8 THE START FOR THE POLE 



The next thing to be done was to get the sledge 

 right up, and before we could manage that it had to be 

 unloaded. A man would have to go down on the rope, 

 cast off the lashings of the cases, and attach them again 

 for drawing up. They all wanted this job, but Wisting 

 had it; he fastened the Alpine rope round his body 

 and went dow^n. Bjaaland and I took up our former 

 positions, and acted as anchors; meanwhile Wisting 

 reported what he saw down below. The case with the 

 cooker was hanging by its last thread; it was secured, 

 and again saw the light of day. Hassel and Hanssen 

 attended to the hauling up of the cases, as Wisting had 

 them ready. These two fellows moved about on the 

 brink of the chasm with a coolness that I regarded at 

 first with approving eyes. I admire courage and con- 

 tempt for danger. But the length to which they carried 

 it at last was too much of a good thing; they were 

 simply playing hide-and-seek with Fate. Wisting's in- 

 formation from below — that the cornice thev were 

 standing on was only a few inches thick — did not seem 

 to have the slightest effect on them; on the contrary, 

 they seemed to stand all the more securely. 



" We've been luckj^" said Wisting; *' this is the only 

 place where the crevasse is narrow enough to put a 

 sledge across. If we had gone a little more to the 

 left " — Hanssen looked eagerly in that direction — 

 '* none of us would have escaped. There is no surface 

 there; only a crust as thin as paper. It doesn't look 



