The Call of the Beaver Patrol Part 40

"Let Will go," replied George. "I'm tired, and there's a particularly interesting book I'd like to finish this afternoon."

Will went pawing among the fis.h.i.+ng tackle, and finally called out to George who was just crawling into a bunk with his book:

"What do they catch fish with in Alaska?"

"Hooks!" replied George.

"Hooks and eyes?" asked Will, with a chuckle.

"Sure! Hooks and eyes! You see 'em with the eyes, and grab 'em with the hooks!"

"Aw, never mind that gink!" laughed Sandy. "He doesn't know any more about fis.h.i.+ng in Alaska than a hog knows about Sunday! Bring along all the flies we've got and some red flannel, and some pieces of dirty bacon, and we'll manage to get fish. If one bait won't answer, another will."

"Do we have to cut a hole through the ice?" asked Will.

"Cut a hole through the ice!" repeated George. "Eighty or ninety in the shade! If you don't get this boy out of here, Sandy," George added, "I'll give him a poke in the eye!"

After selecting such flies, hooks, and lines as they thought might prove alluring to the fish, Will and Sandy started away in the direction of the little stream which ran out of the glacier a mile or so to the north and took a general direction toward Copper river.

After walking half a mile or more, they came to a line of rocks which seemed to extend from the open ice of the glacier to the coast, a distance of perhaps five or six miles. West of this line of moraine rocks the land sloped gradually to the northwest and here the headwaters of the little creek they sought were found.

Straight away to the north, west of the glacier, rose a range of wooded hills just now bright with blossoms and swarming with insect life. The little creek crept along to the south of this range, and, further down, separated the ground to the south from the hills.

Sandy leaped across the little rivulet as it came bubbling out of the ice hidden under the moraine and started down the bank next to the line of hills. Will kept to the other side.

"Why don't you come across?" shouted Sandy.

"What's the good of crossing over at all?" Will asked. "Before long the stream will be so wide that you can't cross back, and then you'll have to retrace your steps clear to the headwaters!"

"I can swim, can't I?" laughed Sandy.

"Not in that cold water!" replied Will.

Sandy only laughed in reply to the warning, and the two boys proceeded downstream, one on each side of the rivulet.

Within half an hour they caught half a dozen salmon of fair size, weighing from four to six pounds, using only red flannel for bait.

"What do you think of a fish in his right mind that'll try to eat red flannel?" asked Sandy, speaking from the opposite side of the creek.

"Boys do more foolish things than that!" answered Will.

"Explanation!" grinned Sandy.

"They smoke cigarettes, for one thing!" replied Will. "Even a fish that tries to make a meal off red flannel won't smoke a cigarette."

"We don't seem to get anything very big!" shouted Sandy.

"Well," Will answered back with a faint smile, "take a look up the hillside and see if that bear coming is large enough for you!"

CHAPTER VI

A MISSING BOY

"Bear nothing!" laughed Sandy. "There isn't a bear within a hundred miles of us! You can't fool your Uncle Isaac!"

"Look back and see!" advised Will.

Sandy paid no attention to the remark, but kept on fis.h.i.+ng, following on down stream until he was some yards in advance of his chum.

So interested was he in the sport in which he was engaged that he thought no more of what had been said to him regarding the bear until a pistol shot reached his ears.

Then he glanced quickly in the rear, taking in the whole line of the hillside at one glance.

Just at that moment the whole landscape seemed to consist princ.i.p.ally of bear! Will had wounded a great brown bear, and he was charging down toward the place where Sandy stood. The boy drew his automatic and faced about, hardly knowing what else to do, as the creek was too wide to leap across. The bear came on with a rush.

"Run!" shouted Will.

"I guess you'll have to show me a place to run to!" Sandy shouted back.

"This bear seems to have taken possession of about all the territory there is on this side of the creek."

"Shoot, you dunce, shoot before he gets up to you!" shouted Will. "If he gets one swipe at you with that paw, you'll land out in the Gulf of Alaska! Fill him full of lead!"

Sandy began firing, but the bear came steadily on.

"You'll have to swim for it!" shouted Will in a moment. "You mustn't let that big brute get near enough to hand you one with that educated left of his. Jump in and swim and I'll help pull you out!"

Sandy looked at the creek and s.h.i.+vered. The water looked blue, as if s.h.i.+vering from the cold. He faced about and decided to take a few more shots at the bear before risking his life in the cold water.

"You'll have to jump!" Will shouted from the other side.

"I wouldn't have to jump," Sandy cried back, "If you'd do more shooting and less talking! Go on and use up your lead!"

In the excitement of the time, Will had, indeed, forgotten to keep his automatic busy. He now began shooting as fast as the weapon would carry the lead away, and bruin seemed to take offense at the activity with which the bullets flew about him. He was bleeding in several places, and was in a perfect frenzy of rage.

"I guess that's an armored bear!" Will shouted across the creek. "I don't believe our bullets have any effect on him!"

By this time the bear was within a few paces of Sandy. The boy's automatic was empty now, yet he obstinately refused to spring into the water. Bruin reached out one paw and Sandy ducked, coming up behind the clumsy animal and landed a blow with the b.u.t.t of the automatic on his head.

The next few moments were something of a blank in the mind of the boy.

He heard Will calling to him, he knew that he had been struck by the bear, knew that his chum's bullets were still flying across the river, and knew that things were turning black around him.

Then he felt a dash of cold water in his face, and looked up to see Will standing over him, pouring water out of his hat.

"What did I do to the bear?" he asked faintly.