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were flying to Rome where the Professor intended to carry out certain field trials in a desolate sandy region to the north of the city. I think Collins was the most disappointed person at The Pines on learning that he was not to accompany the Professor. Scarsdale told him one afternoon when the lugubrious manservant was helping to break down the sand-table model a few days before our departure. We would miss Collins also, as his stiff, correct figure, always trying to maintain protocol in face of chaos was a never-ending source of good-natured amusement among us.
     
    But Collins brightened when Scarsdale told him he needed someone he could trust to maintain the house while he was abroad and with the promise of a bonus in addition to complete sovereignty over the large domestic staff of ten which ran the place, he went about his duties with renewed vigour.
     
    All went as Scarsdale had planned. I had no-one or nothing in particular to keep me in England and so it was no great hardship for me to forsake my native shore for a protracted period; all the other members of the expedition were bachelors — no doubt specially chosen by the Professor for that reason - and the only person among us who had the least tie was Holden, who had become engaged to be married a short while before I arrived at The Pines.
     
    Scarsdale and Van Damm supervised the loading of the tractors; how the Professor avoided national press mention during this phase of the operation I never did discover. He had, I believe, given out originally that the Great Northern Expedition was to carry out tests in Europe before going to the Arctic and it may be that these latest manoeuvres were thought of little public interest, the newspapers reserving coverage for the expedition proper. I remained at The Pines with our three companions, where we concluded our packing and other minor tasks while awaiting the return of the two leaders from Dover.
     
    The whole party flew out three days later to Italy by flying boat; we were accommodated at a private hotel near Ostia and, with the arrival of our precious vehicles a day or so after, carried out the sand trials as Scarsdale had decreed. We were there no more than a week and it would sorely overburden this narrative if I went into great detail over the tests, except to say that they were highly satisfactory.
     
    Scarsdale and Van Damm also were extremely pleased with results, so much so that they occasionally forgot to bicker and our farewell dinner in Rome was such a convivial occasion that they even posed for a friendly photograph for one of the Continental society magazines. I thought I had acquitted myself fairly well; I had piloted my tractor up and down the dunes with a minimum of fuss and problems. In fact all four machines had handled extremely well and we had also tested the rubber boats in a fair breeze off Ostia one afternoon and results here had been pleasing. Scarsdale was particularly concerned over the short-wave radio links and the air conditioning units and the results again in both these departments had given us all cause for satisfaction.
     
    The tractors were then driven to the docks at dead of night and loaded on to a freighter, destination unknown to us at the time. We also took passage on the same vessel and all public records of the Great Northern Expedition of 1933 then ceased. Where we went and exactly where we disembarked I am still not at liberty to disclose to the world and I will leave the reader to judge whether or not I have done that same world a disservice.
     
    The fact remains that I did not - I dare not - be more specific and the reasons for this will emerge during the course of this narrative. The colours will inevitably grow more sombre with the drawing near of our party to that cursed country and those cursed mountains. The reader will appreciate by what I have already said that we went not to the north, but to the east. And at our going all the humour, the sunshine and the