“Oh, what a jolly boat!” she cried. “George, take me round; I want to see it all at once.”
Then she noticed the crew.
“Why!” She looked at the threatening faces of the men. “Why, George, what’s the matter?”
Chanler laughed easily.
“Oh, nothing much, Betty. We picked up a man in a boat last night with a bag of gold nuggets on him, and he told a story about a new gold field in a hidden country not far away, and the men want to go there instead of to Petroff Sound, that’s all.”
Her eyes widened.
“Really, George?” she asked incredulously.
“Really,” he said.
“But—do such things really happen, picking up men in boats with bags of gold on them?”
“It happened this time, at least,” he replied.