Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/127

Rh as the men looked at each other again, Geoff saw that there was in a way relief in their manner. If at the start of the expedition they could not have chosen which of their two mates they would wish to find if they could find but one, now it seemed better that it might be Hedon.

They turned about. Latham again had come into the hut; he moved less quickly.

"The inscription on the cross says that it is Thomas who is buried back there," he reported to the others as they looked at him. "It says he died a little over a year ago." He gave the date. "That's all."

"We've just found Eric Hedon's report," said Koehler. Latham gazed at it.

"Read it," he directed.

The doctor held the sheets straight and read slowly and carefully.

Captain Ian Thomas, commander, and Eric Hedon, engineer, of Aurora expedition, returned to this place on May second—there followed the date of the second year previous—finding from records left here and replaced in same order as found that Jeremiah McNeal,