Hodgson swallowed audibly. “After I spied them from the ridge through my glass going through John’s valise and playing with his telescope, Captain. As soon as we all took a look – Mr. Farr, Sergeant Tozer, and myself – and realized that the Esquimaux had turned their sledge around and were getting ready to leave.”

“And you gave the order to take no prisoners?”

Hodgson looked down again. “No, sir. I didn’t really think about it one way or the other. I was just so… angry.”

Crozier said nothing.

“I did tell Sergeant Tozer that we had to ask one of the Esquimaux about what happened, Captain,” the lieutenant continued. “So I guess I thought before the action that some would be alive after. I was just so… angry.”

“Who gave the actual order to fire, Lieutenant? You or Sergeant Tozer or Mr. Farr or someone else?”

Hodgson blinked several times, very rapidly. “I don’t remember, sir. I’m not sure there was an order given. I just remember that we got to within about thirty yards, perhaps less, and I saw several of the Esquimaux men grab their harpoons or spears or whatever they were, and then everyone along our line was firing and reloading and firing. And the natives were running and the women were screaming… the older woman kept screaming like, well, like the banshees you’ve told us about, Captain… a high, warbling, constant scream… even after several balls had hit her, she kept up that God-awful screaming. Then Sergeant Tozer walked up and stood over her with John’s pistol and… it all happened very fast, Captain. I’ve never been involved in anything like that.”

“Nor have I,” said Crozier.

Fitzjames said nothing. He’d been the hero of several wild land campaigns during the Opium Wars. His gaze now was downcast and seemed to be turned inward.

“If mistakes were made, sirs,” said Hodgson, “I take full responsibility. I was the ranking officer of the two groups with Jo-… with Lieutenant Irving dead. It’s all my responsibility, sirs.”

Crozier looked at him. The captain could feel the dead flatness of his own gaze. “You were the only officer present, Lieutenant Hodgson. For good or ill, it was and is your responsibility. In about four hours, I want to lead a party to the site of the murder and shootings. We’ll leave by lantern light and follow your sledge tracks back to the place, but I want to be there by the time the sun rises. You and Mr. Farr will be the only men from today’s actions that I want along with us. Get some sleep and be fed and ready to go by six bells.”

“Aye, sir.”

“And send in Caulker’s Mate Hickey.”

From the private diary of Dr. Harry D. S. Goodsir:

Tuesday, 25 April, 1848 -

I liked Lieutenant Irving very much. My Impression of him was that he was a Decent and Caring young man. I did not know him Well, but through all these Hard Months – especially during the many Weeks that I spent time on Terror as well as Erebus - I never once saw the Lieutenant shirk a duty or speak harshly to the Men or deal with them or me with anything other than gentleness and Professional Courtesy.

I know that Captain Crozier is especially Devastated by the Loss. His face was so Pale when He came into camp this morning sometime after 2:00 a.m. that I would have staked my Professional Reputation on the opinion that it could not grow any paler. But it did upon his hearing the News. Even his lips became as white as the ice-pack snow we have been staring at now for the better part of three years.

But however much I liked and respected Lieutenant Irving, I had to perform my Professional Duties and put all memories of Friendly Acquaintance aside.

I removed the remnants of Lieutenant Irving’s clothing – buttons had been ripped off all layers from his Waistcoat to his Long Underwear, and the Caked Blood had frozen the clumped Fabric into iron-hard wrinkled masses – and had my assistant, Henry Lloyd, help me in bathing Lieutenant Irving’s body. The water – from ice and snow Mr. Diggle’s mates melted using some of the Coal we brought over from the Ships – was precious, but it was necessary that we honour young Irving this way.

I did not, of course, have to make my usual inverted-Y incision from hip bones to umbilicus – the base of the upside-down Y running up to the sternum – since Lieutenant Irving’s Murderers had already done so.

I made my usual Notes and Sketches as I proceeded, my Fingers aching from the Cold. The Cause of Death holds no Mysteries. The Wound to Lieutenant Irving’s Neck had been caused by at least two savage slashes by a nonserrated blade, and he Bled to Death. I seriously doubt if there is a Pint of blood left in the hapless young Officer’s body.

The Trachea and Larynx have been severed and there are blade gouges on the exposed cervical vertebrae.

His abdominal cavity has been opened by repeated sawing of a Short Blade through skin, flesh, and connecting Tissue, and the majority of his Upper and Lower intestines have been cut out and removed. Lieutenant Irving’s spleen and kidneys have also been slashed and opened by a Sharp Object or Objects. His liver is missing.

The lieutenant’s penis has been amputated approximately one Inch above its Base and is missing. His Scrotum has been cut open along its Central Axis and the testes cut out. Repeated Applications of the Blade were required to cut through the scrotal sac, the epididymis, and the tunica vaginalis. It is possible that the Assailant’s Blade was growing Dull by this point.

While the testes are absent, remnants of the vas deferens and the urethra and major portions of connecting tissue from the base of the penis into the body cavity remain.

While there are signs of multiple Bruisings on Lieutenant Irving’s body – many of them Consistent with a diagnosis of growing Scurvy – there are no other Serious Wounds visible anywhere. It is interesting that there are no Defensive Cuts on his hands, forearms, or palms.

It seems apparent that Lieutenant Irving was taken completely by Surprise. His Assailant or Assailants cut his throat before he had the Least Opportunity to defend himself. They then took some time Disemboweling him and Removing his Private Parts through repeated Incisions and Sawing Motions.

In preparing the lieutenant’s body for burial later today, I sewed up his Neck and Throat as best I could and – after setting some Nonoriginal but decomposing fibrous substances (a folded sweater from the lieutenant’s own pack of personal belongings) in his Abdominal Cavity so that the aforementioned Cavity would not look so visibly vacant and shrunken under his uniform when viewed by the men – I prepared to sew the abdominal Cavity back up as best I could (there was much tissue destroyed or missing).

But first I hesitated and Decided to do something unusual.

I opened Lieutenant Irving’s stomach.

There was no real Postmortem Examinatory Reason to do this. There was no doubt of the Cause of the young lieutenant’s death. There was no reason to check for Disease or Chronic Conditions – we are all suffering from Scurvy to one extent or the other, and we are all slowly Starving to Death.

But I opened his Stomach anyway. It looked strangely Distended – more so than bacterial action and the resulting Decomposition would suggest in this extreme cold – and no postmortem examination would be complete without an Inspection of this Anomaly.

His stomach was full.