"Won't that be awfully out of our way?"
"Yes. I should think about seventy-five miles; but then we may find a steamer there that will take us to Juneau, or even to Sitka itself."
"It would certainly be better than staying here," reflected Phil. "And I know that neither Serge nor I want to try the mountain trail again after what we have seen to-day. So I vote for going to Chilkat."
"So do I," assented Serge.
"Same here," said Jalap Coombs; "though ef anybody had told me half an hour ago I'd been shipping for a cruise along with them black pirates before supper-time, I'd sartainly doubted him. It only goes to prove what my old friend Kite Roberson useter say, which were, 'Them as don't expect nothing is oftenest surprised.'"
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE TREACHEROUS SHAMAN OF KLUKWAN.
So delighted were the Chilkat hunters to know that they were to have the honor of conveying the fur-seal's tooth back to their tribe, that they wished to start at once. The whites, however, refused to go before morning, and so the Indians returned down the inlet to their camp of the preceding night, where they would cache what seals they had obtained in order to make room in the canoes for their unexpected passengers. They agreed to be back by day-light.
After they were gone, and our travellers had disposed of their simple but highly appreciated meal of goat meat and tea, they gathered about the fire for the last of those "dream-bag talks," as Phil called them, that had formed so pleasant a feature of their long journey. Without saying a word, but with a happy twinkle in his eyes, Jalap Coombs produced a pipe and a small square of tobacco, which he began with great care to cut into shavings.
"Where on earth did you get them?" asked Phil.