CHAPTER XVI
A SIBERIAN ADVENTURE
A SIBERIAN ADVENTURE
A SIBERIAN ADVENTURE
“Brrr-rr!” chattered Hiram Dobbs, with a shiver. “I say, Dave, have we got to stand this much longer?”
“I sincerely hope not,” replied the young pilot of theComet, in a really concerned tone. “I hoped to outride the storm. But it appears to me the snow is coming down thicker and faster every minute.”
“I’m just about drifted in,” piped up Elmer.
The scene was a vast void, a chaos. The three young airmen were much in the situation of a ship driven before a blinding gale in unknown, fog-covered waters. All bearings were lost. The angle glide was obscured with snow; Dave resembled a great white statue. The biplane was the rushing center of large driving flakes whirling in eddies all about them.
They had run thus for nearly an hour, but now the machine, staunch and reliable as it was, threatened to depart from its usual good conduct record. The planes were crusted and over-weighted. Thebulk of snow Hiram and Elmer tried to dislodge from other parts of the machine was duplicated before they could go the entire rounds.
There had been several ominous creaks. Once theCometstruck an air pocket. Through some deft but dangerous skidding the pilot evaded this peril. A sudden change in the wind almost precipitated a new catastrophe.
“I don’t know what we are going to strike,” said our hero; “but we’ve got to make a landing. No machine could stand much more of this.”
“Good,” cried Hiram heartily, as theCometmade a rapid dive that was nearly a somersault. “It’s solid land all right. I was afraid it might be water, and a ducking just now—brrr—rr!”
When Dave had told his friends way back in Canada that their motto must be “business, strictly business,” he and they had set themselves zealously to work to carry out the sentiment. Dave was an expert airman. TheCometwas a noble machine of its type. They had met with “good luck,” too, Hiram had insisted. The biplane crossed the vast stretch of Canadian wilderness without a mishap.
At Sitka no new trap nor harmful attempt on the part of their enemies had confronted them. A government official had been deputized by telegraph from Washington to receive and identify the contestants as they arrived. The crew of theCometwere proud and happy to learn that they were the first on the scene.
They rested a day at Sitka. Dave realized that the hardest part of the route lay before them. It was no easy task to pilot a course past Cape Prince of Wales, across Bering Strait and make sure of reaching Stamavoie, a point in Kamchatka where arrangements had been made for gasoline and other supplies.
Elmer had started keeping what he called a “log.” During the ensuing six days he had some odd and spirited incidents to record. They had left the mild fall weather behind them and encountered genuine wintry blasts. The expert young pilot took no unnecessary risks. Their stops were frequent, and for the most part fortunately they managed to land near settlements or habitations. Dave had to accommodate the machine to new wind conditions. He and his friends suffered a good deal with the cold. It was now late afternoon, and according to calculations and the charts they were traversing Siberian territory.
The storm had not abated one whit as all three of the boys left the biplane. They found themselves ankle deep in a soft clinging snow.
“We can’t stay here,” said the young aviator.
“Hardly,” replied Hiram, “unless we want to see the machine and all hands covered up in a snowdrift within an hour.”
“We have lost our exact reckoning,” added Dave, “and no landmarks to go by. We are somewhere between Zashiversh and Virkni. Probably we have landed on what is known as the Nijni steppe. It is something of a barren waste, if I remember right, but dotted here and there with stations and a few little farms.”
“Wish we could find one of them,” grumbled Hiram, good naturedly.
“No chance of supper if we don’t,” observed Elmer.
“See here, fellows, we’ll push the machine along, anyway, and see what we come to,” remarked Dave. “Any shelter is better than this all out of doors position. Even a stretch of timber or the side of a hill would seem homelike just now.”
“It’s better to keep moving, anyhow,” declared Hiram, stamping his feet vigorously. “This will be a big thing to tell about if we ever get home again, fellows.”
“Steady,” ordered Dave, and he slowed up the biplane, the wheels of which ran along pretty lightly, deep as the snow was. “The ground is changing. Stop the machine. I’ll prospect a bit ahead.”
In addition to the enveloping gloom of the storm, it had begun to get dusk. Dave proceeded alone. He discovered that the ground was roughand rising. Then he ran against a tree, and clearing his sight of the obstructing snowflakes he made out that they had come upon a little stretch of timber.
“Come on, but cautiously,” he called back to his comrades.
TheCometwas pushed along and halted between two heavily needled trees, affording it considerable shelter. Hiram gave a shout of delight as he discovered a spot where the ground was almost bare. A double row of immense fir trees formed a protecting canopy for several yards.
“Come in out of the wet, Dave!” shouted Elmer, in a jolly tone, joining Hiram, and all hands shook the snow from their garments.
“Shelter, plenty of fuel and a chance for a warm meal,” observed Hiram with satisfaction. “Here’s some good bits of wood,” and he began gathering up pieces of dead branches with which the spot was littered.
“I’ll get a lantern,” said Dave, moving over towards the biplane.
“This is not half bad,” declared Elmer, assisting his comrade in gathering up the loose fuel.
“Say, what’s that?”
Hiram spoke in a startled tone. He dropped his armful of wood and stood stock still. Elmer edged nearer to him.
An ominous sound had greeted their hearing. It was a howl near at hand, sharp and resonant. Then it was repeated. Staring in the direction from which the sounds came, Hiram jumped back, shouting out sharply:
“It’s wolves! Dave, look out! Elmer, grab a club! Quick! Here they come!”
Scurrying forms came flying into the tree-formed arcade. The outlines were dim, but none the less threatening and terrifying. Hiram had grabbed up a heavy piece of wood. Elmer was no coward, and did not lose his nerve. He armed himself speedily as his comrade had done, and ranged himself by his side.
“It’s wolves,” declared Hiram—“two, three, half a dozen of them. Stand steady”—whack!
Fiery-eyed, red-tongued, seeming to skim the ground, the foremost animal of an alarming pack came flying towards the boys. Hiram had struck out. The blow was aimed with all his strength and skill. It sounded like a hammer landing hard on a thick metal ball.
The animal fell back to all fours and limply turned to one side. Two others leaped boldly over its slinking body.
“Strike your hardest,” puffed and panted Hiram. Whack! whack! One of the new combatants of the boys limped off with a shattered paw. The other, infuriated with pain from a terrific clip across the jaws, made direct forElmer. Its claws clutched its prey by the shoulders. Its distended mouth sought the lad’s throat.
Once, twice, thrice the billet of wood in the grasp of Hiram arose and descended. The wolf dropped away, dripping with blood, but Elmer was saved from its murderous fangs.
“They’re coming,” he cried “A half dozen of them! Oh, good! It’s all right now.”
Over the imperilled lads and beyond them, and squarely into the faces of the howling pack, a great glare suddenly shot out. Dave had caught the situation at Hiram’s first outcry. He could not in a hurry reach the armament of weapons carried by theComet. The big reflector lantern, however, was kept always in a handy spot, especially at nightfall. Dave had secured this. Lighting it as he ran, he flared its broad beams, focused to a dazzling brilliancy. The wolves, blinded and affrighted, drew off with sullen, menacing growlings.
“Light the fire. It will be an added safeguard,” ordered the young airman rapidly, and he moved in a circle, swinging the lantern glow continuously.
Hiram hurriedly got leaves, chips and branches together in a heap. He flared a match and ignited it.
“Those animals have given us up as hard cases, I guess,” observed Elmer, with a laugh, half nervous, but quite triumphant.
“We must draw the machine closer to us,” suggested Dave. “Help me, Elmer.”
The campfire began to blaze, Dave, with the lantern, ventured as far as the spot where theCometwas. With the aid of his companion the biplane was wheeled a few yards along the arcade, where it seemed they must make a camp, at least until the storm abated.
Hiram was getting ready to secure some food and cooking utensils from the machine, when he paused, bent his ear, and his face expressed a new alarm.
“Hark!” he cried out sharply. “What was that?”