ng parallel with the shore instead of heading directly for it.

"Land on a seal-rookery?" said Hank. "Haven't you had trouble enough
with whales so far?"

"Would seals attack a boat?" asked Colin in surprise.

"No, you couldn't make 'em," was the instant reply, "but I never heard
of a boat landin' at a rookery. The row would begin when you got
ashore."

Gradually the boat drew closer to the land, as close, indeed, as was
possible along the rocky shore, and then the land receded, forming a
shallow bay flanked by two low hills on one side and one sharper hill on
the other. The captain rolled up his chart and headed straight for the
shore.

"St. Paul, I reckon," said Hank, as the outlines of the land showed
clearly, "but I don't jus' seem to remember it."

"Yes, that's St. Paul," the captain agreed. "It has changed since your
time, Hank. There has been a lot of building since the government took
hold."

"Why, it looks quite civilized!" exclaimed Colin in surprise, as he saw
the well-built, comfortable frame houses and a stone church-spire which
stood out boldly from the hill above the wharf.

"When I first saw St. Paul," said the old whaler, "it looked just about
the way it was when the Russians left it--huts and shacks o' the worst
kind an' the natives were kep' just about half starved."

"It's different nowadays," said the captain as they drew near the wharf,
putting under his arm the tin box that held the ship's papers. "The
Aleuts are regular government employees now and they have schools and
good homes and fair wages. Everything is done to make them comfortable.
I was here last year and could hardly believe it was the same settlement
I saw fifteen years ago."

It was still early morning when the boat was made fast to the wharf, and
Colin was glad to stretch his legs after having slept in a cramped
position all night. The damp fog lay heavily over everything, but the
villagers had been aroused and the group of sailors was soon surrounded
by a crowd, curious to know what had happened. Hank, who could speak a
'pigeon' language of mixed Russian and Aleut, was the center of a group
composed of some of the older men, while Colin graphically described to
all those who knew English (the larger proportion) the fight with the
gray whale, and told of the sinking of the _Gull_ by the big finback,
maddened by the attack of the killers. He had just finished a stirring
recital of the adventures when the other two boats f