In due time, they arrived at the Nova Scotia port, where the boys were taken ashore in one of the whale boats, because Captain Bill did not want to risk seizure by entering the place.
They were sorry to have to say good-bye to the friendly skipper and his mate, and promised to let them hear how things turned out.
Once ashore, the first thing Ned did was to send a cable to Mr. Bosworth, telling him not to do anything until they got home, which would be as soon as a ship sailed heading south.
Francois and the old Cree Indian left them here, after being loaded down with presents, in addition to the wages promised them. The boys felt that they could afford to be generous, because, as they had saved the capitalists possibly a million or more dollars, the chances were that quite a tidy sum of money would be coming their way soon, from the grateful gentlemen forming the clique.
The balance of their trip was uneventful, and one day they came in through the new Ambrose Channel and up past Liberty Island, making the steamer's dock just as the sun was sinking behind the distant Jersey hills.
That night there was the greatest talking match at the Bosworth home ever known, and it kept up until nearly midnight. Jimmy had such a share in the telling of their adventures that he was as hoarse as a crow afterwards, and could hardly raise his voice above a whisper.
When the rest of the troop gathered in their lodge-room at the called meeting, and heard a detailed account of what had happened in that far-away land along the shores of the greatest bay in all the world, they united in declaring that Ned and his four chums had done the whole organization credit, in finding out the truth in connection with the supposed mine.
It was voted that the adventure was by long odds one of the most thrilling that had ever come to any scouts belonging to the New York troop; and some of the boys even went so far as to declare that in all probability it would never be equaled. But when they made such a rash prediction as this, they did not know how soon Ned and his chums would be called upon to once more take part in another series of hazards that would try their courage, as few scenes had ever done before; as well as bring to the front their knowledge of woodcraft and other things that scouts should know.
These astonishing experiences will be found recounted in the next volume of this series, under the title of "Boy Scouts In Death Valley; or, The City in the Sky;" and those boys who are fortunate enough to secure this story will surely vote it one of the most interesting they have ever read. Until we meet again in the pages of the new book, we will say, not good-bye, but "good-night."
THE END