Search for Titch and James Wilde’s death

The search for Titch and the death of James Wilde mark the point when Washington can no longer treat Titch’s disappearance as a temporary departure. Repeated searches find no trace of him; James Wilde goes out after his son and returns ill, then dies in the camp. Titch’s fate remains uncertain, but Washington’s sense of abandonment is immediate. The episode leaves him with two distinct losses: a death witnessed and an absence without an answer.

The search and the growing certainty of loss

After Washington wakes in the Arctic camp, he asks James Wilde whether he pulled him to safety. James says Peter House did, and warns that another hour would have left Washington buried in ice. The rescue offers no reassurance about Titch: the searchers have already been out for hours, and James is waiting for news.

The hours become days. Peter House and the Indigenous searchers return without Titch, then set out again at first light. When another day passes without a sign of him, James grows increasingly restless. He sleeps and eats little, keeps his hands occupied with small tasks, and stands watch at the igloo entrance rather than tending the traps. His repeated attention to the horizon makes the search’s failure visible even before he speaks of it.

James Wilde goes out

At last James gathers his survival tools into a large green sack, dresses in freshly oiled caribou skin, and sets out across the snow. The Indigenous members of the camp try to dissuade him, but he refuses to listen. Peter House gestures for them to let James go, then follows some fifty paces behind so that the old man will not be lost as well. The pursuit of Titch thus draws James and Peter away from the camp, with Peter acting both as companion and safeguard.

Several days pass before the two men return together across the open plain. James is breathing with difficulty and trembling. When Washington asks whether they found any sign of Titch, James passes him without answering and goes inside. His silence, followed by his account of Titch’s childhood habit of running away and eventually returning, exposes the fragile hope beneath his search. James calls his son foolish, but Washington can see that he does not believe Titch will return this time.

Abandonment and James’s death

James tells Washington that the camp has food and clothing and that he will probably manage. He also recalls the faithful drawing Washington made of a whale’s horn and suggests he draw more. The small encouragement does not undo Washington’s new recognition: he understands that Titch has abandoned him and that no one else will ensure his safety. The search’s failure changes the meaning of Titch’s absence from a delay into a rupture in the bond on which Washington had relied.

James soon becomes gravely ill. He lies bundled in furs, alternately shivering and throwing them off, while Peter House brings soups, potions, and tinctures intended to combat the infection. As Titch continues not to return, James’s health declines. Peter takes trips to the outpost, and Washington accompanies him on morning checks of the traps, though they collect nothing; the walks offer Washington a way to occupy himself while he waits.

In the afternoons Washington watches James and sketches him. One day he notices that James has stopped breathing: James is dead. Peter House and the Indigenous people gather and carry the body away. The death is no longer the reported or supposed death that had hung over James; Washington has witnessed its confirmation. Yet the search has answered only one question. James is gone, while Titch remains missing.

Aftermath and the return to the search

The loss does not settle Washington’s relationship with Titch. Later, reflecting on the life Titch had redirected, Washington recognizes that his present life is organized around Titch’s absence. He longs both to know whether Titch is alive and to confront him, and resolves to go to Granbourne to look for him. That decision grows out of the unresolved Arctic search: James’s death is certain, but Titch’s disappearance leaves Washington without either confirmation or closure.

The uncertainty continues when Washington and Tanna Goff later reach Peter Haas. Peter reports that Titch visited about a year and a half earlier, stayed for several weeks, and then left. Still later, when Washington meets Titch, he asks where Titch went after leaving his father’s camp and why the search party never found him. These later questions show that the Arctic search was not a completed recovery or a conclusive explanation. It established Washington’s experience of abandonment, but not what happened to Titch during the disappearance.

Narrative significance

The episode places witnessed death beside ambiguous loss. James’s fate becomes legible through bodily decline, Washington’s observation, and the practical removal of his body; Titch’s fate cannot be read from the empty landscape. The contrast matters: Washington can name James as dead, but can only carry Titch as an absence. That unresolved distinction propels his later search, while James’s failed expedition makes clear that love and effort cannot guarantee another person’s return.