“Huh! I done fink dat dis was a big prison, I’sh, an’ dat dese were some ob de prisoners.”
“Av coorse, yez blockhead! But who may the poor divils be? Howld the lanthern, an’ I’ll be afther takin’ a bit av a look at thim.”
With which Barney crawled into the place.
All raiment which the dead men might have worn had fallen to decay. There seemed nothing left but the bones.
But of a sudden Barney’s keen eye caught some lines in the black surface of the stone wall. They were scratched quite deep with some sharp instrument.
To the Celt’s surprise they were in legible English, and thus he read them;
“July 10th. 18—.
“Heaven have mercy upon our souls, and should this ever meet the gaze of civilized beings, pity us.
“We sailed from Montevideo in January, after Southern seals. Nipped in an ice-patch, our good ship, the Hester, went to the bottom. For months we wandered about the accursed ice country, until finally we discovered this Polar land, free from ice and snow. But we were surrounded by the Polar people, whose traditions forbade the coming among them of any being beyond the ice belt.