Suddenly Mr. Hazlett uttered an exclamation and sprang toward one of the natives who carried a rifle in his hand.
"That gun belonged to Jesse, the son of my neighbor Wilcox at Valdez!" he exclaimed. "Tell me where you got it, and how!"
As may be supposed, it was the Aleut chief whom he addressed, and the latter now engaged in a very anxious attempt at explanation. He declared at first that the boys had given him this rifle as a present; then he admitted that he had promised to take a message up to Kadiak, going on to say that he had intended to do this, but that his wife had been sick, that he had been kept at the village by many things, etc.
"He's an old liar, without doubt," said Captain Stephens. "Half of this band of natives down here are afraid to come to Kadiak because of the debts they owe the company store. They are wreckers, renegades, and thieves down here, and you can't believe a word of them. I've half a mind to hang the lot of them at the yard-arm, and good riddance of them at that!"
The old chief understood something of what was going on, and now began to beg and blubber.
"Me good mans!" he repeated, beating on his chest.
"He says that he's got a boy of his own over there with the others in Kaludiak Bay. He's got a message written out by the boys, but the truth is he was afraid to go to town with it. Says the renegade Aleut over there was a good hunter, but a dangerous man--he stole their sacred whale harpoon here and made away with it--"
So at last the old chief fumbled in his jacket, and pulled out a soiled and crumpled paper nearly worn in bits. Enough of it at least remained to show the searchers that when it was written the boys were all alive and well, and were expecting help.
"The old fellow says he was expecting to take the paper up to town sometime this fall," went on the interpreter. "Says the boys had plenty to eat--fish and birds, and they had killed three bears--"
"Yes, says they had killed an old she bear and two cubs, and had the hides hung up--says the Aleut man had run away when they left--says they all killed a whale before they left, and left the boys as well fixed as they are here in this village. He can't understand why you should be anxious about them, when his own boy is over there, too. Says he can take you over there all right if you want to go."