g at the hope, was beginning to accept this view, when, lifting
the tarpaulin, he found beneath it the papers of the _Albatross_, some
notebooks filled with jottings in his father's spidery handwriting,
and a few small cases that contained bits of rock, fossils, and other
specimens dear to the geologist, each labelled with the name of the
place where it had been found.

Smith was now thoroughly alarmed. He knew that his father, if he had
quitted the place voluntarily, would never have left behind these
fruits of his labours. Yet why was the fort deserted?

"Ah, bah! They have gone foraging," said Rodier, unwittingly hitting
on the truth.

"But they would never leave the place unguarded," replied Smith. "The
savages certainly attacked them; look at the arrows and spears. But
Mr. Underhill would not have yielded without fighting; yet there are
no dead bodies, not even the cut-up earth there would be if they had
had a tussle. I can't account for it any way."

"Well, mister, we better look them up."

"In the aeroplane, you mean?"

"Yes. They must be here, in this island, or not here. In the
aeroplane we search all over."

"It will be like looking for rabbits in bracken," said Smith, pointing
to the forest. "Still, we must try."

He sat down on a biscuit tin to think over the position and evolve a
plan. A random search might be mere waste of time. Starting with the
assumption that the castaways were still on the island, he said to
himself that they must have left the fort voluntarily, or there would
certainly be signs of a struggle. That they had left no one on guard
seemed to show that they were in no alarm, otherwise they would have
carried their belongings with them. His father, he knew, would not
abandon his note-books and specimens. Was it possible that they were
making reprisals on the enemy who had previously attacked them? But
even in this case they would hardly have left their fort wholly
undefended, unless in the heat of victory they had rushed out in
headlong pursuit, a rash movement which a naval officer would hardly
countenance. Besides, they were but ill-provided with arms. Had they
been enticed forth by the savages? In that case the savages would
surely have plundered the camp, unless--and now his thought and his
pulse quickened--unless there had not yet been time. Perhaps they had
only recently left the place. Then they could not be far away, and if
they had yielded to allurement there might still b