The Boy Scouts on the Yukon Part 2

This signal honor was highly appreciated by the boys, for at meals they were introduced to several territorial officials, capitalists and army officers, who, with the women of their families, were going in with the advent of Spring in Alaska. The tale of Rand's feat had preceded them, and the poor fellow spent a rather uncomfortable and embarra.s.sing half hour of compliments and congratulations from men whose experience had taught them to appreciate a gallant deed.

Colonel Snow finally came to Rand's rescue by turning the talk to the rescued man.

"A great character, Swift.w.a.ter Jim, Captain Huxley?"

"Yes," replied the commander of the "Queen," "and Alaska history is full of his vagaries. He's probably the best equipped prospector and all-round miner in the territory, but it does him no good. He has owned twenty mines, and has made a dozen fortunes and spent them all. Every time he makes a 'stake' as he calls it, he indulges in extravagances that make one doubt his sanity. He went out last fall with fifty thousand dollars in dust, and I dare say will be working for day wages when he gets back in.

"He visited New York on this trip, and caused something of a sensation even there while his money held out. His diversions are innocent, turning largely to investments in food and drink, a tendency born, I suppose, of long privations in the Arctic. His most humorous exploit on this trip was entering the most fashionable restaurant in the metropolis, and ordering fifty dollars worth of ham and eggs, after vainly attempting to make out the French of the bill of fare."

Colonel Snow and the boys laughed, and the former said:

"I presume little of his money is really spent on himself."

"No," said the Captain. "He is the soul of generosity and scatters it right and left. Of course, a good deal of it goes to the leeches who cl.u.s.ter around such characters in the cities. Still, although he has the average pioneer's contempt for Indians and Eskimos he has given liberally to the missions which are civilizing them. He may make another fortune, but I believe he will die poor."

"D-d-did he eat all that order of ham and eggs?" asked Pepper with interest.

"Well, I hardly think so," smiled the Captain. "I doubt if the order was really served. Head waiters of these big restaurants have very diplomatic ways."

"Captain Huxley, what is a 'Sourdough'? I heard you apply the word to Swift.w.a.ter 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' cla.s.s."

"What is that?" asked Rand.

"The Indian name for what the men on the Canadian ranches called 'tenderfeet,'" replied Colonel Snow.

At this moment the vessel experienced a slight shock, and the dining saloon seemed to rise on a long and gentle undulation, and as gently to sink to an appreciable depth. The motion continued regularly for a few minutes, and Captain Huxley glanced keenly at the guests at his table, with a barely perceptible smile on his face.

A puzzled and rather serious expression came over the faces of several of those at breakfast. Suddenly, d.i.c.k exclaimed:

"We're losing a good deal of this scenery," and pa.s.sed out on the deck, to be followed almost immediately by Pepper and Don. The Boy Scouts had met with a new sensation.

CHAPTER III.

INTO ROUGH WATERS.

The Boy Scouts of Creston, although expert in nearly all water sports, and familiar with the gently flowing Hudson, and the quiet inland tides of bay and Sound, had had no experience as yet of ocean travel. The Alaska trip was the first test of their sailor-like qualities. In the "Inside pa.s.sage"

are two stretches of twenty and forty miles, where the full sweep of the Pacific rollers is felt, and it was while crossing one of these stretches that the "Queen" took on those erratic motions that sent d.i.c.k Pepper and Don to the open air so quickly and caused not a few of their fellow travelers considerable discomfort.

Strange as it may seem, none of the other boys were affected by the rough waters, and they quickly followed their chums to the deck to offer aid and comfort. It has always been one of the peculiarities of seasickness that, however important and serious it may seem to the victim, it is p.r.o.ne to arouse ridicule and humorous suggestions in those who are not subject to its attacks, and while Rand, Jack and Gerald did what they could for their unfortunate companions, they could not resist the temptation of an occasional sly reference to their chums' poor qualities as sailors, that under any other circ.u.mstances would have driven the combative Pepper frantic.

"Wa' yo tellin' me, hoeny, tha' wa' some great scenery, ovah da'?"

suggested Rand, falling into a broad Southern dialect that he used at times.

Poor d.i.c.k, whose interest centered in the dark blue of the water beneath him, attempted a glare of indignation with poor results, while Don made no attempt to express the briefest kind of an "opeenion."

"Faith, and this the celebrated _mal de mer_, is it?" said Gerald, gazing with mock curious interest at his wilted chums.

"That's brutal, Gerald," exclaimed Jack, "seasickness is bad enough, without any of your Celtic High School French."

"Begorra, it's about all of it I remember, and maybe I'll never get a chance to use it again."

"I wish it was catching, like the measles or mumps," gulped Pepper in a fury, "and I'd give it to you all."

"What, French?" asked his brother.

"Naw, seasickness," yelled Pepper, and bolted for his stateroom to be soon followed by his two companions in misfortune. A couple of hours in their bunks with some little attention from their now rather repentant critics, and the steamer having pa.s.sed again into still water the patients were soon restored to normal health, with, if possible, greatly increased appet.i.ties.

Two days later, Jack, who was ever on the alert for something new and had made friends with several of the officers, thus getting the run of the ship, was exploring the lower decks, and walked through the quarters of the third cla.s.s pa.s.sengers. These were largely made up of laboring men going "in" for the summer work. A few miners who had spent all their money in the Pacific coast cities, and were going back to try their luck again, and a few of the cla.s.s whom the police of those and other cities had simply told to "move on."

The steerage quarters were rather dark, and hearing voices Jack stepped aside into a narrow pa.s.sageway between the bunks to let a couple of men pa.s.s. The two turned into the same pa.s.sageway which concealed Jack, and the latter recognizing the voice of Dublin sank down into one of the further berths as the others sat down on a couple of bunks near the entrance.

"I tell ye it's a better game than the other," said Dublin, "and we're goin' in for anything we can make."

"I'm not strong for any new game that I don't understand," whined the voice of Rae, "and we're in bad on this boat, as it stands. We'll find games enough of our own when we git to Skagway."

"Don't lose yer nerve," said Dublin, "with a good chance to make a stake in sight. These folks is takin' in a lot of fine machinery, and that Yukon country is a long ways from where that machinery is made, and every nut and bolt in it will be worth its weight in coin by the time they've got it in there. All we got to do is to cop off a piston and a valve or two and this army man will be willin' to pay several hundred dollars to get 'em back rather than wait for months to get 'em in from the outside."

"Well," replied Rae, "ye know that stealin' up in this country is bigger crime than murder, and they don't fool with the courts much."

"Aw, this ain't stealin'," sneered Dublin, "it's only kidnappin' and holdin' for ransom. I know just whereabouts in the hold this stuff was stored at Seattle, and that kid, Monkey, of yours, can get at it in ten minutes if he has the nerve. The stuff is not a hundred feet from us, and I can show him tonight how to do it."

Rae, who was more or less of a coward, made further protest, but finally yielded, and the pair slipped out of the pa.s.sageway and walked away still discussing the proposed scheme. Jack, glad to be released from the rather odorous confinement of the bunk into which he had crowded himself, left the third-cla.s.s quarters and made for the upper deck.

His newspaper training, of which he had received a considerable amount in the intervals of his school days in the office of his father's paper in Creston, included an acute sense of a.n.a.lysis, and he at once arrived at the opinion that the conspiracy he had heard referred to the freight which Colonel Snow was taking North, and his first impulse was to lay the matter before him for such action as he might see fit to take.

Then a foolish ambition to handle the thing alone, born possibly of that newspaper desire to bring off a "scoop" as an exclusive publication is called, coupled with the usual boyish longing to become a hero, incited him to circ.u.mvent the plot singlehanded and alone, prevented him from speaking to either the leader of the party or his chums. In addition, his journalistic training had instilled deeply one of the first rules of the profession, accuracy, and to tell the truth he was rather ashamed to go to Colonel Snow with so little evidence to back up his story, and so he determined to "keep tabs," as he called it, on Monkey Rae, and knowing he could handle that young man physically to capture him redhanded and take him in dramatic fashion before the Captain.

Jack had no doubt that Dublin would carry out any scheme he had in mind at the first opportunity, and that the attempt to get into the hold would be made at a hatchway on the same deck with the steerage. The hold at this part of the ship being filled with machinery and other heavy freight, the hatch cover was not battened down and most of the time was left partially off in order to give a circulation of air through that part of the hold under the steerage.

About ten o'clock that night, Jack slipped away from his companions, and descended to the engine room deck, where he took up his place behind some packing cases, and awaited developments. Nearly all the steerage pa.s.sengers were in their quarters, for the night was keen and there was little enjoyment in the open air.

An hour pa.s.sed and Jack was becoming weary of his vigil, especially in view of the uncertainty of the coming of his quarry. Then, from the pa.s.sageway leading to the steerage a slim figure emerged and by the dim light of the lamp which illuminated this part of the deck, Jack was just able to recognize Monkey, who carried in one hand a hatchet, and something like a policeman's club in the other. Monkey glanced rapidly around the deck, looking for the watchman who at times visited every portion of the ship, but the coast was clear.

Crossing the deck the boy slipped easily between the partly raised hatch cover and the combing, and down the stationary iron ladder into the dark hold. As he did so a ray of light appeared in the hitherto dark hold.

Glancing around to be sure that neither Dublin nor Rae were standing sentinel for the young marauder, Jack slipped noiselessly over the deck, and followed Monkey down the ladder.

A glance showed him that what Monkey carried in his right hand was a portable electric light and with this he was carefully searching for the marks upon some packing cases.

Jack tiptoed quietly toward him, intending to take him unawares, failing in his eagerness to make the capture to allow Monkey to make an attack upon the case with his hatchet sufficiently to "clinch" his evidence.

Just as Jack put out his hand to grasp the arm that held the hatchet his foot struck an unseen coil of rope, and he plunged head foremost into Monkey. The latter pitched forward three or four steps and Jack landed on his hands and knees, an accident that probably saved him serious injury, for at the moment the terror-stricken Monkey turned and aimed a furious blow at whatever had struck him.