being seen from any distance.
Besides, they are in every way more confident than hitherto. They have
passed beyond the country of the Ailikoleeps with their lives
miraculously preserved, and everything now looks well for getting to
Good Success Bay--the haven of safety they are seeking. It is now not
over two hundred miles distant, and with winds and tides favouring, in
three days, or less, they may reach it.

Still, there is cause for anxiety, even apprehension, as the old sealer
is too well aware.

"We ain't out o' the wood yit," he says, employing a familiar backwoods
expression often heard by him in boyhood, adding, in like figurative
phrase, "we still hev to run the gauntlit o' the Tekeneekas."

"But surely we've nothing to fear from them?" interrogates the younger
Gancy; Henry Chester affirming, "No, surely not."

"Why hevn't we?" demands Seagriff.

"Because," answers the young Englishman, "they are Jemmy Button's
people, and I'd be loth to believe _him_ ungrateful after our experience
with his old companions, and from what I remember of him. What do you
think, Ned?"

"I agree with you entirely," replied the younger Gancy.

"Wal, young masters, thet may all be, an' I'd be only too pleased to
be-hope it'll turn out so. But agin it, thar's a contrary sarcumstance,
in thar bein' two sarts o' Tekeneekas: one harmless and rayther friendly
disposed torst white people, t'other bein' jest the revarse--'most as
bad as the Ailikoleeps. The bad uns are called Yapoos, an' hev thar
squattin' groun' east'ard 'long the channel beyont, whar a passage leads
out, knowed as the Murray Narrer. Tharfer, it'll all depend on which o'
the two lots Mister Button belongs to."

"If he is _not_ of the Yapoos, what then?" questions the skipper.

"Wal, knowin' thet, an' we'll know it afore comin' to the Yapoo country,
it bein' beyont t'other, then our best way 'll be to make southart
through the Murray Narrer. Thet 'ud take us out to the open sea ag'in,
with a big 'round about o' coastin'; still, in the end, it mout be the
safer way. 'Long the outside shore, thar ain't so much likelihood o'
meetin' Feweegins of any kind: and ef we did meet 'em, 'twould be easier
gettin' out of thar way, s'long's we're in a boat sech ez we hev now."

The last observation contains a touch of professional pride; the old
ship's carpenter having, of course, been chief constructor of the craft
that is so admirably answering all their ends.

"Wel