“Yes,” cried Serge, entering at that moment and greeting his old friend with extended hand; “that is what we want to know first of all. Where is Mr. Ryder? They told me he was in here with Phil, so I waited outside until certain that the only other voice was yours, and then I ventured in.”
“Of course ye did, and I’m prouder to see you than ef ye were the King of all the Rooshias and Chiny to boot. But consarning your father, Phil. Have I ever seed him, say you? Waal, occasionally, considering as me and him cruised together for nigh two months in Bering Sea sarching for you boys. When we finally come up with ye in Norton Sound and see that you were steaming right ahead, paying no attention to signals, it mighty nigh broke your father’s heart. It stopped a bit short of that, though, and only broke his leg instead, at which the swab as were steering run the schooner aground on a mud bank. Then by the time I’d got Mr. Ryder below and come on deck again you were hull down.”
“Do you mean that my father actually broke one of his legs?” queried Phil, who could not believe he had heard aright.
“Sartain I do,” was the answer. “You see, we were aboard an old tub named Philomeel, which we had chartered her in Oonalaska for a cruise to Oonimak to pick you up. Thar we fell in with a revenoo-cutter, and she sent us up to the islands.”
“Not the Phoca?”
“The very same, with Miss May and Cap’n Matthews in command. At the islands we heerd of ye through an Injin chap who had piloted your ship.”
“Nikrik!” exclaimed Serge.
“Nikrik were his name,” assented Jalap Coombs. “So we give chase, laid a course for St. Michaels, and got there in time for Mr. Ryder to make you out through his glass. Then he thought he had ye for sure, though I give him one of old Kite Roberson’s warnings. But he didn’t take no notice, and were climbing the main rigging to make a signal for ye to heave to, when a ratlin’ give way and dropped him on deck. The man at the wheel jumped to save him, and so did I, but it warn’t no use. He’d broke his leg, and the old Philomeel took a sheer into the mud.”
“Poor father!” sighed Phil. “Now I know why I’ve been worrying about him. I can’t understand, though, how he could undertake such a terrible journey with a broken leg.”
“Why not? They made him as comfortable as ef he were in his own home. Besides, there warn’t nothing else to be did.”