CHAPTER XIIPHIL FEEDS HIS DOGS
It did not seem to Phil that he had any more than closed his eyes before he was awakened by such a babel of yelps and barkings as notified him that further sleep was out of the question, and also that his dogs were waiting to be fed. Hearty imprecations showered on the heads of the vociferous team from the direction of Mr. Sims’s room, and threats to treat them to a dose of duck-shot, so hastened Phil’s movements that in a few seconds he had slipped on his seal-skin boots and fur parka, and was outside in the stinging cold. There in the moonlight stood Kurilla, with a broad grin on his good-humored face, holding in leash Phil’s team. Every member of it, but big Amook loudest of all, was vigorously demanding his three meals of the day before and the one already due on the present morning, or four in all.
On the Yukon it is customary to feed sledge-dogs once in every twenty-four hours, and that at night, after the day’s work is ended. In order that Musky and Luvtuk and the others might be so unusually hungry as to fully appreciate the first meal from the hands of their new master, Kurilla had withheld their meal of the previous evening, so that now they were fairly ravenous. Near at hand stood Chitsah, restraining with the utmost difficulty another team of dogs that were destined to be driven by Serge. As they had been regularly fed the evening before, they could not have been so hungry as Phil’s team, thoughfrom their howlings one would think they had not tasted food for a week.
Appreciating the seriousness of the situation, and shouting to Serge to come out and attend to the wants of his own team, Phil ran to the storehouse, from which he took two dried salmon. They were so large that he proposed to cut each into several pieces of such size as seemed to him fitted to a dog’s throat. As he approached his team he called to Serge to fetch him a knife; but almost as he uttered the words he was given to understand that it was not needed.
With a savage spring Amook reached his side, seized one of the big fish in his powerful jaws, and with a couple of convulsive gulpings swallowed it whole. Having accomplished this feat he wagged his tail cheerfully, and looked up into his young master’s face, as much as to say, “That sample was so good that I think I’ll take some fish, if you please.”
“Well, if you aren’t an ostrich!” Phil started to say; but even as he opened his mouth to speak he was overthrown and instantly buried beneath an avalanche of dogs. Incited by Amook’s brilliant success, Musky, Mint, Shag, and Luvtuk followed his example, while the dogs held by Chitsah broke loose at the same moment, and all projected themselves with the energy of living catapults towards the single fish that Phil still held.
Both Kurilla and Chitsah instantly flung themselves on top of the confused mass of howling animals, and for the space of a minute the scene enacted in full view of the aroused inmates of the station was equal to any first-class football scrimmage. Women screamed, while men shouted and ran towards the place of battle.
In another minute the fierce animals had been torn apart, flung this way and that, and were sneaking off in so many different directions with lowered tails. Thetwo Indians were breathlessly but calmly readjusting their disordered garments, the salmon had disappeared, and Phil, sitting on the hard-packed snow, was tenderly feeling of different parts of his body.
“Are you much hurt, old man?” cried Serge, anxiously, as he reached his friend’s side.
“Serge,” replied Phil, solemnly, “did you ever happen to see a good little book called the Franklin Primer?”
“I don’t think I ever did. Why?”
“Because it contains a picture that you would do well to study. The picture is that of a small boy, with a very anxious expression, hanging by his hands from the outer end of a branch that projects over a tropical river. Immediately beneath him swim a dozen open-mouthed crocodiles regarding him with evident expectancy. Beneath the picture is a legend to the effect that Johnny is about to feed his pets. Now let’s turn in again and finish out our nap.”
But there was too much to be done that day to admit of further sleeping, and both lads quickly found themselves full of business. To begin with, stores for the expedition were to be selected and carefully packed. Of these the largest single item was fish, to be used as dog food, and with this one sledge was wholly laden. Then came flour, tea, sugar, salt, bacon, hard bread, evaporated fruit, a package of fine pemmican—which is made of dried and pounded moose meat mixed with berries and boiling fat in a rawhide bag, where it becomes perfectly solid—oatmeal, a can of baking-powder, molasses, a case of canned goods for special occasions, a quantity of reindeer-back fat, to be used in place of butter or lard, and a few pounds of tobacco for trading with Indians.
For cooking utensils there was first and most important of all the chynik, or copper tea-kettle, and an extraone in case of accident. Then came a long-handled fry-pan, a large iron pot, a brass kettle, a saucepan, half a dozen tin plates, as many cups, spoons, and forks. Besides these there was a wash-basin, and each man carried a knife in a sheath attached to his belt.
At the head of the miscellaneous list came a fine rifle for Phil’s especial use, and a double-barrelled shotgun, with an ample supply of fixed ammunition for both. Besides these Kurilla would carry his well-beloved old flint-lock musket. Then came three axes, one for each sledge, two hatchets, a case of awls, another of needles, a supply of stout thread and sinew for sewing, a thermometer, and a bolt of cotton cloth to be used as wanted.
Most important of all for a winter journey in that region of arctic cold was the outfit of fur clothing with which each of the boys was liberally provided, and some of which was made that very day by the nimble fingers of Indian women. In each case this consisted of a round, close-fitting fur cap of marten-skin; a heavy caribou parka, or outer shirt, trimmed with wolverene and wolf skin; an inner shirt of softest fawn-skin, trousers of Siberian reindeer, boots of moose-shank and seal, plenty of moccasins and fur-lined arctic socks, and two pairs of mittens that reached to the elbow. Of these the outer pair was of moose-hide lined with heavy flannel, while the inner pair, the right hand of which had a trigger finger as well as a thumb, was made of lynx, with the fur inside.
A warm sleeping-bag for each boy was made by taking a fine and extra heavy Mackinaw blanket, lining it with marmot-skins, fur side out, covering the other side with stout canvas as a protection against sparks and the wet of melting snow, and sewing up the edges. This, with a small pillow filled with geese feathers and a large bear-skin, constituted an arctic bed in which onemight sleep out-of-doors with comfort in the coldest of weather.
These things, together with snow-shoes and native snow-goggles, made of wood pierced with a long slit and blackened on the inside, completed the outfit of our young travellers. They were to use the ingalik, or regular Yukon sledge, which is much lighter than the Eskimo, or coast sledge, but heavier and stronger than the Hudson Bay toboggan commonly used in the interior.
The getting together of these things occupied all hands for the greater part of the day, though after satisfying himself as to his outfit of fur garments Phil left the rest to Serge and Gerald Hamer, for he had another very important duty to perform. This was arrangingthe exhibition drillof his native soldier boys, who had looked forward to it with such eagerness that he could not bear to disappoint them.
THE EXHIBITION DRILL AT ANVIK
THE EXHIBITION DRILL AT ANVIK
Fortunately the day was fine and not very cold, for the school-room was so utterly inadequate to the accommodation of both performers and spectators that the drill was necessarily held outside.
Noon was the hour appointed for this most important event, and by that hour the space reserved for spectators was occupied by every inhabitant of the native village. Their curiosity was raised to the highest pitch of expectation, for the boys had kept their secret so well that no one knew anything concerning the nature of the exhibition.
For some minutes excitement was kept at fever heat by strange sounds issuing from behind the closed school-house doors, where the company was forming. Then the door was flung open, and to the measured beating of a drum that gruff Mr. Sims had made for Little Sidorka, who was Big Sidorka’s brother, and at that moment the proudest boy in Anvik, the duskycompany marched forth in single file, headed by Big Sidorka, who still wore the badge of honor that made him the envied of all his fellows. Phil came last, and at his command of “Company,halt! Rightface! Rightdress!’Tention!” the long line stood straight and motionless facing their awe-stricken relatives.
Then came in rapid succession the sharp, crisp orders now so familiar to nearly every school-boy in the United States, but never before heard by the public of Anvik: “Presentarms! Carryarms! Right shoulderarms!” and the rest, until every movement of the manual had been executed with a promptness and precision that drew forth a storm of applause from the delighted spectators. But when Phil handed his wooden sword to Sergeant Sidorka, and the company was put through the same drill without a mistake by one of their own number, the enthusiasm of the onlookers knew no bounds.
Then the company was put through the few simple marching manœuvres that it had been able to practise in the limited area of the school-room. Finally, when, at the command “Chargebayonets! Double quickmarch!” it advanced on the run with levelled guns directly towards its admiring friends, they scurried away in every direction with apprehensive screams as though their brothers had become sure enough soldiers, armed with real guns, and bent upon their destruction.
At the conclusion of the exercises Phil promoted Sergeant Sidorka to a captaincy, formally turned over the command of the company to him, and hung about his neck a medal beaten out of a silver dollar and engraved with the single word “Captain.” To this day if there is a prouder young fellow in all Alaska than Big Sidorka, or a more exacting drill-master, it would be hard to find him.
Serge bade his reading-class farewell that evening,and commended them to the kindness of Mr. Sims, the engineer, who to the surprise of every one had volunteered to continue the work so successfully begun by the young Russo-American.
That evening, too, Gerald Hamer gave Phil a list of goods that theChimowould take to the Forty Mile Mining Camp in the spring, and the prices at which they would be sold. He also gave him money enough to defray the expenses of a trip to San Francisco, and a long letter of instructions to the agent of the new trading company in that city. This Phil was to supplement by a verbal statement of the condition of affairs in the Yukon diggings, and the class of goods most in demand.
Thus was everything made ready for the morrow, on which Phil and Serge were to set forth on a midwinter search through the vast Alaskan wilderness for the former’s dearly loved father, and begin the tremendous journey which they hoped would carry them to the very head-waters of the Yukon, and finally land them in green Sitka town.