nd impetuous,
propose a reconnaissance, to go to the cranberry ridge and take a peep
over it.

"No!" objects Seagriff, restraining them. "Ef the savagers are ashore
on t'other side, an' should catch sight o' ye, yer chances for gettin'
back hyar wouldn't be worth counting on. They can run faster than
chased foxes, and over any sort o' ground. Therefur, it's best fer ye
to abide hyar till we see what's to come of it."

So counselled, they remain, and for hours after nothing more is seen
either of the canoes or of their owners, although constant watch is kept
for them. Confidence is again in the ascendant, as they now begin to
believe that the savages have a wintering-place somewhere up the large
inlet, and are gone to it, maybe to remain for months. If they will
stay but a week, all will be well, as by that time the boat will be
finished, launched, and away.

Confidence of brief duration, dispelled almost as soon as conceived!
The canoes again appear on the open water at the point of the
promontory, making around it, evidently intending to run between the
kelp-bed and the shore, and probably to land by the shell-heap. With
the castaways it is a moment of dismay. No longer is there room for
doubt; the danger is sure and near. All the men arm themselves as best
they can, with boat-hook, axe, mallet, or other carpentering tool,
resolved on defending themselves to the death.

But now a new surprise and puzzle greets them. As the canoes, one after
another, appear around the point, they are seen to be no longer crowded,
but each seems to have lost nearly half its crew. And of those
remaining nearly all are women and children--old women, too, with but
the younger of the girls and boys. A few aged men are among them, but
none of the middle-aged or able-bodied of either sex. Where are these?
and for what have they left the canoes? About this there is no time for
conjecture. In less than five minutes after their re-appearance, the
paddled craft are brought to shore by the shell-heap, and all--men,
women, children, and dogs--scramble out of them. The dogs are foremost,
and are first to find that the place is already in possession. The
keen-scented Fuegian canines, with an instinctive antipathy to white
people, immediately on setting paw upon land, rush up to the camp and
surround it, ferociously barking and making a threatening show of teeth;
and it is only by vigorously brandishing the boat-hook that they can b