again, another season,"
observed Daggett, glancing meaningly towards his companion, as if he had
seriously revolved so desperate a plan in his mind. "'Tisn't often that a
sealer lets a station like that you've described drop out of his
recollection in a single v'y'ge."

"I may be back or I may not"--said Roswell, just then remembering Mary,
and wondering if she would continue to keep him any longer in suspense,
should he return successful from his present adventure--"That will depend
on others more than on myself. I wish, however, now we are both here, and
there can no longer be any 'hide and go seek' between us, that you would
tell me how you came to know anything about this cluster of islands, or of
the seals then and there to be found?"

"You forget my uncle, who died on Oyster Pond, and whose effects I crossed
over to claim?"

"I remember him very well--saw him often while living, and helped to bury
him when dead."

"Well, our information came from him. He threw out several hints
consarning sealing-grounds aboard the brig in which he came home; and you
needn't be told, Gar'ner, that a hint of that kind is sartain to find its
way through all the ports down east. But hearing that there was new
sealing-ground wasn't knowing where to find it. I should have been at a
loss, wasn't it for the spot on my uncle's chart that had been rubbed over
lately, as I concluded, to get rid of some of his notes. You know, as well
as I do, that the spot was in this very latitude and longitude, and so I
came here to look for the much-desired land."

"And you have undertaken such an outfit, and come this long distance into
an icy sea, on information as slight as this!" exclaimed Roswell,
astonished at this proof of sagacity and enterprise, even in men who are
renowned for scenting dollars from pole to pole.

"On this, with a few hints picked up, here and there, among some of the
old gentleman's papers. He was fond of scribbling, and I have got a sort
of a chart that he scratched on a leaf of his bible, that was made to
represent this very group, as I can now see."

"Then you could have had no occasion for the printed chart, with the mark
of obliteration on it, and did not come here on that authority after all."

"There you 're wrong, Captain Gar'ner. The chart of the group had no
latitude or longitude, but just placed each island with its bearings and
distances from the other islands. It was no help in finding the place,
which mi