Midsummer came and passed, and still no sign from the outer world came to relieve the growing anxiety of the boys so long marooned on these unfrequented shores. They had kept very small account of the passing of the days, and perhaps none of them could have told how many weeks had elapsed since the beginning of their unwilling journey from Kadiak. They no longer knew the days of the week; and, indeed, had any of their relatives seen them now, with their shoes worn to bits, their clothing ragged and soiled, and not a hat or cap remaining between them, they might have taken their sun-browned faces and long hair to be marks of natives rather than of white boys of good family. It is not to be supposed, however, that they had given up all hope, or that at any time they had allowed themselves to indulge in despondency. Rob especially, although serious and quiet, all the time was thinking over a plan. This, one day, he proposed to the others. "I have resolved," said he, "that if you other boys agree, we will start for home just one month from to-day." They sat looking at him in silence for some time. "How do you mean?" asked Jesse, his eyes lighting up, for he was the one who seemed most to feel homesickness. "I mean to start back to Kadiak, where we came from!" "Yes, and how can we tell which way Kadiak is?" inquired John. "I'll tell you how," said Rob. "We will travel, of course, in our dory, which will carry our camp outfit and food enough to last for a great many days, even if we should prove unable to take any codfish or salmon along the coast." "But which way would we go?" insisted John. "The opposite of the way we came," smiled Rob. "A tide brought us into this bay. The same tide on the turn would carry us out of the bay. To be sure, the wind may have had much to do with our direction, but it is only fair to suppose that if we came down the east coast of Kadiak on an ebb we would go up that same coast on the flood. At least, if we could do no better, we would be leaving a place where no word seems apt to get to us." "It would be a risky voyage," said Jesse. "I didn't like it out there on the open sea!" "There is some risk in staying here," was Rob's answer. "Whether or not those natives took our message to Kadiak, they certainly will tell all the other villagers that we are here. In time they will know we are helpless. It may be only a matter of days or weeks before they will come and do what they like with us--steal our guns and blankets, and either take us far away, or leave us to shift for ourselves as we can." "Could we send Jimmy out with another message?" suggested John.