Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/143

Rh the deck. The wind was blowing from the north and the sea beginning to surge higher. There was a breath of winter in the air.

"Did you build our cairns on the shore, Otto?" the skipper called to Koehler.

The doctor looked up.

"What cairns?" Margaret asked.

"The Viborg expedition cairns, of course," McNeal said shortly, "as Koehler arranged with the Arctic Society in New York. Our cairns are to be two, about fifteen feet apart, in a line east and west, the larger to the east and to contain the message."

"What for?"

"For those who may come to look for us," the Scotchman said simply. "Did you remember, Otto?"

"I didn't build cairns, but left a record at the depot," the doctor replied.

"What did you leave?" Margaret asked.

The doctor gave her his copy sheet, and she read aloud.

The Viborg expedition, under direction of Price Latham and consisting of Jeremiah McNeal, sailing master, Jules Brunton and Olaf