Churchill’s eyes were too swollen to see that far, but he said:  “It’s she.  Get me a boat.”

The driver was obliging and found a skiff, and a man to row it for ten dollars, payment in advance.  Churchill paid, and was helped into the skiff.  It was beyond him to get in by himself.  It was six miles to Skaguay, and he had a blissful thought of sleeping those six miles.  But the man did not know how to row, and Churchill took the oars and toiled for a few more centuries.  He never knew six longer and more excruciating miles.  A snappy little breeze blew up the inlet and held him back.  He had a gone feeling at the pit of the stomach, and suffered from faintness and numbness.  At his command, the man took the baler and threw salt water into his face.

The Athenian’s anchor was up-and-down when they came alongside, and Churchill was at the end of his last remnant of strength.

“Stop her!  Stop her!” he shouted hoarsely.

“Important message!  Stop her!”

Then he dropped his chin on his chest and slept.  When half a dozen men started to carry him up the gang-plank, he awoke, reached for the grip, and clung to it like a drowning man.

On deck he became a centre of horror and curiosity.  The clothing in which he had left White Horse was represented by a few rags, and he was as frayed as his clothing.  He had travelled for fifty-five hours at the top notch of endurance.  He had slept six hours in that time, and he was twenty pounds lighter than when he started.  Face and hands and body were scratched and bruised, and he could scarcely see.  He tried to stand up, but failed, sprawling out on the deck, hanging on to the gripsack, and delivering his message.

“Now, put me to bed,” he finished; “I’ll eat when I wake up.”

They did him honour, carrying him down in his rags and dirt and depositing him and Bondell’s grip in the bridal chamber, which was the biggest and most luxurious state-room in the ship.  Twice he slept the clock around, and he had bathed and shaved and eaten and was leaning over the rail smoking a cigar when the two hundred pilgrims from White Horse came alongside.

By the time the Athenian arrived in Seattle, Churchill had fully recuperated, and he went ashore with Bondell’s grip in his hand.  He felt proud of that grip.  To him it stood for achievement and integrity and trust.  “I’ve delivered the goods,” was the way he expressed these various high terms to himself.  It was early in the evening, and he went straight to Bondell’s home.  Louis Bondell was glad to see him, shaking hands with both hands at the same time and dragging him into the house.

“Oh, thanks, old man; it was good of you to bring it out,” Bondell said when he received the gripsack.

He tossed it carelessly upon a couch, and Churchill noted with an appreciative eye the rebound of its weight from the springs.  Bondell was volleying him with questions.