The Young Alaskans.
by Emerson Hough.
I
AT HOME IN ALASKA
"Steamboat! Steamboat!"
Rob McIntyre had been angling for codfish at the top of Valdez dock for the past half-hour. Now, hearing the hoa.r.s.e boom of the ocean vessel"s whistle out in the fog-bank which covered the mouth of the harbor, he pulled in his fishing-line, hurriedly threw together his heap of flapping fish, and, turning, sent sh.o.r.eward the cry always welcome to dwellers in Alaska coast towns.
"Steamboat! Steamboat!" Some one at the freight office on Valdez dock heard him and repeated the cry. Again and again it was pa.s.sed from one to another along the half-mile of high sidewalk which led from the dock to the town. Soon in every corner of the streets of Valdez there resounded the call: "Steamboat! Steamboat!"
Now there came to the ears of all the low, hoa.r.s.e boom of the steamer"s whistle. The great vessel was lying out somewhere in the fog, nosing her way in carefully, taking care not to touch any of the hidden rocks which line the Alaskan sh.o.r.es. The residents of the town poured out from dwelling and shop alike, and soon the streets were full, almost the entire population hurrying over the long trestle to the dock where the boat must land. The whistle said to them that there were now at hand cargoes of goods for the merchants, machinery for the new railroad building inland, necessities and luxuries for every-day life, and, best of all, letters, books and papers from the outside world. "Outside" in an Alaskan coast town means the United States. Across the range of mountains which fence off the coast from the vast interior "outside"
means the coast itself; just as to any town dweller of the Alaska coast "inside" means somewhere in the icy interior, vast and unexplored.
Among the first to hasten down the long walk from the main street of the town were two friends of Rob McIntyre--Jesse Wilc.o.x and John Hardy, the former ten and the latter twelve years of age, each therefore a little younger than Rob, who himself was now nearly fourteen. These boys might be called young Alaskans, for although the town of Valdez itself was not more than a few years old, their fathers had helped found the town and were prominent in its business affairs. Mr. Hardy was engaged in railway contracts on the new railroad, and Mr. Wilc.o.x was chief of engineers on the same road. Rob"s father, Mr. McIntyre, owned the leading store, where all sorts of articles were sold, from shovels and picks to needles and pins. The three boys, it need not be said, were great cronies, and many was the hour of sport they had had here in far-away Alaska.
"h.e.l.lo, Rob!" called John, as he hurried up; "how many fish did you get?
What boat"s that, do you think? Do you suppose my uncle d.i.c.k"s on board?"
"Hope so," rejoined Rob, now rolling up his fishing-line, and again kicking his codfish out of the road of the gathering crowd. "He"s probably got something for us if he is."
"How far is she out?" inquired Jesse. "She blows like the _Yucatan_, but maybe she"s the old _Portland_ coming in."
"If she"s the _Portland_ my father might be aboard," said John. "If it"s the _Yucatan_, and Uncle d.i.c.k"s coming, then we"ll get my new rifle, sure."
"One apiece, then," said Rob. "If each of us had a gun we could all go hunting together."
"Pack-train just came across the divide yesterday," said Jesse, "and they had four bear-skins. They got "em less than thirty miles inland.
The fellow that killed them threw away two skins because they were so heavy he didn"t want to bother to pack "em. But I don"t suppose they"d let us go bear-hunting yet," said Jesse, hesitatingly.
"The biggest bear in this whole country," began Rob, who was posted on such matters, "are over toward Kadiak Island. I heard a trader from Seldovia saying there were a few sea-otters over there, too."
"Wouldn"t you like to go over to Kadiak--just once?" said John. "A big bear-skin or two, and maybe a sea-otter--we could cash in our fur for enough to buy a mining claim, like enough! My uncle d.i.c.k"s due to go over there, too, before long," he ruminated. "You know he"s employed on the government survey, and they"re making soundings on that part of the coast."
Rob drew a long breath. "Well, maybe _sometime_ we could get over there," he said; and the others nodded, because they had come to look on him as something of a leader in their out-door expeditions.
"Priddy soon dat fog shall lift," remarked Ole Petersen, an old sailor who was lounging about the dock. He nodded toward the mouth of the harbor, where now all could see the heavy veil of mist growing thinner.
Little by little, even as the steady boom of the steamer"s whistle came echoing in, the front of the fog-bank thinned and lifted, showing the white-capped waves rolling beneath. Suddenly a strong shift of wind descended from the canon between two of the many mountain-peaks which line the bay, and broke the fog into long ribbons of white vapor. The sun shone through, and its warmth sent the white mist up in twisting ropes, which faded away in the upper air. At last there came into view the red-topped smoke-stacks and the gaunt, dark hull of the great ocean steamer, whose funnels poured forth clouds of black smoke which drifted toward the farther sh.o.r.e of the bay.
"_Yucatan!_" sang out Rob--and Ole Petersen calmly seconded him with a nod--"_Yucatan!_"
The gathered population of Valdez--men, women, children, and dogs--greeted the vessel with a general outcry of welcome.
"In she comes," said Rob; and now, with two more long, hoa.r.s.e roars from her giant whistle, the _Yucatan_ slowly forged ahead, and within half an hour majestically swept up to her moorings at the front of Valdez dock.
II
AFLOAT ON THE PACIFIC
As the deck-hands cast ash.o.r.e the light lines attached to the cable-loops, our young friends were among the first to lay hold and aid in dragging ash.o.r.e the heavy cables which made fast the steamer to the dock-posts. Then they ran back amidships where the gang-plank was put out. The jingling of the ship"s bells and general outcry from those on the dock or crowding along the rail of the vessel made everything a scene of confusion. Greetings were pa.s.sed from ship to sh.o.r.e and back again. Friends now would meet, cargo would be discharged; touch with the outer world once more would be had.
"But I don"t see Uncle d.i.c.k anywhere," said John, ruefully, as he examined the throng of figures packed along the rail waiting for the gangway to be made fast.
"Maybe he didn"t come," suggested Jesse.
"There he is!" shouted John; "he"s waving to us, over there "midships."
"He"s got something under his arm," said Rob, judicially.
A tall, brown-faced man with a wide, white hat and loose gray clothing edged his way toward the head of the gangway. Catching sight of the boys, he called out a hearty greeting.
"Have you got it, Uncle d.i.c.k?" asked John, excitedly, as at last the latter reached the dock.
Uncle d.i.c.k"s answer was to pa.s.s to his nephew a certain long package, which proved to be a fine rifle in a leather case. For the moment all three boys were so much engaged in examining this that they paid little attention to what was going on--hurry and confusion, shouting and laughing and excited talk, mingled with the creak of the hoists and the rattle of the donkey-engine as the ship"s men now began the work of discharging the cargo of the _Yucatan_. It must be remembered that in Alaska few things are manufactured, and everything must be shipped in, fifteen hundred miles or more, from San Francisco, Seattle, and other points.
"Well, young gentlemen," said Uncle d.i.c.k, at last, "you seem gladder to see that gun than you are to see me."
"No, we"re not, sir," rejoined Rob; "but we"re pleased enough, even so, because now each of us has a rifle."
"And no place to use one," answered Uncle d.i.c.k.
"Well, we may be able to go inside, hunting, before long," said Jesse, stoutly. "My father doesn"t care if I go with him."
"How would you like to go over to Kadiak with me?" asked Uncle d.i.c.k, directly, looking at them keenly from his gray eyes.
"You don"t mean it!" exclaimed Rob. The three gathered round him.
"Are you going over there right away?" asked Jesse, staring up at him.
Uncle d.i.c.k nodded. "Same boat," he answered. "I"m going on with the _Yucatan_ to Seward, and will take the _Nora_ from there to Kadiak.
Chance of your life to spend the summer, if your mothers will say the word. And not to hurry you any, you"ve got just about an hour and a quarter to get ready--that is to say, to get consent and get ready both."
The three boys hardly stopped to hear the last of his words. They were off, running at top speed across the long sidewalk toward the town.
Uncle d.i.c.k followed them at his leisure, talking and telling the news to his acquaintances, of whom he had many in the town. He explained to these that the government work in soundings would be done by the revenue cutter _Bennington_, along the sh.o.r.es of Kadiak Island, for the next four months. Now, although to those unfamiliar with Alaska, Valdez may seem as far away as Kadiak, the latter really is some hundreds of miles farther to the northwest, and near the base of that long peninsula which tapers to a point in the Aleutian Islands. A dweller in a coast town in Alaska knows what goes on immediately about him. There were few in Valdez who knew more of Kadiak than they did of Kamchatka.
"G"long there, ye young rascals!" called out a hearty voice at the fleeing boys. Captain John Ryan waved a cap toward them as he came down the gang-plank. But the boys, usually ready enough to visit with him on his stops at Valdez, were now too much excited to more than wave their hands as they disappeared.
"So ye"re plannin" to take the rascals along with us, west, are ye?"
asked Captain John Ryan of Uncle d.i.c.k. "A summer out there would be the makin" of the youngsters."
Uncle d.i.c.k"s eyes wrinkled in a smile as he and the st.u.r.dy sea-captain started on down and walked to the town. At the farther end they were met by the three boys and by three nice-looking ladies, each prosperous-looking and well dressed, and each bearing a very anxious expression of countenance.