Ralph Victor

“ At one place they visited a museum that contained three of the gigantic ivory tusks of the mammoth of which they had read a good deal since finding the narwhal’s horn.
“Gee,” said Gerald, “they must weigh nearly a hundred pounds apiece. If we ever find that cave with anything in it, it ought to be worth a good deal.”
“Do you suppose that the chief will show up at Seward?” asked Dick.
“Oh, yes; I think so,” said Rand. “I think he was very grateful for the way we treated him, and I understand these Indians are much like ours at home, and usually remember a favor.” ”

“ The army officer smiled indulgently upon the somewhat abashed Pepper.
“Don’t lose it, Pepper,” said he. “That appetite may prove one of the best of assets in this proposition of mine. How would you all like a trip to Alaska?” 16
The patrol came to “attention,” every member on his feet and for the moment speechless.
“What! the North Pole?” gasped Rand, whose former residence in the Sunny South inclined him to look upon all high latitudes with suspicion.
“Not exactly,” replied Colonel Snow, with a laugh, in which all joined as a kind of relief to their feelings. ”

“ Pepper, who always threw a good deal of enthusiasm into anything he attempted to do, was barely saved from going overboard several times, and when once left alone with the side oar, succeeded in dipping the blade under a piece of hidden rock and was thrown by the swift motion of the boat high in the air, alighting somewhat breathless on the mass of tarpaulined freight in front of him, luckily without serious injury. ”

“ Away in the distance, more than a hundred miles, could be seen the giant peaks of the Alaskan range—the backbone of Alaska—Foraker, Russell, Spurr and McKinley, snow clad and dazzling.
“I’d like a chance to climb one of those big mountains,” said Jack. “You know we didn’t get an opportunity in the Canadian Rockies, although they seemed to be very near.”
“I guess,” said Rand, “that we’ve got all we can do to climb the mountain we’re looking for. We’ll be lucky if we do that.”
“How did the Indians or whoever hid this ivory, if there’s any there, get it up to the cave, if it is a cave?” ”

“ The horsemen were riding toward the struggling crowd crying out to them to halt. As they rode near, Dublin and Rae turned and deliberately fired at the men, whose carbines at once cracked in reply. The last of the Indians who had not yet gotten into the boat pitched forward on the bank, and jumping over him, Dublin and Rae gave the boat a push out into the middle of the stream, sprang aboard and dropped into the bottom of the craft, which at once began to drift down with the current. As nothing was in sight above the gunwale except the Indians the horsemen did not fire again. ”

“ Skookum 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 Pass 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 Swiftwater Jim took command of one boat, Rand was made captain of the other. ”

“ The boys were greatly interested in this first near view of Alaskan Indian life in the two villages which they visited, and in comparing the natives with the Indians with whom they had been associated in their trip to the Canadian Rockies. The Alaskan Indians were shorter in build, more squatty in figure and broader faced than the Crees and the other Southern red men. Jack, who had been poking about into the various corners of the first village, which were composed of huts and sod houses, came back with a look very like disgust in his face. ”

“ Forty-mile is the only civilized place of habitation between Dawson and Eagle. It’s on the Yukon side of the river, and is a trading station for the Forty-mile mining district, the first real gold mining region opened up in this region. It was the scene of my early triumphs as a ‘sourdough’ after I left the whaling business, and I ‘mushed’ into it in the winter along with Dowling, the great mail carrier of this region, who carried the mail up the Yukon on the ice, with a 161 dog team, nine hundred miles between Dawson and Fort Gibbon once a month. ”

“ Thus all had been prepared for the erection of the sod walls the next day.
Early the next morning Jack, who had determined to keep an eye on all the details of a sod 105 house in case he should ever want to erect one himself, was wandering around the newly laid foundation, when suddenly there came to his ear a muffled buzzing much like the drone of a distant grasshopper. “This sounds like real summer,” said Jack to himself, instinctively looking around for the insect. ”

“ Two days after their arrival, the steamer from Seattle to Nome came along and they embarked and steamed the 112 miles across Norton’s Sound to Nome, the metropolis of that great northwestern section of Alaska that borders on the Arctic Ocean and extends within forty miles of Asia. There is no harbor at Nome, and the ships must lie about a mile off shore, while passengers and freight are taken in on flatboats, from which everything is raised on an elevator by a gigantic crane, and swung in shore. ”

“ Already, a lifeboat had been dropped into the water and into this the half-drowned man was lifted, while Rand, himself already numbed by the icy water had to be assisted aboard. He was lifted to the deck amid the cheers of his chums, who rushed him to his stateroom for dry clothing.
“That was a great piece of work,” said Captain Huxley, commander of the “Queen.” “No professional life saver could have got on the job in quicker time. Those are fine boys of yours, Colonel Snow.”
“That’s part of their training as Scouts,” replied the Colonel, “and it’s meant to be practical. ”

“ At the same time he dropped the electric light, which promptly went out as the spring was released, and the hold was in darkness. Jack dared not move for fear of the hatchet, and all he could hear was the loud breathing of the terrified Monkey, who carefully began to grope for the lost lamp. The search was vain, and Jack was slowly backing away from the vicinity toward the ladder, intending to bar Monkey’s egress when he heard a movement that seemed to indicate that 42 Monkey was climbing up the piled-up freight. ”

“ 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 86 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. ”

“ I want to ask the rest of you boys to drink, for a time at least, nothing but the water that our friend Pepper turns out; none from the creek. A man’s health in a new country depends a good deal on how the water hits him, and until you are acclimated it is the safest thing.” The Scouts readily promised to comply with the miner’s request, and Pepper feeling that the health of the camp was somehow in his charge felt not a little elated. He issued orders at once for a supply of firewood, agreeing to carry the water himself, which he did, filling the kettle which held about ten gallons. ”

“ You fellows are about even now. The smallest sort of an appetite may prove to be an inconvenience before we get out of Alaska.”
“I want to say, Colonel,” said Rand, rising and facing the army officer at “attention,” “that I think I speak for the whole patrol when I promise in their names the most earnest fidelity and strict attention to rules and regulations until our mission up here is finished.”
“Yes, yes,” echoed the Scouts, springing to their feet and saluting the Colonel, who also rose and returned it with a smile of acknowledgment. At the same moment Swiftwater Jim entered the saloon. ”

“ A visit was paid to the hold, this time with the captain’s permission, to enable Swiftwater to estimate the amount of freight that was to be handled 56 and the best way of distributing it among the transports. The boys went with him to learn something of their new duties in this connection.
“I move,” said Rand, “that that earnest young sleuth, Mr. Jack Blake, be appointed guide to this expedition to the dark and creepy hold. He knows where everything is, for he has fallen over it all, I hear.”
“He might meet Monkey Rae,” said Dick with a mock shudder, “then think of the carnage.” ”

“ Of course if we had the time we could saw out lumber enough to make a ‘camp’ that would be weather proof, but the sod house is insured against fire, flood, lightning and wind and is as cosy as 103 a cave; besides, it takes a shorter time to build,” and with this the miner led the boys, with the exception of Gerald, who was to keep camp and oversee the four Indians left there, to the boats, one of which the other two Indians had unmoored, and when all were aboard, began to pole upstream. ”

“ I heard you apply the word to Swiftwater Jim,” said Jack, on the alert for information.
“The aristocracy of the Alaskan mining camp,” replied the officer. “The man who has been at least a year in the territory, and is ‘wise’ as you boys say, to its methods and manners, and inured to its hardships and its climate. For a time you’ll belong to the ‘Chee-chak-O’ class.” 33
“What is that?” asked Rand.
“The Indian name for what the men on the Canadian ranches called ‘tenderfeet,’” replied Colonel Snow. ”

“ It is necessary for the safety of all that we know as far as possible just who the people are who come into Yukon territory. Besides, this country is a refuge for hundreds of men who find life unpleasant in more civilized sections, and we must keep them under supervision. By the way, I have just received notification from the United States marshal at Ketchikan that three queer characters dropped off the steamer from Seattle there and were heading for the Klondike, and would probably pass through here, and he asks 66 us to keep an eye on them. ”

“ A fine school building and several churches that reminded the young Scouts of many Hudson river towns, and wiped out the last remaining evidences of homesickness, were among the attractions, and the sight of a real railroad equipped with locomotives, cars, shops and station were among the marvels found where they had expected to find a wilderness. ”

“ Swiftwater listened to the rather oratorical harangue which the Indian delivered, smiling at times, but giving the man respectful attention. He even gave him half a salute, as he turned and walked with Rand toward their own tent.
“I didn’t know that we had with us a representative of the old Siwash nobility. The tribal relations of these people are pretty well broken up since we brought our boasted civilization and our whiskey up among their homes, and they don’t recognize the authority of their head men any more. ”

“ The ground swell of the shallow sea tested the seamanship of the young Scouts to the utmost and one or two of them retired to their stateroom, but as a large proportion of the passengers were affected in the same way there was very little disposition to deride the unfortunates, as had been done on the trip up the “Inside Passage.” They arrived safely, however, and were again accorded 172 a warm welcome by Colonel Snow’s comrades of the army, who at once took them to the post, which is the chief institution of importance in the small town. ”

“ Snow called the boys together in the big saloon of the vessel for a talk.
“You know,” said the army officer, “that after I have seen you and the machinery disembarked in Skagway, I must leave you to carry out my mission to Controllers Bay and Valdez, and that I shall not be able to join you in the Yukon Country until later in the summer. ”

“ They were considerably back of the camp in the timber, and could not see the landing from the “bathroom,” but supposed the sounds were by their comrades returning. They stepped from the tarpaulin to go to the creek for a cold plunge as a finishing touch, when over the bank swarmed the six Siwashes who had so lately deserted them. They were unarmed and were driven by three men with guns. The two boys seeing the strangers were about to step aside for their clothing when they were ordered to stand and throw up their hands. The three newcomers were Dublin, Rae and Monkey. ”

“ The passage down the Lewes was comparatively easy except for the rapids through which the Indian boatmen guided the flat-bottomed craft by long steering oars, one at each end and one at the side. Swiftwater had placed himself and Jack, Don and Gerald in one boat, and assigned Skookum Joe and Rand, Pepper and Dick to the other. ”