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Synopsis

Polaris is a young man who lives at the South Pole and finds himself in treacherous adventures within unforgiving milieus.

He was born in a little house in the snows, and his mother died but a few months afterward. The only human being he knew was his father, who called him Polaris. Life was a round of ceaseless work and study. The boy grew strong, and his mind was constantly fed, too. He learned the history of the world beyond the snows; he learned many of the languages of this world, particularly the languages of classic literature: Greek and Latin. And he learned further that one day he would be sent north to deliver a message to the world--a message which his crippled father could not take back himself.

And finally the day came. His father called him, saying, "North! North! To the north, Polaris. Tell the world--you must go, Polaris!"

Throwing the covers from his low couch, the old man arose and stood, a giant, tottering figure. With a last desperate rallying of his failing powers, he extended his right arm and pointed to the north. Then he fell, as a tree falls, quivered, and was still. Polaris never had seen a human being die; and now he was utterly alone. He was no more than twenty-four years old.

From his father's books, he read the burial service that the old man would have wanted; from his reading, he deduced something of the proper preparation of the body for burial, then he carried his father's remains through a panel in the wall, where a cavern had been hollowed in the coal mine against which the house rested. Here, in a far corner, a gray boulder had been hewn into the shape of a tombstone. On its face were carved, side by side, two words: "Anne" and "Stephen." At its foot were a mound and an open grave, for Polaris' father had long since made full preparation for his death. The boy would be sent north with the message that his father had never been able to take back to civilization.

Polaris set out on his northward trek with a seven dog team, but a series of events would distract him; for he would discover woman, and then a strange occurrence would lead him to a land that no one in the world suspected could possibly exist in the Antarctic-Sardanes, where people dressed and spoke like the Greeks of olden times.

Excerpt

"Probably in all the world there was not the equal of the team of dogs which Polaris had selected for his journey. Their ancestors in the long ago had been the fierce, gray timberwolves of the north. Carefully cross-bred, the strains in their blood were of the wolf, the great Dane, and the mastiff; but the wolf strain held dominant. They had the loyalty of the mastiff, the strength of the great Dane, and the tireless sinews of the wolf. From the environment of their rearing they were well furred and inured to the cold and hardships of the Antarctic. They would travel far."

Copyright © 1915 by Charles B. Stilson

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