"Do you know," she said, a little afterwards, "that for years,
while you have been longing to get to the pole, to see down into
the earth, and to accomplish all the other wonderful things that
you are working at in your shops, I too have been longing to do
something--longing hundreds and hundreds of times when we were
talking about batteries and lenses and of the enterprises we have
had on hand."

"And what was that?" he asked.

"It was to push back this lock of hair from your forehead.
There, now; you don't know how much better you look!"

Before Clewe left the house it was decided that if in any case it
should become necessary for him to start for the polar regions
these two were to be married with all possible promptness, and
they were to go to the North together.

That afternoon the happy couple met again and composed a message
to the arctic seas. It was not deemed necessary yet to announce
to society what had happened, but they both felt that their
friends who were so far away, so completely shut out from all
relations with the world, and yet so intimately connected with
them, should know that Margaret Raleigh and Roland Clewe were
engaged to be married.

Roland sent the message that evening from his office. He waited
an unusually long time for a reply, but at last it came, from
Sammy. The cipher, when translated, ran as follows: