But Ned knew that when this came to pa.s.s, 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 pa.s.sing 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 "c.o.o.n" 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 embarra.s.sment 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 a.s.surance 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 d.i.c.kens!" 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e.
"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 gla.s.ses 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 ash.o.r.e 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 anch.o.r.ed fleet vanished utterly from view, as another bank of fog crept up.
He turned and swept the sh.o.r.e beyond with the gla.s.ses.
"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 sh.o.r.e. "Some whaler or sealer has gone ash.o.r.e 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s, they hastened to clamber up the rough pa.s.sage, glad of the opportunity to find possible shelter from the coming rain.