“Just here, sir,” he said. “I put this where I found the cap.”
“Then he must have gone on in that direction; he would not have come back to go down there.”
“No, sir.”
“But why should he have dropped his cap?” said the doctor.
“He must have been running after something, sir.”
“Or something must have been running after him,” cried the doctor. “He would not have gone any farther than this unless there was some reason.”
“Of course not,” said the captain testily; “but what reason could there be?”
“Well, it seems to me that the best thing is to go back to the fire and wait a few minutes,” said the doctor, after standing thoughtful and silent. “He is far more likely to come to us than we are to go to him. It seems to be a mystery; but mysteries sometimes turn out very simple things. What do you say?”
“I say that we’ll have a good search down this gully, and see if by any chance he has gone down here. You, Johannes, search along over our morning’s track straight away, and try and be back in half an hour at the fire. We will meet you.”
The Norseman went off without a word, and the captain and doctor, after a glance in the direction of the fire to see that the others were watching them, plunged into the gloomy, rugged gully, which looked as if the mountain had been suddenly split apart, leaving at the bottom just room for two men to pick their way along abreast, while the sides ran up at once toward where the ice and snow never melted save on the surface, to send a little water trickling down to form a tiny stream, which wandered along among the stones beneath their feet. But though they pressed on, seeking hard for some sign of the lad having passed there, nothing was seen; so, when the half-hour was well up, they turned their heads in the other direction, vainly trying to make out where he could have gone, and still scanning every stone and rift overhead for signs.