and led the way to the beach. Here our lads
found a dog sledge with its team, and an Eskimo driver, who was already
collecting wood for a fire, together with a white man, tall, straight,
middle-aged, and wearing a long beard streaked with grey.

"God be with you and keep you," he said, as he shook hands with Cabot
and White. "Where is the captain of this schooner?"

Cabot pointed to his companion.

"Where then is the crew?"

At this both lads laughed, and Cabot replied:

"I am the crew."

"You don't mean to tell me that you two boys navigated that vessel to
this place unaided."

"We certainly did, sir, though we have not done much navigating for
more than a month now. But will you please tell us who you are, where
you came from, and how you happened to discover us? Though we are not
surprised at being discovered, for we seem to be located on a highway
of travel and have visitors nearly every day."

"Indeed," replied the stranger; "and yet you are stranded in one of the
least known and most inaccessible bays of the coast. It is rarely
visited even by natives, and I doubt if any white man was ever here
before your arrival."

"Then how did you happen to come?" asked Cabot.

"I came by special request to find you and offer whatever assistance I
may render. I am the Rev. Ostrander Mellins, Director of a Moravian
Mission Station located on the coast some twenty-five miles from this
point."

"But how did you know of us?" cried Cabot, in amazement. "We haven't
sent any telegrams nor even written any letters since coming here."

"Did not you send a messenger yesterday?"

"No, sir. Most of yesterday we were prisoners in the hands of some
rascally Indians."

"I perceive," said the missionary, "that I have much to hear as well as
to tell, and, being both tired and cold, would suggest that we seek a
more sheltered spot than this, where we may converse while my man
prepares supper."

At these words both our lads were covered with confusion, and, with
profuse apologies for their lack of hospitality, besought the
missionary to accompany them into the schooner's cabin.

"We should have asked you long ago," declared White, "only we were so
overcome with joy at meeting a white man who could talk to us that we
really didn't know what we were about."

"Won't your man and dogs also come aboard?" asked Cabot, anxious to
show how hospitable they really were.

"No, thank you," laughed the missionary. "They will