When the mate had thus finished his yarn, Captain Matthews turned to Mr. Ryder and said: “Now, sir, that Mr. Coombs has so satisfactorily explained his own movements since he was last heard from, perhaps you will have the kindness to relate your own experiences while in pursuit of your elusive son.”

“I will do so with pleasure,” replied Mr. Ryder, “provided that you will afterwards tell us how you discovered the lads, and how it happens that they are now at the Pribyloffs.”

“Certainly,” replied the former, whereupon Phil’s father proceeded with his narrative as follows:

“When I learned definitely that my boy was to join me at Sitka by a certain steamer, I was filled with pleasant anticipations, and counted the days until he should arrive, for I think there is a stronger bond of sympathy between us than between most fathers and sons of Phil’s age. I so arranged my business that we could spend the greater part of the summer in those hunting and exploring trips of which we are both so fond—in fact, all my plans were laid with reference to him; and when the steamer came in without him, I doubt if there was a more disappointed father than I in the United States. It brought a letter from him, written in Victoria, stating that he was ready and waiting to take that very ship, and it brought his trunk. I also discovered among the passengers an acquaintance named Ames—Judge Ames, you know—who had met Phil in Victoria, planned with him what they should do together while coming up the coast, and was greatly exercised over the boy’s nonappearance.

“Of course the chances were that he had simply got left, and would be along on the next boat; but, as I could not bear the thought of ten days of suspense, I determined to go back on the steamer that had just arrived—at least, until we should meet the up boat. Then, if Phil were on board, I could return with him; while, if he were not, I should be well on my way towards Victoria, in which place I should then know he must have met with some serious trouble. You know as well as I that I did not meet him on the second steamer, and did not find him in Victoria. I did, however, discover plenty of traces of him. First, there was a note for me at the Driard, stating that he had taken passage with a friend named Serge Belcofsky—whose mother I had met—on the fishing-schooner Seamew, for Sitka. Upon making inquiries I learned that the Seamew was more of a sealer than a fisherman, and that while she might possibly touch at Sitka, the chances were against her doing so.

“I also found at the hotel my boy’s rifle—which, by-the-way, I have with me now—his travelling-bag, and overcoat, all of which he had left to satisfy a bill for board amounting to less than ten dollars. As I had provided him with plenty of money, I could not at first understand this. When, however, I discovered a wad of bills, most of them Canadian, amounting to very nearly one hundred dollars, inside the lining of his overcoat, and found the upper edge of an inner pocket partially torn from its fastenings, it was all made plain. I knew in a moment that poor Phil’s careless habits had again got the better of him, and had this time brought him to quite serious grief.

“What worried me most of all was to learn that, on the second of the two nights he seems to have spent in Victoria, Phil was arrested. Of course I followed this up at once. I found and rewarded the police-sergeant, who had taken such pity on the lad as to allow him to occupy his own bed, instead of locking him up. Then I saw the judge before whom the case had come for examination. We discovered that we had known each other by reputation for some time, and he relieved my mind at once. He said he remembered the case very well. Phil had been arrested on a charge of threatened assault and battery, evidently trumped up to gratify some private spite, as the complainant never appeared to press the charge. The judge said that when Phil gave him his name it had a familiar sound, but that he did not identify it with mine until after the boy was dismissed and had disappeared. He also said that if the young scamp had only made himself and his trouble known he would gladly have assisted him to the extent of his power.

“I was still puzzled to know how the boy had obtained a position as a sailor, and what he was wearing, as his trunk, bag, and overcoat were now in my possession, and apparently nothing had been taken from the two former.”

“He wasn’t just a common sailor—he was a hunter,” here broke in Miss May, proud of her acquaintance with the facts in this interesting case.

“So I afterwards discovered,” replied Mr. Ryder, “and I must say that is his one act of which I feel ashamed. I never thought that a son of mine would become a pot-hunter, and pursue butchery as a business.”

“Oh! but you don’t understand!” cried Phil’s fair champion, eagerly. “He didn’t know at first that he was to be a hunter, and then he didn’t realize what it meant, and just as soon as he found out he refused to obey the captain’s orders to hunt any longer.”

“As clear a case of mutiny as I ever heard of,” laughed Captain Matthews.

“Yes, and the wust of it were that he carried the best part of the crew with him, meaning me and young Belcofsky,” added Jalap Coombs, “which if he hadn’t ye’d have found him safe in Sitka when ye come back, as it now turns out.”

“That is one of the best bits of news I have heard yet!” exclaimed Mr. Ryder, “and it lifts a load off my mind. As for being a mutineer, I hope my boy will be one all his life against cruelty, no matter what consequences may be threatened, or what results may follow. Now I am reconciled to my long delay in finding him, though when I returned to Sitka and discovered the schooner Seamew at anchor in the harbor, but without my boy aboard, I was wellnigh heart-broken. Of course I interviewed her skipper, and got all possible information from him, but he was a surly fellow and gave me but slight comfort. My only consolation was that he spoke so highly of Mr. Coombs, and claimed that he would get my boy out of his scrape if any one could.”

“Which I thanks him hearty!” exclaimed the mate, “and could say the same for him ef I had to; bearing in mind old Kite Roberson’s advice, allers to speak the truth when ye’re compelled.”

“After learning all I could from Captain Duff,” continued Mr. Ryder, “I made some inquiries about the Oonalaska steamer, which happened to be in port, and then went to see what mail had been laid on my desk, which stands in one corner of Gifford’s store. Among my letters was one for Phil, which, under the circumstances, I thought I might take the liberty of opening. It was very badly written, but I managed to make out that the writer, who evidently was some sleeping-car porter, enclosed and forwarded a trinket that Phil had lost and he had found in his car. The article in question was in the shape of an animal’s tooth, and bore some sort of carving. Not thinking it of any particular value, I left it lying on my open desk while I went to call on Mrs. Belcofsky, from whom I wished to learn what she had heard from Serge.”

“It wasn’t a fur-seal’s tooth, was it?” interrupted Captain Matthews, with eager interest.

“I am sorry to say that it was, and, moreover, that it was the fur-seal’s tooth, as I discovered a very few minutes later. I found Mrs. Belcofsky full of trouble on account of the importunities of some Indians who were demanding something from her. After I had driven them away she explained that they were bound to obtain a certain charmed talisman in shape of a fur-seal’s tooth, that had once been the property of their tribe, but which had afterwards fallen into her husband’s hands. He had left it to her, and she had given it to Serge.

“I at once identified it with the one that had just come so queerly into my possession, and, promising to fetch it in a few minutes, hastened back to my desk—but I was too late. The tooth had disappeared; nor could I discover a trace of where it had gone.

“When I reported this to Mrs. Belcofsky she said it was only what she had expected, because, while it would bring good-fortune to me, to whom it was a gift, and evil to him who stole it, it possessed such a fascination for certain persons that they could no more resist the temptation to take it than they could help breathing. ‘The Indians say that it was stolen in the first place,’ continued Mrs. Belcofsky, ‘all carved as it is from the oldest and wisest seecatch that ever lived in Alaska, and that it will continue to be stolen to the end of time, save when it is guarded by a shaman (medicine man) from whom none may steal it.’

“The next day I left Sitka on the Oonalaska steamer, determined to continue the search for my boy along the entire Aleutian chain, through Bering Sea, and to the north-pole itself, if I failed to find him short of there.

“Our trip was without incident, except that our purser, a young fellow from Sitka, met with a series of strange accidents, one on top of another, that finally culminated the day we reached Oonalaska in his falling and breaking a rib. When we undid his shirt we found the fur-seal’s tooth suspended by a string from his neck, and he acknowledged to having stolen it from my desk in Sitka. Said he intended to sell it to the Indians when he got back.”

“Good enough!” exclaimed Captain Matthews at this point. “I am relieved to learn that you finally recovered that pesky thing. Now will you be kind enough to let me look at it? I want to show it to my daughter.”

“I am very sorry,” began Mr. Ryder, “but—”

“Don’t say that you have gone and lost it again!” cried the commander of the Phoca, with a comical aspect of despair.

“No; but I am inclined to think that it was again stolen. You see, just then Mr. Coombs appeared; and, in the confusion of the moment, I thrust the tooth into an inside overcoat-pocket, and for some time thought no more about it. I lunched that day on board the Norsk, a German steamer that happened to be in port. While at the table I happened to relate the history of the fur-seal’s tooth up to date, and, as the captain expressed a desire to see it, I directed the Japanese table-boy to fetch my overcoat, which was hanging in a state-room. He did so, but, to my great mortification, I found that I had again allowed the tooth to slip through my hands. It had disappeared, nor have I since heard from it. The Norsk left Oonalaska that evening, and the next day we came here, only to meet with the disappointment of which you have already learned. The only thing we have discovered is a fragment of the note left by Mr. Coombs for the boys. As it was at a distance from the hut, and badly chewed, we concluded that the foxes got it instead of those for whom it was intended.”

“Well,” exclaimed Captain Matthews, “it is a mighty interesting yarn, and I wish you every good-fortune in your search for those boys. If you’ll take my advice, though, you’ll start for the Pribyloffs just as quick as the wind will allow, for they are as slippery as cats, and there’s no knowing what they’ll be up to next. In the meantime I’ll jog back to Sitka, and leave you to bring them along as soon as wind, tide, and accidents will allow.”