.
In the end felt dizzy and. despair
Ing Of all hope, i went into the tent.
There do2ed until about 4 o'clock.
Then was awakened by Hiagi, who said
an airplane could be heard.
believe this sound saved lbs all from
madness or something worse.
don't know how quickly l got out
Of the tent.
] saw the machine over near Cape
Le.ga1smith
To my great despair, however, saw
mat u Was steering away In the direc-
ton Of the Big Island.
suddenly II turned toward lis. and In
lew minutes IT was circliaE over cur
Ice foe. We showed 1t our position by
. smoke signal. The plane, Swedish
HAnsa, flew over our foe four times.
1t dropped us provisions, and, most Inn
porfant OF all, accumnlators. We needed
these badly for our wireless
with pang we saw the machine
again steering away westerly. / knew,
Of course, that my Swedish comrades
would do everything they could for me.
but no matter~~away they flew.
Came Back Again.
In about an hour we again heard the
throb 0f n motor. Soon Swedish
trtpie~engined machine flew over our
camp II dropped further supplies, in
GLIDING my much desired knapsack, with
tent, chocolate, brandy and everything
complete.
When ! signaled The observer Lieut..
Carlson. that landing was possible on
our foe. and had received In reply
Understand, was again very happy.
In my knApsack, besides letters, tele~
grams and newspapers, also found a
message from the chief that on the
following night schyberg would try 10
fetch me with a Moth machine.
laughed and cried In turn. But
quickly read In the faces of my com