“You say that my father has gone to San Francisco. Why did he do that?” queried the still bewildered boy.
“To dock for repairs. You see, the _Bear_ were the last ship of the season to go out, and so she were his only chance. She had a wracked crew aboard as were willing to carry the _Philomeel_ back to Oonalaska, and that left me free to continue the search for you boys.”
“Well,” said Phil, “of course it’s an awful disappointment to find that I’m not to meet my father――at least, not for some months to come――after all the trouble I’ve taken to find him. At the same time I am glad to know that he is safely out of this country for the winter, even if it did take a broken leg to persuade him of the foolishness of hunting for me. I should think he might have found out long before that, though, how well able Serge and I were to take care of ourselves. Poor dear pop! How he must have suffered! I only hope he will stay quietly in San Francisco until I can get to him. Did he say how long he would wait there?”
“Only till sich time as he got his leg spliced and is able to travel. Then he’s got to come back to Sitka and settle up his business.”
“In that case things are working out all right, after all,” said Phil, “for Sitka is the very place we are bound for at this very minute.”
“But he warn’t going to stop there,” continued Jalap Coombs, “only till the first spring ship left for St. Michaels, when he reckoned to take passage on her and come up after you.”
“But how did he expect to find us at St. Michaels in the spring when he knew we left there in September?”
“Because the very cruise I’m shipped for is to find you, pilot you back there, and moor alongside of ye till he heaves in sight again. You see, he’s taken a notion that he’d like to come up the river and have a look at the diggings, which he don’t feel that he can till he has you once more in tow. So, seeing as I were out of a berth for the winter, and we heerd as you were froze in somewheres up here on the river, I took the contract to hunt ye and fetch ye back. I’ll allow, though, that things was looking pretty dubious for me awhile ago, and ef you hadn’t hove in sight as ye did I’d been all at sea without compass or yet a chart. Now, though, it’s all plain sailing again, and――”