The Great Stone of Sardis | Page 9

his foot upon the north pole."
"You would get it wet, I am afraid," said Clewe, smiling; "but that is not the kind of glory
I crave. If I can help a man to go there, I shall be very willing to do so, provided he will
make me a favorable report of his discoveries."
"Tell me all about it," she said--"when will you start? How many will go?"
"There is some work to be done on that boat," said he. "Let me set the men at it, and then
we will go into the office, and I will lay everything before you."
When they were seated in a quiet little room attached to one of the large buildings,
Roland Clewe made ready to describe his proposed arctic expedition to his partner, in
whose mind the wonderful enterprise had entered, driving out the disturbing thoughts of
the Artesian ray.
"You have told me about it before," said she, "but I am not quite sure that I have it all
straight in my mind. You will go, I suppose, in a submarine boat--that is, whoever goes
will go in it?"
"Yes," said he, "for part of the way. My plan is to proceed in an ordinary vessel as far
north as Cape Tariff, taking the Dipsey, my submarine boat, in tow. The exploring party,
with the necessary stores and instruments, will embark on the Dipsey, but before they
start they will make a telegraphic connection with the station at Cape Tariff. The Dipsey

will carry one of those light, portable cables, which will be wound on a drum in her hold,
and this will be paid out as she proceeds on her way. Thus, you see, by means of the
cable from Cape Tariff to St. Johns, we can be in continual communication with Sammy,
no matter where he may go; for there is no reason to suppose that the ocean in those
northern regions is too deep to allow the successful placing of a telegraphic cable.
"My plan is a very simple one, but as we have not talked it over for some time, I will
describe it in full. All explorers who have tried to get to the north pole have met with the
same bad fortune. They could not pass over the vast and awful regions of ice which lay
between them and the distant point at which they aimed; the deadly ice-land was always
too much for them; they died or they turned back.
"When flying-machines were brought to supposed perfection, some twenty years ago, it
was believed that the pole would easily be reached, but there were always the wild and
wicked winds, in which no steering apparatus could be relied upon. We may steer and
manage our vessels in the fiercest storms at sea, but when the ocean moves in one great
tidal wave our rudders are of no avail. Everything rushes on together, and our strongest
ships are cast high upon the land.
"So it happened to the Canadian Bagne, who went in 1927 in the best flying-ship ever
made, and which it was supposed could be steadily kept upon its way without regard to
the influence of the strongest winds; but a great hurricane came down from the north, as
if square miles of atmosphere were driving onward in a steady mass, and hurled him and
his ship against an iceberg, and nothing of his vessel but pieces of wood and iron, which
the bears could not eat, was ever seen again. This was the last polar expedition of that
sort, or any sort; but my plan is so easy of accomplishment--at least, so it seems to
me--and so devoid of risk and danger, that it amazes me that it has never been tried
before. In fact, if I had not thought that it would be such a comparatively easy thing to go
to the pole, I believe I should have been there long ago; but I have always considered that
it could be done at some season when more difficult and engrossing projects were not
pressing upon me.
"What I propose to do is to sink down below the bottom of the ice in the arctic regions,
and then to proceed in a direct line northward to the pole. The distance between the lower
portions of the ice and the bottom of the Arctic Ocean I believe to be quite sufficient to
allow me all the room needed for navigation. I do not think it necessary to even consider
the contingency of the greatest iceberg or floe reaching the bottom of the arctic waters;
consequently, without trouble or danger, the Dipsey can make a straight course for the
extreme north.
"By means of the instruments the Dipsey will carry it will be comparatively