undreds of miles to the north of Battle
Harbour, gazing wistfully out over the lead-coloured waters that came
leaping and snarling towards the red rocks far beneath him. He had on
great sea boots that stood sadly in need of mending, and was clad in
heavy woollens, faded and worn, that showed many a rent and patch. As
he leaned on the stout staff that had assisted him in climbing, his
figure seemed bent as though by age, but when he lifted his, face,
tanned brown by long exposure, the downy moustache on his upper lip
proclaimed his youth. Altogether the change in his appearance was so
great that his most intimate friend would hardly have recognised in him
the youth who had been called the best dressed man in the T. I. class
of '99 a few months earlier. But the voice with which he finally broke
the silence of his long reverie was unmistakably that of Cabot Grant.

[Illustration: A solitary figure stood on the crest of a bald headland.]

"Heigh ho!" he sighed, as he cast a sweeping glance over the widespread
waste of waters on which nothing floated save a few belated icebergs,
and then inland over weary miles of desolate upland barrens, treeless,
moss-covered, and painfully rugged. "It is tough luck to be shut up
here like birds in a cage, with no chance of the door being opened
before next summer. It is tougher on Baldwin, though, than on me, and
if he can stand it I guess I can. But I suppose I might as well be
getting back or he will be worrying about me."

Thus saying, Cabot picked up a canvas bag that lay at his feet and
moved slowly away.

A very serious misfortune had befallen our lads, and for more than a
month the "Sea Bee," though still afloat and as sound as ever, had been
unable to move from the position she now occupied. After leaving
Battle Harbour her voyage to the northward had not been more than
ordinarily eventful, though subject to many and irritating delays. Not
only had there been adverse winds, but she had twice been stormbound
for days in harbours to which she had run for shelter. Then, too,
White had insisted on stopping at every settlement that promised a
chance for trading, and had even run fifty miles up Hamilton Inlet with
the hope of finding customers for his goods at the half-breed village
of Rigoulette. But he had always been disappointed. Either his goods
were not in demand, or those who desired them had nothing to offer in
exchange but fish, which he did not care to take. An