"Captain Hazzard wouldn't have me and that's all there is to it. No,
I'll be stuck here in New York while you fellows are shooting Polar
bears--oh, I forgot, there aren't any,--well, anyhow, while you're
having a fine time,--just my luck."

"If you aren't the most contrary chap," laughed Frank. "Here a short
time ago you never even dreamed of coming and now you talk as if you'd
been expecting to go right along, and had been meanly deprived of your
rights."

"I wonder if the Captain----," hesitated Harry.

"Would take Billy along?" Frank finished for him, "well, we will do
this much. We have got to go over to the Erie Basin now and tell
Captain Hazzard about the recovery of his papers. Billy can come along
if he wants and we will state his case for him, it will take three
boys to manage that sledge anyway," went on Frank, warming up to the
new plan. "I think we can promise you to fix it somehow, Billy."

"You think you can," burst out the delighted reporter, "oh, Frank, if
you do, I'll--I'll make you famous. I'll write you up as the
discoverer of the ship of Olaf and--"

"That's enough," suddenly interrupted Frank, "if you want to do me a
favor, Billy, never mention any more about that till Captain Hazzard
himself decides to tell us about it. We only let what we know of the
secret slip out by accident and we have no right to speculate on what
Captain Hazzard evidently wishes kept a mystery till the time comes to
reveal it."