"Good on your head!" cried Kit, patting him encouragingly.
"A war with England seems to be imminent!" exclaimed Wade. "Methinks I hear the boom of cannon!"
Raed looked dubious a moment, but immediately began to laugh. He is rather apt to fly off on such tangents. We have to sprinkle him with ridicule a little: that always brings him out of it all right again.
"Well," said he, "waiving that subject, what say for going as far north as Hudson Straits, if everything should work favorably?"
We had none of us anything to urge against this.
"But we must not forget that we have not yet hired a vessel," added Kit.
"No," said Raed; "and the sooner we find out what we can do, the better."
That afternoon Wade and I went down to the wharves to make inquiries. Raed and Kit went out to Gloucester, it being quite probable that some sort of a craft might be found out of employ there. Wade and I were unable to see or hear of anything at all to our minds in our harbor, and came up home at about seven, P.M. Kit and Raed had not got back; nor did they come in the morning, nor during the next day. A few minutes before eight in the evening, however, we received a despatch from Portland, Me., saying, "Come down and see it."
We went down on the morning train. The boys were at the dépôt.
"Couldn't find a thing at Gloucester nor Newburyport nor Portsmouth," said Raed. "But I think we've struck something here, if we can stand the expense."