Both McKinlay and Hadley had become obsessed with the state of the sea, the behavior of the pack. Hadley returned from hunting empty-handed every day, and on his way back, he would scan the ice, the water, and the horizon for any sign of a ship. One day in early August, he reported that he thought he’d seen smoke from a steamship very far off the island, and there was a momentary buzz of excitement at camp, but most thought he’d probably imagined it, or just wanted it to be true. McKinlay quipped, “It may be that the wish is father to the thought.”
