CHAPTER XITRAPPED“Gee, Case, what’s the matter?” and Alex reached over and flung a hard pillow at his sleeping companion. Through the little cabin window came the first grey light of dawn.“What’s the matter?” inquired Case, sleepily.“That’s just what I’m asking you,” snapped Alex, tartly. “Goodness, man, don’t you feel the boat wallowing in the trough of the sea? She wouldn’t do that if she was moored to the pier. She must have broken away. “Hey, rouse up, you, Clay and Ike,” he called. “TheRambleris adrift in a heavy sea.”Eight feet struck the floor and the four boys began hustling into their clothes.“I don’t understand how she broke loose,” Clay said, as he pulled on his shirt. “I looked at her moorings just before I turned in, but loose she certainly is. Otherwise she would be pitching fore and aft instead of rolling in this sickening way. Come up, I am going out now and see what’s the matter. He twisted on the knob of the cabin door and tried to open it, but it resisted his efforts. He turned sharply around. “Who came in last night, you, wasn’t it, Ike?”“Yes, I sits up on deck a little while, thinking over things,” Ike confessed.“Did you change the key and lock the cabin door?”“I don’t remember it,” Ike confessed, miserably. “I was thinking hard of other things, you understand.”“You’ll understand some things more in a few minutes,” Clay said crisply, as he snapped on the cabin lights. He pounced upon a small dark object by the stove behind which Captain Joe lay in a sort of stupor. “That’s why Captain Joe didn’t warn us. They threw him a piece of poisoned meat through the window. I guess he won’t die. He only bit off a small chunk and he spit most of that out. Wise old owl, Captain Joe.”“Whew,” whistled Alex. “Look, they have taken the rifle and shot gun.”Each boy darted to his bunk, for they all kept their automatics under their pillows at night. They found them all safe.“I wonder who did it,” Alex said.“Ike’s friends, Bill and Jud, of course,” said Case in a tone that caused the little Jew to wince wretchedly.“The thing to think about is to get out of here,” Clay said. “I don’t believe those fellows can start the engine up. They are almost a new invention. Now, if the wind is blowing from the same direction as it was when we turned in, we are bound to hit the rocks somehow between Nome and Cape Nome. This sea will break her up in no time and will drown us like rats in a trap. I would rather put up a fight against any kind of odds than to die that way.”“Hallo,” hailed a voice from the aft window. “We want to talk peaceable with one of you, no shooting.”It was Jud’s voice and Case stepped forward before any of the others could act.“What do you want?” he asked, as he threw open the window, disclosing Jud’s face.“We want one of you to come up and start this darned motor,” he said. “We can’t make it go. ’Pears like we can’t do it. Reckon you boys must have almost filled up your tank with kerosene by mistake. The engine is fairly dripping with it.”“If you want the engine started, unlock the door and let us all up,” Case said.A low-toned conversation ensued between Jud and his companions, then Jud’s face reappeared at the window.“Bill says it can’t be done,” he said dejectedly, “an’ Bill generally knows what’s right.”“It’s all of us or none,” Case said, decidedly.“Don’t say that,” begged Jud. “We’re driving on shore an’ it ain’t more than 500 yards away. You don’t want to be drowned like rats in a trap, do you?”“What are you going to do if one of us does come up and fix the motor?” Case questioned.“We will not harm you boys,” said the other earnestly. “All we want is that little Jew. He’s done us out of something that belongs to us. First thing is to get the boat off this shore, then we want you to steer straight for the mouth of the Yukon. We have got boats there. The one of you on deck can put us and the Jew on shore and then come back and free the rest an’ go on about your own business.”“Nothing doing,” Case said decidedly. “We never desert a comrade. Might as well go back to your motor.”The boys in the cabin had heard all the conversation and their faces were grave. In one corner sat Ike, a huddled heap of woe with something of the persecuted pathos of his race in his dark eyes.“They lie,” he cried. “I have got nothing what belongs to them loafers. I am honest and steals nothing. But I am sorry I bring trouble on you boys. Do as that low-life says and save your lives while you can. I’m sorry I got you boys into trouble.”“No, Ike,” Clay said firmly. “TheRamblerboys always stick together in time of trouble. If something doesn’t happen pretty soon we’ll break down the door and make a fight for it.”A light stole over Alex’s freckled face. “I’ve got an idea. It may work and it may not. Do you remember that hatchway up forward in the prow, Case?”Case nodded quickly.“Well,” went on Alex, hurriedly. “I believe we can work our way up over the cargo to the hatch. If Teddy Bear is sleeping on it we will not be able to lift it up. If not, we will crawl out. The men will likely be working on the motor and we stand a good chance of catching them napping. Two of us is enough. The other two had better stay in the cabin talking all the time. If the cabin got quiet all of a sudden, they might get suspicious and be on the watch.”“All right, you and Ike stay here, and Clay and I will try it,” said Case.“You will not, you big stiff,” declared Alex excitedly. “It’s my plan, and I’m going to run it. Anyhow, how could you big chaps wiggle through that small space between the deck and cargo. No, Ike’s going with me if he will.”“Sure, I will,” said Ike delightedly, as he felt in his pockets to see that his automatic was safe. “I ain’t afraid of them loafers, you understand. Alex and I do the trick all right.”Alex threw open the door at the front end of the cabin and the two wiggled into the inky void beyond.“Well, they have gone,” said Case despondently. “The best thing we can do is to stand by the cabin door and break it down the second we hear trouble on the deck.”“Yes,” Clay agreed, and they took up their positions. Case on one side ready to swing the axe while on the other side Clay held an automatic in either hand ready for action.Alex and Ike pushed steadily if slowly forward. Their position was one of extreme peril. Their cargo had been well stowed but the violent rolling was shaking it loose and as they crawled, they were often hit by rolling casks and shifting boxes. This cargo was part of their trading outfit for which they had been unable to find room in the lockers. Every now and then the two boys received painful bruises from shifting boxes. It was easy to see that the cargo was fast breaking up and that they would not be able to return the way they came. At last, battered and bruised, they reached the hatch. Alex gave it a tentative push upward and it yielded easily. Evidently Teddy was not sleeping on it. He raised it to its full height and the two boys clambered up on deck. It was now broad daylight and only a glance was needed to show them their peril. TheRamblerwas wallowing in a heavy sea, dipping her decks under with every roll, but what was worse, not less than two hundred yards away to leeward, lay a rock-strewn shore dashed upon by the huge surges. The cabin hid the boys from the two men and Alex raising his head, shot a swift glance over its top.It was as he expected, the two men were working over the motor, or, rather, Jud was working while Bill was cursing him volubly for not being able to make it go, to which Jud replied gently:“Be patient, Bill. “I’ll get her going. I nearly got her that last time.”Alex dropped down, an anxious look on his face. “It’s Teddy,” he whispered, “he’s crawling aft over the cabin top. I’m afraid they will see him and kill him. Why can’t that bear keep out of trouble?”But it was not Teddy Bear’s intention to avoid trouble, rather he was seeking it.The rolling of the boat had wakened him slowly to a realization of an aching head and foul taste in his mouth and a stomach that revolted at the thought even of sugar. A feeling of enmity to all men was strong within him. Dimly he recalled the drinks, the liquid which the man in the white jacket had sweetened with sugar. Clearly it was that liquid that had made him so sick. His uptilted nose caught a fain scent that reminded him of the odor of the unwashed bodies that had crowded around him the day before. Clearly they were some of his enemies who had made him so sick and had turned his blood to water. He clambered clumsily on to the cabin top just as the boys reached the hatch. His padded feet made too little noise to be heard above the sound of wind and water. He reached the other end of the cabin and dropped off on the deck below where he reared up on his hind feet. The first intimation the men had of his presence was the vision of a raising arm and a heavy smack on the side of the vicious looking Bill’s head, which sent that worthy ten feet over the stern.Jud, with a cry of “My God, Bill can’t swim!” dived over the side to his partner’s assistance.Alex and Ike came running aft just as the cabin door splintered under a lusty blow from Case.“Stop,” shouted Alex. “The key is on the outside. I will let you out.”The imprisoned boys sprang out as soon as the door yielded. Both took in the situation at a glance. Clay sprang for the motor, while Case ran forward to the wheel.“Lower the anchor,” Clay shouted despairingly, a moment later. “Run the cable out until she is close to the breakers. These fools have flooded the engine and it is going to take some time before I can succeed in working it all out.”The three boys rushed to the bow and heaved the heavy anchor over. Alex took a turn around the snubbing block, paying the cable out, rapidly at first, then slowly tightening up on it until theRambler’sbow swung up into the wind. Instead of rolling and wallowing, she met the seas with a steady, easy pitching. Just keeping the cable taut enough to hold the boat up to the wind, Alex continued to pay it out slowly until theRambler’sstern was within forty feet of the breakers. Then he fastened the big hempen rope tightly to the snubbing post. The three boys stood tense awaiting results. Slowly theRamblerdrifted back, dragging the huge anchor with its long cable with it. “No holding bottom,” Alex shouted. “She’s going on the rocks. Get ready to jump.”But when her stern swung within a dozen feet of the foaming breakers, theRamblerbrought up with a jerk, that threw the boys to the deck. The anchor had caught on a hidden rock. Their first act on regaining their feet was to assure themselves of their own safety, then to look around for their late captors. At first they could see neither of them in the long rolling waves. It was Alex who spied them first. “Good heavens!” he cried, “look there. Did you ever see a man like that in your life?”Following his pointing finger, his two companions caught a glimpse of a sight, startling but inspiring. Jud, with one hand was holding not only Bill’s head, but half of his body, above the high waves, while with the other hand he was keeping his own head above water and swimming powerfully for the breaker-racked shore. The boys gained some idea of the man’s magnificent strength in the way he sustained the weight of his partner’s body aloft and still kept his own head high above the water. They caught one more glimpse of the two just before they entered the boiling breakers. Jud had turned on his back and had drawn the limp form from above, holding it tight with one arm thrown around his waist, while with the other he was still desperately battling to win through the rock-strewn smother to the sandy shore beyond. “Look at a man, boys,” Alex cried in admiration, “using his own body to protect his partner’s body from the rocks. That’s some man, I’m telling you.” In a few moments the two bodies were rolled up on the beach by a mighty wave. Jud stooped and picked Bill up as though he were a sleeping child, and laying him down on the dry, warm sand, thrust a bunch of dry sea moss under his head for a pillow.The boys were close to the shore and could see the eyes of Jud clearly. They were eloquent with tenderness and woe. He was bleeding from a dozen gaping wounds, made by the cruel, ragged rocks, but he did not seem to notice them. Kneeling down by Bill’s side, he applied the first aids to the drowned, such as raising and lowering the arms and depressing the chest. The boys stood and watched him anxiously.Suddenly Jud lifted a beaming face. “He’s coming to all right,” he shouted joyously. “Reckon that bear knocked him senseless so that he didn’t swallow much water.”“Strange how the Northland brings such different characters together in such strong partnership,” said Case, musingly. “I wonder if Bill would have done as much for Jud. I doubt it.”A cry from Alex brought him back from his musings. The little lad’s freckled face was pale. “The cable’s parted. We are going on the rocks. Start her up, Clay. For the love of heaven, start her up.”CHAPTER XIIA CLOSE CALLClay had just finished working the oil out of the engine and was examining it to see if the vandals had broken anything, when Alex called. With calm quickness, he threw on the switch, rocked the fly wheel over, and shoved the timer over to full speed. At the first throb of the motor. Case had sprung to the wheel and ground it hard over. TheRamblertrembled like an overworked race horse. She hung in the trough of a sea that threatened to swamp her for a moment, then gallantly she swung around, meeting the next sea bow on, plunging bow under and sending great showers of spray over the cabin, she leaped away into the teeth of the wind.“For goodness sake. Clay, shut down that motor some,” Alex begged. “She will bury herself in some of the big waves.”“I thought you wanted speed from the yell you let out a minute ago.”“I did,” Alex retorted. “Then I was afraid of going on the rocks. Now I’m afraid of going down in a submarine.”Clay shoved the timer over to half speed and theRamblerrode the high swells more easily. On looking at their watches, the boys were surprised to find that all their terrifying experience which had occurred had taken place in less than an hour, during which time they had drifted about a mile from Nome. It took the speedy little launch but a short time to cover the distance and they soon moored securely again to the little pier.The boys were all hungry, and Case immediately began frying eggs and bacon and making coffee while the other boys hung around saying little and even breakfast was eaten without the usual clatter of conversation.“Boys,” said Clay when the meal was finished, “we each of us know why the others are so silent. We have to decide a most important question today. A man who has lived in this country for years, and whose word I believe can be trusted, gave us some important advice. You have had time to think it over and arrive at a decision. Let each one speak up for himself. I’ll have my say last, so as not to influence any one. Go ahead and speak and let each one think of it as a matter concerning himself only.”“I did my thinking last night.” said Ike quickly, before any of the others could reply. “I thinks so hard, I forgot to lock the door. I says to myself. ‘Ike, you come up here to see your uncle and you don’t want to go back to the States until you do see him. But there are those boys what you talked into coming up here and who have all been good friends of yours. What are you going to do about that?’ Then I thinks some more. I got plenty of money here,” slapping the seat of his pants dramatically, “so I says to myself, ‘If Alex goes back I pay his fare and the money for his share of the cargo. If Case wants to go home, I do the same. If Clay wants to go, also, I do the same.’ Course if all go, it take pretty near all my money, but I will own the stock, you understand, but I thinks uncle and I make good money on it. Of course I don’t own the boat, but if you go back I give you a bill of sale for my news stand for the boat. We trade back again news stand forRamblerif I bring back boat all right. And I tell you, boys, that news stand is worth more than that boat. She burn up money all the time while the news stand makes money always, but most of all in the winter, when folks are cold and in a hurry. They give you a nickel or a dime for a penny paper. If they don’t get their change quick, they hurry on without it. I make change very slowly in the winter time,” he added shrewdly. “Well, what you says, boys?”For a moment they sat appalled at the heroic pluck of the little fellow who was willing to go through the perils of an Arctic winter all alone. It was Alex who spoke first.“I made up my mind when the Kid was talking last night. I believe in what he says, ‘that a thing not worth finishing, it not worth starting.’”“You can’t ship me back home to be laughed at by a lot of sapheads who have never been ten miles from Chicago in their lives. It’s me for the great silence and all the rest rather than that.”“Can’t drive me back with a club, either,” announced Clay.Ike danced up and down in glee. “I meant my proposal, you understand, but all the time my heart was like lead for fear you all go home.”“I felt so sure of what you fellows would decide,” smiled Clay, “that I’ve made out a little list of things we had ought to buy here at Nome. They are mostly things we will not need until winter, but I’m sure that we can buy them cheaper here than up the river. They have larger stocks here and we will not have to pay the heavy river freights and the big profits to the dealer at the other end.”“That’s good business, Clay,” said Ike admiringly. “Let me do the bargaining.”“All right,” agreed Clay. “Case had better go with you. I can’t trust you and Alex together, you’d be sure to get into trouble right off.”The boys were off at the word and while Alex tidied up the cabin, Clay toiled over the motor to correct small derangements the vandals had caused.Alex and Ike were back long before they were expected, and three sleds followed them bearing their purchases. On the first was tied a small light canoe. “It was not on your list, but I thought it would be handy to go ashore in at places where we could not run theRamblerin. It will save a lot of wet feet.”“Good idea, Case,” Clay approved.The other two sleds contained more warm blankets, snow shoes, fur-lined parkas, a kind of cape with a monk-like hood, moccasins and clothing of furs. Besides all of which Case had thoughtfully bought another sack of potatoes and one of onions.In a few minutes they had all the stuff aboard and stacked up in a pile to wait until they had more time to stow it. Then Alex cast off the moorings, Clay started up the motor and Case took up his usual place at the wheel, and theRambler, swinging around the end of the pier, headed her sharp bow straight for the mouth of Father Yukon, nearly one hundred miles away.“Good bye, Nome!” said Case, waving his hat.“So long, ’till next spring,” shouted Alex, throwing up his hat and catching it.The old prospector, sitting on his usual post, taking the farewell for himself, rose painfully and after waving his red bandana handkerchief in the air, fired a parting volley from his heavy pistol.Ike was not to be outdone. He intended to make his farewell dramatic and impressive. He mounted the rail and threw out his arms as if to embrace the whole straggling town. “Good-bye, Nome the golden,” he cried. Good-bye golden city, what gives four boys $420.00 in one day for doing nothing, but though we will leave you now, Nome, the golden, we will come back.”Clay, down by the motor, heard nothing of the banter going on above deck. From the gentle motion of the boat, he decided that the sea had gone down. In fact, it had subsided greatly before they had left the dock. He wanted to reach the Yukon long before the river steamer did, so he pushed the timer over to full speed. TheRamblerresponded with a forward leap which caught Ike just as he was concluding his eloquent farewell. He struggled to retain his footing, but with arms waving, disappeared over the stern.Alex ran to the motor hold. “Man overboard,” he yelled. “Stop her and back up.” Case had been laughing over the joke on Ike, but his face grew suddenly pale as Ike’s head appeared above the surface, his arms grasping at the air.“Why, he can’t swim a stroke,” he cried.But Alex had realized that fact more quickly. In a flash he had slashed away the laces of his shoes and kicking them off his feet, dived far out over the rail. Just after he leaped, he saw a white flash passing above him. As he came to the surface, he saw Captain Joe, loyal and faithful, though wounded and weak, swimming twenty feet in front of him. It was Captain Joe also who first saw the black head and seizing the long hair in his teeth, strove valiantly to hold it above the surface. A few strokes brought Alex to their side, and with the quickness that he had learned by desperate experience, he relieved the panting animal of his burden. Ike, after the manner of drowning people, strove to drag Alex down with him to the depths below, but Alex was expecting that and clinching his little freckled fist he drove it with all the force he could summon, just under the drowning lad’s jaw. Ike loosed his grip and hung limp as a rag. Alex gave a sigh of relief, and rolling over on his back, drew the other up over him so that Ike’s head was raised above the water. In this position he could not swim. It took all his strength to sustain their bodies above the water. He knew his companions would come to their assistance but would they be in time. The icy cold water was striking a chill to his blood. Could he last that long? He dreaded the cold that was boring into his very bones.His friends were loyal to his faith in them. The moment Alex spoke Clay threw off the switch shutting off the power, but theRambler’s momentum was so great that he did not dare to reverse the engine immediately; to do so would have stripped the gears and made the engine helpless. So soon as he dared, however, he threw on the switch and shoved forward the reverse lever. TheRamblerstopped suddenly and under full speed tore her way backwards to where the three, fighting for their lives, lay 400 feet astern. As theRamblerbacked swiftly down upon them. Clay gradually shut down the power and finally stopped her short twenty feet from the straggling, drowning ones. Calling to Case to leave the wheel and come to his assistance, Clay sprang out of the motor hold and snatching up the stern fine, flung an end of it over Alex’s face. Alex, by exerting all his strength, managed to shift so as to pass a couple of turns around Ike’s body just below the arm pits. “Hoist him up and then take Captain Joe up. He’s about all in.” Alex rolled over again on his back to float, floating took so little exertion. He was surprised to find how warm and comfortable he was becoming. True, his feet were sinking and would soon drag his head under water, but what did he care. He was warm and comfy and was getting deliciously sleepy. Something hit him across the face and he brushed it off dreamily. As his head slowly sank beneath the surface, something fastened in his hair and dragged his mouth above water. He opened his eyes dreamingly to look into Captain Joe’s loyal, loving eyes. In one corner of his mouth Joe carried the end of the rope. With the last bit of reserve of his strength, he twisted the rope around one arm and with the other clasped Captain Joe around his thick neck. He felt himself being pulled violently forward—then came darkness and a void.When he came to he was lying in his own bunk with warm blankets piled over him and Clay trying to force a cup of hot coffee down his throat, while Case and Ike stood near with a suspicious moisture on their eye lashes.“What are you sniffling for?” he demanded crossly of Case and Ike, for his whole body was sick and aching.“We’re not sniffling,” replied Case, hotly, with a boy’s disgust at being caught in a display of sentiment “We are just sweating from working over you so hard.”“My noble preserver,” said Ike, dramatically, “I owe my life to you but how can I reward you? How can I ever repay you for your so nobly risking your life for mine? This lump on my jaw that you gave me will always remind me of your noble action.”But Alex had had all the sentiment he could bear. “Shut up,” he snapped. “I didn’t go after you. I went after Captain Joe. He’s a valuable dog. If you want any more souvenirs of your little wetting, I’ll give you one on the other jaw, and as soon as they go down I’ll give you fresh ones. Oh, I’ll keep your memory fresh and green. Gee, I’ll give you the other one now,” he declared, throwing off his blankets, but Ike had fled at the first signs of war. Alex chanted after him, with a grin:“Mush, mush, mush,Always to be taken withA tablespoon of gush.Mush in the morningSlush at nightIf I don’t get my mushI’m bound to get tight.”“What are you waiting for, Case?” he interrupted his chant to demand.“Just to tell you that you have got to keep quiet until tomorrow morning. Clay is going to start up the motor now. We let theRamblerdrift while we were working over you and Ike. One of us will stay down in the cabin with you all the time ready to get you anything you want.”“So I’m to be made to stay here and miss the last glimpse of Nome,” Alex growled. “Miss seeing theRamblertearing through the water at over twenty miles an hour. Miss seeing Michael’s Island and the river steam boat, and worst of all, miss the first glimpse of Father Yukon. What are you going to do if I refuse to be in this old bunk?” he demanded.“Then I’ll have to tie your hands and feet, lash you down to the bunk, take all your clothes away from you, lock them up in your locker, and keep the key,” Case said firmly.Alex laid back and closed his eyes.“Well, which shall it be?” demanded Case, as Alex still lay quiet with closed eyes. “Will you promise to lay quiet or will I have to tie you up?”“Don’t disturb me, Case,” Alex murmured rapturously. “I’m having a vision, such a touching vision. Maybe I’m only delirious, but it’s touching, touching. Let me tell it to you, Case. It seems like it was the Sunday before we left Chicago and I am sitting on a bench looking at the couples strolling around, when I see a fellow I know walking with a red-headed, freckled-faced girl.“Her hair isn’t red, it’s auburn, and she isn’t freckled,” Case said, indignantly.“Keep still,” said Alex. “This is only a vision and I’ve got to tell it as I saw it. They didn’t notice me, they were so taken up with each other. Pretty soon they sit down on the bench close to me, only a clump of bushes between them and me, and the fellow talked so funny you would have laughed to have heard it, Case, honestly you would have, and then they got up to go, Case,” and Alex’s voice lowered. “He kissed her, Case, and said, ‘I’ll be back in the fall, darling.’”Case had reddened to the roots of his hair. “I am not ashamed of what I said or did,” he said, desperately, but a great fear was in his heart as he foresaw the ridicule and banter he would have to endure if Alex told the story.“Does she play ‘Annie Laurie?’” inquired Alex, who had been writing rapidly on a scrap of paper.“Of course,” said Case stoutly. “She can do anything any girl in Chicago can do, and do it better.” “I just made up another verse that you two might like to sing together when you get back.”Case took the scrap of paper and read:“An’ her hair was like the red bird’sHer neck scraggly like the crane’sAn’ her feet they were the biggestI’ll ever see again.”Case surrendered. “Sit still for two hours and I’ll fix a place in the sunshine on deck for you. And you won’t tell any of the boys about your vision?” he inquired anxiously.“Nary a tell,” Alex promised, solemnly, “and I say. Case, I was just joshing about her. She’s pretty and a good appearing girl.”“She’s both,” said Case, happily, as he turned to go on deck.CHAPTER XIIION THE YUKONCase had hardly disappeared when Ike came rushing down into the cabin in a panic. “My pants, my pants,” he cried.“Is this the proper way to invade a sick man’s room?” demanded Alex with a grin.“But my pants,” Ike said excitedly; “the wet ones.”“Want to put them on and imagine you’re drowning again?” grinned the invalid.“All my money is in the seat of them pants, you understand,” Ike explained. “Maybe it’s no good now.”“I think your pants are in that wet heap over in the corner,” Alex said, roused to interest.Ike pounced upon the wet heap and quickly finding the valuable garment ripped the seat open with his knife. “It’s all right,” he cried in joy. “It is all wet, you understand, I’ll spread it out on the floor and it soon be dry.”Alex watched him curiously as Ike separated the wet bills and spread them out to dry. He was amazed at the amount the little Jew had been carrying about his person. Idly, he figured up the amount as Ike spread out each bill. When Ike spread out the last one with a sigh of satisfaction, Alex lay back and did some mental figuring. He repeated the operation again. The result was the same. If they had all taken up the offer the little Jew had made and all have gone home, Ike would have been left alone in this strange, fearsome land with less than ten dollars in his pocket. Alex felt a fresh respect for the pluck and determination of this lad no bigger than himself. He would have liked to express this sentiment but he detested open displays of emotion, so he merely growled.“I’m sorry I hit you so hard on the jaw.”“That’s all right,” said Ike, cheerfully, as he felt tenderly of the lump. Some day when we both feel better we fight it out with fists, you understand?”Alex’s stout little heart warmed to him. Who had said a Jew would not fight, he wondered.“I say, Ike,” he said softly. “I didn’t want to hit you. I just had to. I grabbed you just the right way but you twisted and caught me tight. We would have both been drowned if I hadn’t lammed you so hard as to knock you loose.” Feeling that he had spoken too softly, he said severely: “I never expected to see a Chicago kid of your age that couldn’t swim.”“You see,” Ike explained. “I went to a swimming teacher once to learn to swim good, you understand. He try me for awhile then he tell me I can’t never learn, my race is too much against me.”“How’s that?” Alex asked, sympathetically.“He said I would always work my hands palms up instead of palms down.”Alex, grinning, got out of his bunk and began slipping on his clothes as he saw Case descending the cabin steps. “Ike,” he said, “you’re a cheerful liar but all the same I believe we are going to be great pals.”It was when he started for the door that Alex realized his weakness. His legs wabbled under him and his head began to swim. Case caught him tenderly as he reeled and supported him up to where a blanket spread in the sun awaited him. “Say, Case,” he said, as the other tried to make him comfortable, “what makes me so blamed weak?”“You were farther gone than any of the rest,” Case replied. “Ike got off the lightest of you three, Captain Joe had most of his wounds open with the exertion and he is in pretty bad shape. We thought you were dead when we palled you in over the side. We had to roll you over a barrel and do a lot of other things to get the water out of you.”“Why, I didn’t swallow much water,” Alex protested.“You did not notice it because you were so cold and numb. When you were floating on your back you were taking in water all the time.”“But I felt warm, comfortable and sleepy.”“Which meant you were mighty near the end,” Case said firmly. “If it had not been for Captain Joe’s catching you before you got too deep down, I don’t believe you would ever have come up again. We threw the rope to you and when you brushed it off we knew what the trouble was. We kicked off our shoes and were going over after you when we saw Captain Joe come to your rescue.” He lowered his voice anxiously. “Remember you’re not going to tell about that vision of yours?”Alex smiled blissfully. “No, it’s just our own little secret, Case. Maybe bye and bye I’ll make up some more nice verses and we will sing them over until you catch the words and then when we are alone we can have some nice talks about her.”Case departed groaning in spirit, realizing that if he had disposed of two possible tormentors, there still remained a third, the worst of all.Clay climbed out of the engine hold to greet the invalid. “Well, how’s the boy?”“Fine and dandy,” Alex smiled back. “Feel as though I could set up and take some nourishment now.”“I’ll have Ike start up the fire and make you a bowl of oyster soup. It isn’t good for one to eat much after swallowing so much salt water. Well, you missed the last glimpse of Nome.”Alex grinned, “I don’t mind that so much. I guess I saw enough of Nome that first day to last me.”“We’ll soon be getting in sight of St. Michael’s Island,” Clay continued. “I’m going to slow down going past the island. I want to punish the Yukon Kid for bragging over that clumsy old river tub he calls a steamboat. After we get well past we’ll speed up and run up the river ’till well along in the afternoon. Then we can anchor in some cozy nook and get a good night’s rest. I don’t believe that steamer will pass us before morning. Look. Alex, you can see the island now. That blot of green straight ahead of the bow. Now I’m going to let her out to the last notch. Watch her go.”Clay shoved the timer over to the last notch and theRambler, raising a still higher wave at her bow, ploughed like a shark through the small billows.“Going some, isn’t she son?’ exulted Clay, wiping his hands on a bit of waste.Alex raised on one elbow and gazed at the foam flying past with a sigh of satisfaction. “She goes like a blow fly to the fish market. She must be making twenty-two miles an hour.”“One cannot tell without running a boat around a staked course what time it will make, but I figure theRambleris making twenty-four miles an hour right now. I’ve got her tinkered up like a watch and she’s running like a railroad train.St. Michael’s rose quickly on the horizon and when within about half a mile of it, Clay slowed the engine down and theRamblerambled past at a sedate rate of speed. As they passed the island, the boys saw the river steamboat lying at her pier, a thin trickle of white smoke trickling out of her funnels.“Only just beginning to get up steam, it will take them a full two hours to get up a full head, and the Yukon Kid expected to pass us at the mouth of the Yukon,” said Clay scornfully.As soon as they were well clear of the island, Clay shoved over the timer again and theRamblerleaped ahead like a sword fish.The distance between the island and the famous river was not great and they soon headed up its broad bosom. Case had a chart of the lower Yukon and a box compass by which to steer, and they made steady progress up the great river. Long before twilight they ran theRamblerslowly into a tiny cove where they found the water deep enough to run her bow clear up on shore. An anchor was thrown on shore and another heaved as far as they could heave it and its cable tautened up so as to prevent theRamblerslewing in on the beach.“I’m going to be boss for the rest of the day,” Clay declared, pleasantly, when the work was done. “First of all, I want that young monkey,” indicating Alex, “to go right to bed. I’ll make him a bowl of hot broth and he’ll be asleep in ten minutes after he drinks it.”“Me for the broth and the blankets,” agreed Alex willingly, for he was coming to a realization of his weak state.“Teddy Bear has got into better humor this afternoon, I believe, Case, if you would take him ashore and lead him around a bit he would eat a big supper and be his own good-humored self tomorrow.”“I’ll go,” said Case, eagerly, for he was eager to explore the forest that stretched away back of the cove.“Good,” approved Clay, “while you are gone Ike and I will cook up a big supper. We have been on rather short rations today.”“Ike,” he said, as soon as the meal was well started, “come on up on deck with me, I want to talk with you a little.”“Now, Ike,” he said as soon as they were seated close together on the cabin top. “I don’t want to pry into your personal secrets, but I do want to know something about those two men and why they are following us so closely. They nearly finished us off today. Next time they may be more successful. Now we want to know all we can about these men so as to know how to deal with them when we meet them again, as I feel sure we will. Wait a minute and I’ll read you something.” He took out a slip of the papers they had bought the morning they left Chicago and read the account of the holdup and robbery. “Pretty desperate men I should call them,” he commented. “Highway men, burglars, and almost murderers, in our case, at least. I think you had ought to tell us all about them.”Ike’s face filled with trouble and anxiety and it was a full minute before he replied. “You are a man, may own a secret and be so bound by promise laid on him by some one else, that he is not free to tell it, you understand, but all I am free to tell you, I’ll tell you, Clay, tell it to you honestly.”“I’ll believe you, Ike,” said Clay quietly.“Well, you hear me speak often of my uncle. My uncle was a great man in the old country, a student and a scientist. He was rich, too, very rich, but instead of spending his time at court, he was all the time going amongst the poor, teaching, helping, and giving money where it was needed most. It’s a crime in Russia for a Jew to do like that, so the Little Father pretty soon takes away all his moneys and sends him to the mines in Siberia to work all his life, but, after eight years, they let him go, and we sent him the money to come to us in good America. But, after he come, he was not content. He wanted so bad to work, but his fingers were twisted and stiff from handling pick and shovel in the cold, so he could not get work in the sweat shops. That made him sad. Then one day comes the news of gold in Alaska and next morning uncle was gone, just leaving a little note saying that he was not going to be a burden on us any longer.” There was a dry sob in the lad’s throat at the recollection of the note, but he bravely conquered his emotion and went on. “About eight months later, we got a letter saying he had got to the Yukon and would send us some money in the spring, soon as the mining commenced. About every six months after that there comes a kind, cheery letter, but no money. Uncle’s not what you call a business man, he all the time dreams big dreams about helping the people, you understand. I believe he finds but little gold and much suffering on the Yukon.”“But where do those two men come in?” asked Clay.“They bring me a letter from him last fall. The moment they gave it to me I see it had been opened, but I kept quiet, and reads it while they keeps telling me they were my uncle’s partners and what a good friend they were of his. Then they ask me what was in the letter and I tells them I can’t say until I see my uncle and that I don’t understand it plain because there was a big piece torn off the bottom. All that winter they keep at me about that letter and all the time I tell them the same thing.“I did some worrying that winter and I gets to thinking about the long trips you boys take every summer and makes no money, and I thinks that there’s a good chance for them boys to make a little money and a good chance for me to go too. So I kept at you about going till I gits you interested and you decided to go. I’m sorry now. Clay, honestly, Clay, I’m sorry.”“I’m not,” said Clay cheerily. “Jump down into the kitchen and stir up that stew and set the coffee back. I can smell it boiling.”Ike was back in a moment and resumed his tale.“That’s all that I know about them fellers, excepting what you fellows know. I wish I could tell you what was in the letter, but uncle told me to tell nobody till I see him, besides I don’t understand all of it myself, there’s so much of it torn off.”“It’s all right, Ike,” Clay said absently. “I believe you and the boys will too. Stick by us and we’ll stick by you. I wonder what has become of Case.”
CHAPTER XI
TRAPPED
“Gee, Case, what’s the matter?” and Alex reached over and flung a hard pillow at his sleeping companion. Through the little cabin window came the first grey light of dawn.
“What’s the matter?” inquired Case, sleepily.
“That’s just what I’m asking you,” snapped Alex, tartly. “Goodness, man, don’t you feel the boat wallowing in the trough of the sea? She wouldn’t do that if she was moored to the pier. She must have broken away. “Hey, rouse up, you, Clay and Ike,” he called. “TheRambleris adrift in a heavy sea.”
Eight feet struck the floor and the four boys began hustling into their clothes.
“I don’t understand how she broke loose,” Clay said, as he pulled on his shirt. “I looked at her moorings just before I turned in, but loose she certainly is. Otherwise she would be pitching fore and aft instead of rolling in this sickening way. Come up, I am going out now and see what’s the matter. He twisted on the knob of the cabin door and tried to open it, but it resisted his efforts. He turned sharply around. “Who came in last night, you, wasn’t it, Ike?”
“Yes, I sits up on deck a little while, thinking over things,” Ike confessed.
“Did you change the key and lock the cabin door?”
“I don’t remember it,” Ike confessed, miserably. “I was thinking hard of other things, you understand.”
“You’ll understand some things more in a few minutes,” Clay said crisply, as he snapped on the cabin lights. He pounced upon a small dark object by the stove behind which Captain Joe lay in a sort of stupor. “That’s why Captain Joe didn’t warn us. They threw him a piece of poisoned meat through the window. I guess he won’t die. He only bit off a small chunk and he spit most of that out. Wise old owl, Captain Joe.”
“Whew,” whistled Alex. “Look, they have taken the rifle and shot gun.”
Each boy darted to his bunk, for they all kept their automatics under their pillows at night. They found them all safe.
“I wonder who did it,” Alex said.
“Ike’s friends, Bill and Jud, of course,” said Case in a tone that caused the little Jew to wince wretchedly.
“The thing to think about is to get out of here,” Clay said. “I don’t believe those fellows can start the engine up. They are almost a new invention. Now, if the wind is blowing from the same direction as it was when we turned in, we are bound to hit the rocks somehow between Nome and Cape Nome. This sea will break her up in no time and will drown us like rats in a trap. I would rather put up a fight against any kind of odds than to die that way.”
“Hallo,” hailed a voice from the aft window. “We want to talk peaceable with one of you, no shooting.”
It was Jud’s voice and Case stepped forward before any of the others could act.
“What do you want?” he asked, as he threw open the window, disclosing Jud’s face.
“We want one of you to come up and start this darned motor,” he said. “We can’t make it go. ’Pears like we can’t do it. Reckon you boys must have almost filled up your tank with kerosene by mistake. The engine is fairly dripping with it.”
“If you want the engine started, unlock the door and let us all up,” Case said.
A low-toned conversation ensued between Jud and his companions, then Jud’s face reappeared at the window.
“Bill says it can’t be done,” he said dejectedly, “an’ Bill generally knows what’s right.”
“It’s all of us or none,” Case said, decidedly.
“Don’t say that,” begged Jud. “We’re driving on shore an’ it ain’t more than 500 yards away. You don’t want to be drowned like rats in a trap, do you?”
“What are you going to do if one of us does come up and fix the motor?” Case questioned.
“We will not harm you boys,” said the other earnestly. “All we want is that little Jew. He’s done us out of something that belongs to us. First thing is to get the boat off this shore, then we want you to steer straight for the mouth of the Yukon. We have got boats there. The one of you on deck can put us and the Jew on shore and then come back and free the rest an’ go on about your own business.”
“Nothing doing,” Case said decidedly. “We never desert a comrade. Might as well go back to your motor.”
The boys in the cabin had heard all the conversation and their faces were grave. In one corner sat Ike, a huddled heap of woe with something of the persecuted pathos of his race in his dark eyes.
“They lie,” he cried. “I have got nothing what belongs to them loafers. I am honest and steals nothing. But I am sorry I bring trouble on you boys. Do as that low-life says and save your lives while you can. I’m sorry I got you boys into trouble.”
“No, Ike,” Clay said firmly. “TheRamblerboys always stick together in time of trouble. If something doesn’t happen pretty soon we’ll break down the door and make a fight for it.”
A light stole over Alex’s freckled face. “I’ve got an idea. It may work and it may not. Do you remember that hatchway up forward in the prow, Case?”
Case nodded quickly.
“Well,” went on Alex, hurriedly. “I believe we can work our way up over the cargo to the hatch. If Teddy Bear is sleeping on it we will not be able to lift it up. If not, we will crawl out. The men will likely be working on the motor and we stand a good chance of catching them napping. Two of us is enough. The other two had better stay in the cabin talking all the time. If the cabin got quiet all of a sudden, they might get suspicious and be on the watch.”
“All right, you and Ike stay here, and Clay and I will try it,” said Case.
“You will not, you big stiff,” declared Alex excitedly. “It’s my plan, and I’m going to run it. Anyhow, how could you big chaps wiggle through that small space between the deck and cargo. No, Ike’s going with me if he will.”
“Sure, I will,” said Ike delightedly, as he felt in his pockets to see that his automatic was safe. “I ain’t afraid of them loafers, you understand. Alex and I do the trick all right.”
Alex threw open the door at the front end of the cabin and the two wiggled into the inky void beyond.
“Well, they have gone,” said Case despondently. “The best thing we can do is to stand by the cabin door and break it down the second we hear trouble on the deck.”
“Yes,” Clay agreed, and they took up their positions. Case on one side ready to swing the axe while on the other side Clay held an automatic in either hand ready for action.
Alex and Ike pushed steadily if slowly forward. Their position was one of extreme peril. Their cargo had been well stowed but the violent rolling was shaking it loose and as they crawled, they were often hit by rolling casks and shifting boxes. This cargo was part of their trading outfit for which they had been unable to find room in the lockers. Every now and then the two boys received painful bruises from shifting boxes. It was easy to see that the cargo was fast breaking up and that they would not be able to return the way they came. At last, battered and bruised, they reached the hatch. Alex gave it a tentative push upward and it yielded easily. Evidently Teddy was not sleeping on it. He raised it to its full height and the two boys clambered up on deck. It was now broad daylight and only a glance was needed to show them their peril. TheRamblerwas wallowing in a heavy sea, dipping her decks under with every roll, but what was worse, not less than two hundred yards away to leeward, lay a rock-strewn shore dashed upon by the huge surges. The cabin hid the boys from the two men and Alex raising his head, shot a swift glance over its top.
It was as he expected, the two men were working over the motor, or, rather, Jud was working while Bill was cursing him volubly for not being able to make it go, to which Jud replied gently:
“Be patient, Bill. “I’ll get her going. I nearly got her that last time.”
Alex dropped down, an anxious look on his face. “It’s Teddy,” he whispered, “he’s crawling aft over the cabin top. I’m afraid they will see him and kill him. Why can’t that bear keep out of trouble?”
But it was not Teddy Bear’s intention to avoid trouble, rather he was seeking it.
The rolling of the boat had wakened him slowly to a realization of an aching head and foul taste in his mouth and a stomach that revolted at the thought even of sugar. A feeling of enmity to all men was strong within him. Dimly he recalled the drinks, the liquid which the man in the white jacket had sweetened with sugar. Clearly it was that liquid that had made him so sick. His uptilted nose caught a fain scent that reminded him of the odor of the unwashed bodies that had crowded around him the day before. Clearly they were some of his enemies who had made him so sick and had turned his blood to water. He clambered clumsily on to the cabin top just as the boys reached the hatch. His padded feet made too little noise to be heard above the sound of wind and water. He reached the other end of the cabin and dropped off on the deck below where he reared up on his hind feet. The first intimation the men had of his presence was the vision of a raising arm and a heavy smack on the side of the vicious looking Bill’s head, which sent that worthy ten feet over the stern.
Jud, with a cry of “My God, Bill can’t swim!” dived over the side to his partner’s assistance.
Alex and Ike came running aft just as the cabin door splintered under a lusty blow from Case.
“Stop,” shouted Alex. “The key is on the outside. I will let you out.”
The imprisoned boys sprang out as soon as the door yielded. Both took in the situation at a glance. Clay sprang for the motor, while Case ran forward to the wheel.
“Lower the anchor,” Clay shouted despairingly, a moment later. “Run the cable out until she is close to the breakers. These fools have flooded the engine and it is going to take some time before I can succeed in working it all out.”
The three boys rushed to the bow and heaved the heavy anchor over. Alex took a turn around the snubbing block, paying the cable out, rapidly at first, then slowly tightening up on it until theRambler’sbow swung up into the wind. Instead of rolling and wallowing, she met the seas with a steady, easy pitching. Just keeping the cable taut enough to hold the boat up to the wind, Alex continued to pay it out slowly until theRambler’sstern was within forty feet of the breakers. Then he fastened the big hempen rope tightly to the snubbing post. The three boys stood tense awaiting results. Slowly theRamblerdrifted back, dragging the huge anchor with its long cable with it. “No holding bottom,” Alex shouted. “She’s going on the rocks. Get ready to jump.”
But when her stern swung within a dozen feet of the foaming breakers, theRamblerbrought up with a jerk, that threw the boys to the deck. The anchor had caught on a hidden rock. Their first act on regaining their feet was to assure themselves of their own safety, then to look around for their late captors. At first they could see neither of them in the long rolling waves. It was Alex who spied them first. “Good heavens!” he cried, “look there. Did you ever see a man like that in your life?”
Following his pointing finger, his two companions caught a glimpse of a sight, startling but inspiring. Jud, with one hand was holding not only Bill’s head, but half of his body, above the high waves, while with the other hand he was keeping his own head above water and swimming powerfully for the breaker-racked shore. The boys gained some idea of the man’s magnificent strength in the way he sustained the weight of his partner’s body aloft and still kept his own head high above the water. They caught one more glimpse of the two just before they entered the boiling breakers. Jud had turned on his back and had drawn the limp form from above, holding it tight with one arm thrown around his waist, while with the other he was still desperately battling to win through the rock-strewn smother to the sandy shore beyond. “Look at a man, boys,” Alex cried in admiration, “using his own body to protect his partner’s body from the rocks. That’s some man, I’m telling you.” In a few moments the two bodies were rolled up on the beach by a mighty wave. Jud stooped and picked Bill up as though he were a sleeping child, and laying him down on the dry, warm sand, thrust a bunch of dry sea moss under his head for a pillow.
The boys were close to the shore and could see the eyes of Jud clearly. They were eloquent with tenderness and woe. He was bleeding from a dozen gaping wounds, made by the cruel, ragged rocks, but he did not seem to notice them. Kneeling down by Bill’s side, he applied the first aids to the drowned, such as raising and lowering the arms and depressing the chest. The boys stood and watched him anxiously.
Suddenly Jud lifted a beaming face. “He’s coming to all right,” he shouted joyously. “Reckon that bear knocked him senseless so that he didn’t swallow much water.”
“Strange how the Northland brings such different characters together in such strong partnership,” said Case, musingly. “I wonder if Bill would have done as much for Jud. I doubt it.”
A cry from Alex brought him back from his musings. The little lad’s freckled face was pale. “The cable’s parted. We are going on the rocks. Start her up, Clay. For the love of heaven, start her up.”
CHAPTER XII
A CLOSE CALL
Clay had just finished working the oil out of the engine and was examining it to see if the vandals had broken anything, when Alex called. With calm quickness, he threw on the switch, rocked the fly wheel over, and shoved the timer over to full speed. At the first throb of the motor. Case had sprung to the wheel and ground it hard over. TheRamblertrembled like an overworked race horse. She hung in the trough of a sea that threatened to swamp her for a moment, then gallantly she swung around, meeting the next sea bow on, plunging bow under and sending great showers of spray over the cabin, she leaped away into the teeth of the wind.
“For goodness sake. Clay, shut down that motor some,” Alex begged. “She will bury herself in some of the big waves.”
“I thought you wanted speed from the yell you let out a minute ago.”
“I did,” Alex retorted. “Then I was afraid of going on the rocks. Now I’m afraid of going down in a submarine.”
Clay shoved the timer over to half speed and theRamblerrode the high swells more easily. On looking at their watches, the boys were surprised to find that all their terrifying experience which had occurred had taken place in less than an hour, during which time they had drifted about a mile from Nome. It took the speedy little launch but a short time to cover the distance and they soon moored securely again to the little pier.
The boys were all hungry, and Case immediately began frying eggs and bacon and making coffee while the other boys hung around saying little and even breakfast was eaten without the usual clatter of conversation.
“Boys,” said Clay when the meal was finished, “we each of us know why the others are so silent. We have to decide a most important question today. A man who has lived in this country for years, and whose word I believe can be trusted, gave us some important advice. You have had time to think it over and arrive at a decision. Let each one speak up for himself. I’ll have my say last, so as not to influence any one. Go ahead and speak and let each one think of it as a matter concerning himself only.”
“I did my thinking last night.” said Ike quickly, before any of the others could reply. “I thinks so hard, I forgot to lock the door. I says to myself. ‘Ike, you come up here to see your uncle and you don’t want to go back to the States until you do see him. But there are those boys what you talked into coming up here and who have all been good friends of yours. What are you going to do about that?’ Then I thinks some more. I got plenty of money here,” slapping the seat of his pants dramatically, “so I says to myself, ‘If Alex goes back I pay his fare and the money for his share of the cargo. If Case wants to go home, I do the same. If Clay wants to go, also, I do the same.’ Course if all go, it take pretty near all my money, but I will own the stock, you understand, but I thinks uncle and I make good money on it. Of course I don’t own the boat, but if you go back I give you a bill of sale for my news stand for the boat. We trade back again news stand forRamblerif I bring back boat all right. And I tell you, boys, that news stand is worth more than that boat. She burn up money all the time while the news stand makes money always, but most of all in the winter, when folks are cold and in a hurry. They give you a nickel or a dime for a penny paper. If they don’t get their change quick, they hurry on without it. I make change very slowly in the winter time,” he added shrewdly. “Well, what you says, boys?”
For a moment they sat appalled at the heroic pluck of the little fellow who was willing to go through the perils of an Arctic winter all alone. It was Alex who spoke first.
“I made up my mind when the Kid was talking last night. I believe in what he says, ‘that a thing not worth finishing, it not worth starting.’”
“You can’t ship me back home to be laughed at by a lot of sapheads who have never been ten miles from Chicago in their lives. It’s me for the great silence and all the rest rather than that.”
“Can’t drive me back with a club, either,” announced Clay.
Ike danced up and down in glee. “I meant my proposal, you understand, but all the time my heart was like lead for fear you all go home.”
“I felt so sure of what you fellows would decide,” smiled Clay, “that I’ve made out a little list of things we had ought to buy here at Nome. They are mostly things we will not need until winter, but I’m sure that we can buy them cheaper here than up the river. They have larger stocks here and we will not have to pay the heavy river freights and the big profits to the dealer at the other end.”
“That’s good business, Clay,” said Ike admiringly. “Let me do the bargaining.”
“All right,” agreed Clay. “Case had better go with you. I can’t trust you and Alex together, you’d be sure to get into trouble right off.”
The boys were off at the word and while Alex tidied up the cabin, Clay toiled over the motor to correct small derangements the vandals had caused.
Alex and Ike were back long before they were expected, and three sleds followed them bearing their purchases. On the first was tied a small light canoe. “It was not on your list, but I thought it would be handy to go ashore in at places where we could not run theRamblerin. It will save a lot of wet feet.”
“Good idea, Case,” Clay approved.
The other two sleds contained more warm blankets, snow shoes, fur-lined parkas, a kind of cape with a monk-like hood, moccasins and clothing of furs. Besides all of which Case had thoughtfully bought another sack of potatoes and one of onions.
In a few minutes they had all the stuff aboard and stacked up in a pile to wait until they had more time to stow it. Then Alex cast off the moorings, Clay started up the motor and Case took up his usual place at the wheel, and theRambler, swinging around the end of the pier, headed her sharp bow straight for the mouth of Father Yukon, nearly one hundred miles away.
“Good bye, Nome!” said Case, waving his hat.
“So long, ’till next spring,” shouted Alex, throwing up his hat and catching it.
The old prospector, sitting on his usual post, taking the farewell for himself, rose painfully and after waving his red bandana handkerchief in the air, fired a parting volley from his heavy pistol.
Ike was not to be outdone. He intended to make his farewell dramatic and impressive. He mounted the rail and threw out his arms as if to embrace the whole straggling town. “Good-bye, Nome the golden,” he cried. Good-bye golden city, what gives four boys $420.00 in one day for doing nothing, but though we will leave you now, Nome, the golden, we will come back.”
Clay, down by the motor, heard nothing of the banter going on above deck. From the gentle motion of the boat, he decided that the sea had gone down. In fact, it had subsided greatly before they had left the dock. He wanted to reach the Yukon long before the river steamer did, so he pushed the timer over to full speed. TheRamblerresponded with a forward leap which caught Ike just as he was concluding his eloquent farewell. He struggled to retain his footing, but with arms waving, disappeared over the stern.
Alex ran to the motor hold. “Man overboard,” he yelled. “Stop her and back up.” Case had been laughing over the joke on Ike, but his face grew suddenly pale as Ike’s head appeared above the surface, his arms grasping at the air.
“Why, he can’t swim a stroke,” he cried.
But Alex had realized that fact more quickly. In a flash he had slashed away the laces of his shoes and kicking them off his feet, dived far out over the rail. Just after he leaped, he saw a white flash passing above him. As he came to the surface, he saw Captain Joe, loyal and faithful, though wounded and weak, swimming twenty feet in front of him. It was Captain Joe also who first saw the black head and seizing the long hair in his teeth, strove valiantly to hold it above the surface. A few strokes brought Alex to their side, and with the quickness that he had learned by desperate experience, he relieved the panting animal of his burden. Ike, after the manner of drowning people, strove to drag Alex down with him to the depths below, but Alex was expecting that and clinching his little freckled fist he drove it with all the force he could summon, just under the drowning lad’s jaw. Ike loosed his grip and hung limp as a rag. Alex gave a sigh of relief, and rolling over on his back, drew the other up over him so that Ike’s head was raised above the water. In this position he could not swim. It took all his strength to sustain their bodies above the water. He knew his companions would come to their assistance but would they be in time. The icy cold water was striking a chill to his blood. Could he last that long? He dreaded the cold that was boring into his very bones.
His friends were loyal to his faith in them. The moment Alex spoke Clay threw off the switch shutting off the power, but theRambler’s momentum was so great that he did not dare to reverse the engine immediately; to do so would have stripped the gears and made the engine helpless. So soon as he dared, however, he threw on the switch and shoved forward the reverse lever. TheRamblerstopped suddenly and under full speed tore her way backwards to where the three, fighting for their lives, lay 400 feet astern. As theRamblerbacked swiftly down upon them. Clay gradually shut down the power and finally stopped her short twenty feet from the straggling, drowning ones. Calling to Case to leave the wheel and come to his assistance, Clay sprang out of the motor hold and snatching up the stern fine, flung an end of it over Alex’s face. Alex, by exerting all his strength, managed to shift so as to pass a couple of turns around Ike’s body just below the arm pits. “Hoist him up and then take Captain Joe up. He’s about all in.” Alex rolled over again on his back to float, floating took so little exertion. He was surprised to find how warm and comfortable he was becoming. True, his feet were sinking and would soon drag his head under water, but what did he care. He was warm and comfy and was getting deliciously sleepy. Something hit him across the face and he brushed it off dreamily. As his head slowly sank beneath the surface, something fastened in his hair and dragged his mouth above water. He opened his eyes dreamingly to look into Captain Joe’s loyal, loving eyes. In one corner of his mouth Joe carried the end of the rope. With the last bit of reserve of his strength, he twisted the rope around one arm and with the other clasped Captain Joe around his thick neck. He felt himself being pulled violently forward—then came darkness and a void.
When he came to he was lying in his own bunk with warm blankets piled over him and Clay trying to force a cup of hot coffee down his throat, while Case and Ike stood near with a suspicious moisture on their eye lashes.
“What are you sniffling for?” he demanded crossly of Case and Ike, for his whole body was sick and aching.
“We’re not sniffling,” replied Case, hotly, with a boy’s disgust at being caught in a display of sentiment “We are just sweating from working over you so hard.”
“My noble preserver,” said Ike, dramatically, “I owe my life to you but how can I reward you? How can I ever repay you for your so nobly risking your life for mine? This lump on my jaw that you gave me will always remind me of your noble action.”
But Alex had had all the sentiment he could bear. “Shut up,” he snapped. “I didn’t go after you. I went after Captain Joe. He’s a valuable dog. If you want any more souvenirs of your little wetting, I’ll give you one on the other jaw, and as soon as they go down I’ll give you fresh ones. Oh, I’ll keep your memory fresh and green. Gee, I’ll give you the other one now,” he declared, throwing off his blankets, but Ike had fled at the first signs of war. Alex chanted after him, with a grin:
“Mush, mush, mush,Always to be taken withA tablespoon of gush.Mush in the morningSlush at nightIf I don’t get my mushI’m bound to get tight.”
“Mush, mush, mush,Always to be taken withA tablespoon of gush.Mush in the morningSlush at nightIf I don’t get my mushI’m bound to get tight.”
“Mush, mush, mush,
Always to be taken with
A tablespoon of gush.
Mush in the morning
Slush at night
If I don’t get my mush
I’m bound to get tight.”
“What are you waiting for, Case?” he interrupted his chant to demand.
“Just to tell you that you have got to keep quiet until tomorrow morning. Clay is going to start up the motor now. We let theRamblerdrift while we were working over you and Ike. One of us will stay down in the cabin with you all the time ready to get you anything you want.”
“So I’m to be made to stay here and miss the last glimpse of Nome,” Alex growled. “Miss seeing theRamblertearing through the water at over twenty miles an hour. Miss seeing Michael’s Island and the river steam boat, and worst of all, miss the first glimpse of Father Yukon. What are you going to do if I refuse to be in this old bunk?” he demanded.
“Then I’ll have to tie your hands and feet, lash you down to the bunk, take all your clothes away from you, lock them up in your locker, and keep the key,” Case said firmly.
Alex laid back and closed his eyes.
“Well, which shall it be?” demanded Case, as Alex still lay quiet with closed eyes. “Will you promise to lay quiet or will I have to tie you up?”
“Don’t disturb me, Case,” Alex murmured rapturously. “I’m having a vision, such a touching vision. Maybe I’m only delirious, but it’s touching, touching. Let me tell it to you, Case. It seems like it was the Sunday before we left Chicago and I am sitting on a bench looking at the couples strolling around, when I see a fellow I know walking with a red-headed, freckled-faced girl.
“Her hair isn’t red, it’s auburn, and she isn’t freckled,” Case said, indignantly.
“Keep still,” said Alex. “This is only a vision and I’ve got to tell it as I saw it. They didn’t notice me, they were so taken up with each other. Pretty soon they sit down on the bench close to me, only a clump of bushes between them and me, and the fellow talked so funny you would have laughed to have heard it, Case, honestly you would have, and then they got up to go, Case,” and Alex’s voice lowered. “He kissed her, Case, and said, ‘I’ll be back in the fall, darling.’”
Case had reddened to the roots of his hair. “I am not ashamed of what I said or did,” he said, desperately, but a great fear was in his heart as he foresaw the ridicule and banter he would have to endure if Alex told the story.
“Does she play ‘Annie Laurie?’” inquired Alex, who had been writing rapidly on a scrap of paper.
“Of course,” said Case stoutly. “She can do anything any girl in Chicago can do, and do it better.” “I just made up another verse that you two might like to sing together when you get back.”
Case took the scrap of paper and read:
“An’ her hair was like the red bird’sHer neck scraggly like the crane’sAn’ her feet they were the biggestI’ll ever see again.”
“An’ her hair was like the red bird’sHer neck scraggly like the crane’sAn’ her feet they were the biggestI’ll ever see again.”
“An’ her hair was like the red bird’s
Her neck scraggly like the crane’s
An’ her feet they were the biggest
I’ll ever see again.”
Case surrendered. “Sit still for two hours and I’ll fix a place in the sunshine on deck for you. And you won’t tell any of the boys about your vision?” he inquired anxiously.
“Nary a tell,” Alex promised, solemnly, “and I say. Case, I was just joshing about her. She’s pretty and a good appearing girl.”
“She’s both,” said Case, happily, as he turned to go on deck.
CHAPTER XIII
ON THE YUKON
Case had hardly disappeared when Ike came rushing down into the cabin in a panic. “My pants, my pants,” he cried.
“Is this the proper way to invade a sick man’s room?” demanded Alex with a grin.
“But my pants,” Ike said excitedly; “the wet ones.”
“Want to put them on and imagine you’re drowning again?” grinned the invalid.
“All my money is in the seat of them pants, you understand,” Ike explained. “Maybe it’s no good now.”
“I think your pants are in that wet heap over in the corner,” Alex said, roused to interest.
Ike pounced upon the wet heap and quickly finding the valuable garment ripped the seat open with his knife. “It’s all right,” he cried in joy. “It is all wet, you understand, I’ll spread it out on the floor and it soon be dry.”
Alex watched him curiously as Ike separated the wet bills and spread them out to dry. He was amazed at the amount the little Jew had been carrying about his person. Idly, he figured up the amount as Ike spread out each bill. When Ike spread out the last one with a sigh of satisfaction, Alex lay back and did some mental figuring. He repeated the operation again. The result was the same. If they had all taken up the offer the little Jew had made and all have gone home, Ike would have been left alone in this strange, fearsome land with less than ten dollars in his pocket. Alex felt a fresh respect for the pluck and determination of this lad no bigger than himself. He would have liked to express this sentiment but he detested open displays of emotion, so he merely growled.
“I’m sorry I hit you so hard on the jaw.”
“That’s all right,” said Ike, cheerfully, as he felt tenderly of the lump. Some day when we both feel better we fight it out with fists, you understand?”
Alex’s stout little heart warmed to him. Who had said a Jew would not fight, he wondered.
“I say, Ike,” he said softly. “I didn’t want to hit you. I just had to. I grabbed you just the right way but you twisted and caught me tight. We would have both been drowned if I hadn’t lammed you so hard as to knock you loose.” Feeling that he had spoken too softly, he said severely: “I never expected to see a Chicago kid of your age that couldn’t swim.”
“You see,” Ike explained. “I went to a swimming teacher once to learn to swim good, you understand. He try me for awhile then he tell me I can’t never learn, my race is too much against me.”
“How’s that?” Alex asked, sympathetically.
“He said I would always work my hands palms up instead of palms down.”
Alex, grinning, got out of his bunk and began slipping on his clothes as he saw Case descending the cabin steps. “Ike,” he said, “you’re a cheerful liar but all the same I believe we are going to be great pals.”
It was when he started for the door that Alex realized his weakness. His legs wabbled under him and his head began to swim. Case caught him tenderly as he reeled and supported him up to where a blanket spread in the sun awaited him. “Say, Case,” he said, as the other tried to make him comfortable, “what makes me so blamed weak?”
“You were farther gone than any of the rest,” Case replied. “Ike got off the lightest of you three, Captain Joe had most of his wounds open with the exertion and he is in pretty bad shape. We thought you were dead when we palled you in over the side. We had to roll you over a barrel and do a lot of other things to get the water out of you.”
“Why, I didn’t swallow much water,” Alex protested.
“You did not notice it because you were so cold and numb. When you were floating on your back you were taking in water all the time.”
“But I felt warm, comfortable and sleepy.”
“Which meant you were mighty near the end,” Case said firmly. “If it had not been for Captain Joe’s catching you before you got too deep down, I don’t believe you would ever have come up again. We threw the rope to you and when you brushed it off we knew what the trouble was. We kicked off our shoes and were going over after you when we saw Captain Joe come to your rescue.” He lowered his voice anxiously. “Remember you’re not going to tell about that vision of yours?”
Alex smiled blissfully. “No, it’s just our own little secret, Case. Maybe bye and bye I’ll make up some more nice verses and we will sing them over until you catch the words and then when we are alone we can have some nice talks about her.”
Case departed groaning in spirit, realizing that if he had disposed of two possible tormentors, there still remained a third, the worst of all.
Clay climbed out of the engine hold to greet the invalid. “Well, how’s the boy?”
“Fine and dandy,” Alex smiled back. “Feel as though I could set up and take some nourishment now.”
“I’ll have Ike start up the fire and make you a bowl of oyster soup. It isn’t good for one to eat much after swallowing so much salt water. Well, you missed the last glimpse of Nome.”
Alex grinned, “I don’t mind that so much. I guess I saw enough of Nome that first day to last me.”
“We’ll soon be getting in sight of St. Michael’s Island,” Clay continued. “I’m going to slow down going past the island. I want to punish the Yukon Kid for bragging over that clumsy old river tub he calls a steamboat. After we get well past we’ll speed up and run up the river ’till well along in the afternoon. Then we can anchor in some cozy nook and get a good night’s rest. I don’t believe that steamer will pass us before morning. Look. Alex, you can see the island now. That blot of green straight ahead of the bow. Now I’m going to let her out to the last notch. Watch her go.”
Clay shoved the timer over to the last notch and theRambler, raising a still higher wave at her bow, ploughed like a shark through the small billows.
“Going some, isn’t she son?’ exulted Clay, wiping his hands on a bit of waste.
Alex raised on one elbow and gazed at the foam flying past with a sigh of satisfaction. “She goes like a blow fly to the fish market. She must be making twenty-two miles an hour.”
“One cannot tell without running a boat around a staked course what time it will make, but I figure theRambleris making twenty-four miles an hour right now. I’ve got her tinkered up like a watch and she’s running like a railroad train.
St. Michael’s rose quickly on the horizon and when within about half a mile of it, Clay slowed the engine down and theRamblerambled past at a sedate rate of speed. As they passed the island, the boys saw the river steamboat lying at her pier, a thin trickle of white smoke trickling out of her funnels.
“Only just beginning to get up steam, it will take them a full two hours to get up a full head, and the Yukon Kid expected to pass us at the mouth of the Yukon,” said Clay scornfully.
As soon as they were well clear of the island, Clay shoved over the timer again and theRamblerleaped ahead like a sword fish.
The distance between the island and the famous river was not great and they soon headed up its broad bosom. Case had a chart of the lower Yukon and a box compass by which to steer, and they made steady progress up the great river. Long before twilight they ran theRamblerslowly into a tiny cove where they found the water deep enough to run her bow clear up on shore. An anchor was thrown on shore and another heaved as far as they could heave it and its cable tautened up so as to prevent theRamblerslewing in on the beach.
“I’m going to be boss for the rest of the day,” Clay declared, pleasantly, when the work was done. “First of all, I want that young monkey,” indicating Alex, “to go right to bed. I’ll make him a bowl of hot broth and he’ll be asleep in ten minutes after he drinks it.”
“Me for the broth and the blankets,” agreed Alex willingly, for he was coming to a realization of his weak state.
“Teddy Bear has got into better humor this afternoon, I believe, Case, if you would take him ashore and lead him around a bit he would eat a big supper and be his own good-humored self tomorrow.”
“I’ll go,” said Case, eagerly, for he was eager to explore the forest that stretched away back of the cove.
“Good,” approved Clay, “while you are gone Ike and I will cook up a big supper. We have been on rather short rations today.”
“Ike,” he said, as soon as the meal was well started, “come on up on deck with me, I want to talk with you a little.”
“Now, Ike,” he said as soon as they were seated close together on the cabin top. “I don’t want to pry into your personal secrets, but I do want to know something about those two men and why they are following us so closely. They nearly finished us off today. Next time they may be more successful. Now we want to know all we can about these men so as to know how to deal with them when we meet them again, as I feel sure we will. Wait a minute and I’ll read you something.” He took out a slip of the papers they had bought the morning they left Chicago and read the account of the holdup and robbery. “Pretty desperate men I should call them,” he commented. “Highway men, burglars, and almost murderers, in our case, at least. I think you had ought to tell us all about them.”
Ike’s face filled with trouble and anxiety and it was a full minute before he replied. “You are a man, may own a secret and be so bound by promise laid on him by some one else, that he is not free to tell it, you understand, but all I am free to tell you, I’ll tell you, Clay, tell it to you honestly.”
“I’ll believe you, Ike,” said Clay quietly.
“Well, you hear me speak often of my uncle. My uncle was a great man in the old country, a student and a scientist. He was rich, too, very rich, but instead of spending his time at court, he was all the time going amongst the poor, teaching, helping, and giving money where it was needed most. It’s a crime in Russia for a Jew to do like that, so the Little Father pretty soon takes away all his moneys and sends him to the mines in Siberia to work all his life, but, after eight years, they let him go, and we sent him the money to come to us in good America. But, after he come, he was not content. He wanted so bad to work, but his fingers were twisted and stiff from handling pick and shovel in the cold, so he could not get work in the sweat shops. That made him sad. Then one day comes the news of gold in Alaska and next morning uncle was gone, just leaving a little note saying that he was not going to be a burden on us any longer.” There was a dry sob in the lad’s throat at the recollection of the note, but he bravely conquered his emotion and went on. “About eight months later, we got a letter saying he had got to the Yukon and would send us some money in the spring, soon as the mining commenced. About every six months after that there comes a kind, cheery letter, but no money. Uncle’s not what you call a business man, he all the time dreams big dreams about helping the people, you understand. I believe he finds but little gold and much suffering on the Yukon.”
“But where do those two men come in?” asked Clay.
“They bring me a letter from him last fall. The moment they gave it to me I see it had been opened, but I kept quiet, and reads it while they keeps telling me they were my uncle’s partners and what a good friend they were of his. Then they ask me what was in the letter and I tells them I can’t say until I see my uncle and that I don’t understand it plain because there was a big piece torn off the bottom. All that winter they keep at me about that letter and all the time I tell them the same thing.
“I did some worrying that winter and I gets to thinking about the long trips you boys take every summer and makes no money, and I thinks that there’s a good chance for them boys to make a little money and a good chance for me to go too. So I kept at you about going till I gits you interested and you decided to go. I’m sorry now. Clay, honestly, Clay, I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” said Clay cheerily. “Jump down into the kitchen and stir up that stew and set the coffee back. I can smell it boiling.”
Ike was back in a moment and resumed his tale.
“That’s all that I know about them fellers, excepting what you fellows know. I wish I could tell you what was in the letter, but uncle told me to tell nobody till I see him, besides I don’t understand all of it myself, there’s so much of it torn off.”
“It’s all right, Ike,” Clay said absently. “I believe you and the boys will too. Stick by us and we’ll stick by you. I wonder what has become of Case.”