The stranger on the ice

1 On July 7th, a three-masted ship sails north through dark water and drifting ice

2 The fog lifts at two o'clock and shows grey, broken ice running to the horizon on every side.

3 The fog lifts over endless ice, and half a mile off a dog-sledge crosses toward the north.

4 At a pale Arctic dawn, the ship's master reaches down to a half-frozen stranger

5 On a drifting floe, a frozen stranger asks Walton where the ship is bound

6 In the dim captain's cabin, the wasted stranger rises on one elbow in the bunk.

7 Walton stops mid-letter in the lamplit cabin and looks back at the stranger asleep in his bunk.

8 On the frosted deck, the wasted stranger presses his thin hands over his eyes

9 The weeping stranger seizes Walton's arm and asks: Do you share my madness?

10 In the captain's cabin, the wasted stranger raises a hand to stop Walton's sympathy

11 The stranger's face as Walton remembers it when he starts the manuscript.