118 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



next day. It seemed he had had several changes of mind. First, 

 he had agreed in good faith to sell me the supplies; second, he 

 had decided not to sell them when he heard from members of my 

 expedition that I had no authority to buy them; third, he had de- 

 cided he would sell them after all when he had talked with Captain 

 Cottle; and, fourth, he had finally decided that perhaps he had better 

 not sell them, for after all it was about an even bet whether he 

 would get drafts issued by me paid or not. After some talk, how- 

 ever, and after his raising the price slightly to compensate him for 

 the risk he now thought he was taking, I eventually closed the bar- 

 gain. 



That same evening at the Belvedere I got more details of how 

 everything was going. Captain Cottle had sent three or four of 

 his men to help Storkerson with the work at Martin Point and had 

 supplied him with everything he could spare. His influence had 

 been especially useful in keeping our credit good with the Eskimos, 

 who might otherwise have been afraid to work for Storkerson, think- 

 ing they would not get paid. 



When I got to the Polar Bear I found that feeling ran pretty 

 high. After telling me what they thought of the conduct of my 

 people at Collinson Point, several of the party volunteered to do 

 anything for me they could in helping on shore with the prepara- 

 tions. Four of them also volunteered to go with me out over the 

 ice if I should be unable to get enough satisfactory men from my 

 own party. To make this definite, Mott handed me a letter saying 

 that himself. Heard, Mixter and Silsbee would go with me wherever 

 I would take them and that all supplies or resources of theirs were 

 at my disposal. 



At Crawford's I met Storkerson. He confirmed everything told 

 me by O'Neill and everything I had learned since, adding a good 

 deal thereto. Several dog teams had been standing idle in our 

 barn at Collinson Point. He had asked for some of these to use 

 in preparations for the ice work but had been refused. Natives 

 who had been willing to help him had been discouraged from doing 

 so. No preparations had been made at Collinson Point and nothing 

 had been done looking towards any possible ice journey we might 

 make except that Mr. Chipman was rating some watches I had 

 purchased from Captain Andreasen and sent to him for that pur- 

 pose, and Mr. Johansen had overhauled the sounding machine, 

 doing his best to put it in working order. Dr. Anderson had refused 

 to hand over to Storkerson any of the supplies I had asked for, 

 but had given him some socks, mittens, etc., for his own use. 



