The old man wept bitterly. "My boys go, too," he wailed. "Bad mans go, maybe so! Maybe so all dead now!" In answer he was caught by the arm and hastened back to the gravely waiting boat crew. It was a saddened party which reported the truth on board the _Bennington_. "Get under way, Mr. Cummings!" ordered Captain Stephens. "We've not lost them yet. The writing is pretty fresh on that note. We haven't passed them anywhere below, and they must be on their way back to Kadiak." Without delay the _Bennington_ once more took up her course and, emerging from the mouth of Kaludiak, headed northward up the east side of the island. Within ten miles the sharp-eyed Aleut detected a flat bit of beach, and the interpreter suggested that a boat be sent ashore to examine it, as it was sometimes used as a camping-place. When the lieutenant returned he reported that he had found poles cut not long before and used as a shelter support. A fire had been built not more than a week ago, in his belief. It might or might not be the camping-place of the missing boys. The face of Captain Stephens brightened. "Of course it's those boys!" he said. "I tell you, those youngsters are _sailors_. We'll find them all lined up on Kadiak dock waiting for us--and me obliged to report to Washington that I've spent two months with this vessel hunting for them! God bless my soul!" However, it was satisfaction and not anxiety which caused his eyes to glisten. Precautions were not ceased, and the boats continued to comb out every open bay which could not be searched with the ship's glasses. Finally they reached the mouth of Eagle Harbor, near the entrance to which the boats discovered yet another camp-fire, probably marking the limits of another day's journey of the young voyagers. "Plucky little dogs--plucky!" grumbled the captain. "They're not old women like you, Hazlett! They can take care of themselves all right!" The interpreter stepped up. "The old man says there's a village at the head of this harbor," he began. "Says there may be a few people living there, though most of them have likely gone to the fisheries. He thinks the village ought to be examined." "Go in with the boat, Mr. Cummings!" ordered Captain Stephens. "It'll keep you overnight. As for me, I don't dare risk the tide-rips between these rocks and that big island over there--which must be Ugak Island, I suspect. I'm going to drop back and go outside that island, and to-morrow I'll meet you thirty miles up the coast. Comb out the bay! If the boys have left the village they've very likely sailed for the opposite point of this bay, and maybe you'll get word of them at one place or the other." XXXIII SAVED! It was a night of anxiety and expectation on the _Bennington_, and, as the cutter swung at anchor north of the bold and dangerous point of Ugak Island, every one on board was astir at early dawn.