ody,
and--strange to say--fell asleep. One hand kept warm against "Doc's"
hide, but the other froze,--since the Doctor had lost his gloves. Even
so, Edward Whymper camping out on the volcano Cotopaxi in Ecuador
found his tent too hot on the side next the volcano and too cold on
the other side.
Grenfell awoke, his teeth chattering and his body shivering. He
thought for an instant he was looking at the sunrise, but it was the
moon, and he guessed it must be about half an hour after midnight.
"Doc" didn't at all relish having his slumber disturbed. He was warm
and comfortable, and he growled his remonstrance, deep down in his
throat, till he discovered that it was his master and not another dog
against his cushioned ribs.
For a great mercy, the wind died down, and stopped pushing the ice-pan
out into the dreaded North Atlantic. Just out yonder, not sixty feet
away, was a cake of ice much bigger than his own. It would have made a
fine raft for them all: and if only they could have reached it,
Grenfell was sure he could have held out for two or three days. He
could have killed off the dogs one by one, eaten the flesh, and drunk
the warm blood. The Eskimo would think such a meal luxury. On his
little pan, the effort to kill each dog would mean the risk of
drowning every time.
At daybreak, Grenfell remembered, men would be starting from Goose
Cove with their sleds to go twenty miles to a parade of Orangemen.
With this thought in his mind he fell asleep again. Then he woke with
a sharp realization of the fact that he must have some kind of flag
with which to signal them. He made up his mind that as soon as it was
daylight he would use his shirt for a flag--but the pole was lacking.
So in the dark he wrenched the bodies of the dead dogs apart--an
extremely difficult task with the tough, frozen muscles and fibres.
But he made what he says was "the heaviest and crookedest flagpole it
has ever been my lot to see," lashing the bones together with his bits
of rope and the remains of the seal traces.
By this time he was almost starving, since he had not yet been able to
bring himself to the point of devouring his comrades. His last meal
had been porridge and bread and butter, nearly twenty-four hours
before. Round one leg was a rubber band which had replaced a broken
garter. He chewed on this constantly, and somehow it seemed to help
him from being overcome with hunger and thirst.
No more welcome sight--except that of men
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