"Must have been a fish," said John. "There he goes again!"
Even as he spoke Rob had left him and was running to the edge of the water. "Salmon!" he cried. "Salmon! I thought so. Now we"re all right!"
These were Alaska boys, and a run of salmon was nothing new to them, although it is something never failing of interest no matter how often one sees it. The three now gathered at the shallow water a short distance below the hut. All along the creek crows and ravens were flying in great flocks. From the heavy grove of cotton-wood beyond the creek there arose several great birds, soaring majestically across--eagles--also interested in the coming of the fish. Suddenly one of these made a swift dart from its poise high in the air, straight as an arrow, and flinging the water in every direction as it struck.
Struggling, it rose again with a great fish in its talons.
"He"s got _his_ breakfast, anyhow," said John, ruefully. "But now how are we going to get ours?"
"Run to the boat, John," said Rob. "I remember seeing some cod-lines with big hooks under the back seat. Must have belonged to those natives.
You bring me those hooks while I hunt for a pole."
Excitedly they all now began to see what might be done toward making a salmon-gaff such as Indians use; for all these boys knew very well that the Alaska salmon will not take any sort of a bait or lure when they are ascending a stream; and these were the red salmon, fish of about eight or ten pounds in weight, which in that part of the world are never known to take any kind of lure.
In a few minutes Rob, having found a longish pole in the gra.s.s near by, had hurriedly bound with a piece of cod-line the three large hooks at the end so that they made a gang or gaff. Taking this, and rolling up his trousers high as he could, he waded into the shallow, ice-cold water.
"Where are they now?" he asked of the others, who remained on the bank.
"There they come--there"s a school coming now!" cried Jesse.
All at once Rob could see the surface of the water below him just barely moving in low, silvery ripples as though a faint wind touched it. A sort of metallic l.u.s.tre seemed to hang above the water--the reflection from the bright scales of the many fish swimming close to the surface.
Presently, as he looked into the water directly at his feet, he could see scores of large, ghostly looking creatures, pale green or silvery, pa.s.sing slowly by him, some of them so close as almost to touch his legs as he stood motionless. Once or twice he struck with his gaff, but the quick motions of the fish foiled him; and it looked as though the boys would wait some time for their breakfast, after all. At last, however, he waded closer to the sh.o.r.e and half hid behind a bush, extending his gaff in front of him with the hooks resting on the bottom.
"Now, drive them over this way--throw in some stones," he directed.
The others did as he said, and all at once Rob saw the water directly in front of him full of a ma.s.s of confused fish. A quick jerk, and he had a fine, fat fish fast, and the next instant it was flopping on the bank, while all three of them fell upon it with eager cries.
"Now another!" said Rob. "They may not be running all day."
He returned to his hiding-place near the bush, and thus in a few minutes he had secured a half-dozen splendid fish.
"That will do for now," said he. "What do you think of the chance for breakfast now, Mister John?"
John grinned happily. He already had a couple of the fish nicely cleaned.
"I"ll tell you what," said Jesse, "after we"ve had breakfast we"ll catch a lot of these fat ones and split them open the way the Indians do. I think we could make a smoking-rack for them without much trouble."
"Capital," said Rob. "We ought to dry some fish when we have the chance, because no one can tell how long we may have to live here."
"But we won"t do anything till after breakfast," said John, looking up.
"No," laughed Rob, "I"m just as hungry as you are. So now let"s build a little fire and, since we have no frying-pan as yet, do what we can at broiling some salmon steaks on sticks."
It was not the first time they had cooked fish in this way, and although they sadly missed the salt to which they were accustomed, they made a good breakfast from salmon and a cracker or so apiece, which Rob doled out to them from their scanty supply.
"We ought to keep what we have as long as we can," said Rob. "For instance, we"ve only a couple of boxes of matches, and we must not waste one if we can help it. We"ll look around after awhile and see if we can scare up a frying-pan. But now I move that the first thing we do be to explore our country just a little bit."
"Agreed," said John, who was now well fed and contented. "Suppose we walk down to the mouth of the creek over there."
Following along the winding sh.o.r.es of the small stream, which here at high tide was not above the level of the sea, they found themselves finally at the angle between the creek and the open bay, beyond the end of the low sea-wall which has earlier been mentioned. The creek here turned in sharply toward the foot of the mountain, and across from where the boys stood a sheer rock wall rose several hundred feet. This shut off the view of a part of the bay on that side, but in other directions they could see the white-topped waves rolling, eight or ten miles across to the farther side, where there were many other bays making back among the mountains.
Out in the bay where the stream emptied, schools of salmon, apparently thousands in number, were flinging themselves into the air as they started toward the mouth of the creek. At the last angle of the stream, where it turned against the rock wall, there was a pool perhaps fifty feet across and twenty feet in depth, and as the boys looked down into this it seemed literally packed with hundreds and thousands of great salmon, which swam around and around before picking out the current of the stream up which they were to swim.
"Here"s fish enough for us whenever we want any," said Rob. "We can catch them here without much trouble, I think."
"I don"t know, we may not be so badly off here for a while, after all,"
admitted John.
"Just look at the gulls," said Jesse, idly shying a pebble at one great bird as it came screaming along close above them, to join its kind in the great flocks that circled around above the salmon, which they were helpless to feed upon, not being equipped with beak and talons like the eagles.
"Yes," said Rob, "thousands of them. And every pair of them with a nest somewhere, and every nest with two eggs, and a good many of them good to eat. Do you see those tall, ragged rocks out there? That looks to me like their nesting-ground."
"But we can"t get there," said John, pointing to the creek.
"Oh yes, we can, in two ways. We could wade the creek up above and climb across the shoulder of the mountain there, and maybe cross the next creek beyond, and so get out to those rocks on the point below. Or we can launch the dory up above and come down the coast to the mouth of the creek, and then skirt the sh.o.r.e over there."
"Why don"t we bring our boat over here and take it up the creek?" asked Jesse. "We wouldn"t have to row more than a mile or so, and then we"d always know our boat was safe."
"That"s a good idea," said Rob. "We"ll do that this very day. Suppose we go back now to the house."
They now turned and began slowly to walk up the creek again. Suddenly Rob stooped down and parted the gra.s.s, looking closely at something on the ground.
"What is it, Rob?" asked John, joining him.
The two now pushed the gra.s.s apart and looked down eagerly. Rob rose to his knees and pushed the cap back on his forehead.
"If I didn"t know better," said he, "I"d call that the track of an elephant or a mastodon or something. See, there it goes, all along the sh.o.r.e."
"But it can"t be an elephant," said Jesse.
"No, it can"t be anything but just what it is--the track of a bear! What Uncle d.i.c.k said is true. Look, this track is more than half as long as my arm."
"We"d better get back to the house as quick as we can," said Jesse, anxiously. "That bear may come back any minute!"
IX
THE BIG BEAR OF KADIAK
The three now started up the creek toward the barabbara, their steps perhaps a little quicker than when they came down-stream. Rob was scanning the mountain-side carefully, and looking as well at the sign along the creek bank.
"That"s where he lives, up in that canon across the creek, very likely,"
he said, at length. "Here"s where he crossed in the shallow water, and last night he fished all along this bank. My! I"ll bet he"s full of bones to-day. It"s the first run of fish, and he was so hungry he ate pretty near everything except the backbone." He pointed to a dozen skeletons of salmon that lay half hidden in the gra.s.s. The latter was trampled down as though cows had been in pasture there.
"I don"t know," said Jesse, soberly. "I always wanted to kill a bear, and there"s three of us now and we"ve got guns; but I don"t believe I ever wanted to kill a bear quite as big as this one. Why, he could smash in the door of our house in the night and eat us up if he wanted to."
"We"ll eat _him_, that"s what we"ll do," said John, decisively. "I only wish we had a kettle or a frying-pan or something."