Page:Neuroomia.djvu/156

144 a more favourable place to settle down; or perhaps they had taken a trip towards the icefields, and intended to return. At all events, there was evidence to show that the camp had not long been deserted. There were empty preserve tins only recently opened, pieces of paper, cloth, and metal, that had not been long exposed to the weather, and the fireplace had been used lately.

While we were examining these things, I noticed that some trees had been cut down a little distance off, and, in hurrying towards them, stumbled over something; it was an old boot. I knew that boot at once; Septimus wore it when he left me—it told a tale. On reaching the fallen trees, I could see at a glance they had been cut, and recently, too, by Septimus. There was no mistaking those stumps, for I had seen him cut timber in the South Sea Islands on several occasions, and knew his manner of using an axe. Yondozi came over, and I explained matters to him.

It was now a certainty that Septimus had arrived here safely; but where had they gone with the ship? I could see, by the pieces left, that the wood had been cut the proper length for the stoves in the galley, and they had taken a good supply of it.