SEEKING HELP 



nitred worse than ever. The white men were engaged in exter- 

 minating each other. Many big camps were already mere 

 stone-heaps inhabited by hungry widows and fatherless chil- 

 dren. A terrible blood-thirst had seized upon the white 

 men. Nobody went hunting or travelling now, they merely 

 slaughtered each other. And the white men now, more than 

 ever before, used all their cunning and great wisdom for the 

 purpose of destroying each other. 



Nowhere in their land was shelter and safety to be found ; 

 they attacked each other from the surface of the soil, from the 

 sky, from the sea, and from the deeps of the great waters. 

 Usually they shot blindly at a long distance, killing people 

 whom they had never seen and with whom they had no quarrel. 



More and more countries joined in ; Peary's land (America) 

 also was now at war. Peary himself was now lord of those who 

 fought in the air. On board Captain Bartlett's ship there was 

 a physician who told that he also had been up in the air ; it was 

 so cold that now he was very keen to buy fox-skins which he 

 wanted to use on his next air journey. 



The land " attacked by many " (Germany) was not yet con- 

 quered, although there was hardly any camp in the countries 

 of the white men which did not fight against it. 



In one of the warring countries a great man had arisen, a 

 strong man, who had made all his countrymen obey him 

 although he was only a ranker (Kerenski). He was now lord 

 of the country. Before this happened there had been some 

 talk about stopping the War, but now the killing raged more 

 savagely than ever, and it was doubtful whether ships would 

 come to " the land of men " (Greenland) again. 



To receive all this recent news was like coming into a 

 typhoon. Yesterday two lonely wanderers fighting their 

 modest fight for their own and their comrades' life through a 

 barren land, and to-day once more in touch with ordered society, 

 perhaps the most ideal in the world at present, and simul- 

 taneously in the midst of the horrors of war. It was doubly 

 overwhelming to receive these tidings through this naive and 



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