"There is some risk in staying here," was Rob's answer. "Whether or not
those natives took our message to Kadiak, they certainly will tell all
the other villagers that we are here. In time they will know we are
helpless. It may be only a matter of days or weeks before they will come
and do what they like with us--steal our guns and blankets, and either
take us far away, or leave us to shift for ourselves as we can."

"Could we send Jimmy out with another message?" suggested John.

"I doubt it," answered Rob. "If he wanted to leave here he could take
the bidarka almost any night and escape, but I believe he is afraid to
leave the bay lest he may be found by some of these villagers whom he
has offended. I don't think Skookie would go anywhere with him. As it
is, one is a foil to the other here with us, but each is afraid of the
other _away_ from us!"

"But don't you suppose that Skookie's people will come back after him
sometime?"

"True enough, they may; but who can tell the Aleut mind? I don't
pretend to. Of course, by the late fall, say November, when the snows
come and the fur is good, I don't doubt these people will come back here
to trap foxes, for that is evidently a regular business here; but that
would mean that we would have to winter either with them or by
ourselves; and I want to tell you that wintering here alone is an
entirely different proposition from summering here, now when the salmon
are running and we can go out almost any day and get codfish, not to
mention ducks and geese. Besides, our people would be driven frantic by
that time. On the other hand, if we were lucky enough to make it to
Kadiak we would get there in time to find your uncle Dick, or at least
to get a boat home to Valdez sometime within a month after we got to
Kadiak. Of course, we don't know anything about the country between here
and there. The whole coast may be a rock wall, for all we know."

"The steamers have government charts to tell them where to go," mused
John; "but we haven't any chart, and we don't even know in what
direction of the compass we ought to sail, even if we had a compass."

"Before ships could have charts," said Rob, "it was necessary for some
one to discover things all over the world. I suppose that's the class
we're in now--we're the first navigators, so far as help from any one
else is concerned. In Alaska a fellow has to take care of himself, and
he has to learn to take his medicine. Now none of us is a