SOUTH 
well ? ' To which he replied, ' All safe, all well/ and we could 
see a smile light up the Boss's face as he said, ' Thank God ! ' 
" Before he could land he threw ashore handsful of cigarettes 
and tobacco ; and these the smokers, who for two months had 
been trying to find solace in such substitutes as seaweed, 
finely chopped pipe-bowls, seal meat, and sennegrass, grasped 
greedily. 
" Blackborrow, who could not walk, had been carried to a 
high rock and propped up in his sleeping-bag, so that he could 
view the wonderful scene. 
"Soon we were tumbling into the boat, and the Chilian 
sailors, laughing up at us, seemed as pleased at our rescue as 
we were. Twice more the boat returned, and within an hour 
of our first having sighted the boat we were heading northwards 
to the outer world from which we had had no news since Octo- 
ber 1914, over twenty-two months before. We are like men 
awakened from a long sleep. We are trying to acquire sud- 
denly the perspective which the rest of the world has acquired 
Igradually through two years of war. There are many events 
which have happened of which we shall never know. 
Our first meal, owing to our weakness and the atrophied 
state of our stomachs, proved disastrous to a good many. They 
soon recovered though. Our beds were just shake-downs on 
cushions and settees, though the officer on watch very gene- 
rously gave up his bunk to two of us. I think we got very 
little sleep that night. It was just heavenly to lie and listen to 
the throb of the engines, instead of to the crack of the breaking 
floe, the beat of the surf on the ice-strewn shore, or the howling 
of the blizzard. 
" We intend to keep August 30 as a festival for the rest of 
our lives." 
You readers can imagine my feelings as I stood in the little 
cabin watching my rescued comrades feeding. 
240 
