The Boy Scouts on the Yukon Part 6

"Bear; shootum," cried the Indian, who had only an ax with him. Jack raised his rifle and fired, and as the bear dropped on all fours fired another shot.

The animal let out a snarling cry, and, grasping one of the dogs which had ventured within reach of its enormous paws, squeezed the life out of it before it could let out a cry. The Indian gave a yell and ran in on the enormous animal, and with a well-directed blow of the ax split its skull open between the eyes. At the same time Jack, as a precaution, fired another shot into the creature's open mouth, and it rolled motionless on its side.

The shots and the cries of the Indian had aroused every one on the two boats, and Swift.w.a.ter and Skook.u.m Joe came running over the sands, rifles in hand. By this time the early dawn of the high lat.i.tude had rendered all objects visible, and the boys had also joined Jack and the Indian, who was circling cautiously around the huge brute, trying to ascertain the fate of the dog, which was still clasped in the death clutch of the now motionless animal.

"Ha," exclaimed Swift.w.a.ter, "a kodiak, and a corker; the biggest one I ever saw. You fellers were lucky to get him on the first shot, for that breed can make an awful mess if they start to fight. Hey, Skook.u.m, catch hold and let's flop him over."

Having satisfied themselves that the bear was dead, the miner and the guide, with the aid of the Indians, moved the enormous ma.s.s which, with the Indian's blow, had slumped down upon its hindquarters. With the greatest difficulty they succeeded in straightening it out. The Indian dog had been squeezed into a shapeless ma.s.s, and, ascertaining this, the Indian gave it no further attention for the time being.

"Mighty good thing you had a softnosed bullet in that rifle," said Skook.u.m, pointing to the gaping wound in the breast of the bear. "That spread, and did the business right away. A steel jacketed bullet would have gone straight through and would not have done so much harm. Then you might have been where the dog was."

Jack, who had been seized with a sort of buck fever after he realized what he had shot, was trembling with excitement as he received the almost envious congratulations of his friends.

"Begorra, we'll courtmartial you and drop ye from the Patrol," said Gerald, "if ye insist grabbing all the glory for yourself this way. Why don't you let us know when you are going out after adventures?"

"Yes, this is the second time that you have gone knight-erranting by your lone," said d.i.c.k, "and I can see nothing for it. If this Patrol of Boy Scouts is to get any chance to make a reputation it will have to put Mr.

Jack Blake on a leash, and tie him to our wrists when we lie down to sleep."

"Weel, if that big bear or whatever it is, is really dead, ye've certainly made a better job of it than ye did with Monkey," exclaimed Don, and, with the laugh that followed, poor Jack felt that the ridiculousness of that episode on the steamer had been practically wiped out.

Swift.w.a.ter and Skook.u.m measured the huge brown carca.s.s that lay stretched on the sand before them, and found it to be nearly ten feet from tip to tip. They guessed its weight to be about eight hundred pounds.

"That's about the limit," said Skook.u.m, "tho' I did hear of a skin once that measured thirteen feet."

"Well, Jack," said Swift.w.a.ter, "you've killed the largest meat-eating critter, in the world--carnivorous I think ye call it. There's none bigger than the big brown bear of Alaska. Some say he isn't so fierce as the grizzly, but he is nearly twice as big, and there's certain seasons that he'll fight at the drop of the hat, as the sayin' goes. I never see one so far from the coast before. He's called a kodiak because he hangs out down on Kodiak Island and on the Alaska and Kenai peninsulas."

"Yes," said Skook.u.m Joe, "he likes salmon better than a Siwash, and he set on the river bank and fish for himself all day long."

"Smellum salmon," spoke up one of the Indians, pointing to the fire where some skin of the rough, Indian smoked fish had been thrown by the aborigines the night before.

"Wa-al," said Swift.w.a.ter, with a grin at the Indian, "I reckon they could 'smellum' some o' that seal oil o' yours down to Seattle."

The Indians set swiftly to work while the boys looked on curiously, and soon had the enormous brown hide of the animal off the body. The latter they cut up and such portions as were available they put aboard the boats.

A few steaks were cooked for the boys for breakfast, but, as Swift.w.a.ter suggested, they found the meat dry and tough and very lean. The Indians seemed to relish it, however, and the remaining dog ate enormously.

Swift.w.a.ter promised Jack that as soon as they reached their destination he would arrange for the proper curing of the skin which he could have as a trophy.

"No," said Jack, "that goes to the Patrol for the floor of our room back in Creston, and if there is any glory attached to this matter that don't really belong to that Indian with the ax, I shall be glad to hand that over to the Patrol."

As they had all been aroused so early, Swift.w.a.ter gave orders for an immediate start up Gold Creek as soon as breakfast was over, that they might get in a long day and possibly reach their destination before night.

Just as they were aboard and were about casting off, one of the Indians who had disappeared for a time came running down to the water with a small bundle of fur in each hand. One was the skin of the wild cat killed the night before; the other the skin of his dog crushed to death by the bear that morning.

CHAPTER VII.

INTO THE WILDERNESS.

Skook.u.m Joe, equipped with a dog tent and some provisions, had been left on the point of the junction of the Lewes River and Gold Creek, to await the arrival of the down-river steamer of the Yukon and White Pa.s.s Railroad Company to arrive that day, and he waved them a friendly farewell as the Indians slowly poled their boats out into the stream. The current of Gold Creek was by no means as swift as that of the Lewes, and, while Swift.w.a.ter Jim took command of one boat, Rand was made captain of the other. Both boats had been built with narrow walking boards along the sides after the manner of the celebrated pole boats that plied on the Mississippi and its tributaries in the upstream journies in Lincoln's time. One of the boys was told off to work with the three Indians in each boat for short stretches at a time, thus placing two men on each side with poles about twelve feet long, while the commander of each boat with a long oar gave an occasional impulse to the direction in the way of steering, although little of this was necessary. Two of the pole men would start at the bow of the boat, placing their poles on the bottom of the creek and walk the full length of the "running board." As they reached the stern, two others would start at the bow and walk down the boat while their predecessors returned to the bow.

The Indians seemed to be able to continue this performance without intermission, and feel no fatigue from it, but the Scout who was detailed to aid the Indians soon found himself suffering from a peculiar aching in the side and back, that Swift.w.a.ter described as the "Siwash Curve," due entirely to the fact that the white man in poling up a river would exert himself in a way that the average Indian considered unprofessional, and would try to hold back, thus adding to the "white man's burden." He insisted that the white man usually got over this after the first day's work, and tried to make it pleasant for the Siwash ever after. He limited the trick of each boy at the pole for the first day to one hour, and he himself and Rand took their own turns at the poles to relieve the aching and untried muscles of the younger Scouts. Soon after leaving the sandy banks and tundra of the lower stream, the creek began to wind its way through dense forests of spruce, poplar and oak with the ghostly bark of the birch lighting up the dim that marks the tangled wildwood of more southern climates, showing how little the sunlight of these northern climes penetrated the overshadowing canopy.

"Fine woods for huntin'," remarked Swift.w.a.ter to Jack, as they poled slowly up stream, "also for travelin' in winter. Bresh won't grow very far in from the streams this far north. Great country for garden stuff howsomever."

"Do you mean to say that vegetables will grow this far north?" inquired the interested reporter.

"Finest garden sa.s.s in the world in some sections. Why, there's a valley between the Yukon and the Tanana, three hundred miles north of here, that can grow anything but bananas and cocoanuts. I'm told they grow bigger potatoes and cabbages, and carrots and other plain, ordinary cooking vegetables up there within a couple of hundred miles of the Arctic Circle than they do down in Oregon, where every man's truck patch looks like the floral hall at the county fair when I was a boy."

"How can anything ripen in the short summers up here?" asked Don.

"All vegetation has got to have light, and the more it has the harder it will grow. Sun up here is on the job all the time. Reminds me of the year that I started out to be star performer with old John Robinson's circus back in Injianny. Got up at three a. m. to help feed the animals and hosses, and a.s.sist the chef in the cook tent; waited on table for the canvas men and other n.o.bility from six to nine a. m., 'doubled in bra.s.s'

as the sayin' goes, with the band, by carryin' the front end of the ba.s.s drum in the gra-a-nd street parade, wore a toga as a Roman senator in the great entree, handled jugglin' and other apparatus durin' two performances, and at midnight helped to take down the big top. The other three hours I had to myself. I don't mean to say that the sun up here in the summer time performs all those gymnastics, but he works the same number of hours and everything up here that wants to live must keep right up with him. Ground is frozen twenty feet deep, and thaws out about eighteen inches in the summer time. That furnishes moisture. Consequently, gra.s.s and vegetable are on the jump all the time, working twenty hours a day, and they manage to mature. Oats and other grains that have to grow long stalks, I understand, however, never top out."

The work of poling the boats up stream was varied at times by what Swift.w.a.ter described as "ca.n.a.l work." At stretch where the banks of the stream were reasonably high and precipitous, and the water of considerable depth close to the sh.o.r.e, the three Indians in each boat fastened themselves tandem to a long cable stretched from the bow of the boat to the sh.o.r.e, and towed the craft for miles at a time, while one of the boys with the long steering oar kept the bow away from the sh.o.r.e and headed up stream. This method was considerable relief from the steady poling which told perceptibly upon the back and shoulders of the novice, and it formed a method of rest for the Indians. The progress was about three miles per hour, and the boys alternately spent considerable time ash.o.r.e, walking along the banks and occasionally relieving one or two of the Indians in the harness. The miner on the occasion of these tows spent most of his time ash.o.r.e, directing the Indians and making frequent excursions into the neighboring forest with one or the other of the young Scouts, examining the timber and pointing out the peculiarities of the different trees. He carried with him a repeating shotgun, and was constantly on the lookout for game, both birds and mammals.

"Might run across a caribou," said he, "but I scarcely think so this time of year. Besides, up here he doesn't take to heavy timber like this same as he does in Maine and the Kanuck provinces. He runs in droves of hundreds and thousands up this way, and seems to like the scrub timber."

A short time before noon they came to a sharp bend in the creek where the nature of the bank hid the current ahead from the boys in the two boats.

Suddenly the Indians towing the leading craft stopped, and as three held it against the current, the leader of the team beckoned to Swift.w.a.ter, who had fallen behind.

"Carry," he said, briefly, to the latter as he came up, and pointed to the stream ahead.

"He means a portage," said the miner to Jack, who was walking with him, as they topped the rise, they went forward to inspect the creek. Directly in front of them where the stream had made a turn, the heavy timber of the forest had retreated back from the water for several hundred yards and the elevated sh.o.r.e sank to almost the level of the water, and became half swamp and half meadow, covered with tufts of gra.s.s, and nearer the woods with a stunted growth of brush and small dwarf birches. Gold Creek itself spread out to nearly twice its former width, with innumerable little sandbars and a few boulders protruding from the bottom. Even Jack's unpractised eye could see that the current had no depth of any moment.

"Stake out," said Swift.w.a.ter to the Indians. "We'll have to portage." The Indians at once drove the steel anchorage stakes which they carried into the soil and drew the bow of the boats up against the bank and took similar precautions with the stern of each. The Scouts had all joined Jack and Swift.w.a.ter at the top of the bank, where the commander of the expedition pointed out that the widening of the Gold had so reduced the depth of the channel that it would be impossible to take the fully loaded boats over the route. As a result most of the cargo if not all of it would have to be unloaded, and perhaps "toted" around the shallow to the deep water of the channel.

"A good deal of work, isn't it?" inquired d.i.c.k.

"There's no freighting de luxe up in this country that I ever found,"

replied the miner. "We shall be lucky if we can get along without a 'carry.' First thing we've got to know is how much water we're drawing on each boat fore and aft. Gerald, you're nominated boat measurer, and you can take Pepper with you. You will find two or three lumber gauges in the dunnage in the rear boat. Each of you take one, and let me know at once what each boat is drawing. Rand, you and d.i.c.k are leadsmen of this voyage, and you will each take a pair of knee boots and a lumber gauge and follow the channel of the Creek from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e and give me the greatest depth of water you can find in a continuous channel up to where the creek narrows again and the water will naturally deepen. If you will wait a few minutes we will give you the data to work on. Jack, you and I will take up a job of stevedorin' and get our longsh.o.r.emen to work. You take three of these Injuns and get to work unloading this first boat, and I'll take the others and rustle cargo on the other. Most o' these pieces can be jacked up the gangplanks, but where they're too heavy in either boat we'll call all hands and get 'em ash.o.r.e."

By this time, Gerald and Pepper were armed with two slim painted woodstaffs, not unlike the wands of the Boy Scouts, but marked with figures, and having at one end a movable arm about two inches long that could be screwed fast at any point. These they fastened at the extreme end of each gauge, and hooked them under the bottoms of the boats and marking the top of the water were able to tell just what each boat was drawing.

They found, however, that the boats did not trim exactly even, and that at one point or another, bow or stern, the draught was more or less by perhaps an inch. The general average was about twenty-six inches in one boat and twenty-eight inches in the other.

"These here ocean greyhoun's had a displacement, as they say in ocean goin' craft, of six inches before they were loaded," said Swift.w.a.ter, "when I had 'em measured in White Horse, and if the channel anywhere above here peters out to that it's a case of carrying all this stuff around this meadow land. If we can get even two inches above that the job'll be easier." With the above figures in mind, Rand and d.i.c.k plunged into the shallows of the broad channel. Working from rock to sandbar, and bar to boulder, they followed the deepest pools in a tortuous path that corkscrewed nearly from one sh.o.r.e to another, and in an hour's time were able to report to Swift.w.a.ter that they could find pa.s.sageway sufficiently wide for the boats with a minimum depth of fourteen inches.

When they made their report to Swift.w.a.ter, a look of intense satisfaction crossed his face, and he remarked:

"Wa-al, I guess that cuts out one big engineerin' problem that might o'

kept us here a week. Hustle that freight off; smallest pieces first." The channel figures were reported to Gerald and Pepper, and they were instructed to measure frequently the draught of the boats as the stuff was moved ash.o.r.e, and to report to the miner when the draught was reduced to eleven inches.

"Better be on the safe side," he remarked. "Poor place to move freight if we should get stuck out there through any mistake of our survey men."

So fast had the Indians worked while the leadsmen were in the channel that it required but a few minutes more to reduce the draught of the batteaus to the scale.

"S-s-say," said Pepper with an anxious look, "isn't it a long time since breakfast? I can hardly remember it."