n and his men sailed, full of hope and strength,
there was now merely a slab of marble to commemorate them; and in
spite of this solemn warning of fate, the _Forward_ was about to
follow the path of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_.

Hatteras was the first to rouse himself; he ascended quickly a rather
high hillock, which was almost entirely bare of snow.

"Captain," said Johnson, following him, "from there we ought to see
the stores."

Shandon and the doctor joined them just as they reached the top of the
hill.

But their eyes saw nothing but large plains with no trace of a
building.

"This is very strange," said the boatswain.

"Well, these stores?" said Hatteras, quickly.

"I don't know,--I don't see--" stammered Johnson.

"You must have mistaken the path," said the doctor.

"Still it seems to me," resumed Johnson after a moment's reflection,
"that at this very spot--"

"Well," said Hatteras, impatiently, "where shall we go?"

"Let's go down again," said the boatswain, "for it's possible I've
lost my way! In seven years I may have forgotten the place."

"Especially," said the doctor, "when the country is so monotonous."

"And yet--" muttered Johnson.

Shandon said not a word. After walking a few minutes, Johnson stopped.

"No," he said, "I'm not mistaken."

"Well," said Hatteras, looking around.

"What makes you say so, Johnson?" asked the doctor.

"Do you see this little rise in the earth?" asked the boatswain,
pointing downwards to a mound in which three elevations could be
clearly seen.

"What does that mean?" asked the doctor.

"There," answered Johnson, "are the three tombs of Franklin's sailors.
I'm sure of it! I'm not mistaken, and the stores must be within a
hundred paces of us, and if they're not there,--it's because--"

He durst not finish his sentence; Hatteras ran forward, and terrible
despair seized him. There ought to stand those much-needed
storehouses, with supplies of all sorts on which he had been counting;
but ruin, pillage, and destruction had passed over that place where
civilized hands had accumulated resources for battered sailors. Who
had committed these depredations? Wild animals, wolves, foxes, bears?
No, for they would have destroyed only the provisions; and there was
left no shred of a tent, not a piece of wood, not a scrap of iron, no
bit of any metal, nor--what was more serious for the men of the
_Forward_--a single lump of coal.

Evidently the Esquimaux, who have o