MR. JOHN RYDER’S STORY
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.”