As we approached the ship I saw Bartlett going over the rail.

He came out along the ice-foot to meet me, and something in his face told me he had bad news even before he spoke.
"Have you heard about poor Marvin ?" he asked.
"No," I answered.
Then he told me that Marvin had been drowned at the "Big Lead," coming back to Cape Columbia.

The news staggered me, killing all the joy I had felt at the sight of the ship and her captain.

It was indeed a bitter flavor in the cup of our success.

It was hard to realize at first that the man who had worked at my side through so many weary months under conditions of peril and privation, to whose efforts and example so much of the success of the expedition had been due, would never stand beside me again.