664 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



Inside of twenty-four hours the bargain was completed, Craw- 

 ford's men were ashore and ours on board. Mr. Leo Wittenberg, 

 part owner with Crawford, decided to come out with us as our 

 guest. 



Masik was sailing master and Binder engineer. The rest of 

 us were the crew, men of all work. We had a beautiful, sunshiny- 

 day and a fair breeze. To travel west as fast as possible we took 

 a great circle course for Herschel Island, intending to omit the 

 customary call at the Hudson's Bay trading station at Cape Bath- 

 urst (the Baillie Islands) . But we had not been on the way many 

 hours when we came to thick ice, the edge of which ran northwest 

 and southeast. There was no sense in going into such compact 

 ice, especially with a weak ship like the Challenge, so we turned 

 a little more than a right angle and followed the edge of the ice 

 southeast. 



The next morning, twenty-seven hours after leaving Kellett, 

 we had another evidence that dramatic situations may arise out- 

 side the brains of novelists. Out of the fog came a clear spell, 

 and there in front of us, two or three miles away, was the Bear. 



The ships stood towards each other, our men tense to the situa- 

 tion, and they unaware. It seemed to me wise not to come on 

 deck until the ships should be at close quarters, and so I went to 

 the cabin. Meantime Mr. Wittenberg, with mixed motives of a 

 boyish prank and the idea that the Bear might turn tail and run, 

 hoisted a distress signal. He had mentioned doing so to me, but 

 I think I made no answer beyond saying that I did not see why we 

 should. It is the custom in these waters for ships to speak each 

 other, and the Bear, not suspecting my being aboard, would have 

 come up to us even without the signal. When she came within 

 speaking distance some of our men hailed the Bear and told them 

 that I was on the Challenge and wanted the Bear to tie up to some 

 nearby solid ice so that I could come aboard. 



Later from the men aboard the Bear I heard various stories of 

 how the surprise struck everybody. I could well imagine it and 

 so, indeed, can the reader. The first thing that actually happened 

 was that after the two ships had tied up Captain Gonzales came 

 aboard the Challenge with an explanation of all that had taken 

 place. Essentially it amounted to this: 



He considered himself to know on the basis of what I had said, 

 as well as on the written instructions, that my main concern was to 

 get the expedition safe home in 1917. He had accordingly given 



