As the year of our story was before that of this settlement by arbitration, Bering Sea was closed by law to all sealers, though certain of them still dared the risk of entering it for the sake of the rich prizes they might bring out if undetected by any of the patrolling war-ships. At the same time pelagic sealing was briskly carried on outside of the protected waters, and the north-bound herds were harassed on all sides by swift sailing-vessels and even steamers fitted out for their destruction. Some of these attempted to pass themselves off as fishermen, and as such ventured inside the forbidden limits, trusting to their disguise to protect them.
It was on board one of these pelagic sealers, owned in Victoria and clearing as a fisherman from that port, that Phil Ryder now found himself shipped as a hunter. In this position he hoped and expected to make a speedy voyage to Sitka, in Alaska, which was at the same time one of the very last ports in which Captain Duff would have cared to find himself under the circumstances.
Most of the foregoing information concerning fur-seals was imparted to Phil by Serge on the morning of the first day out, and before the lesson was concluded the former’s eyes were opened to many things. He had been awakened very early that morning by a startling crash, which for a moment caused him to imagine that the _Seamew_ had struck a rock. At the same time the cabin was filled with the roar of Captain Duff’s fierce voice. Reassured as to the safety of the schooner, Phil smiled as he recalled Jalap Coombs’s theory of the necessary lung exercise indicated by the latter sound. The burly master of the _Seamew_ seemed to have been entirely restored to his wonted state of mind by his night of seclusion, and to have decided to continue his practice of loud-mouthed bullying in spite of the surprising setback it had received the evening before. Consequently the moment he emerged from his state-room he glanced about him to see whom he might first devour. Just then the form of the schooner’s black cook, Ebenezer by name, who was called “Ebb” for short, and sometimes “Slack Ebb” or “Low Ebb,” as the nautical fancy of the crew suggested, appeared at the entrance of the narrow passage leading from the galley.