nderful things prospective
sellers were apt to mark upon the maps they had prepared. These usually
described things as they might appear in case all went well, and the
mine turned out a splendid success.

So far as indications went, Ned believed that they would have a better
chance of success, if they turned abruptly to the left and made up the
shore. At least, the character of the rocky country favored this idea.
As far as he could see, it grew more and more inviting, looked at from
the viewpoint of a miner, or a prospector for precious minerals.

The others were watching him closely. They guessed something of the
nature of what must be passing through Ned's mind, for both Jack and
Teddy followed his gaze up the uneven shore. Jimmy had the glasses
again, and was busily engaged in scrutinizing the blur on the distant
horizon, which all of them had agreed must be smoke hovering close to
the water. Perhaps he half-believed the fanciful suggestion made by
Teddy, with reference to Captain Kidd, and was wildly hoping to discover
some positive sign that would stamp this fairy story with truth. All the
previous adventures that had befallen himself and chums would sink into
utter insignificance, could they go back home and show evidences of
having made such a romantic discovery up there in the Hudson Bay
country.

"See the feather they say he always wore in his hat, Jimmy?" asked
Frank.

"Nothing doin' _yet_ that way," replied the other, without allowing even
the ghost of a smile to appear on his freckled face; "so if you please,
we'll let the matter drop for the time bein'. Who knows what may happen
before we get back to New York? 'Tis a great old country, so they say,
for all sorts of queer things to crop up. You needn't be surprised at
anything here, they tell me. And I've made up me mind to take it as it
comes, and not let anything faze me. Put that in your pipe and smoke
it, Teddy."

"And I'm wondering," mused the one particularly addressed, "what that
ancient but bold explorer, Hendrick Hudson, said when he had sailed all
the way around this great bay, and found that it was after all a
land-locked arm of the sea. When he first entered it, history tells us
he had great hopes that he had found what Columbus was searching for
when he made his western voyage, a way of reaching the East Indies by a
water route. It must have been a keen disappointment when Hendrick had
to turn north, and then east again, always fended off