knew that a fortnight was the
very longest that could be counted on, though they ate no more than
would keep a modicum of strength in them. From their kind and quality he
surmised that the provisions had been intended for the officials in
charge of the settlement.

"How did you get them, Tom?" he asked.

"The thing;" said Lewson quietly, "was simple. It was dark and hazy, and
raining quite hard. The first thing we did was to run the boat down and
leave her nearly afloat. Then we crawled back, and lay by listening
outside that store. We were figuring how we were to break it in when two
men came along. They went in and came out with a bag or two, and as they
left the door open we figured they were coming back for more. We humped
out a moderate load, and had just got it down to the boat when we saw
those men, or two others, in the haze. I was for lying by, but Charly
would get out then."

Charly laughed dryly. "He wanted to take the rifle and go back to look
for Smirnoff. I'd no use for any trouble of that kind, and I shoved the
boat off while he was seeing how many ca'tridges there were in the
magazine. He waded in and grabbed the boat when he saw I was sure going,
but I shoved her away from him. Then it kind of struck him he had to get
in or swim."

Lewson's expression grew grim. "That's the thing that hurts the most--to
go away before I got even with that man," he declared. "Still, I may get
over it if I try to think of him with his nose smashed hard to
starboard."

Wyllard made a sign of impatience. He felt that, after all, there was
perhaps something to be said for Smirnoff's point of view.

"There is just one plan open to us, and that's to drive the schooner
across to the eastward as fast as we can," he said. "We might, perhaps,
pick up an Alaska C. C. factory before the provisions quite run out if
this breeze and the gear hold up. Failing that, we must try for one of
the Western Aleutians."

The others concurred in this, and very fortunately the breeze kept to
the west and south, for Wyllard had very grave doubts as to whether he
could have thrashed the schooner to windward through a steep head sea.
Indeed, on looking back on that voyage and remembering the state of the
vessel, it seemed to him that he and his companions had escaped as by a
miracle. In any case, they hove the vessel to, one misty evening, in a
deep inlet behind a promontory, and Wyllard, who sculled up the inlet
alone in the growing darkne