All the Norwegians worked hard. They looked after their dogs, and worked on their equipment -- the sledges, skis, tents. Every day they thought about their journey to the Pole, and talked about it. And every day, Amundsen thought about Scott. One day, in midwinter, he talked to his men.

It was dark for four months. Outside the wooden house at Framheim, it was often －60°Centigrade. The dogs lived in warm holes under the snow. The men stayed in the house, and worked in their rooms under the snow.

The skis and sledges came from the best shops in Norway, but Bjaaland wasn't happy with them. He changed a lot of things on the skis and sledges. Soon the sledges were stronger than before. The skis were better and faster, too.

Bjaaland laughed. "Oh no, they can't go faster than me," he said. "On snow, nothing can go faster than a good man on skis."

"We don't know," Amundsen said. "You're the best skier in Norway, but you get tired, and dogs get tired, too. Motor sledges don't get tired. They can go all day and all night."

"Let's start early, before Scott," Amundsen said. "Remember, Scott has more men than us, and he has motor sledges, too. Perhaps they can go faster than us."

"Perhaps," Amundsen said. "But I want to win this race. So we're going to start early! Do you understand?"

Johansen laughed angrily. "That's stupid," he said. "Perhaps the motor sledges can go all night, but the Englishmen can't. The English can't win, Roald -- they don't understand snow, but we do. And they're too slow."

"But we can't!" Johansen said. He looked angry, and unhappy. "That's too early! We can't start then -- it's dangerous and stupid!"

It was quiet and warm inside Framheim. Bjaaland looked at Amundsen, and thought about the long, cold journey in front of him. He thought about the dogs in their holes under the snow, and listened to the wind over the house. "When, Roald?" he said quietly.

Amundsen looked at Johansen coldly. "You're wrong, Johansen," he said. "We want to win, remember? So we start on August 24th."

In Scott's camp, at Cape Evans, no one talked about Amundsen and no one worked hard. They had good food, and they played football on the snow. They wrote a newspaper -- The south Polar Times -- and read books. No one learnt to ski, no one worked on the motor sledges. Twice, men went for long journeys across the snow. They walked, and pulled the sledges themselves. Oates stayed at Cape Evans and looked after his ponies.

"On August 24th. The sun comes back on that day. We start then."

Bjaaland listened to the winter wind outside.

We start on November 3rd, he wrote.

Over the window in Cape Evans, Scott put a map of Antarctica. With a pen, he made a line from Cape Evans to the South Pole, and he put a little Britisn Flag at the Pole. Under the map, Scott wrote the day for the start of their journey.