PHIL AND SERGE AS PRISONERS OF WAR
Captain Israel Matthews, commanding the United States revenue-cutter
_Phoca_, and one of the most highly esteemed officers in the service,
had cruised in those far northern waters for two years, and during most
of that time he had been accompanied by his motherless daughter May,
who loved the sea as a sailor’s daughter should. During these years May
Matthews had made several long visits in Sitka, where there is always
a charming colony of naval families and those of other government
officials. Here she had also become well acquainted in the few old
Russian households still remaining in that quaint Alaskan town. Of
these the Belcofskys were the most prominent; so by this time she and
Serge seemed quite like old friends.
On the present occasion, while she was greeting him, and laughing
familiarly at his ragged and generally disreputable appearance,
Phil edged towards the door in a vain effort to escape an immediate
introduction. In this, however, he was frustrated by the captain, who,
noting the movement, called out sternly:
“Hello there, prisoner! No dodging! Come back here and be introduced
to your jailer, who will be held responsible if you escape. Daughter,
allow me to present my friend Mr. Philip Ryder, dressed for his famous
impersonation of an Aleut swell, in the Alaskan comedy of ‘Bering
Breakers.’”
[Illustration: “‘DAUGHTER, ALLOW ME TO PRESENT MY FRIEND, MR. PHILIP
RYDER’”]
“Don’t mind him, Mr. Ryder,” laughed Miss May, extending her hand with
engaging cordiality to poor embarrassed Phil. “He chaffs every one
just that way, and says the most horrid things. You ought to see him in
his winter uniform. He looks so exactly like an Eskimo that even the
dogs howl and run away at sight of him.”
“Yes, my winter coat really does make them howl with envy,” retorted
Captain Matthews. “But come, lads, let us go into the wardroom and see
if we can’t provide you with some civilized toggery. After that, as a
penalty for your recent acts of piracy, etc., I sentence you both to
appear in this cabin and breakfast with Miss May and myself.”
In the wardroom, or officers’ quarters, the captain introduced Phil
and Serge to several of the younger officers, who readily undertook to
furnish them with an outfit of clothing suitable to an appearance at
the cabin breakfast-table.
When, an hour later, after a welcome bath, after that member of the
crew who acted as ship’s barber had trimmed their hair, and clad
in exceedingly becoming suits of uniform, our lads again presented
themselves in the cabin, Captain Matthews insisted that they should
introduce each other to him. Otherwise, he declared, he should never
believe they were the castaways whom out of pity for their starving
condition he had invited to breakfast.
“Just wait, sir, until you see us eat,” remarked Phil, significantly.
Then the captain called them reformed pirates, and imitation
lieutenants, and would doubtless have invented many other equally
absurd names had not Miss May clapped her hands over his mouth, and
declared she would not allow any further abuse of her prisoners.
It is doubtful if ever a merrier party sat down to a breakfast in all
Alaska, and certainly no meal was ever more thoroughly appreciated than
was that one by Phil and Serge. The former pretended to have forgotten
the use of forks and spoons, while the captain ordered the table-boy
to serve the sharks’ fins and whalebone as quickly as possible. Phil
told how Serge tried to drive away a bear that was breaking into his
halibut larder, and Serge in turn told how the master of the _Seamew_
had taught Phil to appreciate Ebenezer’s cooking.
This mention of the _Seamew_ led the lads to inquire for further
particulars concerning that vessel, and regarding affairs in Sitka.
Therefore Captain Matthews said that, having learned from one of the
schooner’s crew of the cache of seal-skins on Oonimak Island, he had
only remained in Sitka long enough to turn his prize over to the
authorities, and had then hastened back to make a further capture of
her hidden cargo.
“I wondered――” murmured Serge.
“Now,” continued the captain, “I propose taking it, and you, too, and
Mr. Ipecac Coombs, if I can find him, to Sitka for trial, though I must
first run up to the Pribyloff Islands, and then stop in at Oonalaska on
my way back.”
“That will be fine!” exclaimed Phil. “Having got so near the seal
islands, I hated the thought of leaving Bering Sea without seeing them,
for it seems to me that those millions of seals must be one of the
sights of the world.”
“So it is, my boy,” responded Captain Matthews, “and I am glad you are
to have the opportunity of witnessing it. If it were on anything but an
island, though, from which it would be impossible for you to escape, I
don’t think I should allow you on shore, except under guard, for I am
bound you shall fetch Sitka this time, if it can be managed.”
“I hope you will succeed, sir,” laughed Phil, “though I don’t know
exactly what I shall do when I get there, so long as my father has
left.”
“I fancy he will be back again by that time. He is certain to find out
in Victoria where you have gone, and will probably return to Sitka to
await your arrival.”
“So he will,” said Phil, brightening, “for I left a note for him in
Victoria, telling him just what I intended to do.”
“Did you inform him that you proposed to become a seal-hunter, and then
turn into a pirate, and then get cast away on Oonimak Island, and get
lost among the sea-otters, and captured by a revenue-cutter, and be
delivered to him in irons?” asked the captain, gravely.
“No, sir, not just that in detail,” laughed Phil. “I left most of it to
be understood.”
“Well, I only hope he’ll understand it. By-the-way, Serge, I’ve a bit
of news that will interest you to the extent of nearly a thousand
dollars. Do you remember showing me once a very curiously carved
fur-seal’s tooth that had been presented to your father by a Chilkat
chief?”
“Yes, sir, I remember it well.”
“Well, those Indians have been having very bad luck lately with their
fishing, trading, and one thing or another, and have decided that it is
all owing to the fact that they allowed that magic talisman, as they
regard it, to pass out of their possession. So they sent a delegation
down to Sitka to try and recover it from your mother. I saw them
there last week, and they were terribly in earnest about getting it.
They even offered your mother as high as ten of their finest old-time
dance-blankets for it, and you know those are now worth anywhere from
seventy to one hundred dollars apiece. Your mother told them that you
had it, and had taken it with you on a long voyage. She said, though,
that she had no doubt you would sell it to them on your return, and
that you were expected back every day. So they are waiting for you,
and you may look forward to a very savage demonstration of welcome the
moment you set foot on Sitka wharf. Have you the tooth with you? I
should like to see it again.”
“No,” answered Serge, slowly; “I gave it away.”
“You don’t say so! How could you be so foolish? To whom did you give
it?”
“To one who proved my best friend in a strange country,” replied Serge,
nodding significantly in Phil’s direction.
“Oh!” exclaimed the captain, in a relieved tone. “So you are the lucky
possessor of the magic tooth, are you, Master Phil? Then our Chilkat
friends must drive their bargain with you. Would you mind allowing me
to have it a moment? I want my daughter to see it; for, on account
of its history and associations, I regard it as one of the most
interesting of Alaskan curios.”
“I am awfully sorry, sir, but I――”
“Don’t tell me that you have given it away too.”
“No, sir, but I have lost it. You see, I had no idea of its value, and
failed to take the care I should of it.”
“I might have known it!” cried the captain, in a tone of vexation. “A
chap that can manage to lose himself as often as you have would lose
anything. But there, lad, forgive me,” he added, quickly, as he caught
the look of mortification that swept over Phil’s face. “I didn’t mean
to say rude things, and if you think the trinket has gone beyond hope
of recovery we’ll say no more about it.”
Just then a knock came at the cabin door, and Mr. Ramey, the third
lieutenant, who had been sent ashore to bring off the seal-skins,
reported that he had completed this duty, and that they were all on
board.
“Very good,” said Captain Matthews. “You may ask Mr. Nelson to get
under way for the Pribyloffs.”
“There is one more thing, sir,” continued the young lieutenant,
hesitatingly. “Although not instructed to do so, I took the liberty of
examining several other of those ruins on shore, and in one of them I
found this, which I trust you will have no objection to my keeping.”
“Certainly not, if”――began the captain, casting a careless glance at
the object the lieutenant held out for inspection. It was the skin of
some animal turned inside out, so that its real nature could not be
determined.
Both Phil and Serge recognized it at once, and before the captain could
complete his sentence the former exclaimed, “Why, it is my sea-otter
skin that I had forgotten all about. I am ever so much obliged to you,
sir, for bringing it off.”
“You may leave it, Mr. Ramey,” said Captain Matthews. “I was about to
say that I had no objection to your keeping it provided no owner could
be found; but as one has appeared, that of course settles the matter.”
As the disappointed lieutenant walked away, he muttered to himself, “I
do believe that this is the very chap who claimed the seal-skins. Now
it seems that he owns everything else on the island, and I shouldn’t be
surprised if he owned this ship before we got rid of him.”
In the meantime Phil was asking the captain’s permission to present the
sea-otter skin to his daughter before he should have a chance to lose
it. Though the latter demurred at first, on account of its value, Phil
so insisted that he finally consented. Thus, to her great delight, Miss
May became possessed of one of the finest pieces of fur in all Alaska,
while Phil was happily relieved of a responsibility.
A few minutes later the swift cutter was speeding away over the green
waters towards the Pribyloffs. Oonimak Island, with its many memories,
was fading from view, and a new field of possible adventure was opening
before our young seal-hunters.