NO TIME TO LOSE 179 



contributed enormously to making time pass easily and 

 keeping each of us in full vigour was the entire absence 

 of what I may call " dead periods." As soon as one 

 problem was solved, another instantly appeared. No 

 sooner was one goal reached, than the next one beckoned 

 from afar. In this way we always had our hands full, 

 and when that is the case, as everyone knows, time 

 flies quickly. One often hears it asked, How is it 

 possible to make the time pass on such a trip? My 

 good friends, I would answer, if anything caused us 

 worry, it was the thought of how we should find time 

 enough for all we had to do. Perhaps to many this 

 assertion will bear the stamp of improbability; it is, 

 nevertheless, absolutely true. Those who have read 

 this narrative through will, in any case, have received 

 the impression that unemployment was an evil that was 

 utterly unknown in our little community. 



At the stage where we now found ourselves, with the 

 main object of our enterprise achieved, there might have 

 been reason to expect a certain degree of relaxation of 

 interest. This, however, was not the case. The fact 

 was that what we had done would have no real value 

 until it was brought to the knowledge of mankind, and 

 this conmiunication had to be made with as little loss of 

 time as possible. If anyone was interested in being first 

 in the market it was certainly ourselves. The prob- 

 ability was, no doubt, that we were out in good time; 

 but, in spite of all, it was only a probability. On the 



