“‘Without an overcoat! Why, he means to cross over the inland ice of Greenland;’ and out went Wille—he was in a hurry.
“Presently entered Professor Lecke with the same question, ‘Have you seen Nansen? Isn’t he a fine fellow? such a lot of interesting discoveries he told me of, and then his researches into the nervous system—a grand fellow!’ and off went Lecke.
“But before long the man himself entered the room. Tall, upright, broad-shouldered, strongly built, though slim and very youthful looking, with his shock of hair brushed off his well-developed forehead. Coming toward me and holding out his hand, he introduced himself by name, while a pleasing smile played over his face.
“‘And you mean to cross over Greenland?’ I asked.
“‘Yes; I’ve been thinking of it,’ was the reply.
“I looked him in the face, as he stood before me with an air of conscious self-reliance about him. With every word he spoke he seemed to grow on me; and this plan of his to cross over Greenland on ski from the east coast, which but a moment ago I had looked on as a madman’s idea, during our conversation gradually grew on me, till it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world; and all at once it flashed on my mind, ‘And he’ll do it, too, as sure as ever we are sitting here talking about it.’
“He, whose name but two hours ago I had not known, became in those few minutes (and it all came about so naturally) as if he were an old acquaintance, and I felt I should be proud and fortunate indeed to have him for my friend my whole life through.
“‘We will go and see Nordenskjöld at once,’ I said, rising up. And we went.
“With his strange attire,—he was dressed in a tight-fitting, dark-blue blouse or coatee, a kind of knitted jacket,—he was, as may be supposed, stared at in Drottning-gatan. Some people, indeed, took him for an acrobat or tight-rope dancer.”
Nordenskjöld, “old Nor” as he was often termed, was in his laboratory, and looked up sharply as his two visitors entered the room, for he was, as ever, “busy.”