“Come this way,” he said, nodding in the direction of the boat. “I want to show you something.”
Maseden noticed that the other man’s hands and moccasins were soiled with the witish brown deposit through which a channel for the boat had been delved.
Then he saw that no small part of the said channel was blocked by the debris of a
fresh excavation.
Now, among the treasures on the boat were a couple of axes. Given an ax, some spice of ingenuity and a fair stock of patience, and any man can fashion an astonishing variety of useful articles. Singularly enough, Sturgess, who was gifted with the artist’s sense of proportion, could hew a spade out of a plank more skillfully than Maseden, and he was inordinately proud of the achievement.
“What the deuce have you been up to?” demanded Maseden a
