.

THE TRACK OF THE SHELL.
During the course of his inventive life Roland Clewe had become accustomed to disappointments; he was very much afraid, indeed, that he was beginning to expect them.

If that really happened, there would be an end to his career.
But when he spoke in this way to Margaret, she almost scolded him.
"How utterly absurd it is," she said, "for a man who has just discovered the north pole to sit down in an arm-chair and talk in that way!" "I didn't discover it," he said; "it was Sammy and Gibbs who found the pole.

As for me--I don't suppose I shall ever see it." "I am not so sure of that," she said.

"We may yet invent a telescope which shall curve its reflected rays over the rotundity of the earth and above the highest icebergs, so that you and I may sit here and look at the waters of the pole gently splashing around the great buoy." "And charge a dollar apiece to all other people who would like to look at the pole, and so we might make much money," said he.