attention, and lo and behold
a thin black thread was now ascending from it into the clear still air.
"A steamer!" shouted Harding, rushing back to the hut for a field-glass.
But before he could return through the deep heavy shingle doubt had
become certainty and I had recognised the Revenue cutter _Thetis_. This
is the same vessel, by the way, which rescued Lieutenant Greely and his
party on the shores of Smith Sound, but I do not think even they can
have been more heartily grateful to see the trim white vessel than we
were.

In less than an hour our welcome deliverer had threaded her way through
the ice, and we stood on the beach and watched her cast anchor about
half a mile off shore. As the chains rattled cheerily through the hawse
holes Stepan flew, on the wings of a light heart, to the flagstaff. I am
not emotional, but I must confess to feeling a lump in my throat as the
Stars and Stripes were slowly dipped in response to a salute from our
ragged little Union Jack. For with the meeting of those familiar colours
all my troubles seemed to vanish into thin air!

Once aboard the _Thetis_ Harding and I, at any rate, were amongst
acquaintances who had previously served on the Revenue cutter _Bear_. I
also found an old friend, Lieutenant Cochrane, once third officer of the
_Bear_, and now second in command of the _Thetis_, which made this
sudden change from a life of mental and physical misery to one of
security and well-being the more enjoyable. There was nothing to delay
the cutter, save farewells to our kind old host and the repayment for
the food with which he had provided us, and by midday we were steaming
away from the dreary settlement where I had passed so many anxious
hours. And then, for the first time in many weary months, we sat down in
the ward-room to a decent and well-served meal and enjoyed it beyond
description, for are not all pleasures in this world comparative?
Success to the Expedition was drunk in bumpers of champagne, and I then
adjourned to Cochrane's room for coffee and liqueurs and a talk over old
days on the _Bear_. And the afternoon in that cosy, sunlit cabin, the
blessed sensation of rest after toil combined with a luxurious lounge
and delicious cigar, constituted as near an approach to "Nirvana" as the
writer is ever likely to attain on this side of the grave!

PART II

AMERICA

CHAPTER XIV

ACROSS BERING STRAITS--CAPE PRINCE OF WALES

The term "cutter" is somewhat of a m