eps with a heavy heart, had little
doubt in his mind. After that he waited two days, until a strong
breeze blew him off the ice, which was rapidly breaking up, and then
stood out for open water, where he hove the _Selache_ to for a week or
so. Then he proceeded northwards to the inlet fixed upon.

He was convinced that this was useless, but as the opening was almost
clear of ice he sailed the schooner in, and spent a week or two
scouring the surrounding country. He found it a desolation, still
partly covered with slushy snow, out of which ridges of volcanic rock
rose here and there. On two of these spots a couple of days' march
from the schooner, he made a depot of provisions, and raised a beacon
of piled-up stones beside them. At times when it was clear he could
see the top of a great range high up against the Western sky, but those
times were rare. For the most part, the wilderness was swept by rain
or wrapped in clammy fog.

There was, however, no sign of Wyllard, and at length Dampier, coming
back jaded and dejected from another fruitless search, after the time
agreed upon had expired, shut himself up alone for a couple of hours in
the little cabin. He was certain now that Wyllard and his companions
had been drowned while attempting to make a landing on the ice, since
they would have joined him at the inlet as arranged had this not been
the case. The distance was by no means great, and there were no
Russian settlements on that part of the coast. He sat very still, with
a clenched hand upon the little table, and a set face, balancing
conjecture against conjecture, and then regretfully decided that there
was only one course open to him. It was dark when he went up on deck
again, but the men were sitting smoking about the windlass forward.

"You can heave some of that cable in, boys," he said. "We'll clear out
for Vancouver at sun-up."

They said nothing, but they shipped the levers, and Dampier went back
to the cabin, for the clank of the windlass and the ringing of the
cable jarred upon him.

Early next morning the _Selache_ stood out to sea, and once they had
left the fog and rain which hung about the coast behind, she carried
fine weather with her across the Pacific. On reaching Vancouver,
Dampier had some trouble with the authorities, to whom it was necessary
to report the drowning of three of his crew, but he was more fortunate
than he expected, and after placing the schooner in the hands of a
b