The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers Part 31

Presently he felt a tug at the line which roped the members of the party together, and he stopped.

"What's the trouble?" he pa.s.sed back word.

"Duncan's gone under, sir."

Eric made an uncomplimentary reference to Duncan under his breath, then questioned,

"Unconscious?"

Came back the answer,

"Yes, sir; completely collapsed."

The boy was puzzled what to do. He could detach two members of the party to carry back the unconscious sailor, but that would reduce his strength from eight men to five. He could not leave the man alone, for if he lay on the ground for even ten minutes, he would be covered with volcanic ash and could never be found again.

"The two men nearest on the line pick Duncan up and bring him along," he ordered, and the party proceeded.

They had covered another hundred yards, when overhead they heard a fearful roar. In the murk and blinding confusion no one could tell what new peril was threatening, but a piece of pumice almost the size of an apple came whistling down, midway of the party. One of the sailors, with great presence of mind, whipped out his sheath knife and cut the rope, shouting,

"Forward! Quick as you can!" then doubled on those behind him, crying, "Back! Back!"

He was not a moment too soon, for full between the two halves of the party came a pouring torrent of ash. Its greasy and slippery character made it flow almost like water, though sending up clouds of dust.

Choking and blinded, the rear members of the party gave back. While they waited, not knowing whether the whole mountain side might not plunge down upon them, Duncan gasped and came to.

Meantime, Eric pa.s.sed back word to see how the rest of the party had fared. What was his horror to hear, from the fourth man in the line,

"No one back o' me, sir. An' the line's been cut through. Not broken, sir; cut clean!"

"Right about and go back," ordered Eric. "We've got to find the rest of them!"

"Beg your pardon, sir, but I can't."

"Why not?"

"There's a Niagerer of stuff comin' down the mounting, sir, and no one could stand up agin it for a minnit."

"Shout, then, and try if you can hear the others."

The sailor shouted, and then called to Eric,

"Yes, sir, there's an answerin' hail." Then, a moment later, "They say everything's all right. Four of them's there, sir, and Duncan's come around."

The rus.h.i.+ng "whoosh" of the ash-slide began to lessen, and presently, gallantly plowing through the still sliding pumice, came the first sailor. The rope was knotted and the party went on. A quarter of an hour later they reached the cannery. The _Redondo_ was lying anch.o.r.ed off the cannery wharf and Eric managed to attract the attention of the crew and get them to launch their boat. The boat pulled in as close to the beach as possible, until it was fast in the ash, then a line was thrown to the sh.o.r.e and the boat pulled in, though the last fifteen feet were like thick porridge. The seven men were brought along the beach and returned to the vessel. Not a sign remained of the trail the party had made on its outward trip.

It had taken three hours for the rescue, and as soon as the eight men reached the vessel, they gave way. Even Eric was compelled to put himself in the hands of the s.h.i.+p's surgeon. The doctors, one from the s.h.i.+p and one from the village, had been working night and day.

Hollow-eyed and unsleeping, they continued their task of reviving people suffocated by the fumes or strangled with ashes. More than one worker had collapsed utterly as the result of an unceasing fight against the volcanic fiery rain.

In the afternoon of that third day the sky began to clear and by three o'clock objects became dimly visible. Absolute dark gave place to an orange-brown light, under which, every object, cloaked in a mask of ashes, looked horribly unfamiliar. It was like waking into a new world where nothing would ever be the same.

The slight tremblings of the earth increased, and almost at the same time as the clearing of the sky, there was a serious shake. On board the _Bear_ the trouble was not so noticeable, but ash.o.r.e the occupants of the storehouse fled in terror, crying that the building would fall on them. Their fears were not without justification, for the big frame building creaked and swayed in an alarming manner.

This decided the matter. Every one was somehow stowed on board the _Bear_ and at slow speed, only enough to give steerage way, with two leads going, and the oldest and most experienced pilot in the bow to con her through the narrow channel, the cutter made her way out safely. She anch.o.r.ed in the outer harbor, fortunately having secured a bearing from Woody Island, whereby she could run out to sea by compa.s.s course should conditions warrant. This also gave an opportunity to relieve the suffering on Woody Island, and 104 persons were brought on board, making 486 people to be fed from the supplies handled by the _Bear_. It was incredible how so many could be accommodated, but the organization was perfect.

The night was spent in great suspense; but Eric, who had been relieved from duty, slept through it. It was noon before he finally wakened, to find a bright sunlit sky and a s.h.i.+p clear of ashes. In the afternoon, as the effects of the eruption cleared away, three expeditions were sent to Woody Island, to St. Paul, and to the neighboring islands. Eric was sent with the _Redondo_ on the rescue party that was headed for Afognak.

There it was learned that the eruption had come from Mount Katmai, on the mainland of the Alaska Peninsula, opposite Kodiak Island, and that there were people in distress in the region of the volcano. Without an instant's delay the _Redondo_ was headed out of the harbor, and despite a dense fog, she was run through the Kupreanoff Straits and across Shelikoff Straits to Kaflia Bay.

At half-past two in the morning, the _Redondo_ dropped anchor near the volcano, and as soon as it grew light, Eric was sent to head a landing party. Every hut was covered with ashes, and a native, pointing to one of the drifts, said it was as high as "five houses," or about fifty feet high. All the streams were buried; there was not a drop of liquid of any kind, and the villagers had lived in the tortures of that ash-choked air for three days, waterless. Two were delirious from thirst, all were at the point of exhaustion when the Coast Guard men appeared to save them.

With her engines throbbing at their utmost speed, the _Redondo_ pa.s.sed from point to point of the stricken coast, saving over fourscore lives that a half a day's delay would have rendered too late to save. When the dusk of that day deepened into evening, the _Redondo_ turned homeward from those shrouded sh.o.r.es, bearing to safety the homeless victims of the peninsula and islands close at hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NATIVE REFUGEES FROM KATMAI ERUPTION.

From waterless sh.o.r.es covered six feet deep with orange-grey dust, come famis.h.i.+ng fishers in their kayaks.

Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard.]

Still in the far distance rumbled the defeated earthquake, still upon the sky was reflected the lurid glow of the volcano, which, through the daring and the courage of the Coast Guard men, claimed not a single victim.

CHAPTER IX

DEFYING THE TEMPEST'S VIOLENCE

"I've been wondering," said Eric to Homer, a few days after his rescue trip on the _Redondo_, "what we're going to do with all these natives.

We can't take them back to the Katmai country. They just about live on fish and everything that swims was killed during the eruption. How are they going to exist? It'll be years before the fish come back."

"I can tell you all about that," his friend replied. "You know the commanding officer of the Bering Sea fleet came up, while you were away?"

"Yes, you told me."

"I heard all about the plans which the department had approved, on his suggestion. A new village is going to be built at the place which the Coast Guard picks out along the sh.o.r.e as being the best site for a town.

It's going to be a regularly laid out place, with sanitary arrangements and everything else complete."

"Give them all a new start, eh?"

"That's it, exactly. One of the other s.h.i.+ps of the fleet is cruising now along the coast to pick out the best spot. We're to send a carpenter ash.o.r.e there and leave him for the winter to look after the erection of igloos. He'll be in charge of enough supplies to last the settlement till spring."

"Whereabouts is this town going to be?" asked the boy.

"It's not definitely decided yet," was the reply, "but probably it'll be on Stepnovak Bay. It'll be quite a place, too, because it'll start out with a population of over 500 natives, maybe a thousand."

"That's a metropolis for Alaska," agreed Eric.