We
started out as usual, and had the most pleasant, as well as the longest,
of our return marches on the last day of summer, February 22. We did
eighteen miles right off the reel, the sun was brilliant from midnight
onwards. He now half immersed himself below the horizon for a short
interval once in 24 hours. All old cairns were visible a tremendous
distance, six or seven miles at least for big ones. Mount Terror lay
straight ahead and looked so clear that it seemed impossible to imagine
it 70 miles away. At the end of our march we saw a small cairn beyond our
8th outward camp mound. Nobody would have rigged up another cairn so
close without an object, so the thought of a dead horse flashed through
my mind at once. Titus was so sure that Bluecher would never get back,
that he had bet Gran a biscuit on it. I saw the cairn had a fodder bale
on the top, and later saw a note made fast to the wire. It was in Teddy
Evans' handwriting and to our surprise recorded Blossom's death. Titus
was so sure that Blossom would survive Bluecher that we started to think
back and thus the mystery of X Cairn was clear to me. I was quite certain
now that both the ancient ponies had died and that Jimmy Pigg had
returned alone. The following day (February 23) was a good marching day
also, but a bit cloudy latterly. We did fourteen miles as this evidence
of pony failure made us all the more anxious about ours, though really
they were going very well.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272