“I do not know. They dared not return to the territory governed by her father, and the last I heard of them they were living by themselves somewhere on the upper Yukon, where the man was making a precarious livelihood by trapping. I tried to induce them to come and make their home at the mission, but poor Ellen McLeod answered that she should never again dwell among people of her father’s race.”
“Poor girl,” sighed Phil, who had a very tender heart for the troubles of others. “I wonder if we should have any chance of meeting them if we took our trip up the river? By-the-way, sir, don’t you think Serge and I might be trusted to make that trip this winter?”
“I should not care to advise you to do it,” replied the missionary, “knowing its dangers as I do. And certainly you could not go without Captain Hamer’s consent, for you would require a more expensive outfit than any one save he could furnish.”
“I suppose so,” admitted Phil, ruefully, “but I can’t help thinking something will turn up to make it seem best to let us go.”
They were by this time nearing Anvik, and though the sun had long since set, the river was flooded with moonlight. All at once a dark figure darted out from the shore and came running towards them. As it drew near, Kurilla’s well-known voice shouted, breathlessly:
“Cap’n Phil’s fadder gone up river! Yaas, he fadder!”
[Illustration: “CAP’N PHIL’S FADDER GONE UP RIVER! YAAS, HE FADDER!”]
“My father!” cried Phil. “It can’t be. You must be crazy, for my father is thousands of miles from here.”
Never in his life had Phil Ryder been more perplexed than he was at the astonishing statement just made by Kurilla. It was incredible that his father should be in that country. Why should he be? There had been barely time for him to receive the letter sent out by Nikrik, and he could not possibly have reached the Yukon Valley since then.
“How do you know it is my father?” he demanded of the native. “Has he been here? Did you see him? Why didn’t he wait until I came back?”
“Him no come. Him go up river. Me no see him. You fadder, yaas.”
“What can the man mean?” asked Phil, in despair of obtaining any intelligible explanation and turning to the missionary for aid.
From that time until they reached the station, which they found in a state of excitement over the news, the missionary questioned Kurilla in his own tongue, and by the time they were inside the house he had gleaned all the information the Indian possessed.