“And what I have seen with my own eyes confirms it,” said Frank.  “While we were camped at the Old Bear’s Hole, Dick Lewis got into a fight with a grizzly, and, although it didn’t last more than half a minute, he was so badly cut up that his own mother wouldn’t have recognized him.  Dick is a giant in strength, and as quick as a cat in his movements, and if he can’t whip a grizzly, I am sure that Arthur Vane can’t.”

“Humph!” said Johnny, “he never saw a grizzly.  I never did either, and there are plenty of them in this country.  Arthur had better be careful how he talks in Captain Porter’s hearing.  The rough old fellow will see through him in an instant, and he may not be as careful of his feelings as we have been.”

Johnny, having by this time saddled his horse, he and Frank returned to the house, where they found Archie deeply interested in one of Arthur’s stories.  “That is high up, I should think,” they heard the former say.

“Yes, higher than the tops of these trees,” replied Arthur.  “I was relating some of the incidents of one of my voyages at sea,” he continued, addressing himself to Frank.  “I was telling Archie how I used to stand on the very top of the mast and look out for whales.”

“Which mast?” asked Frank.

“Why, the middle mast, of course.  What’s the matter with you?” he added, turning suddenly upon Archie, who seemed to be on the point of strangling.

“Nothing,” was the reply, “only something got stuck in my throat.”

Arthur had taken up a dangerous subject when he began to talk about nautical matters; for they were something in which Frank and his cousin had always been interested, and were well posted.  Archie lived in a sea-port town, and, although he had never been a sailor, he knew the names of all the ropes, and could talk as “salt” as any old tar.  He knew, and so did Frank, that what Arthur had called the “middle mast,” was known on shipboard as the mainmast.  They knew that the “very top” of the mainmast was called the main truck; and that the look-outs were not generally stationed so high up in the world.

“We can talk as we ride along,” said Johnny.  “We have ten miles to go, and we ought to reach the captain’s by twelve o’clock.  The old fellow tells a capital story over his after-dinner pipe.”

The boys mounted their horses, and, led by Johnny, galloped off in the direction of the old fur-trader’s ranch.  They rode in silence for a few minutes, and then Archie said: 

“If you wouldn’t think me too inquisitive, Arthur, I’d like to know at what age you began your travels?”

“At the age of eleven,” was the prompt reply, “I was a midshipman in the navy, and made my first voyage under the gallant Decatur.  I spent four years at sea with him, and during that time I had those terrible fights with the Algerines, of which I have before spoken.  In the last battle, I was captured, and compelled to walk the plank.”