animals all, the expedition struggled forward.

One day, a little before noon, while lunch was being cooked, the sun
broke through the clouds, and for upward of half an hour the ice-pack
was one blinding, diamond glitter. Bennett ran for his sextant and got
an observation, the first that had been possible for nearly a month. He
worked out their latitude that same evening.

The next morning Ferriss was awakened by a touch on his shoulder.
Bennett was standing over him.

"Come outside here a moment," said Bennett in a low voice. "Don't wake
the men."

"Did you get our latitude?" asked Ferriss as the two came out of the
tent.

"Yes, that's what I want to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Seventy-four-nineteen."

"Why, what do you mean?" asked Ferriss quickly.

"Just this: That the ice-pack we're on is drifting faster to the north
than we are marching to the south. We are farther north now than we were
a month ago for all our marching."