"That's part of my brother's equipment," said Ranworth. "The initials signifying 'Ranworth Polar Expedition' prove that. What else do you deduce from the evidence before us, Leslie?"
"That the expedition came this way, and not by the left-hand pass; that they were in no great hurry, and lastly that the mammoth we have just seen was not exposed to view."
"I don't see how you can state that they were in no great hurry," expostulated Guy, "although I agree with you on the other points."
"Well, the tent was pitched carefully, the spare stores and furs deliberately placed in position, and the flaps properly lashed. Men, famished and in an exhausted condition, would not, and could not pitch a tent in that way. It evidently points to the fact that Mr. Ranworth's brother had planned his line of retreat from Observation Camp and had placed tents in readiness at certain intervals."
"I quite agree," added Ranworth. "So we are bound to fall in with the remnants of the expedition, should they decide through shortage of provisions to make a desperate dash for Desolation Inlet."
Upon returning to the Bird of Freedom, the rescue party resumed their journey. For another five miles the pass extended, the valley gradually opening out into a vast, rolling plain, glistening white with frozen snow.
"We must take precautions against snow-blindness," observed Ranworth, and, visiting every scuttle in turn, he drew a sliding pane of tinted glass across the various outlooks.
The sleigh was travelling well now, for the frozen ground made good going. Leaving a cloud of powdered snow in her wake, like the dust from a swiftly-travelling motor-car on a dry, chalky road, she was averaging forty miles an hour.
"Hardly any need for compass work now," remarked Ranworth, as pole after pole, set at intervals of about a mile, flashed by. "Here are our finger posts. Do you know what they are?"
The lads shook their heads. At first they had failed to notice the slender, wand-like objects away on their right, but as the track of the sleigh and that of the poles gradually converged, they could not help seeing the solitary landmarks.