Robert Leckie

“ Jerry asked incredulously.
“Frankly, yes.”
Russ frowned. “None of that, Quiz. You’ve got to eat, even if you have to force every mouthful down. If you don’t, you’ll be weak as a cat tomorrow.”
Sandy looked around at the tall trees towering over them like giants with their arms outstretched. A chill ran along his spine. “Have you ever noticed how nature seems to work against you when you’re out in the wilderness like this? It’s constantly playing tricks on you. Like Quiz being too tired to eat, or people falling asleep in the snow and freezing to death. All your instincts seem to be wrong. ”

“ The little sloop headed steadily for the lighthouse, steering easily. Every few seconds, Sandy glanced at the hawk to check the wind. He grinned and relaxed. He was steering his own boat! The sail towered tall and white against the blue sky above him and the water gurgled alongside and in the wake behind where the dinghy bobbed along like a faithful puppy.
“This is the life!” he sighed.
Jerry pointed out a handsome, white-hulled, two-masted boat approaching them. “Isn’t that a beauty?” he said. “It’s a ketch. On a ketch, the mainmast is taller than the mizzen. ”

“ The unbelievably long silhouette of the James Kennedy lay long and dark like a great sea serpent against the looming bulk of the ore dock as Sandy Steele and Jerry James returned to the lake shore. They carried suitcases in which they had hurriedly stuffed the few things they’d be needing for shipboard life. Each had put in soap and comb and toothpaste and toothbrushes and two sets of dungarees for working hours, plus a good pair of slacks and a sport shirt for those days when they hoped to go ashore in Great Lakes ports like Detroit or Cleveland. ”

“ He recalled that Tagish Charley had a powerful flashlight in his gear and walked through knee-high snow to the front of the sled to look for it. It would be wise to keep it handy in the lean-to, he decided. He found the light easily and turned it on to see how the dogs were making out. They were all huddled together behind the windbreak of the sled, growling and shifting around restlessly. As the flash beam swept over them, a few cringed and bared their fangs. Their behavior distressed Sandy, who had expected that by now they would all be cozily balled up in holes and snoring peacefully. ”

“ Mr. Henderson volunteered. “There’s more’n a couple of rotten boards on that dock. He could’ve caught himself easy and pitched over.”
Sandy refused to be convinced. “I doubt it,” he said. “Ever notice how Joe moves? He’s as graceful as a cat.”
“You’re right,” Mr. Henderson admitted. “But I just can’t bring myself to call Joe a liar. I’ve known him a long time.”
“What do you think of him?” Mr. Cook demanded.
“As a guide or as a man?”
“Both.”
“As a man I’ve never known him to do a dishonest thing. And as a guide, I’ve never known him to do a foolish one. I’d trust Joe anywhere.” ”

“ Frens! Frens!” In the rapidly gathering darkness the canyon walls echoed with his shouts. “Paleface, Navajo, never frens to Hopi!”
Chief Ponytooth, last of the Pony Clan, burst into wild whoops of sarcastic laughter. At the same moment, thunder rolled deafeningly above their heads, lightning danced about the canyon walls like angry spirits, and the rain began coming down in bucketfuls.
“Out!” yelled Chief Quail. In his excitement he forgot his careful grammar. “Water come. We die!”
He spoke too late. A roaring sound had begun far up the canyon. Before they could move, it grew deafening. ”

“ Whenever a flaming bough or a mass of burning foliage came toppling to the ground nearby, they would train a jet of fine, foglike spray on it. Watching this panorama, Sandy was once again impressed by the fact that the fire behaved at times with what seemed like animal intelligence. Time and time again, treacherous fingers of flame would stretch out to the men, driving them back behind the safety of the ridge. ”

“ Kennedy had not hesitated. He had thrown down his fork, torn his napkin from his knees and leaped from his chair to bound into his bedroom and the telephone on his bedside table. Jenkins was shocked. He had never seen Mr. Kennedy run before—and never, never heard him shout over the telephone.
“Wha-a-at? What’s that, boy? Speak up, Sandy, I can’t hear you. What is that dreadful hammering noise?”
Wham! Wham! Wham!
That dreadful, hammering noise which Mr. Kennedy heard was the sound of a sledge hammer striking the door of the radio shack. Captain West was trying to batter it down. ”

“ Looking around him, Sandy realized that the high winds of the night before had exaggerated the intensity of the blizzard. Except where it had drifted around the sled and lean-to, no more than twelve inches of new snow had fallen. He discovered, too, that they had been traveling along the ridge of a low hill and had stopped on the most exposed spot in all the surrounding terrain. On either side, the ground sloped away gently into protected valleys thick with fir trees. ”

“ Moving quickly, Sandy grasped the jib halyard and hoisted it aloft while Jerry was fastening the main halyard to its cleat. The sloop began to make headway in the light breeze. Then, as Sandy joined his friend in the cockpit, the sloop sailed clear of the shadows that lay below the stern of the freighter, and into the circle of light that surrounded the afterdeck. At almost the same instant, a shout rang out from above them.
“Look! It’s the kids!” It was Turk, who, seeing the sail like a luminous flag in the water, had sounded the alarm. ”

“ Cook and Mike were planning a pack trip along the Lost River and they wanted to take him along. In his mind’s eye he already saw the rugged splendor of the mountains, smelled the pungent smoke of a crackling campfire after a full day’s hunting or fishing.
“Hey, wake up! You look as if you’re dreaming.” It was Mike, back from his father’s den.
Sandy looked over at him, shook his head and sighed. “I was, Mike, I really was.”
Mike clapped a sympathetic hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Worrying won’t help. Why don’t you hunt up Dad and see how he made out? I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.” ”

“ Within minutes, three scrawny mutts were scratching at the screen door of the cottage.
“You must remember that dogs are always hungry,” Mrs. Gonzales said as she let the animals in and went to the kitchen to find scraps for them, “so you must think of food at all times. You must remember that they are loyal, even though their master beats them, so you must not let your hatred or distrust of Cavanaugh into your mind when you approach his camp. You must be sleepy ... oh so sleepy ... so that you do not wake them from their dreams of chasing rabbits, or bigger game. ”

“ The two boys rode on the sled as ballast while Charley put the powerful team through its paces, whizzing back and forth on the hard-packed surface of the landing strip and churning through high drifts in the virgin snow around the fringes.
“Great!” Jerry yelled in Sandy’s ear, clutching the guard rail with one hand and, with his other hand, protecting his face from the spray of snow flung back by the dogs’ flying feet. “This is better than the roller coaster at Disneyland.”
Sandy nodded vigorously. “That Titan is fantastic, isn’t he? He acts almost human.” ”

“ Sam was with the group, too—ordered down from the pilothouse by Captain West. That was probably because the skipper wanted to make good use of the great strength that lay in Sam’s deep chest and thick shoulders. Sam swung a heavy sledge hammer, as he and two other men—one of them a blond, Swedish giant named Gunnar—attempted to batter the sprung steel hatch cover back into place. Sandy could hear the metallic clanging of their blows above the wind and sea as he and Jerry approached, both of them side-stepping along the rail while they clung to their ropes. ”

“ Jerry shivered and gazed intently at the approaching shoreline; the foliage stretched away unbroken to the horizon like a roof over the forest. “I’d hate to be somewhere in the middle of that if a fire did break out.”
“I don’t think we have anything to worry about, as long as we’re careful,” Russ assured him. “And you don’t have to worry about the natives; their livelihoods—and lives—depend on good fire-prevention habits.”
“That’s all well and good, sir,” Quiz said somberly, “but what about lightning?” He studied the cloudless sky arching all about them like a pale-blue china bowl. ”

“ Sandy’s heart thumped under the pressure of pounding blood as he knelt slowly to pick up a handful of stones. How long, he wondered, did it take for a mountain lion in full charge to cover seventy-five yards? The thought crossed his mind that he should shoot first, but he rejected it almost immediately as being too risky. The first shot, Hank had told him once, was the one that counted. Every competent hunter waited for his quarry to present itself before he pulled the trigger. Shooting at shadows was wasteful and dangerous. ”

“ Jerry laughed. “You’ve been reading too many books about pirates and whalers in the old days. You only find all those complicated sail and rigging names on the big square-rigged ships—the ones with three and four masts. If your boat is a sloop, it only has one mast, one mainsail, and a choice of maybe three other sails, flown one at a time with the mainsail. There’s nothing much to learn compared with the old full-rigged ships with up to four masts.” ”

“ The moment that Sandy rushed up there had been a loud explosion in the galley, and one of the ax men was thrown back against the bulkhead by the force of it. He slumped to the deck, unconscious, and his ax slipped from his hand.
Quick as a flash, Sandy seized the ax and joined the men at work in the mess hall, while two others quickly jumped to obey the skipper’s orders to remove the stricken man to a safe place. With a thrilling surge of confidence in the strength of his lean-muscled body, Sandy Steele began to swing his ax. ”

“ Sandy tried to croon reassurance to them, but failed. They were becoming thoroughly aroused and making an awful racket. He had to get out of there—and quickly—before Cavanaugh came to investigate.
He scrambled from under the trailer and sprinted for the jeep. The dogs broke into full cry now, and streaked after him. This was a human! And an enemy human too! They were out to make him pay dearly for his deceit.
The trailer door banged open as the bedlam rose. Moments later, a spotlight picked up the running boy and the dogs that leaped and snapped at his bare heels. ”

“ Sandy said, and circled around behind the ridge.
The protected slope was teeming with men and machinery. Bulldozers scurried up and down like huge beetles, clearing off everything inflammable. Tank-trucks were moving slowly along the foot of the slope, their crews sweeping big firehoses across the face of the forest. Trees were doused from crown to root. Other smoke-eaters with hoses were lined up on the crest of the ridge like soldiers, dwarfed by the monstrous flames that seemed to arch over them threateningly. ”

“ Even the dogs were slowed down. The snow, mixed with the loose surface fluff of previous falls, piled up quickly in drifts. As it dragged at his boots more and more, Charley began to mutter angrily to himself in Indian.
“I don’t like it, Sandy,” Jerry said uneasily. “We’re never going to make that check point before dark.”
“At this rate we’ll never make it at all,” Sandy retorted. “Listen, Jerry, what do you say we get out and trot along with Charley? It’s bad enough pulling the sled by itself without our weight too.” ”

“ Some of the ships, or boats as they call the Great Lakes vessels, actually were 600 feet and more in length, and a football field, as Sandy well knew, is only 300 feet long. Just then, the boys heard a terrific clanking and clanging above them. Looking up, they saw a gigantic crane seize a railroad car as though it truly were a toy, turn it over in the air and let the ore run out of it—like a boy shaking sand from his shoes. ”

“ Each time they came about onto a new tack, the mainsail was shifted to the other side of the boat, and the boat heeled in the same direction as the sail. The jib came about by itself, just by loosening one sheet and taking up on the other one. Soon Sandy was used to the continual shifting and resetting of the sails, and to the boom passing back and forth overhead.
Suddenly Sandy pointed and clapped Jerry on the shoulder with excitement. “Look!” he cried. “There’s a whole fleet of boats coming this way! They look just like ours! And they’re racing!” ”

“ But even as Sandy reared back to heave the line, he knew the light rope would never carry all the way to the shore. He felt the log jam shudder and move a few inches closer to the rapids. He put every ounce of his strength into the throw, but the rope didn’t even reach halfway.
Sandy’s mind raced over the possibilities of escape. There had to be a way out. There just had to!
“Sandy!” It was Mike calling out to him. “Get ready and watch your eyes!” Sandy saw that Mike had taken up his fly rod and was about to cast. Suddenly, as he realized what Mike had in mind, his heart gave a leap. ”

“ Sandy focused his bleary eyes across the ravine. The Kodiak was just a big mound of motionless fur sprawled out on the ground.
“Come on!” Jerry pulled at Sandy’s arm. “Let’s hurry over there so we can make like big-game hunters when those other guys show up.” Using his rifle as a staff, he started down the slope into the ravine.
Sandy caught up to him at the bottom and grabbed the rifle away from him. “Don’t ever do anything like that again!” he snapped. “You dope! You might have blown your head off—or at least your hand. This is a loaded gun. You’ve got to have respect for it. ”

“ Now, as they blew lake water from their mouths, they were aware of the cold, of their drenched clothing clinging to their goose-pimpled flesh, and of the chill breath of the wind.
“Let’s go!” Sandy finally shouted. “If we stand here, we may get socked with another one.”
Jerry nodded and quickly secured himself to the rail, glancing up every now and then as though he expected to see another great black wave racing toward him. Then they made their way forward to the Number Four hatch where the little band of lake sailors struggled bravely to keep the lake out of the James Kennedy’s hold. ”

“ Sandy admitted. He looked up as a big, sleek-haired dog came bounding out of the pines on one side of the house. “Who’s that?”
“That’s Prince, the cook’s Doberman pinscher.” Russ whistled softly through his teeth.
The dog’s sharp ears and muzzle thrust alertly into the air; then, with the bounce of a recoiling spring, he came striding across the sunburned lawn and cleared the front steps in a single leap, to squat in front of Russ with his short stub of a tail wagging vigorously.
“Talk about jet propulsion!” Sandy exclaimed. “What do you feed him on?” ”

“ Sandy whispered to Jerry. “They have very poor eyesight. And we’re upwind of him so he can’t smell us.”
But the horses caught the scent of the bear and began to whinny and stamp their hoofs in terror. The big Kodiak’s ears went up and he lifted his head, probing the air with his sensitive snout. Slowly he reared up on his hind legs.
Jerry couldn’t restrain a gasp of astonishment and wonder. “Wow! Will you look at the size of him! He must be ten feet tall if he’s an inch.”
When the bear stood erect, Sandy could see a red, matted spot on his left shoulder. “Someone shot him all right,” he said. ”

“ Sandy said. “I wonder what he’s hiding on that island of his—a diamond mine?”
“You never can tell,” Jerry replied, “but it’s probably nothing at all. I guess the kind of man who would want to live all alone on an island away from people is bound to be pretty crazy about getting all the privacy he can. And as far as I’m concerned, he can have it. From now on, if we need anything, let’s head for the mainland!”
Dismissing the mysterious rifleman from their minds, they set out once more to enjoy the pleasures of a brisk wind, blue sky and a trim boat. ”

“ Sandy turned to Mike. “What do you think?” he asked. It had almost stopped raining, but instead of clearing, the sky had taken on an even darker, more ominous color. Mike squinted up at the gathering clouds, hitched his pack more comfortably onto his shoulders and nodded. “Let’s go!” he said firmly.
Hank grinned at them. “You boys are all right,” he said. “I’m going to take you to a hill that’s swarming with goats. I never took anybody there before. We might even get ourselves a head that’ll make the record books.” ”

“ There was a hint of autumn in the air as Jerry James swung Old Faithful off the highway and up the ramp leading to Valley View. Both boys felt a deep surge of pleasure run through them as they picked out the familiar landmarks that told them they had come home again.
The dusty old jalopy rolled along Ridge Road and past the March mansion.
“Doesn’t look like anybody’s home,” Sandy said.
“That’s what I thought,” said Jerry. “I wonder what happened to our friend Pepper.”
Sandy shrugged. “I don’t know. But it sure was good spending all those weeks without him. Jerry!” he yelled. ”

“ Although the front was less than 1200 feet wide, the flame-thrower crews ignited the fringe along the line for a full half mile. The boys, resting with the pick-and-shovel men on the north tip of the ridge, watched anxiously as the backfires flared up strong in the dry brush and foliage. Innumerable times, the flames leaped the line to attack the trees on the far side, but each time the dripping wet boughs repulsed them.
“Looks as if we’ll stop her,” Sandy said with elation.
One of the fire fighters shook his head gloomily. “The backfire ain’t getting anywhere though.” ”

“ The dogs, in harness, were seated on their haunches or huddled low in drifts to escape the force of the wind. But Charley was nowhere to be seen.
Jerry sagged against the back of the sled. “Oh my gosh! What happened to him?”
“He must have doubled back to look for us and we didn’t see him in the storm.” Night had deepened the blinding downfall even more.
There was a tremor in Jerry’s voice. “You don’t think the wolves got him, Sandy?”
“No, they rarely attack a man. Especially with the dogs here. Besides, Charley had a rifle.” He rummaged through the packs on the front of the sled. ”