We found everything in the _Sirius_ precisely as we had left it. Evidently the people of Edos had shunned our carriage, and desired that we and all our belongings might be destroyed together. This was a fortunate circumstance for us, for had the _Sirius_ been dismantled and pillaged we should have been in this wilderness without food. As soon as breakfast was over we consulted together as to what was best to be done.
"There is no help for it, my friends," said the Doctor; "the _Sirius_ is wrecked, and we shall have to leave her to her fate. Alas! she can give us safety no longer, and we may stay in her at our peril. We may be sure a search will be made for us, and that very quickly. Our only course is to abandon her, taking with us as many absolute necessaries as we can conveniently carry among us, and set off at once towards more fertile country. The future must take care of itself entirely, and we be guided further solely by circumstances."
"But, Doctor, is there no hope of patching her up for a little time longer?"
"None, Graham; our motors are worn out; our generating material exhausted. We should require all the resources of a civilised community to make good her defects and replenish her power."
"Then there is nothing for it but to do as you suggest, Doctor," said Temple; and Graham reluctantly acquiesced.
While the Doctor and Sandy selected such articles as we were going to take, Temple and Graham went outside to reconnoitre, and to decide as to the best route we should take.
There was little choice to be made. Radiating in every direction from where we stood, the wide desert extended in one vast scene of ruinous waste. We stood on a wide uneven rock- and sand-strewn plain, which reached to the horizon on every side. Not a trace of vegetation could we detect sprouting from the bitter, ungenerous soil; not a stream or a pool cheered its wide expanse. All round the horizon were mountains of bare and forbidding aspect; some of them crested with what looked like snow; others volcanic, and belching smoke and fire. The route toward the north-east seemed the most feasible, for in that direction the mountains were not so high, and an apparent break in the rocky girdle suggested an easier passage over them.