dle had been removed, probably by Simeon, to make a
pillow at night, and its whole appearance bespoke long travel. For a
fortnight the ship's company and the Indians scoured the country
seeking him. They sent up rockets at night, and lighted fires on the
hilltops by day; they wearied themselves and the tireless Indians, and
at last, knowing the limits of human endurance in a case like
Ponsonby's, they gave up in despair.

All these incidents formed the main topics of conversation in the long
evenings in the saloon of the yacht. In addition to Senor Lopez and
the captain of the _Tintoretto_, Stephen had secured the services of a
young physician with a taste for adventure, and his own sailing master
was a person of intelligence, so that the little party brought a
variety of experience to the councils held on board ship or round the
camp fire when their search carried them so far inland that it was
impossible to return to the yacht at night. Several times, accompanied
by Pecheray guides, they had been gone for ten days at a time, but
never found a trace of the lost man. There was the faint possibility
that he had been found and cared for by wandering Indians, but what
was far more likely was that French might stumble upon the spot where
he died. Even in that land of beasts and birds of prey something would
be left in evidence.

The daylight hours were now so few that little could be accomplished,
and the cold was becoming severe. A violent snowstorm on the fifteenth
of May decided French to give up the search and go home. Accordingly,
they steamed out of the Straits of Magellan and turned the vessel
northward, keeping as near the Patagonian shore as was prudent, in the
hope of sighting canoes.

They had been steaming in this direction for about three hours, going
slowly and keeping a sharp outlook toward the land, when the captain
called French's attention to an opening in the coast line, where the
Gallegos River empties into the sea. An impulse--perhaps it might more
truly be called an inspiration--induced French to order the yacht
brought to anchor in the bay. Although the shore seemed deserted,
several canoes filled with Indians immediately put out for the yacht,
as was, indeed, their invariable custom. The boats were large, capable
of holding six or eight people in the two ends, while in the middle
was the inevitable clay hearth, on which smoldered the fire of
hemlock. As they approached the yacht, the Indians began