n the part of the
freckled-face lad, as he sighed and looked around him. "D'ye know I was
just thinking how happy we could be in this palace if only we had those
lovely blankets along; yes, and all that good stuff to eat. I think I'd
be apt to pick up some weight here, if we had a cinch like that. But now
every meal we enjoy means we're that much closer to the end. Mebbe we'll
have to do what shipwrecked sailors do, draw lots for a sacrifice. I see
my finish, if ever it comes to that, because I always get the wrong end
of the deal or the stick."

"I pity the one who has to take a bite out of such a tough case as you,"
Teddy frankly told him; and somehow Jimmy seemed to consider that he had
been given a bouquet, for he bowed and smiled and looked pleased.

"Tell the rest that," he whispered to Teddy "and I'll be safe."

The rain kept coming down steadily as the hours wore on.

"Tell me about your tropical showers," Jimmy remarked, as noon came and
found no change in the conditions, "right up here on the border of the
Arctic regions, when it takes a notion to rain, it does make up for lost
time. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if it kept the plug out of the rain
barrel for a week now."

"It's bound to make the going worse for us," Frank grumbled.

"Why, all the marshes will be flooded, and we'll have a high old time
trying to navigate through the same. What do you think, Ned?" Teddy
wanted to know.

The patrol leader looked at them, and smiled.

"I think history is repeating itself, and that you fellows are crossing
bridges again before you get to them," he replied.

"Do you mean that there's a chance we won't have to tramp through these
bogs and cross the salt water marshes?" demanded Jimmy.

"Well, we're here right now, and fairly comfortable," Ned told him.
"What will happen next is something none of us can more than guess; but,
as long as some of those vessels keep hovering around out on the bay,
I'll hug a hope that we'll find some way of getting in touch with them."

"Which I take it means you firmly believe they're real, and not Flying
Dutchmen, like they tell about in yarns of the sea?" Jimmy asked.

"I believe what my eyes tell me," answered the other, "and through the
glass I saw men on those vessels, going about their regular daily tasks.
Whatever they may be doing up here in Hudson Bay, take my word for it,
there's nothing of the phantom about that fleet. They have some good
reason for coming and goi