The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

14 The Wreck of the South Pole. At first I was overwhelmed with astonishment, then the astonishment turned into gray fear. “The cold and the trials and the weariness of the jour- ney had affected my brain,” was the thought which came to me. A few minutes came another shock which nearly com- pleted the work of terror the first had begun. Ahead of me, not more than fifty paces, I saw the figure of a man standing out clear and distinct against the boundless expanse of white snow and Ice. But the next instant it was gone! It did not move from the place it was standing, did not disappear behind a hillock of ice, for the great plain was as smooth as a floor. It simply disappeared. I was so overcome with fear—not at any idea of ghost, although sailors are notoriously superstitious—but from fear that my mind was wandering. I was so overcome, I say, that I stood stock still, and this exhibition of terror, I afterward learned, was the means of saving me from see- ing the apparition again—a sight which, I believe, would have completely crazed me. But although I saw nothing again, I heard the voice a second time bidding me press on to the hut with all haste, and at the same time, I can- not tell how, there came new strength in my body and new vigor in my brain. I walked rapidly on, and within half an hour reached the hut. It was a veritable house that I saw as I drew nearer. But so strange had been my journey that at no time would I have been surprised to see it suddenly disappear from GOMIGHDOOKS (E(@)