camp ever
made in North America.]

As so often happens when everything unpropitious is guarded against,
nothing unpropitious occurs. It would have been a wonderful chance,
indeed, if, supplied only for one day, a fine, clear day had come. But
supplied against bad weather for two or three weeks, it was no wonder at
all that the very first day should have presented itself bright and
clear. We had exhausted our bad fortune below; here, at the juncture
above all others at which we should have chosen to enjoy it, we were to
encounter our good fortune.

[Sidenote: Breathlessness]

But here, where all signs seemed to promise success to the expedition,
the author began to have fears of personal failure. The story of Mr.
Fitzgerald's expedition to Aconcagua came to his mind, and he recalled
that, although every other member of the party reached the summit, that
gentleman himself was unable to do so. In the last stage the difficulty
of breathing had increased with fits of smothering, and the medicine
chest held no remedy for blind staggers.

CHAPTER V

THE ULTIMATE HEIGHT

We lay down for a few hours on the night of the 6th June, resolved to
rise at three in the morning for our attempt upon the summit of Denali.
At supper Walter had made a desperate effort to use some of our ten
pounds of flour in the manufacture of "noodles" with which to thicken
the stew. We had continued to pack that flour and had made effort after
effort to cook it in some eatable way, but without success. The sour
dough would not ferment, and we had no baking-powder. _Is_ there any way
to cook flour under such circumstances? But he made the noodles too
large and did not cook them enough, and they wrought internal havoc upon
those who partook of them. Three of the four of us were unwell all
night. The digestion is certainly more delicate and more easily
disturbed at great altitudes than at the lower levels. While Karstens
and Tatum were tossing uneasily in the bedclothes, the writer sat up
with a blanket round his shoulders, crouching over the primus stove,
with the thermometer at -21 deg. F. outdoors. Walter alone was at ease,
with digestive and somnolent capabilities proof against any invasion. It
was, of course, broad daylight all night. At three the company was
aroused, and, after partaking of a very light breakfast indeed, we
sallied forth into the brilliant, clear morning with not a cloud in the
sky. The only packs we carried that day we