Even now, although we were six men all told, it seemed to us something of a riddle how we, with our primitive implements, should manage to get the machine onto the great ice-plain, which was our goal. But in this difficulty our leader’s wide experience and inventive mind was put to its full use. It became apparent that if six men are working on a matter of life and death they can accomplish the unbelievable. Most of us soon knew that our only salvation lay in getting one or both machines in a good position to start. A march southwards would (no matter which way we chose) have very little chance of success. Our work and our mode of life in the weeks which followed are described in another chapter, so I shall only add that we were disappointed in our hopes of being able to get N 24 ready as soon as we had finished with N 25. Instead we had weeks of strenuous work to get N 25 into readiness for flight. It was absolutely a game of “cat and mouse,” but it was a game in which life and death were the stakes. The thought of leaving our machine there behind us, in the ice, was very bitter at first. But as time passed and we saw the difficulties we had to contend with on every side, the bitterness gradually got less and less--especially when we found that it would be necessary to use N 24’s supply of petrol to augment the other supply for the homeward flight and for the various attempts to start which had to be made before N 25 finally got clear away. I might mention too that the absence of landing places made it seem advisable for the return journey to be accomplished with one machine. The risk of having to make a forced landing would thus only be half as great, and the forced landing of one of the machines would have meant a catastrophe for the whole expedition. (I personally did not share this opinion, for in spite of the misfortune to the aft engines my trust in both of these was great, as they had gone like clockwork during the entire northward flight.) Circumstances however settled the question of choice, and as we at last, on the 15th of June, found ourselves in our right element again, it was only a passing thought which we gave to our dear N 24 as it disappeared behind us in the fog. PART V WHILST WE WAIT LEAVES FROM THE DIARY OF FREDRIK RAMM From May 21st to June 18th WHILST WE WAIT LEAVES FROM THE DIARY OF FREDRIK RAMM From May 21st to June 18th