nor expense to make a thorough investigation of the whole seaboard.
But it was all in vain. The most minute inquiries were fruitless,
and Lord Glenarvan returned to the yacht to report his ill success.
Mary Grant and her brother could not restrain their grief.
Lady Helena did her best to comfort them by loving caresses,
while Jacques Paganel took up the document and began studying it again.
He had been poring over it for more than an hour when Glenarvan
interrupted him and said:

"Paganel! I appeal to your sagacity. Have we made an erroneous
interpretation of the document? Is there anything illogical
about the meaning?"

Paganel was silent, absorbed in reflection.

"Have we mistaken the place where the catastrophe occurred?"
continued Glenarvan. "Does not the name Patagonia seem apparent
even to the least clear-sighted individual?"

Paganel was still silent.

"Besides," said Glenarvan, "does not the word INDIEN prove
we are right?"

"Perfectly so," replied McNabbs.

"And is it not evident, then, that at the moment of writing the words,
the shipwrecked men were expecting to be made prisoners by the Indians?"

"I take exception to that, my Lord," said Paganel;