“Oh no,” I said. “They could sail from Tyre and Sidon, keeping within sight of land all the way along the Mediterranean, through the Straits of Gibraltar, and then up the coasts of Spain and France, and across to our country; but they couldn’t sail here.”
“Well, not all the way; but I can recollect enough of the map to know that they’d most likely have ships at the top of the Red Sea, and could coast down from there till they got somewhere about Delagoa Bay or Durban, and gradually travel across country till they got here.”
“Rather a long walk,” I said.
“Long walk? Of course; but it was done by the people in the course of hundreds of years perhaps—settlers who came into the country after its products. There, I believe it, and we must have made a find. Here, come back and let’s have a look at the old furnace and chimney.”
We went back, and were soon satisfied that we had the right idea. On further examination we found that some of the stones were calcined, and at a touch crumbled into exceedingly fine dust; while one corner at the back—below the chimney opening, where it was a good deal broken—showed signs of intense heat, the face of one angle being completely glazed, the stone being melted into a kind of slag like volcanic glass.
“Oh, there’s not a bit of doubt about it,” cried Denham. “What do you say, Sergeant?”
“Not a bit o’ doubt about it, sir. I’ve seen smelting-furnaces enough our way for copper and tin, and this might have been one of such places, made by old-fashioned folks who didn’t know so much as we know now. It’s an old smelting-shop for certain; but I don’t see as we’ve anything to shout about.”
“What!” cried Denham; “when we’ve made a discovery like this? Are you mad?”
“Not as I knows on, sir. It’s only like coming to a corner of the beach at home and finding a heap of oyster-shells.”
“What do you mean?” said Denham angrily.