THE NORTH POLE 



CHAPTER I 



THE PLAN 



IT may not be inapt to liken the attainment of 

 the North Pole to the winning of a game of 

 chess, in which all the various moves leading to a 

 favorable conclusion had been planned in advance, 

 long before the actual game began. It was an old 

 game for me — a game which I had been playing for 

 twenty-three years, with varying fortunes. Always, 

 it is true, I had been beaten, but with every defeat 

 came fresh knowledge of the game, its intricacies, its 

 difficulties, its subtleties, and with every fresh attempt 

 success came a trifle nearer; what had before appeared 

 either impossible, or, at the best, extremely dubious, 

 began to take on an aspect of possibility, and, at last, 

 even of probability. Every defeat was analyzed as 

 to its causes in all their bearings, until it became pos- 

 sible to believe that those causes could in future be 

 guarded against and that, with a fair amount of good 

 fortune, the losing game of nearly a quarter of a century 

 could be turned into one final, complete success. 



It is true that with this conclusion many well in- 

 formed and intelligent persons saw fit to differ. But 

 many others shared my views and gave without stint 

 their sympathy and their help, and now, in the end, 



