"I wonder what your father would think if he heard we were taken to Alaska in handcuffs for seal poaching, Chriss," he said.
"Well," said Niven dryly, "I hope we're not going to be, and I don't quite think he'd find it so amusing as you seem to fancy. There's not much use in talking that kind of rot!"
They said no more for a little, and Appleby felt inclined to regret his speech. It called up unpleasant reflections, for he had more than a suspicion that the thing he had mentioned might very readily come about.
There were, he had been told, well-armed Aleut Indians on the island, and not far away a gunboat lay hidden in the haze. If Jordan grew impatient and fired his gun the prospect of escape seemed very small for any of them. By and by he turned to Donegal as the din the seals made vibrated about them.
"Do they make that uproar always, and what do they do it for?" he said.
"They'll go on another month, and this is the way av it," said Donegal. "The seals are lying as thick as herrings in the rookery, and 'tis more room every bull is wanting to bring up his family in, while the place that seems nicest to him is just the one his neighbour is lying in. Sure, they're just like men, and when ye hear one roaring he's looking savage at the big fellow that's crowding too near and wondering if he's able to tear the hide off him."
Niven laughed a little. "I never heard of a man wondering if he could do that," he said.
"Then," said Donegal dryly, "'tis a curiosity that is not unknown in Ireland. Is it lambs ye are at the English schools, my son?—Ye do not see them, Charley?"
"No," said the other man, and while they waited the roar of the sea seemed to grow louder and the wind colder, and unpleasant misgivings began to creep upon the lads as they wondered what was happening behind them in the mist. It seemed quite possible that Stickine had blundered into the Aleuts' clutches or that a body of the gunboat's bluejackets had been sent ashore. Charley, however, laughed when Appleby mentioned it.
"It kind of strikes me we'd have heard them," he said. "There would be a circus before they corralled Stickine."