“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.