ON BOARD THE WRECK.
Everybody could hear the sounds now. The conditions must have been
favorable for carrying a human voice far over the water, because fog is
a good conductor of sound.
Men were talking apparently, though the rumble of their voices alone
came over the surface of the water, and no actual words could be
distinguished.
"What's that other noise?" asked Teddy, as though puzzled.
"Must be oars working in the rowlocks," suggested Jack.
"Of course," declared the explorer, "how foolish of me to ask such a
silly question. But seems I don't get the give-away sounds as clear as I
did a minute or so ago."
"Good reason then," Frank told him; "because the boat they're rowing is
heading out on to the bay."
"Then you think there must be some sort of vessel there, do you, Frank?"
asked Teddy, eagerly, as he tried in vain to penetrate the blanket of
mist.
"I reckon there might be," replied Frank, "though, of course, we can't
see anything of the same right now. That rowboat wouldn't be setting out
into the big sheet of water, unless heading for a vessel."
"Could it have anything to do with that wonderful fleet that is always
on the move, coming and going, according to the weather? How about that,
Ned?" demanded Teddy.
Ned shook his head, to indicate that he did not know. There were some
things calculated to spring up from time to time, which, as leader of
the Wolf Patrol, he did not claim to know. This was one of them.
Fainter grew the rumble of voices belonging to the unseen sailors; and
the click-clack of oars working in the rowlocks also began to die away.
Francois had listened with the rest. Being only an ignorant voyageur,
with very little knowledge save along his chosen lines, of course the
French Canadian was apt to have more or less superstition in his system.
It was a heritage he had imbibed with his mother's milk.
Francois had heard more or less about this weird, disappearing fleet of
vessels that, for some time now, had been acting so mysteriously along
the coast of the big bay. Like most of his class, he believed that they
were unreal, and possibly but the ghosts of brave vessels that in years
gone by may have ploughed the green waters of Hudson Bay.
Although he said little or nothing on the subject, Francois did
considerable thinking along those lines. He cast frequent uneasy looks
away out through the mist, as though fearful lest he suddenly come face
to face with some terrible mystery.
To him those voices were anything but natural. Possibly, he even
pictured some ghostly figures sitting in a phantom boat, and speeding
over the surface of the historical sheet of water, about which so much
that is remarkable has been written, and, also, handed down from father
to son, among the rangers and caribou hunters of the Canadian bush.
It had died away completely by now. To the scouts, this simply signified
that the men in the boat had probably drawn so far away from the shore
that their voices no longer carried across the water as before; but to
Francois it meant that the phantoms had chosen to withdraw, it might be
sinking beneath the surface of the bay.
After this little adventure the boys fell to thinking again about the
stories they had heard about the fleet that seemed to continually hover
along the shore of Hudson Bay, now appearing, and then vanishing in the
most remarkable manner.
Just because Ned did not seem fit to announce that they would come to a
halt and endeavor to get in communication with the vessel, to which the
men in the rowboat undoubtedly belonged, Teddy and Jimmy jumped to the
conclusion that he, too, must be uneasy about the character of that
ship.
The truth of the matter was that Ned had begun to notice certain signs
going to tell him there was soon about to come a change in the
conditions of the weather. He felt a slight puff of air on his cheek,
and coming from the south at that. It was only a breath, but straws show
which way the wind blows, they say; and when the next puff marked a
slight increase, Ned knew what would happen before a great while.
Once the wind did rise, and the fog would be blown out to sea, so that
in all probability they would be able to discover what manner of vessel
it was that had sent a boat ashore, for some purpose or other.
But Ned knew that when this came to pass, the rain would also start in.
It was his hope to discover some sort of retreat as they went along,
such as might serve them as a shelter against the storm.
Once, when a gun was fired at some little distance away and further in
shore, Jimmy ducked his head in a ludicrous fashion.
"Whee! that nearly got me!" he remarked, looking a little uneasy.
The others stared at him in bewilderment; but Ned quickly took him in
hand.
"See here, Jimmy, are you saying that just to make us think you had a
narrow escape, or did a bullet really swing past you?" he demanded.
The freckled-faced boy looked a little confused. When Ned took him to
task, in this way, Jimmy could never hold out. He would first of all
hedge, and then, if the accusation continued, his next step would be to
throw out the white flag of complete surrender.
"Why, you see, I thought I sure heard the whine of something like a
bullet, when I took the count," he started in to say.
"But was it a bullet passing that you heard?" persisted the patrol
leader, who knew that this was the only sure way to pin Jimmy down to
facts.
"Well, er, since you put it to me that way, Ned, I guess, after all it
must have been imagination. You see my brain was filled with all sorts
of stuff, and when that gun went bang! it struck me I was being fired
at, so I ducked and something went 'sh! 'sh! just then, so's to make me
get mixed up for a minute, and think it was flying lead. I know now it
was one of them little snipe zipping past. They fooled me a few times a
while ago, too."
"I knew that it must be a mistake," said Ned, "for a very good reason.
You noticed that shot was a long ways off, perhaps as far as a quarter
of a mile. Well, how in all creation could the shooter see us down here,
when we can't glimpse a solitary thing sixty yards off? It was some
hunter, more than likely, getting meat for the mining camp."
"Another narrow squeak for you, Jimmy," remarked Teddy, with a touch of
fine scorn in his voice. "Everything seems to be coming your way
nowadays."
"Huh! then let's hope those canoes and blankets and grub will follow
suit; for it'd sure tickle me to be able to restore the same to the
right owners. I keep on hopin' that Ned here won't think of leavin' this
neck of the woods without makin' a real des'prate effort to recover what
we lost."
Ned did not take the bait, and proclaim what his intentions might be;
though it went without saying that he would have been just as glad to
see their stolen property returned as the next one.
"If that 'coon' happened to come down to the bay along here, wouldn't he
run across our trail?" asked Frank.
"Perhaps so," Ned replied, "but we have to take our chances there. You
see we couldn't waste the time to try and hide it all the while. Let's
hope that if he does come on our tracks, he'll think they've been made
by some of his friends up at the camp."
"All the same," advised Jimmy, "I'm going to keep my eye peeled for any
sign of the chappie. After doing the great stunts we have already, it'd
be a shame to have our plans knocked galley-west through a blunder, or
an accident."
"No shooting at anything you happen to think must be a man aiming a
gun," was what the leader told Jimmie; for such a thing had really
happened on a former occasion, causing much embarrassment to Jimmy, and
almost breaking up the clever plan of his superior.
"Wish I may die if I do," mumbled the other, always ready to give all
the assurance desired, even though unable to sustain the position thus
taken.
The forward progress was resumed. No more shots floated to their ears,
which was pretty good evidence that none were fired; because that south
wind, constantly rising, must surely have carried the sounds to their
ears.
"The dickens!" exclaimed Jack, presently.
"Ha! you felt it too, did you?" observed Teddy. "When I went to look up
to see how the fog was lifting, a drop hit me square in the eye, but I
waited to see if anybody else caught on."
"It's begun to rain, for a fact!" exclaimed Frank, dejectedly.
"And say, look where we are, would you?" Jimmy added. "Down on the flat
shore, with only a growth of stunted oaks growing above us. Wherever
d'ye believe we'll be able to find a sign of shelter, I'd like to know?"
"In for a ducking, boys, looks like," said Teddy. "And the worst of it
is, you always feel so terribly cold when your clothes stick to your
back. We'll just have to take chances, and make a heaping fire. Who
cares if those men do see it, and come sneaking around? What've we
carried guns up here for, if we can't defend ourselves in a pinch? Seems
to me, I'd rather get in a hot box with that crowd, than shake to pieces
with a chill. I had pneumonia once, and don't hanker after trying it
again, if I know it."
Still Ned said not a word, only increased his pace, if such a thing were
possible. The others came trailing along after him, almost out of breath
with trying to talk, and at the same time keep pace with their leader.
There was no longer any doubt but that the rain was starting in. The
breeze had increased imperceptibly, so that it was now blowing quite
stiffly. Looking out over the water, they found that the fog was quickly
thinning out. Already could they see several times as far as before, and
the distance was widening constantly.
"There is a vessel out there!" cried Teddy. "I saw her as plain as your
hat just then, when the fog lifted a little. Watch over there, and see.
How's that, Ned? Was I right?"
"She's there, without a question, Teddy, and I give you credit for
having sharper eyes than anybody believed," the patrol leader told him,
only too well pleased to find an opportunity to compliment the explorer.
"What kind of a vessel would you call her, Ned?" asked Jimmy; while
Francois stood and stared and listened, still believing that the boat
must be a phantom, such as was likely to vanish before their very eyes,
as might a wisp of trailing fog.
"I've seen whalers and sealers built like her," was the verdict of the
leader.
The fog was being carried away more rapidly now, and the boys soon made
another discovery that interested them. This was nothing more nor less
than the fact that a second, yes, a third and even a fourth vessel of
apparently the same tonnage lay at anchor further away, possibly a
couple of miles from shore.
"Take a good look while you can, fellows," Ned told them "because I
reckon that the wonderful disappearing fleet is before you right now. We
can say we've set eyes on the mystery of Hudson Bay, even if we never
learn what the answer is."
They all stared as hard as they could.
Meanwhile, Ned had unslung his glasses and was adjusting them to his
eyes. There was enough of the fog still floating around to make seeing
something of 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, glad of the opportunity to find possible
shelter from the coming rain.