' For I think
that his safety was of more concern to us than was our own.
"Soon the boat approached near enough for the Boss, who was standing
up in the bows, to shout to Wild, 'Are you all well?' To which he
replied, 'All safe, all well,' and we could see a smile light up the
Boss's face as he said, 'Thank God!'
"Before he could land he threw ashore handsful of cigarettes and
tobacco; and these the smokers, who for two months had been trying to
find solace in such substitutes as seaweed, finely chopped pipe-bowls,
seal meat, and sennegrass, grasped greedily.
"Blackborrow, who could not walk, had been carried to a high rock and
propped up in his sleeping-bag, so that he could view the wonderful
scene.
"Soon we were tumbling into the boat, and the Chilian sailors,
laughing up at us, seemed as pleased at our rescue as we were. Twice
more the boat returned, and within an hour of our first having sighted
the boat we were heading northwards to the outer world from which we
had had no news since October 1914, over twenty-two months before. We
are like men awakened from a long sleep. We are trying to acquire
suddenly the perspective which the rest of the world has acquired
gradually through two years of war. There are many events which have
happened of which we shall never know.
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