“And I,” said Jalap Coombs, “hope it will be by the other one, seeing as it will be so much handier to load our seal-skins into her.”
“Oh, I had forgotten them!” replied Phil, in a tone of disappointment. “Yes, I suppose we must take the north-side schooner.”
“You speak as if you were certain of catching either one you wanted,” laughed Serge; “but, for my part, I think there is a big chance of missing both of them. They may pass in the night, or in a fog, or too far out to notice our signals. Now I propose that we divide into two parties, and watch at both ends of the island at once. If Mr. Coombs is willing to remain in camp at the north end, you and I can go with Kooga to the south end, where we may have a chance to see something of sea-otter hunting. If at the same time we can catch that schooner, and persuade her to come round to this side of the island, we sha’n’t need the other. If we miss her, or she refuses to take us, we shall still have plenty of time to get back here before the other is due.”
“Good for you, Serge!” shouted Phil. “That’s an immense scheme, and I don’t see why I didn’t think of it myself, only I never do think of things until afterwards.”
“It shows the result of a sea-training,” said Jalap Coombs. “I was jest a-considering of that same plan, and would have laid it afore all hands arter dinner, which, it seems to me, is the thing to be thought of fust. So now, if our oakum-colored friend will give us a hunk of his meat, we’ll lay a course for our own galley fire over yonder. Arter stowing a cargo of grub we’ll consider what’s the next thing to be did.”
“That suits me exactly,” agreed Phil, who had been casting longing eyes at the tempting-looking venison, “and the sooner that plan is carried out the better. So open negotiations at once—won’t you, Serge, like a good fellow? I don’t believe I ever was more nearly starved.”
Serge laughed, and after a few minutes’ conversation with Kooga, informed his companions that the native was perfectly willing to go with them to the barrabkie, and that they were welcome to all the meat they wanted, as his bidarkie would not hold half of it. The fact is that the young Aleut was fully as hungry as they, and possessed of an equal longing for fresh meat, the gale having so interfered with his hunting as to compel him to live on shell-fish ever since he reached the island.
This being settled, all four loaded themselves with venison and followed Kooga’s lead to the place where he had made his lonely and cheerless camp, and where his bidarkie was carefully hauled up on the beach beyond high-water mark. His shelter was a tiny A tent, supported by paddles and spears, and pitched in the lee of a huge bowlder. A quantity of moss heaped within it had formed for him a bed similar to that of our castaways. He had not, however, been able to make a fire, his supply of tinder being wet, and he not having had the good-fortune to discover an eider-duck’s nest.
The bidarkie excited Phil’s curiosity to such an extent that it seemed as though he would never weary of examining it. It was one of the two-holed craft, and after it had been carefully launched and laden the Yankee lad asked Serge if he thought Kooga would allow him to occupy its vacant hatch for the short cruise.
When Serge made the request the young native looked dubious, and shook his head. He had seen too many self-confident white men spilled into the icy waters of that coast from those ticklish craft; but as Phil insisted, he finally yielded a reluctant consent. He, of course, did not know that the white lad had been considered the most expert canoeman in New London, or that his own canoe was a tiny-decked affair of cedar every whit as crank as this bidarkie. His eyes therefore opened wide with surprise as his new companion stepped lightly into the canoe and settled himself in its forward hatch, with all the confidence of one who had always been accustomed to such things. When, in addition to this, Phil seized a double-bladed paddle and began to wield it with the practised skill of an old canoeman, the young Aleut actually laughed aloud with gratified amazement.