condition, that he required every day of the allotted time for
recuperation, and even at its end his strength was by no means fully
restored. Cabot, on the other hand, woke after a thirty-six-hour nap,
ravenously hungry, and as fit as ever for anything that might offer.
After that, although he could never bring himself to assist in clubbing
baby seals to death, he took an active part in the other work of the
ship, thereby fully repaying the cost of the food eaten by himself and
White.

Of course, with their very first opportunity, both lads eagerly plied
David Gidge with questions concerning the welfare of the Baldwin family
and everything that had happened during their long absence. Thus they
learned to their dismay that another suit had been brought against the
Baldwin estate that threatened to swallow what little property had been
left, and that White, having been convicted of contempt of court for
continuing the lobster factory after an adverse decision had been
rendered, was now liable to a fine of one thousand dollars, or
imprisonment, as soon as he landed.

"But what has become of my mother and sister?" asked White.

"They are in Harbour Grace," answered David Gidge, "stopping with some
kin of mine. You see, all three of us was brung to St. Johns as
witnesses, and there wasn't money enough to take us back till I could
come sealing and make some."

"You are a trump, David Gidge!" exclaimed Cabot, while White gratefully
squeezed the honest fellow's hand.

"I promised to look arter 'em till you come back," said the sailorman,
simply.

At length the sealing season closed, and the prow of the "Labrador" was
turned homeward, but even now, after many an anxious discussion, our
lads were undecided as to what they should do upon landing. But a
solution of the problem came to Cabot on the day that the steamer
entered Conception Bay and anchored close off Bell Island, to await the
moving of a great ice mass that had drifted into the harbour.

"I know what we'll do!" he cried.

CHAPTER XXXI.

ASSISTANT MANAGER OF THE MAN-WOLF MINE.

As the deeply laden sealer drew near to land, Cabot had impatiently
scanned the coast of the great island that he had once thought so remote,
but which, after his long sojourn in the Labrador wilderness, now seemed
almost the same as New York itself. When the "Labrador" entered
Conception Bay, at the head of which lies Harbour Grace, her home port,
and was forced by ice t