He thought he might venture to question Joel; but the latter was unable to give any satisfactory reply.

The professor than ventured to sound Dame Hansen on the subject, but she was so uncommunicative that he was obliged to abandon all hope of obtaining any knowledge of her secret until some future day.
As Sylvius Hogg had predicted, the letter from Help, Junior, reached Dal on the morning of the thirteenth.

Joel started out before daylight to meet the postman, and it was he who brought the letter into the large hall where the professor was sitting with Dame Hansen and her daughter.
There was a moment's silence.

Hulda, who was as pale as death, was unable to utter a word so violent was the throbbing of her heart, but she seized the hand of her brother, who was equally agitated, and held it tightly.
Sylvius Hogg opened the letter and read it aloud.
To his great regret the missive contained only some very vague information; and the professor was unable to conceal his disappointment from the young people who listened to the letter with tears in their eyes.
The "Viking" had left Saint-Pierre-Miquelon on the date mentioned in Ole Kamp's last letter.

This fact had been established by the reports received from other vessels which had reached Bergen since the "Viking's" departure from Newfoundland.