After they got the seal, Doctor Kane and his men traveled on. Sometimes
they were on the ice. Sometimes they were in the boats. The men were so
weak, that they could hardly row the boats. They were so hungry, that
they could not sleep well at night.
One day they were rowing, when they heard a sound. It came to them
across the water. It did not sound like the cry of sea birds. It
sounded like people’s voices.
“Listen!” Doctor Kane said to Pe-ter-sen.
Petersen spoke the same language as the people of Greenland. He
listened. The sound came again. Pe-ter-sen was so glad, that he could
hardly speak. He told Kane in a half whisper, that it was the voice of
some one speaking his own language. It was some Greenland men in a
boat.
The next day they got to a Greenland town. Then they got into a little
ship going to England. They knew that they could get home from England.
But the ship stopped at another Green-land town. While they were there,
a steamer was seen. It came nearer. They could see the stars and
stripes flying from her mast. It was an American steamer sent to find
Doctor Kane.
Doctor Kane and his men were full of joy. They pushed their little boat
into the water once more. This little boat was called the “Faith.” It
had carried Kane and his men hundreds of miles in icy seas.
Once more the men took their oars, and rowed. This time they rowed with
all their might. They held up the little flag that they had carried
farther north than anybody had ever been before. They rowed straight to
the steamer.
In the bow of the boat was a little man with a tattered red shirt. He
could see that the captain of the boat was looking at him through a
spy-glass.
The captain shouted to the little man, “Is that Doctor Kane?”
The little man in the red shirt shouted back, “Yes!”
Doctor Kane and his men had been gone more than two years. People had
begun to think that they had all died. This steamer had been sent to
find out what had become of them. When the men on the steamer heard
that this little man in the red shirt was Doctor Kane himself, they
sent up cheer after cheer. In a few minutes more, Doctor Kane and his
men were on the steamer. They were now safe among friends. They were
sailing away toward their homes.