CHAPTER XXIV.
THE WRECKED SHIP.
Will Bertram started violently at old Jack’s announcement.
“Are you sure? How do you know?” he asked tumultuously.
“That’s what Captain Stephen Morris said.”
“That the Albatross was lost at Barnell’s Point?”
“Yes.”
“And this is probably that place?”
“Exactly.”
“The ship my brother Alan was captain of,” murmured Will. “Here the unfortunate crew were all crushed in the ice?”
“No.”
Jack’s last word was explosive and emphatic.
Will looked at him in surprise.
“That’s what Captain Morris said.”
“He said what was false, lad. I happened to overhear him talking on the Golden Moose with the mate one day, and it verified a suspicion I had formed when I noticed how familiar he was with Donald Parker, his business manager, at Watertown. I knew there was some mystery about the loss of the Albatross.”
“I never believed Captain Morris’ story,” cried Will.
“I determined to watch and wait. When you heard me in the cabin of the Golden Moose accuse him of evil work with the Albatross, you know how guilty he acted.”
“Then you think my brother was not killed?”
“I do.”
“How did Morris get the men who rescued him to believe it?”
“That’s as much a mystery as where his sudden wealth came from. There was some wicked work done, for I believe the men who built this hut were of the crew of the Albatross. I theorize that they abandoned the ship for some reason, and this was a station they made in the search for some native settlement.”
For a long time the castaways discussed the matter of the crew of the Albatross.
Their discovery materially changed their plans.
“They seem to have kept near the seacoast,” said Jack. “I propose that we follow the same course, for as they have not returned they may have discovered a settlement.”
The next morning Jack made a sled of the wood they had found and packed their baggage upon it.
Strong ropes were attached, and they took turns at pulling it over the snow.
They kept close to the coast. The first day out they made no discoveries of any importance, but just at dark the second day, as they rounded a high eminence, their eyes met a scene that startled and delighted them.
Held in place by the ice, in a slight indentation in the land, was a ship.
Will stood transfixed for a moment, and then one cry of joy rang from his lips.
“My brother’s ship!” he ejaculated, wildly. “It is the Albatross!”