"Hurrah ! Hurrah!"

We cheered again and again; but I am afraid those cries, although they were hearty enough, were very weak. We were all just about as done up as men could be. But, still, that did not matter much; we had got to the depôt, and everything would be all right now.

"How did you manage it, Mickey?" we asked. "We missed you way back by the two-mile post, and we made sure that some accident had happened to you. We shouted to you for over half an hour, and then we gave it up us a bad job."

"Now, faith, me darlints, is it an accident that could be happening to me, when there is this illigant depôt to come to? Faith, I just behaved as Mother Maloney's pig did when it was lost. Bridget, she just filled up its trough with wash, and said: 'Let it alone; it will come back safe enough!' And by the same token that pig came running back, and never stopped until it had its nose in the food. It was just like that with me. I suppose I smelt page 252these biscuits, and me nose led me in a straight line until I came up wid them."

We all burst into a laugh at that, for we all felt jolly now. Anyhow, we managed to collar one of Mickey's biscuits, and we divided it amongst us, and started munching as hard as he was doing.

"Aisy, now!" protested he. "There's plenty more inside. Sure, it's meself that found a lot of them."

We found that the depôt consisted of three sheds, all painted white. One of them was rigged up inside with bunks for sleeping purposes, one was the provision store, and the third—we could hardly contain ourselves 'for our delight —contained a wooden boat; and that was a treasure indeed, for it removed all difficulties in the way of our going back to our comrades.

"Let us get a good fire going!" I said; and Mickey shook his head philosophically.

"Go aisy, boys !" he said. "You can't get your fire without matches, and not a ghost of one have I been able to find."

Well, we all turned in and searched for them. We felt absolutely certain some would be there among the stores; but the difficulty was that everything was done up in packets and boxes, and it was too dark for us to be able to distinguish what the contents of each was. So at last, after we had searched in vain for over half an hour, we decided that we would give it up, turn in, and wait until daylight. So, taking a couple of biscuits each, we went into the sleeping shed.

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Strange though it may appear, though we had encountered hardships enough before, and although we had now succeeded in our quest, and had come to the depot, that first night there was about the most miserable that I had spent since we were cast away, and I think it was the same with all the rest.

After all, that was very natural. In the first place, we were all of us dog tired—so tired that it hurt us even to move our limbs; then we were all pretty well cut and bruised, and soaked through and through, and the boards of that hut were most uncommonly hard. We lay there with the canvas pulled over us, and we shivered, and shivered all through the night hours, but we could not go to sleep. I have heard of being too tired to sleep, and that is just as it was with us that night; and we were very glad when daybreak came, and we were able to get up and overhaul our supplies.

We went into the store, and found everything in there very neat and in splendid condition. All the different stores were rolled up in zinc, perfectly airtight, and then put into boxes.

"Hallo, here is a notice! "I cried, pointing to one of the biscuit-boxes. "Here is something tacked on to it."

My comrades gathered round, and I took the paper from the lid of the box, where it had been nailed, and on it we read: