the
floes driving in all the while, and then it freshened hard and blew him
out."

He had told his story, and Wyllard, who rose, stood leaning on his
chair-back very grim in face.

"That," he said, "must have been eight or nine months ago."

"It was. They've been up there since the night we couldn't pick up the
boat."

"It's unthinkable," said Wyllard. "The thing can't be true."

His companion gravely produced a little common metal watch made in
Connecticut, and worth some five or six dollars. Opening it he pointed
to a name scratched inside it.

"You can't get over that," he said simply.

Wyllard strode up and down the room, and when he sat down again with a
clenched hand laid upon the table he and the sailorman looked at each
other steadily for a moment or two. Then the stranger made a little
gesture.

"You sent them," he said, "what are you going to do?"

"I'm going for them."

The sailorman smiled. "I knew it would be that. You'll have to start
right away if it's to be done this year. I've my eye upon a schooner."

He lighted a cigar, and settled himself more comfortably in his chair.
"Well," he said, "I'm coming with you, but you'll have to buy my ticket
to Vancouver. It cleaned me out to get here. We'd a difficulty with a
blame gunboat last season, and the boss went back on me. Sealing's not
what it used to be. Anyway, we can fix the thing up later. I won't
keep you from your friends."

Wyllard went out and left him, and though he did not see Mrs. Hastings
just then he came upon Agatha sitting outside the house. She glanced
at his face when he sat down beside her.

"Ah," she said, "you have had the summons."

Wyllard nodded. "Yes," he said, "that man was the skipper of a
schooner I once sailed in. He has come to tell me where those three
men are."

Then he told her quietly what he had heard, and the girl was conscious
of a very curious thrill.

"You are going up there to search for them?" she said. "Won't it cost
you a great deal?"

She saw his face harden as he gazed at the tall wheat, but his
expression was very resolute.

"Yes," he admitted, "that's a sure thing. Most of my dollars are
locked up in this crop, and there's need of constant watchfulness and
effort until the last bushel's hauled in to the elevators. It probably
sounds egotistical, but now I've got rid of Martial I can't put my hand
on any one as fit to see the thing through as I am. Still, I have to
go