"You seem like a pretty intelligent man," grunted Andy Sudds, in his blunt way. "What are you doing up here in this heaven-forsaken country?"
"Why, I am an oil hunter," said the fat man, simply. "A _what_?"
repeated Andy and Mark together.
"Oil hunter. My name is Phineas Roebach, and I am in the employ of the Universal Oil Company. I am here--as I have been in many lands--boring for petroleum. You understand that my mission is semi-secret. If we find oil here we shall obtain a grant from the Government, or something like that."
Just at that moment Mark Sampson was not particularly interested in the odd-looking Mr. Roebach or his business.
"Blow your horn again, sir," he begged. "Call off your Indians. They may shoot our friends."
"If your party is all dressed as peculiarly as yourself, young sir,"
said Phineas Roebach, "my Aleuts could scarcely be blamed for taking a pot shot at them."
Then he blew the horn mightily for the third time.
CHAPTER IX
THE EARTHQUAKE
The long twilight which preceded full day had now grown so strong as to reveal matters more plainly about the spot where Mark and Andy Sudds had disembarked from the flying machine. They soon saw several objects running through the grove toward them, and these objects proved to be the returning Indians.
There were half a dozen of them, and they were all armed with rifles.
The moment they beheld the old hunter and the youth, with Phineas Roebach, they gave every indication of shooting, for they stopped and raised their rifles, pointing them at Mark and Andy.
Mr. Roebach sprang between his Aleuts and his visitors and began to harangue them angrily in their own harsh dialect. However, his huge body so entirely sheltered Mark and Andy that neither was much terrified by the Indians. Besides, the Maine hunter advanced his own rifle and calculated he could do considerable execution with it while the red men were hesitating.
"They believed you all spirits of the air," said the oil man, turning finally to speak to his new friends. "They were much frightened."
"Ask them for news of Professor Henderson and the others," begged the anxious Mark.
"They chased the crippled flying machine for some distance, but did not find it. My horn bade them return," replied Mr. Roebach.
Even as they started to walk with the oil man and his sullen Indians toward various shacks which they saw through the trees, and lower on the mountain side, they heard a hail and looked up to see Professor Henderson, Jack Darrow, and the negro, Washington White, descending the mountain in their rear.
"This is your party; is it?" demanded Mr. Roebach.
"Yes, sir," said Mark.
"Bring them directly to my cabin. The Aleuts will not hurt you, now that they know we are friends."
He hurried away, but Andy handled his rifle very suggestively and kept both eyes on the red men. The latter, however, kept to themselves and only stared at the crew of the _s...o...b..rd_ with great curiosity.
"Hurrah!" quoth Jack, when in earshot. "Here they are, safe and sound, Professor!"
"We have been just as afraid that something bad was happening to you,"
Mark said, quickly. "Where"s the machine?" "Your beautiful "plane is badly wrecked, Mark, my boy," said Professor Henderson. "But I believe we shall be able to repair it in time. We are not, however, I feel sure, far from Aleukan. Do those men speak English?"
"Not much of it, I reckon, Professor," said Andy Sudds. "But they have got mighty nasty dispositions. If it wasn"t for the fat man I reckon they would jump on us."
"He told us to follow along to his cabin," Mark proposed. "I do not think these Indians will touch us."
"They"d better think twice about it," said the belligerent Andy, pushing in between the professor and the Aleuts, as the whole party descended the mountain side toward the place where the oil man had pitched his camp.
As they proceeded the light grew and the newcomers to Alaska identified objects about them more clearly. Near at hand was the framework of a boring machine, or derrick. The professor began to notice a deposit of ash that lay thickly on the ground in sheltered places.
"How remarkable--how very remarkable!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "One would think there was a volcano in action very near here."
Mark repeated what Phineas Roebach had said about the "quake and the storm of ashes. The professor began to rub his hands together and his eyes twinkled. "I declare! I declare!" he repeated. "A seismic disturbance in this locality? Ah! our visit to Alaska for Dr. Todd may repay us n.o.bly indeed."
Washington White"s eyes opened very wide and he demanded:
"What"s disher t"ing yo" calls "sezmik", Professor Henderson? I suah don"t understand no sech langwidge."
"He means an earthquake, Wash," said Jack, as the professor paid no attention to the darkey"s question.
"Gollyation! is we goin" ter collek a _nearthquake_ along wid dat chrisomela-bypunktater plant? And what good"s a nearthquake w"en you got him?"
This unanswerable question of the darkey"s fell flat, for the party just then reached the huge, two-roomed log cabin in which Phineas Roebach made his headquarters. The "oil hunter," as he called himself, appeared in a costume more fitted to the rigor of the weather.
"Come right in, gentlemen," was his cordial cry. "I have an Indian woman here who can cook almost as well as white folks. At any rate, she can make coffee and fry bacon. This is Professor Henderson? Glad to meet you, sir," and so went on, being introduced to the whole party.
The professor immediately began to question the oil hunter regarding the exact situation of his camp and learned that they were but a hundred and fifty miles from Aleukan. Phineas Roebach had a plentiful supply of dogs and sleds, too, with a goodly store of provisions. If worse came to worst and the flying machine could not be at once prepared, Mr. Roebach could supply the party with transportation to the Indian settlement where Professor Henderson would meet his own supplies from Coldfoot and there could obtain other dogs and sleds to go on to the valley where the _Chrysothele-Byzantium_ was supposed to flourish.
"And the road from here to Aleukan is a good one at this season of the year. More than half the way you travel over a glacier, and as the icefield has not been in motion for ages, it makes a fine highroad,"
the oil hunter declared.
They were discussing these matters during breakfast, and everybody was feeling particularly thankful over the safe descent of the aeroplane, when they were startled by a sudden, jarring shock. The cabin rocked and the boys, at least, felt a qualmishness in the pit of the stomach that forbade further eating.
"What"s that?" demanded Andy Sudds.
Washington White dropped the plate he was carrying to the table and ran to the door. Before he could open it, the door was broken in by the Indians, who came pouring in, loudly jabbering in their native tongue.
"A "quake, sure enough!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Phineas Roebach, getting quickly on his feet.
As he spoke, there was a repet.i.tion of the shock, only greatly increased. The oil hunter was thrown to the floor, as was everybody else in the house who was not seated. The roof of the cabin creaked and threatened to descend upon their heads.
The Indians, uttering cries of alarm, scrambled out of the cabin faster than they came in. But they had nothing on Washington White _there_. He was the first person to get through the door.
The white people followed the others in quick time. Jack and Mark felt that if the cabin was going to fall, the open air was the safer place.
Here, however, it seemed that they could not keep their feet. They reeled about like drunken men, and the forest trees bent and writhed as though an invisible wind tore at them, whereas the fact was that the wind had fallen and it was a dead calm.
The air about them seemed to rock with the shock, there was a dull roaring sound which hummed continually in their ears, and the vibrations of the earth continued. They were indeed experiencing a most serious earthquake.