Worn out as they were by the adventures of the preceding day, the boys slept long and soundly. When at length Rob awoke he saw that the sun was shining brightly down through the smoke-vent in the roof. He called the others, who rolled over sleepily in their blankets.
“Time for breakfast, John,” said he, laughing.
“Yes, and no breakfast,” grumbled John—“at least, nothing but more crackers and tomatoes, and not very much of that.”
“I’ll have a look outside first,” said Rob, crawling over to the door and pushing it open. “I say, it’s a fine day! You can see the mountains all around as clear as you please. Wherever we are, it’s a big country at least.”
“What was that I heard just now?” exclaimed John, joining him at the door; “it sounded like a splash.”
They both crawled out of the door and stoodup where they could see the surface of the lagoon, which lay but a few yards distant from the front of the hut. Sure enough, a series of spreading wrinkles marked the water.
“Must have been a fish,” said John. “There he goes again!”
Even as he spoke Rob had left him and was running to the edge of the water. “Salmon!” he cried. “Salmon! I thought so. Now we’re all right!”
These were Alaska boys, and a run of salmon was nothing new to them, although it is something never failing of interest no matter how often one sees it. The three now gathered at the shallow water a short distance below the hut. All along the creek crows and ravens were flying in great flocks. From the heavy grove of cotton-wood beyond the creek there arose several great birds, soaring majestically across—eagles—also interested in the coming of the fish. Suddenly one of these made a swift dart from its poise high in the air, straight as an arrow, and flinging the water in every direction as it struck. Struggling, it rose again with a great fish in its talons.
“He’s gothisbreakfast, anyhow,” said John, ruefully. “But now how are we going to get ours?”
“Run to the boat, John,” said Rob. “I remember seeing some cod-lines with big hooks under the back seat. Must have belonged to those natives. You bring me those hooks while I hunt for a pole.”
Excitedly they all now began to see what might be done toward making a salmon-gaff such as Indians use; for all these boys knew very well that the Alaska salmon will not take any sort of a bait or lure when they are ascending a stream; and these were the red salmon, fish of about eight or ten pounds in weight, which in that part of the world are never known to take any kind of lure.
In a few minutes Rob, having found a longish pole in the grass near by, had hurriedly bound with a piece of cod-line the three large hooks at the end so that they made a gang or gaff. Taking this, and rolling up his trousers high as he could, he waded into the shallow, ice-cold water.
“Where are they now?” he asked of the others, who remained on the bank.
“There they come—there’s a school coming now!” cried Jesse.
All at once Rob could see the surface of the water below him just barely moving in low,silvery ripples as though a faint wind touched it. A sort of metallic lustre seemed to hang above the water—the reflection from the bright scales of the many fish swimming close to the surface. Presently, as he looked into the water directly at his feet, he could see scores of large, ghostly looking creatures, pale green or silvery, passing slowly by him, some of them so close as almost to touch his legs as he stood motionless. Once or twice he struck with his gaff, but the quick motions of the fish foiled him; and it looked as though the boys would wait some time for their breakfast, after all. At last, however, he waded closer to the shore and half hid behind a bush, extending his gaff in front of him with the hooks resting on the bottom.
“Now, drive them over this way—throw in some stones,” he directed.
The others did as he said, and all at once Rob saw the water directly in front of him full of a mass of confused fish. A quick jerk, and he had a fine, fat fish fast, and the next instant it was flopping on the bank, while all three of them fell upon it with eager cries.
“Now another!” said Rob. “They may not be running all day.”
He returned to his hiding-place near the bush,and thus in a few minutes he had secured a half-dozen splendid fish.
“That will do for now,” said he. “What do you think of the chance for breakfast now, Mister John?”
John grinned happily. He already had a couple of the fish nicely cleaned.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Jesse, “after we’ve had breakfast we’ll catch a lot of these fat ones and split them open the way the Indians do. I think we could make a smoking-rack for them without much trouble.”
“Capital,” said Rob. “We ought to dry some fish when we have the chance, because no one can tell how long we may have to live here.”
“But we won’t do anything till after breakfast,” said John, looking up.
“No,” laughed Rob, “I’m just as hungry as you are. So now let’s build a little fire and, since we have no frying-pan as yet, do what we can at broiling some salmon steaks on sticks.”
It was not the first time they had cooked fish in this way, and although they sadly missed the salt to which they were accustomed, they made a good breakfast from salmon and a cracker or so apiece, which Rob doled out to them from their scanty supply.
“We ought to keep what we have as long as we can,” said Rob. “For instance, we’ve only a couple of boxes of matches, and we must not waste one if we can help it. We’ll look around after awhile and see if we can scare up a frying-pan. But now I move that the first thing we do be to explore our country just a little bit.”
“Agreed,” said John, who was now well fed and contented. “Suppose we walk down to the mouth of the creek over there.”
Following along the winding shores of the small stream, which here at high tide was not above the level of the sea, they found themselves finally at the angle between the creek and the open bay, beyond the end of the low sea-wall which has earlier been mentioned. The creek here turned in sharply toward the foot of the mountain, and across from where the boys stood a sheer rock wall rose several hundred feet. This shut off the view of a part of the bay on that side, but in other directions they could see the white-topped waves rolling, eight or ten miles across to the farther side, where there were many other bays making back among the mountains.
Out in the bay where the stream emptied, schools of salmon, apparently thousands in number, were flinging themselves into the air as theystarted toward the mouth of the creek. At the last angle of the stream, where it turned against the rock wall, there was a pool perhaps fifty feet across and twenty feet in depth, and as the boys looked down into this it seemed literally packed with hundreds and thousands of great salmon, which swam around and around before picking out the current of the stream up which they were to swim.
“Here’s fish enough for us whenever we want any,” said Rob. “We can catch them here without much trouble, I think.”
“I don’t know, we may not be so badly off here for a while, after all,” admitted John.
“Just look at the gulls,” said Jesse, idly shying a pebble at one great bird as it came screaming along close above them, to join its kind in the great flocks that circled around above the salmon, which they were helpless to feed upon, not being equipped with beak and talons like the eagles.
“Yes,” said Rob, “thousands of them. And every pair of them with a nest somewhere, and every nest with two eggs, and a good many of them good to eat. Do you see those tall, ragged rocks out there? That looks to me like their nesting-ground.”
“But we can’t get there,” said John, pointing to the creek.
“Oh yes, we can, in two ways. We could wade the creek up above and climb across the shoulder of the mountain there, and maybe cross the next creek beyond, and so get out to those rocks on the point below. Or we can launch the dory up above and come down the coast to the mouth of the creek, and then skirt the shore over there.”
“Why don’t we bring our boat over here and take it up the creek?” asked Jesse. “We wouldn’t have to row more than a mile or so, and then we’d always know our boat was safe.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Rob. “We’ll do that this very day. Suppose we go back now to the house.”
They now turned and began slowly to walk up the creek again. Suddenly Rob stooped down and parted the grass, looking closely at something on the ground.
“What is it, Rob?” asked John, joining him.
The two now pushed the grass apart and looked down eagerly. Rob rose to his knees and pushed the cap back on his forehead.
“If I didn’t know better,” said he, “I’d call that the track of an elephant or a mastodon or something. See, there it goes, all along the shore.”
“But it can’t be an elephant,” said Jesse.
“No, it can’t be anything but just what it is—the track of a bear! What Uncle Dick said is true. Look, this track is more than half as long as my arm.”
“We’d better get back to the house as quick as we can,” said Jesse, anxiously. “That bear may come back any minute!”
The three now started up the creek toward the barabbara, their steps perhaps a little quicker than when they came down-stream. Rob was scanning the mountain-side carefully, and looking as well at the sign along the creek bank.
“That’s where he lives, up in that cañon across the creek, very likely,” he said, at length. “Here’s where he crossed in the shallow water, and last night he fished all along this bank. My! I’ll bet he’s full of bones to-day. It’s the first run of fish, and he was so hungry he ate pretty near everything except the backbone.” He pointed to a dozen skeletons of salmon that lay half hidden in the grass. The latter was trampled down as though cows had been in pasture there.
“I don’t know,” said Jesse, soberly. “I always wanted to kill a bear, and there’s three of us now and we’ve got guns; but I don’t believe I ever wanted to kill a bear quite as big as this one.Why, he could smash in the door of our house in the night and eat us up if he wanted to.”
“We’ll eathim, that’s what we’ll do,” said John, decisively. “I only wish we had a kettle or a frying-pan or something.”
“Seems to me you’d better get the bear first,” said Jesse. “But we might look in among the traps in the back of the hut and see what we can find. These hunters nearly always leave some kind of cooking things at their camps.”
Sure enough, when the boys entered the barabbara to look after their rifles, and began to rummage among the piles ofklipsieswhich they found thrown back under the eaves, they unearthed a broken cast-iron frying-pan and, what caused them even greater delight, a little, dirty sack, which contained perhaps three or four pounds of salt. They sat on the grass of the floor and looked at one another with broad smiles. “If everything keeps up as lucky as this,” said Jesse, “we’ll be ready to keep house all right pretty soon. But ought we to use these things that don’t belong to us?”
“Surely we may,” answered Rob. “It is always the custom in a wild country for any one who is lost and in need to take food when he finds it, and to use a camp as though it were hisown. Of course we mustn’t waste anything or carry anything off, but while we’re here we’ll act as though this place were ours, and if any one finds us here we’ll pay for what we use. That’s the Alaska way, as you know.”
“You’re not going out after that big bear, are you?” asked Jesse, anxiously, of Rob.
“Of course; we’re all going! What are these new rifles for—just look, brand-new high-power Winchesters, every one—and any one of these guns will shoot as hard for us as for a grown man.”
They sat for some time in the hut discussing various matters. At last John crawled to the door and looked out. He was rather a matter-of-fact boy in his way, and there seemed no special excitement in his voice as he remarked: “Well, Rob, there comes your bear.”
The others hurried to the door. Sure enough, upon the bare mountain slope beyond the lagoon, nearly half a mile away, there showed plainly enough the body of an enormous bear, large as a horse. It was one of the great Kadiak bears, which are the biggest of all the world.
“Cracky!” said Jesse; “he looks pretty big to me. Do you suppose he’ll find us here in the house?”
Rob, the oldest of the three, who had been on one or two hunts with his father, looked serious as he watched this giant animal advancing down the hill-side with its long, reaching stride. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation. “Look!” said he; “there’s two more just come out of the brush. It’s an old she bear and her cubs coming down to fish!”
All could now see the three bears, the great, yellow-gray mother, huge and shaggy, and the two cubs, darker in color and, of course, much smaller, although each was as large as the ordinary black bear of the United States. Certainly it was an exciting moment as the boys looked at these great creatures now so close at hand.
Presently the old bear seemed to suspect something, for she stopped and sat up on her haunches, swinging from side to side a head which was fully as long as the arm of any one of the boys.
“She probably smells the smoke,” whispered Rob. “Oh, I hope she won’t get scared and run away! No, there she comes; it’s the first salmon run, and they’re all hungry for fish.”
They watched the bears until at last they disappeared in the brush which lined the creek on the farther side. Rob kept his eye intently fixedon the place where they had disappeared, but made no motion to leave the hut until finally all three of the bears once more appeared, this time splashing across the creek.
“She knows the tide as well as we do,” muttered he. “It won’t be long now before the fish begin to move up the creek again. Now, come on, fellows, if you’re not afraid!”
Rob looked around at John, who had his new rifle in his hand, but looked none too eager, now that the opportunity had come to use it. Jesse’s lip, it must be confessed, trembled a little bit, and he was pale. The first sight of a large bear has been known to unsettle the nerves of many a grown man, and it was not to be wondered at that it should disturb one of Jesse’s years. There was, perhaps, in the wild and remote situation in which they found themselves something which gave them courage. They had escaped such dangers of the sea that now the danger of the land seemed less by comparison. Moreover, they all had the hunting instinct, and were accustomed to seeing big game brought in by their relatives and friends. Had an older person been with them, no doubt they would all have been frightened; but there is something strange in the truth that when one is thrown on one’s own resourcescourage comes when needed—as it did now to these three castaways.
Without any further speech Rob passed out at the door and stood waiting for the others to follow. Each was silent as he held his way down the creek.
For some distance they did not need to conceal themselves; then their leader took them along the edge of the creek, where their heads would not show above the grass. Thus following down the stream, and carefully peering over the banks at each bend, they worked along until they were perhaps three or four hundred yards above the big salmon pool and near to a flat piece of water which extended above it. Rob raised a warning finger.
“Listen!” he hissed.
They could hear it now distinctly—heavy splashing in the water, broken with low, grumbling whines in a deep, throaty voice, something like what one may hear in a circus at feeding-time. Once in a while a squeak or a bawl came from one of the cubs. Rob laughed. From his position near the top of the bank he could now see the picture before him.
The old mother was sitting on her haunches out in the middle of the stream, with a cub oneither side of her. She was trying to teach them to fish. Once in a while she would make a sudden, cat-like stroke with her long forearm, and almost always would throw out a fine salmon on the bank. Toward this the cubs would start in their hunger, but the old lady, reproving them for their eagerness, would then cuff them soundly on the head, knocking them sprawling over in the water, to their very great disgust. Once in a while one of them, his ears tight to his head, would sit down in the water, lift up his nose and complain bitterly at this hard treatment. Then again he would make a half-hearted stroke at some of the fish which he could see swimming about him; but his short claws would not hold like the long, curved ones of his mother, and no fish rewarded the efforts of either of the cubs. The boys lost all sense of fear in watching this amusing scene, which they studied for some minutes. They really lost their best opportunity for stalking their game, because presently the old grizzly changed her mind and led the way out to the bank where several fish were lying flapping. Upon these they all fell eagerly, grunting and grumbling, and now and again fighting among themselves.
Rob turned toward his friends. “Quick now!” he whispered, sternly, and led the way, crawlinginto the high grass which would afford them cover for a closer approach to their game. The hearts of all of them now were throbbing wildly, and probably each one doubted his ability to do good shooting. Something, however, led them on, and although Rob saw two pale faces following him when he looked back, there was a glitter in the eyes of each which told him that at least each of his friends would do his best.
Passing now out of the grass to the cover of the bank again, Rob ran along crouching, until he pulled up under cover of the bank at a point not more than seventy-five yards from where they could now distinctly hear the bears at their feeding.
“Get ready now!” he whispered.
Slowly the three crawled to the top of the bank. Rob laid a hand on Jesse’s rifle barrel, which he saw was unsteady. He made motions to both of the others not to be excited. A strange sort of calm seemed to have come upon him. Yet, plucky as he was, he was not prepared for the sight which met him as he gazed through the parted grass at the top of the bank.
The old grizzly, once more suspicious, had again sat up on her haunches, and turning her head from side to side began to sniff as though shescented danger. Her shaggy hair shone silvery now in the sun, and she seemed enormously large. Rob’s heart leaped to his mouth, but suddenly dropping to his knee, and calling out to the others “Now!” he fired without longer hesitation.
The sound of the other two rifles followed at once. The great bear gave a hoarse roar which seemed to make the hair prickle on the boys’ heads; but even as she roared she dropped and floundered in the mud of the bank, up which she strove to climb. Again and again the rifles spoke.
“Now the little ones—quick!” cried Rob, half springing to his feet, and continuing to fire steadily. Some one’s shot struck the first cub square through the spine and killed it instantly. The second cub stood but a moment longer. These boys had used rifles many times before, and although not every shot went true, perhaps half of them struck their mark; and it was as Rob had said—the rifles shot as hard for them as for a grown man.
The great she bear, possessed of enormous vitality, was not easily disposed of. The magazines of all the rifles were emptied the second time before Rob would allow them to go a foot closer, and even so, the great gray body retained life enoughto roll half down the bank as they approached. This time Rob finished the old bear with a shot through the head, at a distance of not more than thirty yards.
The game was down and dead—three great bears, one of them huge beyond the wildest dreams of any of them, and unbelievably large even for the most widely experienced sportsman. Indeed, any sportsman might have been proud of this record. Rob turned to look at his friends.
Suddenly he himself sat down, and to his surprise found that he was trembling violently all over. Jesse and John were both doing the same. He saw that their faces were deathly pale.
“I’m—I’m—I’m sort of—sort of sick at my stomach!” said Jesse.
“
Well,” said Rob, finally, looking around at his friends and grinning, “I don’t know which of us is the worst scared; but, anyhow, we’ve got our game, and a lot of it. Do you suppose we can skin these big fellows?”
“We’ll have to,” said John. “There’s meat enough to last us a year. That old bear is bigger than any horse in Valdez.”
“And tough as any horse, too,” said Rob. “The cubs may be better to eat. I have heard my father say that bear liver isn’t bad; and certainly we can get all the fat we want to fry our fish. Lucky we’ve all got our hunting-knives along; so here goes!”
They now arose and began the difficult task of skinning out the great bear—slow work for even an experienced hunter. They kept at it, however, and had made a good beginning when all at once a slight sound at the edge of the creek bank attracted Rob’s attention.
As he turned the others noticed him, and all three of them stood staring an instant later at the same object: a round, dark face gazing at them motionless through the grass—a face with cunning little eyes set slantwise, like those of a Japanese, and long, stringy locks of dark hair hanging down about the cheeks. Instinctively each boy reached for his rifle, which he had left leaning against the carcass of the great bear. Apparently not alarmed, the face kept its place, staring steadily at them. Rob now guessed the truth, which was that this Aleut savage had heard the shots and had entered the mouth of the creek in his boat. Not knowing whether he was friend or foe, Rob motioned the others to follow him, and approached him with his rifle at a ready.
Seeing that they were not afraid, nor disposed to be driven from their place, the Aleut savage—for such it proved to be—arose, and with what he meant to be a smile stretched out his hand as though in friendship. His gun, a rusty old affair, he left lying on the ground at his side. Rob kicked it away as he approached.
They now saw how the Aleut had reached them. His boat, a long, native bidarka, lay in the creek, up which the native had paddled silently on his own errand of discovery. Thisboat interested the boys very much. It was nearly twenty feet long and not more than two feet wide, covered entirely with tightly stretched skin. In the deck were two round holes, around each of which there was a mantle, or hood, of oiled hide or membrane, which could be drawn up about the waist of a man sitting in the hatch. On the narrow and sloping deck there was lashed a long spear and an extra paddle. The boys also noticed sticking to the deck a stringy-looking mass of grayish white, which at first they could not identify, though later they found it to be a collection of devil-fish, or octopi, which the native had gathered among the rocks for later use as food. Peering into the hatches they saw a copper kettle partly filled with a whitish-looking meat, which later they found to be whale flesh. There was a ragged blanket of fur thrust under the deck between the hatches.
“He’s been cruising along the coast,” said Rob; “but this is a two-hatch bidarka, so probably he’s got a partner somewhere around.”
“Maybe he’s up at our house now stealing everything we left there,” suggested Jesse.
“Yes, and maybe it’s his house that we’ve moved into,” added John.
Rob, the older of the boys, and the one onwhose judgment they had come to rely, remained silent a moment.
“Boys,” said he, at last, “this fellow looks like mischief to me. We can’t let him go away, to come back after awhile and rob us. We can’t leave his gun here with him and go on with our work. The only thing we can do is to take him in charge for a while.”
“Let me get his gun away from him,” began John.
Possibly the Aleut understood some of this, for all at once he made a sudden spring and caught at his gun.
Quick as a flash Rob covered him with his own rifle. “No, you don’t,” he said; “drop it! That settles it for you!”
Again the Aleut seemed to understand, for he stood up, tried to smile again, and once more held out his hand.
“Take his gun and chuck it in the boat, Jess,” commanded Rob. “Now you mush on!” he ordered the Aleut, pointing to the carcass of the bear. (“Mush on,” in Alaska dog-train vernacular, means “march on,” being a corruption from the French wordmarchons.)
The native sullenly walked on ahead, and finally sat down by the side of the bear.
“You watch him, John,” said Rob. “I’ve got to go on skinning this bear.” So saying, he resumed his work, presently rejoined by Jesse.
The native watched them, but finally began to smile at their clumsiness.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Jesse; “if he’s so smart about this, let’s make him help skin.”
“A good idea!” added Rob. He began to make signs to the Aleut. “Here, you,” said he, “get up and go to work—and keep on your own side of the bear.”
He pointed to the crooked knife which he saw in the native’s belt. The latter, none too well pleased, sulkily arose and began to aid in skinning the bear. It was easy to see that it was not the first work of the kind he had done. He laid the hide off in folds, with long, easy strokes, doing twice as much work as all the other three. After a time the boys stopped their work entirely and stood watching him with admiration. The Aleut paid no attention to this, but went on with his work, once in awhile helping himself to a piece of raw fat. In the course of half an hour or so he had the great robe spread out on the grass, with the difficult work of skinning out the feet all done, and the ears, nose, and all parts of thehead skinned out without leaving a slashed spot on the hide.
“This beats doing it ourselves!” said John, who was not especially fond of work.
“We ought to thank him some way,” said Rob. “You know a little Chinook, John; why don’t you talk to him?”
John grinned.
“Kla-how-yah, tillicum!” he began.“Klosh-tum-tum, eh?Skookum! Skookum!”
Again the Aleut smiled in his distorted way, but whether or not he understood no one could tell.
“What did you say to him, John?” asked Jesse.
“Asked him how he was; told him that we were all pretty good friends, and that he had done mighty good work,” interpreted John, proudly.
“Well, it didn’t seem to do much good, anyhow,” said Rob. “But what shall we call him?”
“Call him Jimmy,” said Jesse. “He looks as though his name might be Jimmy as much as anything else.”
“All right!” agreed their leader. “Here, you, Jimmy, catch hold here! I’ll show you a betterway of getting this hide up to camp than carrying it there.”
He motioned that they should put the hide on the deck of the bidarka, and in time this was done, although the great weight of the green hide, a load for two strong men, sunk the bidarka so deeply that half its deck was covered.
“Now get in, Jimmy,” ordered Rob, pointing to the rear hatch. The native stepped in lightly, paddle in hand, and showed his ability to handle the little craft, even heavily loaded as it now was. Rob pointed up the creek, but with a sudden sweep of his paddle the Aleut turned the other way and started for the sea.
“Quick, get the guns!” cried Rob. “Head him off across the bend!”
Quick as were their movements, they were none too soon, for as they rushed across the narrow part of the creek bend they saw the Aleut almost upon them. He made no attempt to get at his gun, which was buried under the hides in the front hatch, but was paddling with all his might. Without hesitation Rob fired two shots into the water ahead of his boat, and held up his hand in command to him to stop. These things were language that even an Aleut could understand. Scowling and sullen, he slowly paddled up to thebank. He understood the fierce menace of the three rifles now pointing at him. This time he obeyed the gestures made to him, and, turning about, proceeded to paddle slowly up the creek, followed by the boys along the bank.
When they reached the lagoon in front of the barabbara they stood for a time closely watching the latter. No sign of any visitor appeared, however. At last Rob boldly went on, kicked open the door, and called to the others to follow. Evidently, if the Aleut had any companion, he was not in that part of the island.
“You watch me make this fellow work,” said John. “I know a few words of Aleut as well as some Chinook. Here, you, Jimmy,” he went on,“sashgee augone! Skora!”
To the surprise of all the Aleut actually smiled, as though in pleasure at hearing his own tongue.
“Got him that time!” said John, importantly. “Why, I can talk to these people all right.Skora, Jimmy!” he added, sternly, pointing to the fireplace.
“Da! Da! Skora!” said the Aleut, and began to hunt about for wood.
“What did you tell him that time?” asked Jesse.
“Told him to make a fire, and be jolly quick about it,” said John. “If you want to get anything done, come to me, fellows. Look at Jimmy build that fire!”
In truth the Aleut seemed to accept the place assigned him. He not only built the fire in the middle of the hut, but picked up the skillet as a matter of course, wiped it out with some dried grass, put into it some of the bear fat, and added a part of the liver which they had brought along. He handed out the empty pail to John, grunting something which no one understood; but John, passing the pail in turn to Jesse, said he thought that what the Aleut wanted was some water to boil.
“Chi?” asked the Aleut, suddenly, of John.
“Natu chi,” said John (“Haven’t got any tea”).
In reply to this the Aleut stooped down, went out of the door, and walked over to the bidarka, where it lay at the bank. Rob followed him to see that he attempted no treachery, but the Aleut seemed to have no intention of that. He pulled out from his boat a dried seal-skin or two, his old blanket, and his gun, which latter Rob took from him.
“He’s been hunting and fishing,” said Rob. “Looks like he had a bear-hide of his own underneath there. He’s got two or three fresh codfish, and here’s his cod-line of rawhide—with bone sinkers. And here’s a bow and some bone-tipped arrows, besides his spear there on the deck. If we kept his rifle and turned him loose he could make a living all right.”
“But we don’t want to turn him loose,” said John; “he’s too useful. Look at that.”
The Aleut finally produced from under the deck a dirty little bag tightly tied.
“Chi!” he exclaimed, holding it up in triumph.
“You see,” said John, “we’ve got tea all right. Now it looks to me that we could get a pretty good meal.”
By the time the Aleut had prepared their supper for them, and had made each a tin can of hot tea, all the boys began to feel tired and sleepy, for now the hour of night was well advanced, although the Alaskan sun stood well above the horizon.
“I’m mighty sleepy,” said John, yawning.
“I should think you would be,” said Jesse, “after all you ate. But if we’re sleepy, why can’t we go to sleep?”
“That would never do,” spoke up Rob. “Wedon’t know what this native might do while we were all asleep. I’ve been thinking that over. It seems to me the only way we can do is to tie his hands together, so he can’t do any harm, and then take turns in standing watch.”
“Have we got to do that always?” asked John, sleepily.
“We’ve got to do it to-night, at least,” said Rob, emphatically. “Take that piece of hide rope, John, tie his wrists together, and pass it down to his ankles behind his back. He can sleep a little in that way, at least; and I’ll stand the first watch.”
The Aleut, not doubting at the first of these motions that they intended to kill him, fell upon his knees and began to jabber, apparently begging for mercy. At last he grinned as he looked down at his manacled hands, and presently, without much more ado, rolled himself over on his blankets and seemed to fall asleep. On the opposite side of the hut Jesse and John followed his example, and soon were fast in real sleep. Rob sat by the failing fire, his rifle across his knees. He, too, was tired with the work of the day. At times, in spite of himself, his head would drop forward and he would awake with a start.
Rob awoke with a sudden jerk. A slight sound had disturbed him. He gazed steadily at the figure of the Aleut in the faint light of the embers. The latter was lying quite motionless, but something caused Rob to feel suspicious. He put out a hand and awakened his two companions, who sat up, rubbing their eyes sleepily.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jesse. “Where are we, and what sort of a place is this? My! I was dreaming, and I thought I was back home in bed.”
“John,” said Rob, “crawl over and look at that fellow’s fastenings. I thought I heard him move. Don’t be afraid. I’ll keep him covered with the rifle. Build up the fire a little.”
John complied, presently stooping down to examine the cord with which the Aleut had been confined. He gave an exclamation. “Why, he’s loose! He’s gnawed the hide clean in twowith his teeth. He could have got away any time he liked.”
Rob admitted his fault. “The truth is,” said he, “I was very sleepy, and I must have dozed off. But now, what shall we do? Here we’ve got this man, and he evidently doesn’t intend to stay a minute longer than he can help. Whether he would hurt us or not is something we can’t tell; but we don’t dare take the chance.”
“It’ll be a great deal of trouble to watch him this way all the time,” suggested John.
“True, but we must watch him. On the other hand, what right have we to take him prisoner, since we don’t know that he ever meant any wrong? We’re not officers of the law, and this man has not committed any crime, so far as we know. The question is, what would he do to us if he got us before a law-court and accused us with making him a prisoner for no cause?”
The three sat in the dim light of the hut for a time and pondered over these matters. At length Rob spoke again with decision.
“It’s the greatest good for the greatest number,” said he. “It seems to me that the best thing we can do is to treat this man well, but not let him get away. He ought to do his share ofthe work, and he’s stronger than any of us. Then, if we should ever be rescued—”
Jesse’s lips began to twitch. Evidently he was getting rather homesick. Rob noticed his face, and went on: “Of course we will get out of here before long, someway,” he said. “Meanwhile, we will have to make the best living here we can. If we ever get this man to a white settlement, where we can find out who and what he is, why, then, we can pay him for his time, if it should prove that he is only an innocent native hunting away from his village. On the other hand, if he turns out to be a criminal of any kind, then we’ve had a right to arrest him, and can’t get into any trouble over it.”
“It’s a pretty rough joke on him,” said John, “if he hasn’t done anything wrong. He acts as though he had been here before. For all we can tell, he may own this house that we’ve taken over for ourselves. The only thing sure is that he’s a better hand in camp than we are, the way things stand now. I’m for keeping him and letting him work. My folks’ll pay him whatever is right, if it comes to that; and you never saw an Aleut who wasn’t glad to get hold of a little money, I’ll warrant that.”
“Well,” said Rob, “we’ll let it stand that way.And now, as the night seems to be about half done, suppose you and Jess keep watch together and let me take a little nap. If one of you gets sleepy the other can waken him. I suppose there’s no use tying that man again, for he’s got teeth like a beaver.”
The Aleut made no further disturbance during the long hours of waiting, which seemed endless to the two young watchers. At last, however, the light grew stronger in the dark interior of the barabbara. John announced his entire willingness to eat breakfast, and, pushing open the door, motioned for the Aleut to go and get some wood. Without any resistance the man did as he was bid, shaking the remaining thong off his wrist with a grin. They finished their breakfast of bear meat and tea, the prisoner seeming immensely to enjoy the biscuits which the boys offered him as pay in return for his contribution of tea.
“Now, what’s on the programme for to-day?” asked John, finally. “It certainly looks as though we ought to take care of all that meat.”
“Yes,” assented Rob. “We’ll see if we can’t dry some of it, at least. Suppose you go on down the creek, John, and keep the crows and eagles away from the meat, while the rest of usbring the boat down the beach and into the mouth of the creek. That’ll give us plenty of boat room to bring up quite a cargo of meat to the camp here.”
“There’s another thing we ought to do,” said John, “and that is to put up some kind of a signal in case a boat should come down into the bay here. Of course Uncle Dick will be looking for us, and there might be a boat in here almost any day.”
“That’s a capital idea!” exclaimed Rob. “Now, Jesse, if you’ll get a long pole and tie this handkerchief to it, I’ll meet you over at the dory with the other things which we’ll need on our trip this morning.”
Rob left the Aleut’s gun on the deck of the bidarka, but carried along his hide fishing-line and both the bidarka paddles. His own rifle and that of Jesse he put in one end of the dory, opposite the seat where he intended the Aleut to sit. Telling Jesse to watch the latter, he once more ascended to the top of the sea-wall, and here erected his signal-flag, piling up a heap of stones at the foot of the staff. Long and anxiously he gazed out toward the mouth of the bay, but only the long green billows of the sea came rolling in, unbroken by any sail or cloud of smoke. Acrossthe bay, a half-dozen miles or so, the great mountains stood grim and silent, the tops of many of them wreathed in fog. It was a wild and desolate scene, and one to try the courage of any young adventurer. But Rob, seeing how homesick Jesse was becoming, did his best to cheer him as he joined him at the dory.
“Plenty to do to-day!” he said. “And now for a good boat ride. It’s lucky we’ve so good a sea-boat along as this dory—it’s far safer than Jimmy’s bidarka over there.”
Rob seated himself at the stern and put Jesse in the bow. He motioned to the Aleut to take up the oars and row, and the latter, without objection, skilfully got the dory out through the surf, and at once proved himself master of the white man’s oars as well as the native paddle. The wind was coming astern, and their run of something like a mile down to the mouth of the creek was made rapidly. Just around the point from the mouth of the stream Rob motioned to the Aleut to stop rowing.
“It looks deep here,” said he to Jesse. “Maybe we could get a codfish. Here, Jimmy, take a try with your own fishing-line.”
The Aleut grinned as Rob tossed him his rough-looking line of hide, and at once set to work. Nordid he prove inefficient, even with this rough tackle of hide and bone. He baited the crude hook with a piece of meat which he took from his pocket, and dropped it overboard in twenty fathoms of water. Motioning to Rob to keep the boat steady, he began to pull the line up and down in long, steady jerks. Before long he gave a short grunt and began to pull it in rapidly hand over hand. Rob and Jesse, gazing over the side, at length saw the gleam of a large fish deep down in the water. The Aleut, with another grunt, pulled the fish in, swung it over the sides, and threw it flopping at the bottom of the dory. It was a fine codfish weighing perhaps a dozen pounds.
“Well, I’ll say one thing,” said Jesse, finally, smiling: “since we have to make a living for ourselves, this is about as easy as any country we could have gotten into. Try it again, Jimmy.”
Whether or not Jimmy understood any English they never knew, but at least he cast over his bone hook once more, and, continuing his operations as the dory slowly drifted, in less than half an hour he had eight fine fish aboard.
“That’ll do, old man!” said Rob to him, and motioned to him now to row into the mouththe creek which was nearly opposite. They now could see John waiting for them on the shore. He had seen them fishing, and congratulated them on their fine catch, agreeing with Jesse that certainly they at least would not lack abundance to eat.
“I’ve heard you can make salt by boiling sea-water,” said John, who, although a hearty eater, was sometimes rather particular about his food. “That is almost the only thing we need that we haven’t got now. Our little sack won’t last forever.”
“Yes,” said Rob, “it would be all the better for our bear meat in this moist climate. But we’ll have to do the best we can by drying it with smoke.”
They now pulled the dory into the mouth of the little creek, turning it at the face of the high rock wall, and noticing the thousands of salmon that swam round and round the deep pool just above the entrance of the stream. From this point up the crooked bends to the place where the dead bears lay was perhaps a quarter of a mile. But presently they all met there.
“There is pretty near a ton of meat,” said Rob, looking down at the dead bears. “We ought to have skinned those young bears yesterday,but will do that now before they spoil. Then maybe we can make Jimmy understand what we want to do about saving the meat.”
They all fell to work now, the boys at one of the cubs and the Aleut at the other. The latter, with a grin of triumph, held up his fresh hide entirely skinned out before the three boys together had finished theirs. In some way he seemed to understand what they wished to have done about the meat, perhaps himself being inclined to see that plenty of food was on hand, since his captors were not disposed to let him go away. The Aleuts, who never see any fresh beef, and who live in a country where not even caribou are often found, are very fond of bear meat, which the more civilized ones call “beef.” The captive seemed to understand perfectly well how to take care of this “beef,” and he took out the long tenderloins from the back of each cub and separated the hams. For the big bear he did not seem to care so much, and made signs to show that it was tough and hard to eat. Rob insisted, however, that he should take some of the choicer parts of the bear also, since it seemed a shame to let it waste. They loaded their dory down as heavily as they dared, and so, dragging on the painter and poling with the oars, at lastthey got their cargo up to camp, mooring the dory alongside the bidarka.
Without much more ado Jimmy began to search around in the grass and found some long poles, one end of which he rested on the roof of the barabbara, supporting the other on some crotches which he set up. Across these poles he laid smaller sticks and made a rough drying-rack. He showed the boys how to cut the meat into long, thin strips, and under this, after it was stretched on the rack, he built a small fire, so that the smoke would aid the sun in curing the meat—none too sure a process in a country where rain was apt to come at any hour. After this the Aleut turned toward the dory, and hauled out something which the boys had not noticed before. He busied himself at the edge of the lagoon.
“What’s he doing, John?” asked Rob.
They all stepped up and watched him.
“Why, that’s the intestines of the old bear,” said Rob, at last. “I didn’t see him throw them into the boat.”
“I know what he’s doing,” said John. “He’s going to clean ’em out. They make all sorts of things. For instance, that hood around the bidarka is made out of this sort of thing, I believe. And then they make other outfits—”
“Kamelinka!” said Jimmy, suddenly, holding up a part of the intestines and smiling. He motioned to his own sleeves.
“Da! Da!” exclaimed John, in Aleut language. “Yes, that’s so! Sure!
“He means he is going to make one of their rain-coats out of it,” he explained to the others. “Akamelinkais made out of these membranes, and they put it on like a coat, and no water can get through it. Didn’t you ever see one? They tear if they’re dry, but if you wet them they’re tough, and no water will go through them. Mr. Jimmy puts on hiskamelinka, and gets in the bidarka and ties the hood around his waist, and there he is, no matter how high the sea runs. No water gets into the boat, and when he comes home he is dry as when he started. Pretty good scheme, isn’t it?”
They watched Jimmy for a time at his work before they finished stretching all the meat. Then they cleaned the codfish and put them inside the hut, so that the crows could not get them. Over the fresh meat on the scaffold they now spread some damp grass, because it was their intention to leave the place for a little while.
“We’ll make a hunt this afternoon,” said Rob, “and see whether we can find any gull eggs.First we want to see what our resources are, and after that we can help ourselves as need be.”
Accordingly, after they had taken the cargo out of the dory, and thus completed their labors for the time, they all four embarked in the dory, pushed rapidly down the creek, and out into the open waters of the bay. Here, a half-mile ahead of them, below the mouth of the creek, they saw some rough pinnacles of rock, over which soared thousands of sea-birds. As they approached these rocks they found a narrow beach wide enough to hold the dory. It took them but a few moments’ climb to gather all the eggs they wanted. These they were obliged to carry in their pockets or in the folds of their jackets. They trusted Jimmy to tell them which were fresh. Jimmy seemed always to know what ought to be done, and now without any advice he left the boys and proceeded to climb up to the steeper part of the rocks, where the nests of the gulls and sea-murres were so thick that he could scarcely avoid crushing the eggs as he walked. Evidently it was not eggs he sought. Agile as a cat, he climbed to the top of a sheer face of rock, and leaning over put his hand into a hole. A moment later the boys saw a dark body hurtle through the air and fall on the beach.It proved to be a stout, heavy, dark-colored bird with a strong, parrot-like beak and a crest of long yellow feathers on each side of the head.
“That’s a sea-parrot,” said Rob, picking it up. “Look out, Jesse, there comes another!”
Sure enough, one after another of the dead bodies of the sea-parrots fell on the narrow beach, until two or three dozen were lying there.
Jimmy ceased his labors, climbed down the rocks, and calmly began to skin off the breast plumage of the birds.
“What’s he doing that for?” asked Jesse of Rob.
“They’re not good to eat,” said Rob, “that’s one thing sure. I’ll tell you what—I’ve seen some dark-colored feather coats and blankets at the trader’s store down below Valdez. I’ll warrant they were made out of the breasts of these very sea-parrots here.”
Whatever were Jimmy’s plans he could not or did not disclose them. After a time he threw his heap of parrot-skins into the front of the dory, and stood waiting at the side of the boat, as though ready to go home if the others wished it. They therefore embarked for return to their camp.
“
If any of our people were along,” said John, as they headed the dory back toward the mouth of the creek, “I would say we could have a pretty good time here.”
“I don’t doubt,” answered Rob, “that we can get along all summer without trouble. I believe, too, that the natives come here so often we may be able to send out word even if we can’t get out ourselves. We can’t possibly be a hundred miles from Kadiak town, and although we might get there in our dory, the chances are so much against it that I think we would do better to stay right where we are for a time at least. As we were saying not long ago, this country furnishes a living without much trouble.”
“And without much work,” added John, “as long as we have Jimmy.”
“He’s stronger than we are,” admitted Rob; “still, each of us must do his share of the workaround camp, because that’s the only right way to do. He’s a good teacher, for we’re in his country and will have to live in his way—What’s on his mind now, do you suppose?” Rob continued, as Jimmy suddenly stopped rowing and began to look keenly off toward shore.
“I see him!” exclaimed Jesse, eagerly. “It’s a seal! Look at him!”
About sixty yards away there was a round object with two shining spots on it standing just above the water—the head of a seal which was closely examining the strange object which approached it. All at once, as they looked at it, the seal suddenly sank out of sight. Without instruction the Aleut now bent to his oars as hard as he could, and hurried to the beach which lay not far beyond. Hurriedly pulling the dory up, he motioned to Rob to get out with his rifle.
“There he is again!” called John, pointing. “He’s closer in now. Look, he isn’t a hundred yards away! You try him, Rob; you’re the best shot.”
Crouching down, Rob hurried toward a big rock which lay at the water’s edge. Here he rested his rifle and, taking quick aim, fired. The splash of the ball on top of the intervening wave showed that he had missed. Once more the sealsank, but in the course of a few minutes it appeared yet again, this time still closer in. Carefully Rob fired a second time, and this time they all heard distinctly the thud of the bullet, which proved that the shot had struck true. With a splash the seal disappeared, but giving a shout the Aleut pushed off the dory and called to them all to get in. In a few moments he brought them alongside the still struggling body of the seal, which appeared now above and now beneath the surface of the water. Hurriedly catching up his long spear, the native made a thrust at the seal and fastened it with the barb, and with many grunting chuckles drew it alongside. Soon, with a heave, he got it inboard—a small hair seal not much more than three feet in length.
“Karosha!” exclaimed the Aleut, with a grin.
“He means that it’s good—that it’s all right,” explained John, who seemed to be the official interpreter.
“Well, I don’t believe that I care to eat seal meat,” said Rob; “but maybe Jimmy knows what he can do with the hide, or something else. We’ll skin Mr. Seal and peg his hide out up at the camp. It’s time now we got the bear hides stretched so that they can begin to dry.”
Much elated with their successful day’s work,the boys now assisted the native in stretching all the green hides, flesh side upward. The native showed them how to flesh and scrape the hides, and they spent an hour or so at this until each complained that his back was aching.
“Suppose we cross the creek and take a little climb up the mountain-side,” suggested Rob. “We can get a good look out from there.”
“All right,” said John. “Of course we’ll have to take ourtillicumalong. Mush on, Jimmy!”
The Aleut, although apparently a native of the country where the language of the dog-train was little known, nevertheless seemed to understand the Alaskan command to “March!” He stood ready, only looking to see which way they wished him to go. Rob set off in advance, and they all splashed through the waters of the shallows at the lower end of the lagoon.
“Here’s where Jimmy has a good deal the best of us,” said Rob, pointing to their wet feet. “Our shoes will be gone in a little while; but look at his seal boots with high tops. They keep his feet dry.”
“They call themtabosas,” said John. “The Eskimos use boots like that, but they call themmukluks. You see, I used to know a native from up-coast who was a waiter in a restaurant at Valdez.That’s how I picked up my knowledge of the Aleut language—which, you see, is quite considerable,” he concluded, swelling out his chest a trifle.
“I see now why he wanted that seal,” commented Rob. “Every country has its own way of getting along, hasn’t it? Now, I suppose Jimmy here is about as comfortable when he is at home as we are in our houses down in Valdez; and he certainly does know how to make his living off the country.”
They now continued their slow climb up the steep mountain-side, which lay beyond the little creek. Here the deep moss or tundra extended quite to the top of the smallest peak, but although heavy snow-fields lay at the top, the spring sunshine had now melted the snow at the lower levels, so that continually they were walking in little pools of ice-water, none too pleasant to persons shod as they were.
Jesse, the youngest of the party, now and then stopped for a moment to catch his breath; and, in fact, he seemed none too happy with some of these hardships of their experience.
“Come on,” said Rob; “we’ll stop when we get to the thicket just up above there. Jimmy acts as though he was looking for something up there—I don’t know what.”
They toiled on upward, now and again turning to look at the great expanse of country which lay below them—the wide bay shining in the sunlight, the magnificent panorama of the mountains beyond, and the line of the deep sea beyond the entrance to the bay. They turned as they heard a sudden exclamation from Jimmy, who was prowling at the edge of the alder thicket where they had stopped for the moment. As he pointed down they saw the surface of the ground among the alders ripped up as though by a giant plough.
Jimmy held up three fingers and pointed below toward their camp, the smoke of whose fire they could dimly see. At first they could not understand him, until he made motions as if digging, and swung his head from side to side, grunting in such plain imitation of a bear that they could not mistake. Then they saw that this had probably been the feeding-ground of the three bears which they had killed. Apparently the bears had been living high up in the mountains for a long time, waiting for the salmon run to begin. The country was all torn up where they had dug for roots and bulbs.
“Well, now, what’s Jimmy going to do this time?” asked Jesse, interested.
The Aleut, talking to himself in some unknown words, was down on his hands and knees, himself digging in the holes among the alders.
“Karosha!” said he, at length, holding up several long, white bulbs about as thick as his finger; and he made a motion as though to eat them.
“Ah, ha!” said Rob. “This is an Aleut potato-patch, it seems. All right, we’ll just gather some of these and use them for vegetables. They’ll help out the meat and fish, perhaps.”
As Jimmy dug the bulbs they put them into the folds of their jackets and sweaters until they had a good supply. After this they made their way down the mountain, splashed through the creek again, and threw down their new discoveries beside the meat scaffold. Jimmy indulged in a broad smile.
“Plenty soup!” said he, suddenly.
“The beggar!” said Rob. “I shouldn’t wonder if he understood English as well as we do!”
They could not, however, induce him to use any further words than this, which is common among the Aleuts as the meaning of “food” or “plenty to eat,” they having got this word from their association with English-speaking persons. The Aleut language now is a mongrel, made uplargely of Russian, with many native words and a few of English.
Jimmy proceeded to show that he meant to use in his “soup” some of these bulbs which they had brought down, for now he began to strip them down to the clean white inner portion and half filled their water-can with them, presently setting it on the fire to stew. The boys never knew the name of this bulb, but they found it not unpleasant to eat—rather sweetish and insipid without salt, however.
They were all very tired that night; but they felt it necessary to keep some watch upon their Aleut prisoner, obliging as he had proved himself throughout the day. Again Rob stood the first watch, until he grew so sleepy that he was obliged to waken the others. Thus the long and uncomfortable night wore away, the prisoner being the only one who slept undisturbed.