Captain Carroll pinned up a notice in the main saloon, stating that the steamer would sail at three in the afternoon, the repairs having been completed more quickly than he had expected.
Mr. Percival looked troubled at the change of plan, but there was no help for it. Every hour of delay was an additional expense to the company; and besides, certain perilous straits ahead had to be passed at exactly such a tide, and the captain had made his calculations accordingly.
Noon came, but with it no sign of the hunters.
One o’clock. All the Percival party, and indeed most of the steamer’s passengers who knew the situation and were acquainted with the boys, gathered on deck, gazing anxiously toward the high slopes which rimmed the town. Still no indication of the returning party.
Mr. Percival now packed his own valise, as well as those of his son and Fred, and told his family he should remain in Juneau if the boys did not return in time for the boat. The Queen was to touch here, contrary to its usual custom, to take a shipment of bullion on its way back to the States. The party could manage quite well on board ship during the intervening four or five days; and although Mrs. Percival’s heart was torn with anxiety, she could see no better plan.
At three o’clock, therefore, Mr. Percival stood on the wharf with the three portmanteaus, and the Queen, giving a long blast of its whistle, moved majestically northward.
The head of the family who had thus remained behind soon found comfortable lodgings for himself near by, and then repaired directly to the wharf, where he was sure the belated hunters would hasten at once, on their return.
Supper-time came, and a poor meal he made of it, at his lodging-house. Returning to the wharf he vainly paced the planks in the golden twilight until nearly midnight, when he slowly retraced his steps to his lodgings, full of forebodings and self-reproach for his weakness in consenting to indulge his heedless boy in such a reckless undertaking.
In the morning he was astir at sunrise, but his repeated and anxious inquiries failed to reveal any news of the absent ones.
Looking haggard and old, he set about raising a relief party, to start up the mountain at once. Alive or dead, they must be found!