Though, in the end he might drown, Grenfell determined to live as long as he could.  Perhaps this was a test of courage that God had given him!  It is a man’s duty, whatever befalls him, to fight for life to the last ditch, and live as long as he can.  Most men, placed as Grenfell was placed, would have sunk down in despair, and said:  “It’s all over!  I’ve done the best I could!” And there they would have waited for death to find them.  When a man is driven to the wall, as Grenfell was, it is easier to die than live.  When God brings a man face to face with death, He robs death of all its terrors, and when that time comes it is no harder for a man who has lived right with God to die than it is for him to lie down at night and sleep.  But Grenfell was never a quitter.  He was going to fight it out now with the elements as best he could with what he had at hand.

These northern dogs, when driven to desperation by hunger, will turn upon their best friend and master, and here was another danger.  If he and the dogs survived the night and another day, what would the dogs do?  Then it would be, as Grenfell knew full well, his life or theirs.

The dogs wore good warm coats of fur, and if he had a coat made of dog skins it would keep him warm enough to protect his life, at least, from the cold.  Now the animals were docile enough.  Clustered about his feet, they were looking up into his face expectantly and confidently.  He loved them as a good man always loves the beasts that serve him.  They had hauled him over many a weary mile of snow and ice, and had been his companions and shared with him the hardships of many a winter’s storm.

But it was his life or theirs.  If he were to survive the night, some of the dogs must be sacrificed.  In all probability he and they would be drowned anyway before another night fell upon the world.

There was no time to be lost in vain regrets and indecision.  Grenfell drew his sheath knife, and as hard as we know it was for him, slaughtered three of the animals.  This done, he removed their pelts, and wrapping the skins about him, huddled down among the living dogs for a night of long, tedious hours of waiting and uncertainty, until another day should break.

That must have been a period of terrible suffering for Grenfell, but he had a stout heart and he survived it.  He has said that the dog skins saved his life, and without them he certainly would have perished.

The ice pan still held together, and with a new day came fresh hope of the possibility of rescue.  The coast was still well in sight, and there was a chance that a change of wind might drive the pan toward it on an incoming tide.  At this season, too, the men of the coast were out scanning the sea for “signs” of seals, and some of them might see him.

This thought suggested that if he could erect a signal on a pole, it would attract attention more readily.  He had no pole, and he thought at first no means of raising the signal, which was, indeed, necessary, for at that distance from shore only a moving signal would be likely to attract the attention of even the keenly observant fishermen.