The voice died away to indistinct mutterings. Lloyd was at the bedside by now, and quietly pressed Bennett down upon his back. But as she did so a thrill of infinite pity and compassion quivered through her. She had forced him down so easily. He was so pitifully weak. Woman though she was, she could, with one small hand upon his breast, control this man who at one time had been of such colossal strength--such vast physical force. Suddenly Bennett began again. "Where's Ferriss? Where's Richard Ferriss? Where's the chief engineer of the Freja Arctic Exploring Expedition?" He fell silent again, and but for the twitching, dancing hands, lay quiet. Then he cried: "Attention to the roll-call!" Rapidly and in a low voice he began calling off the muster of the Freja's men and officers, giving the answers himself. "Adler--here; Blair--here; Dahl--here; Fishbaugh--here; Hawes--here; McPherson--here; Muck Tu--here; Woodward--here; Captain Ward Bennett--here; Dr. Sheridan Dennison--here; Chief Engineer Richard Ferriss--" no answer. Bennett waited for a moment, then repeated the name, "Chief Engineer Richard Ferriss--" Again he was silent; but after a few seconds he called aloud in agony of anxiety, "Chief Engineer Richard Ferriss, answer to the roll-call!" Then once more he began; his disordered wits calling to mind a different order of things: "Adler--here; Blair--died from exhaustion at Point Kane; Dahl--here; Fishbaugh--starved to death on the march to Kolyuchin Bay; Hawes--died of arctic fever at Cape Kammeni; McPherson--unable to keep up, and abandoned at ninth camp; Muck Tu--here; Woodward--died from starvation at twelfth camp; Dr. Sheridan Dennison--frozen to death at Kolyuchin Bay; Chief Engineer Richard Ferriss--died by the act of his best friend, Captain Ward Bennett!" Again and again Bennett repeated this phrase, calling: "Richard Ferriss! Richard Ferriss!" and immediately adding in a broken voice: "Died by the act of his best friend, Captain Ward Bennett." Or at times it was only the absence of Ferriss that seemed to torture him. He would call the roll, answering "here" to each name until he reached Ferriss; then he would not respond, but instead would cry aloud over and over again, in accents of the bitterest grief, "Richard Ferriss, answer to the roll-call; Richard Ferriss, answer to the roll-call--" Then suddenly, with a feeble, quavering cry, "For God's sake, Dick, answer to the roll-call!" The hours passed. Ten o'clock struck, then eleven. At midnight Lloyd took the temperature (which had decreased considerably) and the pulse, and refilled the ice-pack about the head. Bennett was still muttering in the throes of delirium, still calling for Ferriss, imploring him to answer to the roll-call; or repeating the words: "Dick Ferriss, chief engineer--died at the hands of his best friend, Ward Bennett," in tones so pitiful, so heart-broken that more than once Lloyd felt the tears running down her cheeks.