De Long accepted the challenge.
“Do you suppose you will be permitted to contradict me flatly in that way, sir? Have you lost your senses?”
“No!” exclaimed Collins. “I haven’t lost my senses. I know what I say. And when you say I’ve violated an order, I say I have not!”
For the long-suffering De Long, that settled it. He rose, a dangerous coldness in his voice.
“Enough, Mr. Collins! You can’t be properly dealt with in this ice. When we get back to the United States, I’ll have you courtmartialed! Meanwhile, turn in all your instruments, and perform no further duty on this ship. You’re under arrest!”
CHAPTER XXIV
December was notable mainly for continued low temperatures, down around -50° F. We thankfully saw it slip away with nothing to remember it by save a minstrel show given by the crew to mark our second Christmas Eve in the ice. That this show was in any way memorable was mainly owing to my coalheaver, comical little Sharvell, who rigged himself out as an attractive English miss in a sailor-made calico dress, a blond wig (originally the fibers of a manila hawser), white stockings, and low shoes. He provided so fair and alluring an imitation of something no sailor on the Jeannette had for a year and a half been within hail of, that the show was immediately a howling success, hardly needing the double ration of rum served out beforehand to make the audience not too critical of the performance.
Of Christmas Day itself, the less said the better. Our mince pies were made of pemmican this time, the canned mince meat having been all used up our first year’s holiday. In spite of the brandy flavoring, there was probably not one of us who was not wondering with gloomy foreboding as he bit into his pemmican pie what, if anything, that crafty Chinaman, Ah Sam, would have left to substitute for the mince meat for our third Christmas in the pack.
And soon another New Year’s Eve, with more minstrels; a little more rum; a fine speech to the crew by the captain ending with the cheerily-expressed hope that before another New Year’s Eve, we would all be back in our homes, saying to our friends with pardonable pride,
“I, too, was a member of the Jeannette Expedition.”