"Could they have seen him at any time during the day?"
"Not without me knowing it; for he hain't left my side sence you boys went away."
"Then it is more certain than ever that there is magic connected with the fur-seal's tooth, and that the Chilkats are in some way involved in it. How else could they possibly have known that it was in our possession, just where to find us, and, above all, the exact position of the tooth at this moment?"
"It surely does look ridicerlous," meditated Jalap Coombs; while Serge said he was glad Phil was becoming so reasonable and willing to see things in a true light.
"How did these fellows get here?" asked Phil.
"They say they came in canoes," replied Serge.
"Ask them if they will take us to Sitka, provided we will give them the fur-seal's tooth."
"Will they give us a canoe in exchange for it?"
"They say they will," replied Serge, "if we will go with them to their village and allow their Shaman (medicine-man) to examine the tooth, and see whether or not it is the genuine article."
"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."
"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.'"
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.