a labor; so that he did not get much satisfaction from the
observation taken.

"I can see men aboard of all the vessels," he announced; "and there is a
boat being taken up on the davits of the nearest craft, which must have
been ashore in the fog, for some reason or other."

"Why can't we signal to them to come in and take us off?" asked Teddy,
struck with a brilliant idea.

"There's the answer," replied Ned, when all of the vessels making up the
anchored fleet vanished utterly from view, as another bank of fog crept
up.

He turned and swept the shore beyond with the glasses.

"Just what we want," they heard him say; and looking in the quarter that
had chained his attention they discovered some dark object half-hidden
in the wisps of blowing mist.

"What is it, Ned; a fishing shanty, a stranded whale, or what?" demanded
Teddy.

At that Jimmy laughed in scorn.

"You must think you're down on the Jamaica marshes near Brooklyn, where
they do happen to have fishing shanties. Bet you now that's an old
wreck!" he exclaimed.

"Just what it is," admitted Ned, as he led them along the shore. "Some
whaler or sealer has gone ashore a while back. Perhaps she was crushed
by the ice, and carried up on the land when the spring break-up came.
But there's a chance we may be able to find some sort of shelter from
this rain that's coming down on us."

"Hurry up, then," said Teddy, "and we may be able to save our jackets
yet. I don't want to get soaked, unless I have to."

"I'd like to know who does?" asked Jimmy; "though for the matter of
that, none of us are made of salt. And with a camp hatchet, I reckon now
we'll be able to chop away enough wood aboard the wreck to have a decent
fire going."

"If there's going to be any sort of storm, you don't think we'll be in
danger of getting carried out to sea, do you, Ned?" questioned Teddy.
"Not that I'd object to a cruise through this five-hundred-mile bay, the
biggest thing of its kind in all the world; but I'd want to have
something sound under me, and not a wreck of a boat, ready to sink any
old time."

"Don't waste so much breath talking, but hurry!" advised Jack.

At that they put on an additional spurt, and drew closer to the wreck,
which was half out of the water. Reaching the stern, part way up the
beach, the boys found that a break allowed them an easy chance to climb
aboard; and with hope beating high in their breasts, they hastened to
clamber up the rough passage,