THE POLE! 
our tracks repeatedly, until it was impossible 
to go on. We were forced to camp, in spite 
of the impatience of the Commander, who 
found himself unable to rest, and who only 
waited long enough for us to relax into sound 
sleep, when he would wake us up and start us 
oiF again. I do not beUeve that he slept for 
one hour from April 2 until after he had 
loaded us up and ordered us to go back over 
our old trail, and I often think that from the 
instant when the order to return was given 
until the land was again sighted, he was in 
a continual daze. 
Onward we forced our weary way. Com- 
mander Peary took his sights from the time 
our chronometer-watches gave, and I, know- 
ing that we had kept on going in practically 
a straight line, was sure that we had more 
than covered the necessary distance to insure 
our arrival at the top of the earth. 
It was during the march of the 3d of April 
that I endured an instant of hideous horror. 
We were crossing a lane of moving ice. Com- 
mander Peary was in the lead setting the pace, 
and a half hour later the four boys and my- 
self followed in single file. They had all 
130 
