At the graduation ceremony, the headmaster gave his usual brave speech about prosperity and duty to one’s country. The fact that there was very little prosperity going around, a conflict in Korea, and fears of a third world war meant that the only duty on people’s minds was staying alive rather than donating another generation to the slaughter. After the speech, the faculty and parents clapped mindlessly and forever as the graduating students went up one by one to shake the headmaster’s hand and receive certificates. When that was done, I could at last devote all my energy to the upcoming journey. The public having said their last good-bye to Henry Carton, my task was to make sure they wouldn’t be saying any last good-byes to Stanley and me as well. We needed up-to-date climbing gear, but more than anything we needed to get back in shape. This meant familiarizing ourselves again with the finer points of abseiling, belaying, traversing, and rope tying and also the less fine points of simply being strong enough to drag ourselves and a coffin up the side of a mountain.
