“It will end,” he told himself. “All storms have an ending.”
This, he knew to be a half truth. Arctic gales blow days and nights through. He could not last. His supply of gas must become exhausted. And then? Grim rocks of the “Barrens” awaited them.
“Why did we follow them?” he thought.
Then, for the first time in all this storm he thought of Jerry. He turned to speak to him. To his great surprise he found him fast asleep.
Fear seized him. Jerry might not be sleeping. The cold might have overcome him. He prodded him vigorously. Jerry opened one eye.
“Jerry!” he shouted. “We’re in one whale of a storm!”
“Absolutely.” Jerry closed the eye and once more lay back in his corner.
“Well,” Curlie thought, “there’s courage for you, and confidence aplenty. If he believes I can bring him through safely, I can!”
From that time on he felt fresh confidence. How else could he feel about it when Jerry, a veteran of the flying corps of the North, could sleep through it all?
“And yet we are in the air. The storm is still with us. I must not grow over-confident,” he told himself grimly.