Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/206

192 or when last it had been inhabited. There it stood alone on that dreary grey coast; and as far as the eye could see in either direction there was not another structure or sign of habitation. The utter loneliness and desertion of it in that white waste brought Geoff's shoulders up in a shudder.

"What is it?" he appealed to Koehler. "An old Eskimo house?"

The doctor shook his head. "No Eskimos ever built that or lived in it. You've seen their summer tents in North Greenland; and you know in winter they live in snow igloos."

"Then who built it?"

"The Eskimos say spirits."

"Spirits?"

"Yes. What does it remind you of?"

"Remind me?"

"Yes; think of GreelandGreenland [sic]."

The mention of Greenland brought recollections. The stone house was in some features very like some dwellings that had interested him. Now he knew.

"Doctor, that's the sort of house the old Norsemen built in Greenland. That's the way