Part 12 (2/2)

”You're coming, then?” asked Colin impatiently.

”I'll be right out,” the other answered, and he had hardly disappeared from the window when he appeared at the door. He slipped a revolver into his pocket and handed another to Colin.

”I've got a gun,” the boy said.

”All right,” responded Hank, ”I'll pack this one along, too,” and he slipped it into one of the pockets of his big reefer.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until they had pa.s.sed the end of the village, and then Hank put his hand on the boy's arm.

”You've got a right hunch,” he said abruptly, in a low voice. ”There's somethin' in the wind.”

”What makes you think so?” asked Colin.

The other pointed vaguely to sea.

”There's a s.h.i.+p out there,” he said.

Colin did his utmost to pierce the gloom, but the fog had settled down again, the night was dark, and the boy could scarcely see the waves breaking on the sh.o.r.e not twenty feet away.

”I can't see anything,” he said. ”Whereabouts?”

”I don't know just where,” the old sailor replied, ”but I know she's there. I feel it.”

”Let's hurry!” said the boy.

”Better go slower,” warned Hank, pulling him back gently; ”we're not far from the rookery.”

”I don't see why we should be so careful, and I don't see why we should whisper,” Colin objected, whispering nevertheless; ”the seals are making noise enough to drown a bra.s.s band.”

”Listen!” said Hank.

The boy put his hand to his ear, trying to distinguish sounds in the continuous roar.

”Voices?” he queried with a puzzled look.

”I thought so,” the whaler nodded. There was a pause, while both listened, then the gunner said:

”It isn't English and it doesn't sound like Aleut or Russian.”

”j.a.panese?” queried the boy at a guess.

The man grasped the boy's shoulder with a grip that nearly dislocated it.

”j.a.panese raiders!” he said. ”Can you run?”

”You bet,” said Colin, growing excited; ”I'm a crack runner.”

”Get back to the agent's house as fast as you know how an' wake him up.

<script>