320 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



to see the house a curious feeling of fear laid hold of me. I 

 had not heard from my comrades for a month. I had left several 

 people in the house, and now, how many would I find ? Suppose 

 Storkersen's foot had become worse, what was to happen ? 

 But I would not think of it; it was out of the question, the 

 foot was looking fairly well when I left, and Storkersen had 

 promised to stay. I entered and listened, but could hear only 

 the deep breathing of one man, and the thought that my worst 

 fears were after all realized flashed through my brain. I 

 struck a match ; Storkersen's bunk was empty ; only one man 

 was there, and that was Mr. Leffingwell, who awoke at the 

 sound of my voice. He confirmed my fears ; Storkersen had 

 gone. His foot was all right, and Dr. Howe had told him that 

 there was no danger, but on August 24 he had come down from 

 the village, where the crew had been ordered to keep a look-out 

 for the westward bound whalers, and had told Mr. Leffingwell 

 that he wanted to go home, that he would not remain upon any 

 conditions whatever, that if obliged to do so against his will, 

 he would go down to Herschel Island and not do any work at 

 all. As for reasons, he had none, or, if he had, he would not 

 state them, and he only kept on saying " I will not go out on 

 the ice again." Before that he had told Mr. Leffingwell, as 

 well as myself, that he would stay and would not break his 

 word. It was a great blow to me, but there was nothing to be 

 done ; he had left in spite of all his remonstrances to the 

 opposite effect, and in spite of the high opinion we held of him 

 as a man and a good comrade. 



Mr. Leffingwell, however, had more bad news for me; the 

 Narwhal had come to the island in heavy weather, and had 

 stayed for eighteen hours to get the crew on board. It had 

 been impossible to land on Flaxman Island, as the breakers had 

 been too high, and an attempt made by Mr. Leffingwell to 

 launch the boat had almost resulted in sinking it. Then 

 Captain Leavett had sent a boat down westward which suc- 

 ceeded in getting in between two sand-spits and beating up to 

 the island, inside the lagoon, and by means of this boat the men 

 had got on board, though it had been impossible to land either 

 food or dogs. 



We talked the situation over long and earnestly, but in no 

 direction did there seem to be a ray of hope. Mr. Leffingwell 



