Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/118

104 "A bear," he confirmed; "killed by a bullet through the head."

"Bullet?"

The doctor pointed; there was no doubt of it. Two small holes were opposite each other in the skull. "He was shot by a rifle bullet—last year, I should say. We know this was not here when we went away. Did we kill a bear here, Brunton?"

"Not a bear," the Canadian confirmed. "A seal on the ice, that was all."

"Couldn't you forget?" Latham asked him. "You must have killed it here."

The skeleton had changed from proof that one of the men sought was dead to evidence that one of them at least had reached this land.

Brunton shook his head positively. "None of us will ever forget where we got our fresh meat on that march south," he said. His keen eyes were scanning the outline of the hill farther on. "Besides, we built no cairn here. What do you see there?"

Two piles of stone stood on the promontory farther along the shore. In their concentration upon the animal's skeleton the others had