CHAPTER XVII.
ON BOARD THE WRECK.
Everybody could hear the sounds now. The conditions must have beenfavorable for carrying a human voice far over the water, because fog isa good conductor of sound.
Men were talking apparently, though the rumble of their voices alonecame over the surface of the water, and no actual words could bedistinguished.
"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 asilly question. But seems I don't get the give-away sounds as clear as Idid a minute or so ago."
"Good reason then," Frank told him; "because the boat they're rowing isheading 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 ofmist.
"I reckon there might be," replied Frank, "though, of course, we can'tsee anything of the same right now. That rowboat wouldn't be setting outinto the big sheet of water, unless heading for a vessel."
"Could it have anything to do with that wonderful fleet that is alwayson 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 somethings calculated to spring up from time to time, which, as leader ofthe Wolf Patrol, he did not claim to know. This was one of them.
Fainter grew the rumble of voices belonging to the unseen sailors; andthe 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 theFrench 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 ofvessels that, for some time now, had been acting so mysteriously alongthe coast of the big bay. Like most of his class, he believed that theywere unreal, and possibly but the ghosts of brave vessels that in yearsgone by may have ploughed the green waters of Hudson Bay.
Although he said little or nothing on the subject, Francois didconsiderable thinking along those lines. He cast frequent uneasy looksaway out through the mist, as though fearful lest he suddenly come faceto face with some terrible mystery.
To him those voices were anything but natural. Possibly, he evenpictured some ghostly figures sitting in a phantom boat, and speedingover the surface of the historical sheet of water, about which so muchthat is remarkable has been written, and, also, handed down from fatherto son, among the rangers and caribou hunters of the Canadian bush.
It had died away completely by now. To the scouts, this simply signifiedthat the men in the boat had probably drawn so far away from the shorethat their voices no longer carried across the water as before; but toFrancois it meant that the phantoms had chosen to withdraw, it might besinking beneath the surface of the bay.
After this little adventure the boys fell to thinking again about thestories they had heard about the fleet that seemed to continually hoveralong the shore of Hudson Bay, now appearing, and then vanishing in themost remarkable manner.
Just because Ned did not seem fit to announce that they would come to ahalt and endeavor to get in communication with the vessel, to which themen in the rowboat undoubtedly belonged, Teddy and Jimmy jumped to theconclusion that he, too, must be uneasy about the character of thatship.
The truth of the matter was that Ned had begun to notice certain signsgoing to tell him there was soon about to come a change in theconditions 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 showwhich way the wind blows, they say; and when the next puff marked aslight 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 thatin all probability they would be able to discover what manner of vesselit 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 inshore, 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 inhand.
"See here, Jimmy, are you saying that just to make us think you had anarrow escape, or did a bullet really swing past you?" he demanded.
The freckled-faced boy looked a little confused. When Ned took him totask, in this way, Jimmy could never hold out. He would first of allhedge, and then, if the accusation continued, his next step would be tothrow out the white flag of complete surrender.
"Why, you see, I thought I sure heard the whine of something like abullet, when I took the count," he started in to say.
"But was it a bullet passing that you heard?" persisted the patrolleader, who knew that this was the only sure way to pin Jimmy down tofacts.
"Well, er, since you put it to me that way, Ned, I guess, after all itmust have been imagination. You see my brain was filled with all sortsof stuff, and when that gun went bang! it struck me I was being firedat, so I ducked and something went 'sh! 'sh! just then, so's to make meget mixed up for a minute, and think it was flying lead. I know now itwas one of them little snipe zipping past. They fooled me a few times awhile 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 quarterof 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 somehunter, more than likely, getting meat for the mining camp."
"Another narrow squeak for you, Jimmy," remarked Teddy, with a touch offine scorn in his voice. "Everything seems to be coming your waynowadays."
"Huh! then let's hope those canoes and blankets and grub will followsuit; for it'd sure tickle me to be able to restore the same to theright owners. I keep on hopin' that Ned here won't think of leavin' thisneck of the woods without makin' a real des'prate effort to recover whatwe 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 tosee their stolen property returned as the next one.
"If that 'coon' happened to come down to the bay along here, wouldn't herun across our trail?" asked Frank.
"Perhaps so," Ned replied, "but we have to take our chances there. Yousee we couldn't waste the time to try and hide it all the while. Let'shope that if he does come on our tracks, he'll think they've been madeby some of his friends up at the camp."
"All the same," advised Jimmy, "I'm going to keep my eye peeled for anysign of the chappie. After doing the great stunts we have already, it'dbe a shame to have our plans knocked galley-west through a blunder, oran accident."
"No shooting at anything you happen to think must be a man aiming agun," was what the leader told Jimmie; for such a thing had reallyhappened on a former occasion, causing much embarrassment to Jimmy, andalmost breaking up the clever plan of his superior.
"Wish I may die if I do," mumbled the other, always ready to give allthe assurance desired, even though unable to sustain the position thustaken.
The forward progress was resumed. No more shots floated to their ears,which was pretty good evidence that none were fired; because that southwind, constantly rising, must surely have carried the sounds to theirears.
"The dickens!" exclaimed Jack, presently.
"Ha! you felt it too, did you?" observed Teddy. "When I went to look upto see how the fog was lifting, a drop hit me square in the eye, but Iwaited 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 flatshore, with only a growth of stunted oaks growing above us. Whereverd'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 itis, you always feel so terribly cold when your clothes stick to yourback. We'll just have to take chances, and make a heaping fire. Whocares if those men do see it, and come sneaking around? What've wecarried guns up here for, if we can't defend ourselves in a pinch? Seemsto me, I'd rather get in a hot box with that crowd, than shake to pieceswith a chill. I had pneumonia once, and don't hanker after trying itagain, if I know it."
Still Ned said not a word, only increased his pace, if such a thing werepossible. The others came trailing along after him, almost out of breathwith 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. Thebreeze had increased imperceptibly, so that it was now blowing quitestiffly. Looking out over the water, they found that the fog was quicklythinning out. Already could they see several times as far as before, andthe distance was widening constantly.
"There is a vessel out there!" cried Teddy. "I saw her as plain as yourhat 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 forhaving 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; whileFrancois stood and stared and listened, still believing that the boatmust 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 theleader.
The fog was being carried away more rapidly now, and the boys soon madeanother discovery that interested them. This was nothing more nor lessthan the fact that a second, yes, a third and even a fourth vessel ofapparently the same tonnage lay at anchor further away, possibly acouple of miles from shore.
"Take a good look while you can, fellows," Ned told them "because Ireckon that the wonderful disappearing fleet is before you right now. Wecan say we've set eyes on the mystery of Hudson Bay, even if we neverlearn what the answer is."
They all stared as hard as they could.
Meanwhile, Ned had unslung his glasses and was adjusting them to hiseyes. There was enough of the fog still floating around to make seeingsomething of a labor; so that he did not get much satisfaction from theobservation taken.
"I can see men aboard of all the vessels," he announced; "and there is aboat being taken up on the davits of the nearest craft, which must havebeen 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 theanchored fleet vanished utterly from view, as another bank of fog creptup.
He turned and swept the shore beyond with the glasses.
"Just what we want," they heard him say; and looking in the quarter thathad chained his attention they discovered some dark object half-hiddenin the wisps of blowing mist.
"What is it, Ned; a fishing shanty, a stranded whale, or what?" demandedTeddy.
At that Jimmy laughed in scorn.
"You must think you're down on the Jamaica marshes near Brooklyn, wherethey do happen to have fishing shanties. Bet you now that's an oldwreck!" he exclaimed.
"Just what it is," admitted Ned, as he led them along the shore. "Somewhaler or sealer has gone ashore a while back. Perhaps she was crushedby 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 fromthis rain that's coming down on us."
"Hurry up, then," said Teddy, "and we may be able to save our jacketsyet. I don't want to get soaked, unless I have to."
"I'd like to know who does?" asked Jimmy; "though for the matter ofthat, none of us are made of salt. And with a camp hatchet, I reckon nowwe'll be able to chop away enough wood aboard the wreck to have a decentfire going."
"If there's going to be any sort of storm, you don't think we'll be indanger 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, thebiggest thing of its kind in all the world; but I'd want to havesomething sound under me, and not a wreck of a boat, ready to sink anyold 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 thebeach, the boys found that a break allowed them an easy chance to climbaboard; and with hope beating high in their breasts, they hastened toclamber up the rough passage, glad of the opportunity to find possibleshelter from the coming rain.