Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/75

Rh that night, except display lights at our mast heads, but with the break of day I sent a party in one of the boats to explore. Of course I had to let poor Gell, who had scarcely spoken since he heard the news, and looked ten years older, take charge of this crew, but indeed he had much ado to get together a crew at all. With the alarm of the previous night all the old terror had revived in redoubled force. It was only after much entreaty that I got half-a-dozen of the fathers whose children had been saved to volunteer to look for their saviour. Even then they would not go on shore. They rowed Gell thither, and promised to wait while he landed and tried to discover what had occurred. Everything confirmed the children's tale. Here were the deep wheel-tracks, winding about in complex curves; here and there the mark of a little foot, which he recognised only too well. Presently the tracks entered the wood, still continuing their devious course, with sudden turns round large trees where the poor girl had tried to evade their approach. Had there been but one she might have escaped, but as the monsters assailed her from both sides at once there was little possibility of out-manœuvring them.