Hatteras was the first to rouse himself from such dangerous contemplations. He climbed hastily up a little hill, from the top of which Johnson said the storehouses could be seen.
Shandon and the Doctor rejoined them immediately; but none of the party could discover anything but a far-stretching expanse, without a trace of human habitation.
"Well, that's strange!" said Johnson.
"What now? Where are the depots?" asked Hatteras, sharply.
"I don't know—I can't see," stammered Johnson.
"You have mistaken the road perhaps," suggested the Doctor, thoughtfully.
"Yet it seems to me," said Johnson, "that it was just here———"
"Well, be quick, pray, and tell us where to go," said the impatient captain.
"Let us go down again; for I may be wrong. It is seven years ago now since I was here, and my memory may be at fault."
"Especially in a country where such monotonous uniformity prevails."
"And yet———" muttered Johnson.
Shandon made no remark.
After waiting a few minutes longer, Johnson stopped all of a sudden, and said:
"No, I am right, after all!"
"Well," replied Hatteras, looking about, "and where are they?"
"Do you see how the ground seems to swell out there," said Johnson, "just where we are standing, and can you trace the shape of these big mounds in it?"
"Well, and what's that to do with the question?" inquired the Doctor.
"These are the graves of three of Franklin's sailors," was the reply. "I'm sure of it; and a hundred paces off was the principal depot. I am not mistaken now, and if the stores are not there, it must be owing to———"
He did not venture to say what he thought; but a terrible suspicion shot through Hatteras, and made him rush impetuously forward. But where were the stores on which he had so confidently reckoned? This was the right place;
