into Vladivostok.

CHAPTER XIV

NEARING THE CITY OF GOLD

The creature for which Dave had gone on a double-quick hunt, after the
balloon had landed on the desert island, was a reindeer. He had probably
crossed over on a solid floe from the mainland. It was his last crossing.
Soon Dave came back dragging two hundred pounds of fresh meat behind him.

"No more 'gold fish' in cans," he exulted. "No more evaporated milk and
pickled egg. We eat, Jarvis, we eat!"

"That's fine," smiled Jarvis, "but what's all the words you been spillin'
about this bein' America?"

"Oh!" laughed Dave. "That was something of a joke, though this island
really does belong to old U.S.A. Captain DeLong, an American, whose ship
was crushed in the ice near this island, was its first discoverer. He
claimed it in the name of his country and christened it Bennett Island. It
says that in the message he left in his cairn. But that don't feed us. I'm
starved. There's driftwood on the beach. C'mon."

Soon they were roasting strips of delicious venison over a crackling fire.
Supper over, they lay down with faces to the fire and talked over
prospects for the future. The stranger was with them, but had little to
say. He seemed puzzled at the unusual circumstances of the journey and was
constantly asking when they would return to the native village at the
mouth of the river.

"Evidently," said Dave, after a long and fruitless attempt to draw from
him any account of his life with the Orientals in the mine, "the rap he
received on his head blotted out all memory of those days. If we can't get
that particular stretch of memory in working order, we may never know how
Frank Langlois was killed, nor who it was that sent us strange messages on
phonographic records and moving-picture films. I'm hoping his memory'll
come back. A sudden shock may bring it round at any time."

Their conference regarding the future resulted in a determination to wait
for a change of wind which would insure them a safe trip to the mainland.
In the meantime, Dave would prepare the chemicals for immediate inflation
of the balloon and Jarvis would study over the Japanese puzzle of a
gasoline engine which would not respond to his touch.

Jarvis' work netted nothing. Three days later an onshore wind arose, and
the balloon, wafted upward on its gentle crest, brought the explorers back
to the mainland.

"Land! Land! And the City of Gold!" exclaimed Jarvis, as the evening
cloud