“Seventy-four hours, with this wind; ought to do it,” said he. “Do what?” asked Bruce. “Well,” said Bart, “I’ve been making a calculation. I don’t see how St. Pierre can be more than a hundred miles from here at the very farthest. Now, this breeze ought to take them four or five miles an hour, and if they went on without stopping, they certainly ought to reach St. Pierre by this time to-morrow, even if they don’t find any settlements or any fishing vessels on the way.” “Yes; but they won’t find it so easy to get back,” said Bruce. “O, yes, they will,” said Bart. “They won’t have to work their own way back. They’ll get a schooner, and have no trouble.” “Well,” said Bruce, “we’ll have to allow a week, at least.” “Certainly,” said Phil. “It won’t do for us to tie them down to two days. If we do, we’ll be all the time in a fever, and watch for them day and night. I’m determined not to expect them at all this time.” “Sure an that’s the wisest risolution we can make, so it is,” said Pat, sedately; “and, be the same token, it’s a month I’m goin to allow, so it is; an, what’s more, I’m thinkin we’ll betther be afther buildin a bit of a house, or tint, or camp.” “A camp!” cried Bart. “Hurrah! that’s the very thing.” “Yes,” cried Phil; “just like the camp in the woods behind the hill at Grand Pré.” “The very best thing we could think of,” said Bruce. “It’ll give us all something to do, and at the same time it’s a positive necessity.” “It’s a pity we hadn’t some of that spare lumber on board the Petrel,” said Bart. “Well,” said Phil, “I think we’ll have it all before another day; for, from present appearances, she’ll be on the rocks soon; and if so, there’ll be a general free delivery of her cargo all along the beach. But we needn’t wait for that.” “Sure an there’s nothin betther,” said Pat, “thin good honist spruce. We can get sticks enough all around us, an have a camp that’ll be as warrum, and as dhry, and as whowlsome as iver was, so we will.”