"Whether he eventually reached the North Pole, none can say, not even those who had at first accompanied him on the expedition; and unless his body is found, we may never know. From the last letter that he left with them, I know that he would not have stopped until he obtained his goal.

This, I think, was less the Pole itself and more the North Star, which he followed unerringly and which served as a visual reminder of his dreams, lest the violent chill and the featureless landscape erase them. He wrote that, gazing upon it, he dreamed of me as well, and hoped that he might return..."

She could say no more. Mr. Flowers put his arm around her, and the others cast their glances away, to the other works that surrounded them.

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