Beyond the loss of two days, Cardyke's party reached the eighty-seventh parallel without mishap. Then accidents happened with alarming frequency. The portable wireless apparatus was irreparably damaged through the sledge capsizing on rough ice. Then two complete dog teams were lost in crevasses, leaving only six dogs to haul the remaining sledge.
Fortunately the weather remained exceptionally fine, and the party were able to make good progress. There still remained plenty of food, while a reserved store had been cached some days before the accident to the two sledges.
Cardyke, therefore, resolved to push on. The freshly fallen snow afforded easy travelling, for in the absence of wind there was very little "drift."
He reached the Pole. The making of certain important observations that had been entrusted to him he carried out, carefully and methodically, yet without undue loss of time; then setting their faces southward the five began their homeward journey.
It was a record of one continued struggle between grit and personal exertion on the one hand, and the relentlessness of the elements on the other. A blizzard impeded their progress; they lost their way and missed their store of spare provisions. The supplies they took with them were running short; the remaining dog had to be killed for food.
They began to realize that it was to be a race against time, unless they were met by a rescue party. Resting as little as possible, badly attacked by frostbite, and at times partially blinded by the glare of the snow, they toiled on, till hope was all but dead. And, fortunately unknown to them, a broad sea had opened out between them and their comrades at Cape Columbia.
At length they regained their proper course. It was during the time that they were making the detour that the "Meteor" must have passed them, about ten miles to the eastward. Human endurance could hold out no longer. They pitched their tent, filled their lamp with the last remaining oil, and resolved to rest for six hours—six hours when for days they had halted for two periods of two hours in every twenty-four.
It was a case of the triumph of matter over mind. Utterly done up, their intellects dimmed by their vicissitudes, the men fell asleep, and with the exception of a partial rousing in the case of the seaman Dacres had spoken to, they knew nothing till they found themselves back on board the "New Resolute."
The written results of Lieutenant Cardyke's observations were found in his possession, and so complete was the data that there was no longer any need for the Arctic Expedition ship to remain at Cape Columbia. The channel was still open, and eagerly her officers and crew prepared for the homeward voyage.
By the time Cardyke had recovered sufficiently to be told of the manner of his rescue, the "Meteor" was no longer in the Arctic. Returning by Davis Strait she reached England in thirty-four hours from the time of parting company with the "New Resolute."