When you get this letter Beck will be in Rabaul. His health is gone, his mind is failing all the time, getting worse and worse, and Heaven knows what will happen to him. It is more than any man can ask of other, I think, to stay on the boat with him. There are seven of us in a cabin no larger than a telephone booth and when we are aboard with him and his wife there is no way of getting him out of your mind. Dr. Drowne and I were gong to leave the ship here until Beck made up his mind to go to Rabaul. That meant that Hamlin and Hicks would leave, and all four of us were on the point of taking the Marsina, on Christmas day, until Beck decided to leave us here by ourselves. We are all right for the present. For the future and for the good of the expedition it is up to you to make up your minds there in the Museum. It is im- pssible for us to talk to Beck for he clings to the ship with the talons of a defeated man. I am frightfully sorry to have to write a letter like this to anybody. I should suggest wiring Beck in Rabaul to turn over the expedition to Drowne. Very soberly, Duke. Guy Richards.