Free Ghosts of James Bay by John Wilson

from St.Katherine’s Pool. This time there was to be no doubt, and we sailed straight for the Furious Overfall and the many hardships that have brought us to this sorry pass.”
    Hudson paused and gazed thoughtfully into the fire. After a moment, he continued. “If only we had sailed to the west, we would be through the Strait of Anian and sampling the pleasures of Cathay by now.”
    â€œNo!” I exclaimed without thinking. Hudson, Jack, and Staffe all looked up at me sharply.
    â€œWhat say you?” Staffe asked. “Do you know the geography of this shore?”
    I had to learn to control my tongue. I spoke slowly and carefully. “A little. My people in Ottawa have learned something through trade.”
    â€œThen speak!” Hudson interjected excitedly. “I would know where the strait lies.”
    â€œNot here,” I said, shaking my head. “This is a huge bay. There is no outlet to the west.”
    Hudson stared at me intently. “The Strait of Anian lies to the north then?”
    â€œYes,” I answered, “a long way to the north, and it’s blocked by ice.”
    â€œI knew it!” Staffe shouted. “This is but a wild-goose chase. There is no way through to the Orient. We suffer for nought.”
    Hudson looked puzzled. “But Greene told me otherwise.”
    â€œWhat did he tell you?” I couldn’t stop myself asking. Here might be the answer to one of the mysteries: why had Hudson secretly taken Greene with him?
    Hudson turned his sunken gaze on me, but he was focusing on the far distance. “Knowing of my interest in the Strait of Anian, Greene came to my house after my return in the
Half Moon
and told me a tale. He said that a few years previous hehad met an old sailor in a drinking house he was overly fond of frequenting. The man was far gone both in age and in his drink, but he told Greene a story. In his youth he had been a fisherman over on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. One year, he could remember not exactly which but it was certainly while Good Queen Bess still reigned, he had rescued a dying man in an open boat.”
    The
Jonathan!
My mind leaped to the story my father had discovered, but I managed to keep silent as Hudson continued.
    â€œHe told the captain of his ship, the
Jonathan,
of a great sea he had visited and of the people who lived by its side and who looked like the natives of Cathay and used weapons much like those of Java and the islands around there. The man was much gone in sickness and starvation and died soon thereafter, but the captain brought his tale back and, I think, dined and drank more than once on the strength of its telling. At first I was not much inclined to place weight on Greene’s telling, but he spoke well with a soft voice and he had a coin.”
    â€œA coin?” I asked, trying to hide my excitement.
    â€œAye,” Hudson responded, digging deep into the leather pouch at his belt and withdrawing a gold coin. He passed it over to me.
    There was no doubt. It was
the
gold coin I had found on the previous year’s dig. It gleamed more brightly than when it had been rescued from the earth, but St. Michael, the dragon, and the ship were there just the same. My heart was racing, but I kept my voice calm. “What does this mean?”
    â€œWhat indeed?” Hudson looked thoughtfully at the coin glinting in my hand. “Greene’s story was that there were originally a pair of these the dead sailor had taken to the Great Sea. On the shores he had traded for skins with a local tribe of salvages. On departure he had given the chief of the salvages one of the coins as proof of his good intentions andso that future traders would know with whom they dealt.
    â€œThe dying man gave the coin to the captain, who never went to the Great Sea but kept the coin close to his heart. Greene claimed the captain gave it to him, although knowing more of the man now, I do wonder how he came