A blizzard which had been threatening on the Barrier, and actually blowing at Hut Point, during Crean’s solitary journey, but which had lulled as he arrived, now broke with full force, and nothing could be done for Evans until it took off sufficiently for the dog-teams to travel.  But in the meantime Crean urgently wanted food and rest and warmth.  As these were supplied to him Atkinson learned bit by bit the story of the saving of Evans’ life, told so graphically in Lashly’s diary which is given in the preceding chapter, and pieced together the details of Crean’s solitary walk of thirty-five statute miles.  This effort was made, it should be remembered, at the end of a journey of three and a half months, and over ground rendered especially perilous by crevasses, from which a man travelling alone had no chance of rescue in case of accident.  Crean was walking for eighteen hours, and it was lucky for him, as also for his companions, that the blizzard which broke half an hour after his arrival did not come a little sooner, for no power on earth could have saved him then, and the news of Evans’ plight would not have been brought.

The blizzard raged all that day, and the next night and morning, and nothing could be done.  But during the afternoon of the 20th the conditions improved, and at 4.30 P.M.  Atkinson and Dimitri started with the two dog-teams, though it was still blowing hard and very thick.  They travelled, with one rest for the dogs, until 4.30 P.M. the next day, but had a very hazy idea where they were most of the time, owing to the vile weather:  once at any rate they seem to have got right in under White Island.  When they camped the second time they thought they were in the neighbourhood of Lashly’s tent, and in a temporary clearance they saw the flag which Lashly had put up on the sledge.  Evans was still alive, and Atkinson was able to give him immediately the fresh vegetables, fruit, and seal meat which his body wanted.  Atkinson has never been able to express adequately the admiration he feels for Lashly’s care and nursing.

All that night and the next day the blizzard continued and made a start impossible, and it was not until 3 A.M. on the morning of the 22nd that they could start for Hut Point, Evans being carried in his sleeping-bag on the sledge.  Lashly has told how they got home.

At Cape Evans we knew nothing of these events, which had made reorganization inevitable.  It was clear that Atkinson, being the only doctor available, would have to stay with Evans, who was very seriously ill:  indeed Atkinson told me that another day, or at the most two, would have finished him.  In fact he says that when he first saw him he thought he must die.  It was a considerable surprise then when Dimitri with Crean and one dog-team reached Cape Evans about mid-day on February 23 with a note from Atkinson, who said that he thought he had better stay with Lieutenant Evans and that some one else should take out the dogs.  He suggested that Wright or myself should take them.  This was our first intimation that the dogs had not already gone South.