d without mishap, and
when the morning sun lifted the fog the ship was still unharmed.

There was no land anywhere to be seen. What position they were in Bob
did not know, and had no way of finding out. He did know, however,
that somewhere to the westward lay the Labrador coast, and this they
must try to reach.

Fortunately he could read the compass, and by its aid took as nearly
as possible a due westerly course.

Alutook and Netseksoak, expert as they were in the handling of kayaks,
had no knowledge of the management of larger craft like the _Maid of
the North_, and without question accepted Bob as commander and
followed his directions implicitly and faithfully; and he handled the
vessel well, for he was a good sailor, as all lads of the Labrador
are.

They made excellent headway, and were favoured with a season of good
weather, and like the barometer Bob's spirits rose. But he dared to
plan nothing beyond the present action. A hundred times he had planned
and pictured the home-coming, but each time Fate, or the will of a
Providence that he could not understand, had intervened, and with the
crushing of each new hope and the wiping out of each delightful
picture that his imagination drew, he decided to look not into the
future, but do his best in the present and trust to Providence for the
rest, for, as he expressed it,

"Th' Lard's makin' His own plans an' He's not wantin' me t' be
meddlin' wi' un, an' so He's not lettin' me do th' way I lays out t'
do, an' I'll be makin' no more plans, but takin' things as they comes
along."

In this frame of mind he held the vessel steadily to her course and
kept a constant lookout for land or a sail, and on the morning of the
third day after the release from the ice pack was rewarded by a shout
from Netseksoak announcing land at last. Eagerly he looked, and in the
distance, dimly, but still there, appeared the shore in low, dark
outline against the horizon.

Towards noon a sail was sighted, and late in the afternoon they passed
within hailing distance of a fishing schooner bound down north. He
shouted to the fishermen who, at the rail, were curiously watching the
_Maid of the North_, as she plowed past them.

[Illustration: "He held the vessel steadily to her course"]

"What land may that be?" pointing at a high, rocky head that jutted
out into the water two miles away.

"Th' Devil's Head," came the reply.

"An' what's th' day o' th' month?"

"Th' fifteenth o' June