'll work
it out! And how far away do you reckon the island was?"

"I don't know nothin' about sea distances, Cap'n. She looked just
about the size o' my thumb-nail."

"So! How high was Chukalook Bank above the water?"

"She goes up like a wedge o' cake, Cap'n. Maybe five hundred feet at
the highest point. Where I was workin' wasn't more'n fifty foot above
sea level."

"Well," commented the yachtsman thoughtfully, "allowing for the
curvature of the earth, and for low visibility on these seas that
ought to make Chukalook about thirty or forty miles from here. We'll
put on a little sail and cruise N. N. E. for a few hours."

But the bank was nearer than Jim supposed.

Shortly after dawn, a sailor posted in the cross-trees reported a
flat berg to starboard. The sails were furled, and the _Bunting_ came
up to it slowly under her auxiliary screw.

Jim heard the engines and rushed up on deck.

"That's Chukalook!" he cried, after the first look. "Now, who says I'm
dreamin'? Wait till I tell Bull's little gal!"

He had not long to wait.

The sound of excited voices on deck had awakened the girl, and she
dressed and came up hastily.

"Jameine!" he shouted, as soon as she came up the companion ladder,
"there's our gold!"

The girl ran lightly across the deck and pressed the old prospector's
arm.

"I knew you'd find it, Uncle Jim," she rejoiced, "I said so, all
along!" Then, turning to the mine-owner, who had also come on deck,
she added, "There it is, Mr. Owens!"

The Australian looked. That low flat bank, slowly sloping upwards,
fringed with ice and deep in snow, was none too reassuring.

"You're sure?" he asked suspiciously. "It looks to me a whole lot more
like an iceberg than it does like a gold-field!"

The "Wizard" interrupted, fearing lest Jim should make some rough
rejoinder.

"It looks like an easy landing-place and that's one good thing," he
said, cheerfully. "The Captain, here, has been making soundings and
says there is good holding ground."

"That's all I will say, though," put in the yachtsman. "It's not a
harbor. You're exposed here to every wind that blows!"

"You mean I'd have to build a breakwater?" Owens queried.

"Probably, if you want smooth water for handling cargoes. But I doubt
if you could manage it. The winter ice would chew your breakwater all
to bits. There's five months of open water, anyway, and the summer
months are not so stormy."

"I wouldn't try to build a breakwater!"