The Internet Detective Library — page 94: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a | eesti : —— a — —— a ao - = aed OS a, eee Z 4 a ne * 88 A STRANGE ATTEMPT AT CAPTURE. ‘‘Mebbe,’’ was the unsatisfactory response. ‘‘Of course it may be, but do you think it is?’’ Again the Esquimau looked at the distant boat, shrugged his shoulders, and said: | ‘Don’t know; mebbe.’’ Stokes gave up in disgust. ‘*The fellow’s stupid,’’ he thought; ‘‘if he thinks it is not a boat he might just as well say so, but it don’t make any differ- ence, anyway. ‘‘7Tlere is no reason why some natives shouldn’t be out there fishing, and that’s probably the case, although it does look as _ if the boat were being shoved along at a pretty rapid gait.’’ Stokes occasionally glanced in the direction of the distant boat, if that was what it was, but paid no especial attention to it, and a little later it vanished from view. About midday Stokes tried another question on the skipper. The detective had kept a careful watch upon the course they had taken, and knowing in a general way the distance to the island of Taska, it seemed to him with all their windings that the island should be now in sight, so he pointed to ua speck of land far away to the north and asked: ‘Is that Taska ?’’ The skipper shook his head. ‘Is it in sight now?”’ Another shake. **How far away are we?’’ The Esquimau shrugged his shoulders, looked doubtfully, and answered : “Don’t knovw.”’ **Can’t you give a guess?’ Another shake of the head. ‘‘Say,’’ said Stokes after a pause, ‘‘do you think we'll get there to-day ?’’ This question was followed by a grunt which sounded as much like ‘‘yes’’ as anything else, and Stokes had to be satisfied with it. | He sat forward in the boat and most of the time kept his eyes ahead. The wind was now blowing in such a way that they could pur- sue an almost direct northern course, and after noting that there was a considerable stretch of open water before them, across which the boat was pointed, he stretched himself out inthe bottom of the boat. He had been lying thus perhaps a quarter of an hour, when the irregular motion of the boat caused him to look up and around quickly. 1ICDOOkKS.cOMm Sto if it I little Stc low a The | per a At the § wind Kr atten bows it fas {t done It agait A boat Tt seen (¢¢ »