“This was a doubtful point.  In any case he must have assured Noah Jones that the infant had survived.  He was doubtless proud of knowing the country which had received him, and he had probably taken precautions to know all about the child, so that if any misfortune happened to him—­O’Donoghan—­Noah Jones would be obliged to pay him well for his silence.  He was doubtless the person from whom he received money every time he landed in New York.”

“All this appears to me to be very probable,” said Mr. Bredejord, “and I think that subsequent events confirm it.  The first advertisements of Doctor Schwaryencrona disturbed Noah Jones, and he believed it to be an imperative necessity to get rid of Patrick O’Donoghan, but he was obliged to act prudently.  He therefore contented himself with frightening the Irishman, by making him believe that he would be brought before a criminal court.  The result of this we know from Mr. and Mrs. Bowles, of the Red Anchor, who told us of the haste with which Patrick O’Donoghan had taken flight.  He evidently believed that he was in danger of being arrested, or he would not have gone so far, to live among the Samoyedes, and under an assumed name, which Noah Jones had doubtless advised him to do.

“But the announcement in the newspapers about Patrick O’Donoghan must have been a severe blow to him.  He had made a journey to Stockholm expressly to assure us that the Irishman was dead, and doubtless to discover if possible how far we had pushed our inquiries.  The publication of the correspondence of the ’Vega, and the departure of the ‘Alaska,’ must have made Noah Jones, or Tudor Brown, as he called himself, feel that he was in imminent peril, for his confidence in Patrick O’Donoghan could be only very limited, and he would have revealed his secret to any one who would have assured him that he would not be punished.  Happily as affairs have turned out, we may congratulate ourselves upon having escaped pretty well.”

“Who knows?” said the doctor, “perhaps all the danger we have encountered has only helped to bring us to the knowledge of the truth.  But for running on the rocks of the Basse-Froide, we would probably have pursued the route through the Suez Canal, and then we should have reached Behring’s Strait too late to meet the ‘Vega.’  It is at least doubtful whether we would have undertaken the voyage to the Island of Ljakow, and more doubtful still whether we would have been able to extract any information from Patrick O’Donoghan if we had met him in company with Tudor Brown.

“So, although our entire voyage has been marked by tragical events, it is due to the fact of our having accomplished the periplus in the ’Alaska, and the consequent celebrity which has been the result for Erik, that he has at last found his family.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Durrien, laying her hand proudly on the head of her son, “it is his glory which has restored him to me.”

And immediately she added: