"Well, I'll tell you what we can do right off, and the sooner we set about it the better. We can go inland as far as possible, and leave a line of flags or some sort of signals that will attract attention to this place."
"I don't know but what that is a good idea," remarked White, thoughtfully. "At any rate, it would be better than doing nothing, and if we don't get help in some way we shall certainly freeze to death in this place long before the winter is over."
So Cabot's suggestion was adopted, and the remainder of that day was spent in preparing little flags of red and white cloth, attaching them to slender sticks, and in making a number of wooden arrows. On a smooth side of these they wrote:
"Help! We are stranded on the coast."
"I wish we could write it in Eskimo and Indian," said Cabot, "for English doesn't seem to be the popular language of this country."
"The flags and arrows will be a plain enough language for any natives who may run across them," responded White, "and I only hope they'll see them; but it is a slim chance, and we'll probably be frozen stiff long before any one finds us."
"Oh, I don't know," said Cabot, cheerfully. "There's firewood enough in the schooner itself to last quite a while."
"Burn the 'Sea Bee'!" cried White, aghast at the suggestion. "I couldn't do it."
"Neither could I at present; but I expect both of us could and would, long before our blood reached the freezing point."
"But if we destroyed the schooner, how would we get out of here next summer?"