]

As if, knowing and therefore dreading what he would see, the attendant
took the newspaper held outstretched to him and followed the pointing
finger to a featured column. He scanned it:

Deadline Passed for Missing Submarine

Point Barrow, Aug. 17 (AP): Planes sent out to search for
the missing polar submarine _Peary_ have returned without
clue to the mystery of is disappearance. The close search
that has been conducted through the last two weeks,
involving great risks to the pilots, has been fruitless, and
authorities now hold out small hope for Captain Sallorsen,
his crew and the several scientists who accompanied the
daring expedition.

If the _Peary_, as is generally thought, is trapped beneath
the ice floes or embedded in the deep silt of the polar
sea-floor, her margin of safety has passed the deadline, it
was pointed out to-day by her designers. Through special
rectifiers aboard, her store of air can be kept capable of
sustaining life for a theoretical period of thirty-one days.
And exactly thirty-one days have now elapsed since last the
_Peary's_ radio was heard from a position 72 deg. 47' N, 162 deg.
22' W, some twelve hundred miles from the North Pole itself.

In official circles, hope was practically abandoned for the
missing submarine, though attempts will continue to be made
to locate her....

"I'm sorry, Mr. Torrance," said the attendant nervously. "This paper
should--"

"Should never have reached me, eh? Through some slip of the people who
censor my reading matter here, I read what I wasn't supposed
to--that's what you mean?"

"It was thought better, Mr. Torrance, by the doctors, and--"

"Good God! Thought better! Through their sagacity, these doctors have
probably condemned the men on this submarine to death! I haven't heard
a word about the expedition; didn't even know the _Peary_ was up
there, much less missing!"

"Well, Mr. Torrance," the attendant stammered, more and more
unsettled, "the doctors thought that--that any news about it
would--well, upset you."

The young man laughed bitterly;

"Bring on my old 'trouble,' I suppose. The doctors have been
considerate, but I won't concern them any more. I'm through. I'm
leaving for the north--right now. There's a bare chance I might still
be in time."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Torrance, but you can't."

"Can't?"

The attendant