152 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
back the Peary sledge that we had left there and 
full loads of pemmican, biscuit and tea. 
Our work at road-making which we had begun 
the day before, was progressing steadily. It was 
cold, seemingly endless labor, for almost every foot 
of the trail had to be hewn out of the ice to make 
a path three or four feet wide, smoothed off enough 
to permit our sledges to be drawn over it without 
being smashed. By three o’clock in the afternoon 
we had got over the first big chain of ridges and on 
to a small level floe. We were still far from the 
other side of the great rafters but by working dili¬ 
gently could feel that we had accomplished some¬ 
thing at last. We worked on a little too long be¬ 
fore starting back to camp and darkness was al¬ 
most upon us. So I asked the cook to go back to 
camp while the rest of us were finishing our day’s 
work and tell Keruk and Malloch and Maurer that 
we were coming and wanted to have hot tea ready 
for us as soon as we got back. Malloch and 
Maurer had been compelled by their frozen feet to 
rest for the time being, though they insisted that 
they be allowed to do their share of the work and 
I almost had to use force to keep them quiet. 
The rest of us finally knocked off work and made 
our way back over the rather tortuous road but 
when we reached camp no preparations had been 
made to give us our much-needed tea and on in- 
