been with him on
more than one reconnoissance survey. And some were made by experts on
the U. S. Revenue Cutter _Bear_.[9] I sailed on her two seasons."

[Footnote 8: For the Alaskan explorations of Brooks ("Rivers") see the
author's "The Boy with the U. S. Survey."]

[Footnote 9: For the Behring Sea work of the _Bear_, see the author's
"The Boy with the U. S. Lifesavers."]

"And do you think, Mr. Juneau, that this island of Uncle Jim's is on
the American side of the line?"

The "Wizard" pursed his lips with an expression of doubt.

"It's a toss of the dice," he said. "Ingalook, the easternmost of the
Diomede Islands, where Jim found that piece of gold-bearing quartz, is
sure American territory. I don't take kindly to Ingalook, though.
There'd be trouble, there, in trying to install proper mining and
crushing devices. There's no landing place on that isolated granite
dome standing forlornly out of the sea, except for seals, polar bears,
or crazy prospectors like Jim, there.

"But this Chukalook Bank of the Road Agent's map, where the pay gravel
and the lignite coal lie--supposing that it's the same as this little
unnamed dot marked on the charts--seems to be right on the
international boundary line. We'll have to wait until we get there to
make accurate observations."

"Can you do that, too, Mr. Juneau?"

"Me? No! I can take a sight of course, but not accurate enough where
it's a matter of minutes or even seconds of a degree. But Captain
Robertson can. Like many of these amateur yachtsmen, he's a better
navigator than the captain of some Atlantic liners. It's his hobby.
Besides, he's got instruments of precision aboard that an admiral
would envy. What's more, he's a certificated man, and his say-so on a
nautical observation of longitude would be legal in the courts. Mine
wouldn't."

"And suppose the island should prove to be on the Russian side?"

"Then, young lady, you'll have to turn Russian!"

"What nonsense! You know I wouldn't. No, but speaking seriously?"

"Well, seriously, then, you'd have to buy the island from the
Bolsheviks, or from the Eastern Siberian Republic, or from the
Japanese, or whoever happens to be claiming it. International rights
up in the Asiatic Arctic are badly mixed up, these days. And that
wouldn't be the worst of it. You'd have to pay stiff royalties and you
wouldn't be sure of any sort of protection--unless it was the
Japanese."

"We'll buy it, if we have to!" declared Jame