SUSPENSE 427 



sleep, poor devils, and I do hope Atkinson will allow him- 

 self to rest : he looks as though he might knock up. Keo- 

 hane did well, and is very fit. They came in over fifteen 

 miles yesterday, and have brought in the sledge of the 

 Second Return Party, the one they took out being very 

 heavy pulling. They had no day on which they could not 

 travel. Here it has been blowing and drifting half the time 

 he has been absent," and a few days later, " We have got 

 to face it now. The Pole Party will not in all probability 

 ever get back. And there is no more that we can do. The 

 next step must be to get to Cape Evans as soon as it is 

 possible. There are fresh men there : at any rate fresh 

 compared to us." x 



Atkinson was the senior officer left, and unless Camp- 

 bell and his party came in, the command of the Main Party 

 devolved upon him. It was not a position which any one 

 could envy even if he had been fresh and fit. Amidst all his 

 anxieties and responsibilities he looked after me with the 

 greatest patience and care. I was so weak that sometimes I 

 could only keep on my legs with difficulty : the glands of 

 my throat were swollen so that I could hardly speak or 

 swallow : my heart was strained and I had considerable pain. 

 At such a time I was only a nuisance, but nothing could 

 have exceeded his kindness and his skill with the few drugs 

 which we possessed. 



Again and again in these days some one would see one 

 or other of the missing parties coming in. It always proved 

 to be mirage, a seal or pressure or I do not know what, 

 but never could we quite persuade ourselves that these 

 excitements might not have something in them, and every 

 time hope sprang up anew. Meanwhile the matter of 

 serious importance was the state of the ice in the bays be- 

 tween us and Cape Evans : we must get help. All the ice in 

 the middle of the Sound was swept out by the winds of 

 March 30 to April 2, and on the following day Atkinson 

 climbed Arrival Heights to see how the remaining ice 

 looked. The view over the Sound from here is shown 



1 My own diary. 



