Her skipper, with some of his crew, was on shore trading with a group of natives. He looked up in surprise as he saw approaching the group of boys who, despite their native Eskimo dress, were unquestionably Americans.
“Well, I’ll be hornswoggled!” he exclaimed, as he looked them over, “what have we got here? How did you youngsters ever get up in this forsaken part of the world?”
He was a tall, lanky man who had lost one eye, but the other eye had in it a kindliness and good humor that warmed the boys’ hearts at once. Here evidently was one captain who was not like Captain Garrish.
Bobby, acting as spokesman, told him a little of how they had been put on Captain Garrish’s schooner and frankly how they had left the ship because of the captain’s tyranny and had, almost by a miracle, been rescued by the natives. The captain listened with wonder, wagging his head at different points of the narrative.
“A passel o’ hot-headed youngsters,” he commented, when Bobby had finished. “You had fool’s luck or you wouldn’t have been alive to-day. And now I suppose you want me to take you home?”
“If you only will, Captain,” Bobby pleaded. “We have money enough to pay our fare.”
“Oh, for that matter I’d take you whether you had money or not,” replied the captain. “I’ve got a kid o’ my own at home just about your size. Well, get your duds aboard just as soon as you like, though it will be two or three days before I sail. I’ve got a sort o’ storeroom that can be cleared out so that you can all bunk in it together. Of course I can’t take you all the way home. I hail from Canada and my port is St. John’s, Newfoundland. But from there you can get a steamer that’ll take you down to the States where I bet your folks will be glad to see you.”
It would be difficult to describe the gratitude and rapture of the boys. They thanked the captain with all their hearts, and then set about getting their belongings on the schooner. At a direction from the captain, two of the crew cleared out the old storeroom sufficiently to give them room enough to bestow their goods. There were several rough bunks built along the wall, and while the quarters were very crude they seemed to the boys like heaven.
Some days later the schooner lifted anchor and bore out to sea. It was a happy group of boys that stood on the deck and watched the shore sink below the horizon. Now they were homeward bound, and with every mile that the schooner made in the cold northern seas they were that much nearer to parents and friends and all that made life worth living.
The early days of the voyage were stormy, but the boys by this time were seasoned sailors and stood the tossing as well as the veteran members of the crew. Later the gale abated and became a following wind, before which the vessel made good time, arriving safely at St. John’s sooner than the skipper had expected.