"So that's what they been calling us, is it?" he said, as he shifted his quid to the other cheek. "Well, the way we've been dodgin' around lately, hardly gettin' settled in one anchorage before we'd hear an alarm raised that a cruiser was comin' down on us, so we'd have to skip out like the wind from the three-mile limit, I don't wonder at it."
His words enlightened Ned, who had already been entertaining certain suspicions with regard to the possible explanation of the mystery.
"Are you after whales or seals?" he asked, plainly.
"This time, it's seals we been takin'," replied the mate. "You see, word was fetched to us, some months back, that a whopping big herd of seal had taken to some of these here islands in old Hudson Bay, and there was a rush of vessels to scoop in the same, our hooker along with the rest. I wanted to come up here again, to find out if anything had ever been heard of the poor old Comet that I was captain of last season, and so I took the berth of mate to my old friend, Captain Bill, here."
"What luck have you had?" asked Jimmy, eagerly.
"Nawthin' to brag about," came the reply from the old skipper. "I reckons that it'll pay me nigh as well to go back to whalin' agin; and there needn't be sech risks of havin' your ship and cargo confiscated by revenue vessels, as this seal huntin' in Hudson Bay turns out to be."
"But they say it's nearly five hundred miles across in its widest part," Frank broke in with; "and how can Canada claim jurisdiction over an ocean like that? Why, you might as well say, that the Mediterranean was a closed sea."
"That's the trouble," remarked Mate Plunkett; "always has been a pesky lot of trouble about this here place. Because the two roadways of getting into Hudson Bay happen to be only a certain number of miles wide, Canada has always tried to claim it as her private preserves. Lots of whalers has been chased for darin' to ply their trade in these same waters. Course, they got the right to that three-mile from shore limit, but they want the whole hog up here. We been keepin' a lookout right along, while we sent boats out after the seal. It's late in the season for the work, but skins is so skeerce that we got to take 'em any old time. But the game's hardly worth the candle, and next year you won't see many sealers up this way."
"Then we were in great luck to have you around just when we needed help most," declared Ned; who had already arranged with Captain Bill to carry the whole party down to Halifax, where they could be landed; Francois and the Cree to head for their home country, well paid for their services, and the scouts starting for New York by the first steamer, after wiring to Jack's father about the success of their great expedition.
They were soon aboard the Grampus, where their coming was a surprise to the crew. Their astonishment increased, however, when Captain Bill at once gave orders for getting the mudhook up, and leaving their anchorage, as well as preceding all the other sealers on the homeward bound trip.