He walked away for a hundred yards, then paused to look back.
“It’s tough,” he told himself, “tough to be blinked out like that. No question he deserved it, but there’s so much bad in the best of us that we can well afford to feel a lot of pity for the worst of us.”
With this he turned and hurried away toward the shore.
CHAPTER XXVII
DIAMONDS AND OTHER THINGS
Joe Marion found that five members of the exploring party had had their feet so badly frozen that they were unable to walk. To carry these over the piled and tumbled ice to the spot where the sleds had been cached was no mean task. At the same time there was every possible need for speed. An unfavorable wind at this time would mean certain death to all of them.
They started out bravely and toiled on for many hours, without food. When they did pause, there was only one kind of food left to them—polar bear meat.
“About the worst kind of meat there is in the world,” sighed the great explorer as he tried to roast a bit of it over a blubber fire. “The only way you can get any real satisfaction out of it is to chew a piece of it till your jaws are tired, then swallow it part way down. When your jaws are rested, cough it up and start chewing all over again. When you have repeated this about four times it may go all the way down and stay down.”
They all laughed at this plan of procedure, but found on trying the meat that it was indeed the toughest proposition they had ever tackled.
“Like a bit off the neck of an old bull,” was Jennings’ comment.
When they had rested for a time they again turned their faces shoreward to resume their march against death.