“I may be back or I may not”—­said Roswell, just then remembering Mary, and wondering if she would continue to keep him any longer in suspense, should he return successful from his present adventure—­“That will depend on others more than on myself.  I wish, however, now we are both here, and there can no longer be any ‘hide and go seek’ between us, that you would tell me how you came to know anything about this cluster of islands, or of the seals then and there to be found?”

“You forget my uncle, who died on Oyster Pond, and whose effects I crossed over to claim?”

“I remember him very well—­saw him often while living, and helped to bury him when dead.”

“Well, our information came from him.  He threw out several hints consarning sealing-grounds aboard the brig in which he came home; and you needn’t be told, Gar’ner, that a hint of that kind is sartain to find its way through all the ports down east.  But hearing that there was new sealing-ground wasn’t knowing where to find it.  I should have been at a loss, wasn’t it for the spot on my uncle’s chart that had been rubbed over lately, as I concluded, to get rid of some of his notes.  You know, as well as I do, that the spot was in this very latitude and longitude, and so I came here to look for the much-desired land.”

“And you have undertaken such an outfit, and come this long distance into an icy sea, on information as slight as this!” exclaimed Roswell, astonished at this proof of sagacity and enterprise, even in men who are renowned for scenting dollars from pole to pole.

“On this, with a few hints picked up, here and there, among some of the old gentleman’s papers.  He was fond of scribbling, and I have got a sort of a chart that he scratched on a leaf of his bible, that was made to represent this very group, as I can now see.”

“Then you could have had no occasion for the printed chart, with the mark of obliteration on it, and did not come here on that authority after all.”

“There you ’re wrong, Captain Gar’ner.  The chart of the group had no latitude or longitude, but just placed each island with its bearings and distances from the other islands.  It was no help in finding the place, which might be in one hemisphere as well as in the other.”

“It was, then, the mark of the obliteration—­”

“Marks, if you please, Captain Gar’ner,” interrupted the other, significantly.  “My uncle talked a good deal aboard of that brig about other matters besides sealing.  We think several matters have been obliterated from the old chart, and we intend to look ’em all up.  It’s our right, you know, seeing that the old man was Vineyard-born, and we are his nearest of kin.”

“Certainly”—­rejoined Roswell, laughing again, but somewhat more faintly than before.  “Every man for him self in this world is a good maxim; it being pretty certain if we do not take care of ourselves, no one will take care of us.”