"I think it's best," said John. "We'll have two rifles left, and that will be all we really need. Let's go and write the note and take the chance of its ever getting out. Anyway, it is the best we can do." They returned to the barabbara, where Rob wrote as plainly as he could, with deep marks of the pencil, as follows: "_Mr. Richard Hazlett, Kadiak_. "DEAR SIR,--We are all right, but don't know where we are, or what date this is, or which way Kadiak is. We came down in the dory. Travelled all night. Are safe and have plenty to eat, but want to go home. Please send for us, and oblige "Yours truly, ----." "Do you think that'll do all right, boys?" he asked. The others nodded assent, and so each signed his name. Folding up the paper and tying it in a piece of the membrane which he cut off a corner of his _kamelinka_, Rob finally gave the packet to the old chief. "Plenty talk-talk thing," he said. "You bring peoples--get-um schooner--my peoples give-um flour, sugar, two rifle, hundred dollars." Without further comment than a grunt the old chief stowed the packet in an inside pocket of his feather jacket, and swung Jesse's rifle under his arm, not neglecting the ammunition. He had eaten heavily of whale meat and seemed to be pretty well beyond emotion of any sort. Certainly he turned and did not even say good-bye to his son as he swung into the front hatch of his bidarka, followed by another paddler, and headed toward the mouth of the bay, almost the last of the little craft to leave the coast. The boys stood looking after him carefully. The presence of these natives had, it is true, offered a certain danger, or at least a certain problem, but now that they were gone the place seemed strangely lonesome, after all. Rob heard a little sound and turned. Jesse was not exactly crying, but was struggling with himself. "Well," he admitted, "I don't care! I _do_ want to go home!" XX THE SILVER-GRAY FOX After the natives had departed, the young castaways, quite alone on their wild island, felt more lonesome and more uneasy than they had been before. The wilderness seemed to close in about them. None of them had any definite hope or plan for an early rescue or departure from the island, so for some two or three weeks they passed the time in a restless and discontented way, doing little to rival the exciting events which had taken place during the visit of the natives. It was now approaching the end of spring, and Rob, more thoughtful perhaps than any of the others, could not conceal from himself the anxiety which began to settle upon him.