“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.”