“Because I have no other place to go to, and have no money with which to settle my bill in case I wish to leave.”
“But isn’t it awfully expensive?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I suppose they charge three or four dollars a day; but if it were only fifty cents a day I couldn’t pay it, and so would have to stay on all the same. I think it’s very lucky that I am stranded in so comfortable a place. But let me tell you the whole story from the beginning, and then you will see just what sort of a position I am in.”
So Phil related his recent experiences, and when he had finished Serge only asked,
“What has become of the fur-seal’s tooth I gave you, and which you used to wear on your watch-chain?”
“Lost it.”
“Then that accounts for everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that, according to what the old chief who gave that tooth to my father told him, it is a most powerful charm for good or evil. He said that whoever gave it away gave good-luck with it. Whoever received it as a gift received good-luck. Whoever lost it lost his luck, and whoever stole it stole bad-luck that would follow him so long as he retained it in his possession. According to this you who have lost it are suffering the consequences.”