Once there he could look across the promontory of land, down into a little cove on the opposite side.

It was well sheltered, and already wrapped in gloomy shadows, yet his eyes detected the outline of a boat of some size drawn up on the sandy beach.
Beyond the dim certainty of what it was he could perceive nothing with which to identify the craft, and deeming it some fishing boat, gave its presence there no further heed.
Glancing back to assure himself that Natalie was still safe where he had left her, he picked his way swiftly forward through the thick fringe of forest trees, until he came to the western edge of the wood, and could view the country beyond in the last spectral glow of the dying day.

It was a wild, broken country thus revealed to his gaze, a land of ridges and ravines, rugged and picturesque, but exhibiting no evidence of roads, or inhabitants.

Its very roughness of outline, and its sterile soil, explained the barrenness and desolation--a no-man's land, impossible of cultivation, it remained neglected and unused.

At first he was sure of this, his heart sinking at the deserted landscape.