The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers Part 30

"Homer," said Eric to his friend the following afternoon, as the _Bear_ lay outside the barge _St. James_ at the wharf at St. Paul, "what do you make of that cloud to the sou'west'ard?"

"Snow," was the terse reply.

"I don't," the boy objected. "It's a mighty queer-looking sort of cloud.

It doesn't look a bit like anything I've ever seen before."

"There's lots of things you've never seen," was his friend's reply.

"That's one of them," the boy answered gravely, not at all in his friend's jovial vein. "But I don't think it's snow. There's something awfully queer about it. Gives me the shivers, somehow! It looks too solid for snow!"

Minutes pa.s.sed. Little by little a curious feeling of unrest began to spread over the ship. The sailors stopped in their work to glance up at the strange and menacing cloud. Its edges were black with an orange fringing, and as clean cut as though it were some gigantic plate being moved across the sky. In the distance there was a low rumble, as of thunder.

The portent rose slowly. Almost an hour pa.s.sed before the cloud was half-way up the zenith. Shortly before two bells in the first dog watch, Eric, pa.s.sing his hand along the rail, realized that it was covered with a fine coat of dust. This was not black, like coal dust, but a light gray.

"Say, Homer," he said, "that's ashes."

"Forest fire somewhere," said the other.

"No," said Eric, "it looks like pumice-stone."

"Volcanic, I'll bet," said the other, with a quickened interest. He scooped up a pinch of the fine dust and looked at it. "It's volcanic, sure enough. There must be a big eruption somewhere!"

"I wish it were right handy near by," said Eric; "I've never seen an eruption."

"You talk as if they were as frequent as moving pictures," said the other. "But there's trouble somewhere, you can lay to that. And it's not far off, either! See, there's another cloud coming up from the nor'ard!"

Steadily, and with a slowness that only increased its threatening aspect, the cloud to the northward joined the vast overhanging canopy that had been seen earlier in the day. By half-past six in the evening it was black as the densest night, the murk only being lighted by the constant flashes of lightning. The air was highly electrified and the wireless was made silent. During the evening the island was shaken by many light earthquake shocks and several people from St. Paul came to take refuge on the _Bear_. At midnight a fine dust was falling steadily, but by six bells of the middle watch it had lessened and when the sun rose the next morning, he could be seen as a dull red ball. The air was still full of dust and ash, but the eruption was believed to be over.

Early in the morning scores of people came to the ship for drinking-water, many of the streams and wells in the village having been choked. About five inches of ashes had fallen. The captain of the _Bear_ started the evaporators going, to provide drinking-water for the folk ash.o.r.e.

Shortly before noon the ashes began to fall again, even more heavily than before. When Eric came up from below after lunch, the air was so full of a heavy gritty ash that it was impossible to see the length of the ship. The _Bear_ was evidently in a place of danger and there was no means of determining what was happening or what would happen.

"Do you suppose we'll strike out to sea?" queried Eric of his friend.

"We ought to, for safety, but I don't see how we can leave the place unprotected."

"We'd never do that," replied the other. "Things don't work out that way in the Coast Guard. You'll see. We'll stick here till the last gun's fired."

It was a relief to Eric when at three o'clock that afternoon he was ordered to accompany a sh.o.r.e party. All hands had been on duty since seven that morning, and when Eric went ash.o.r.e the sailors were keeping regular shifts with shovels, clearing the decks, while four streams of water from the fire mains were playing incessantly in an effort to clear the ship of its horrible burden.

More than once, when the rain of volcanic debris grew especially heavy, the men fell behind, work as hard as they might. Herein lay real danger, for if the deck-load of ashes grew too heavy the _Bear_ might turn turtle. Then all hope of rescue would be lost.

The captain of the _Bear_ summoned a meeting of the princ.i.p.al citizens.

He sent to the two saloons in the village and finding that they were crowded, requested the proprietors to close. This they did without demur, realizing that at a time of such peculiar danger, when no one knew what had happened, what was happening, or where the next outbreak might come, it was necessary for everybody to be on the alert.

Through the afternoon the darkness increased into a horrid gloom far worse than the darkest night. Men collided with each other working about the decks, for the feeble glow of electric lights and lanterns was deadened by the yellowish compost so that they could not be seen five feet away. When nightfall came, no one knew, it had been scarcely less dark at three o'clock in the afternoon than at midnight. All night long men worked steadily in shifts, clearing away the ash. Ash.o.r.e the conditions were equally terrifying and all night long the bell of the Russian Church boomed out in the blackness. There were few of its followers who did not grope their way to the building at some time during that awful night.

Sunrise and the coming of daylight pa.s.sed unseen and unnoticed. Only chronometers and watches served to tell the change from night to day.

The three pilots of the place were summoned to discuss the possibility of getting the _Bear_ safely out to sea, with all the population of the village on board. As every landmark was obliterated, and as the ship's bow could not be seen from the bridge, not one of the pilots would undertake to con the ship through the narrow channel.

Somewhere the sun was shining, but not a glint of light pa.s.sed the impenetrable veil overhead. Still the sailors worked steadily, shoveling off the ash over the vessel's side, still the pumps worked, though now the water brought up from the harbor was like gruel and scarcely could be forced through the pipes. Every few minutes, from the hills around the village, avalanches of ashes could be heard, the terrible clouds of debris flying over the town and adding to the choking smother.

Orders were given for all people to gather on the vessel or the wharf.

By ten o'clock the last of the gray ash-covered ghosts was mustered in, 185 people on the vessel, 149 in the warehouse on the wharf. Blinded by ash, with throats so burned by the acrid fumes that even a hoa.r.s.e whisper was agony, with nostrils bleeding from constant effort to keep them from being clogged with the fine dust, and with a stabbing pain in the lungs with every breath one drew, the people were at the extremity of their endurance. The situation looked desperate both for the residents and for the officers and crew of the Coast Guard cutter.

The officers of the _Bear_ worked incessantly. In the dark they were here, there and everywhere, and Eric, filled with the spirit of the service, was on the jump. He was busy in the storehouse shortly before eleven o'clock in the morning when a man groped his way in, saying that he had just escaped an avalanche and that several men were marooned in a steamer lying off the cannery wharf half a mile below the dock. This was Eric's chance. So often had he made the trip from the ship to the storehouse that morning that even in the dark and through the flying spume of yellow horror he made his way direct to the first lieutenant, and saluted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOING TO PIECES FAST.

Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "WE SAVED 'EM ALL."

Coast Guard crew (including the dog) which rescued every sailor of wrecked vessel's crew.

Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard.]

"Yes, Mr. Swift?"

"I have information, sir," he said, "that there are seven men cut off either in a steamer near the cannery, or in the cannery itself, half a mile below the pier. I am told there is neither food nor water in the building and that it is at the base of a hill from which it may be overwhelmed by an avalanche at any minute. I think, sir, that a party could reach them."

The lieutenant nodded and sought the captain. He returned a few moments later.

"There are high hills between the village and the cannery," he said, "and the road winds along the beach. We have absolutely no means of knowing what the conditions may be. Under the circ.u.mstances the captain does not feel justified in ordering a party on what might prove to be their death. But--"

"Yes, sir?"

"He directed me to say that neither would he feel justified in refusing permission to those who desired to attempt a rescue. If there should be volunteers, I have no doubt that you would be given the opportunity to lead the party."

Eric saluted, though in that dim strange dark he could scarcely see his superior's face, and withdrew. In spite of the unknown nature of the ordeal not a man drew back. Eric chose his friend, Homer, two warrant officers, three enlisted men, one local resident for a guide, and the master of the imperilled steamer.

The road was level, the distance only half a mile, but so great was the danger of ash avalanches that every man was roped to the other--all carried lanterns and there were several shovels.

"Hope we don't get buried under this stuff!" Eric whispered to Homer, as they started out.

"I feel just about buried now," was the hoa.r.s.e reply.

At the end of the score of houses that made the village street, the party struck a deep drift of the volcanic ash. It took the guide to his waist and he stumbled and fell. The fine acrid pumice filled his mouth and his nostrils, and when Eric picked him up, he feared the man would strangle to death. A mouthful of fresh air would have meant much to the sufferer, but there was nothing but the sulphur-laden atmosphere to breathe. In a minute or two, however, choking and gasping, the guide cleared his nasal pa.s.sages and throat of the burning dust. Blinded and staggering, he recovered enough to be able to walk, but Eric took his place and led the way.

Warned by this accident, which had so nearly proved a fatality, the boy proceeded with extreme caution, digging a shovel before him every step to make sure that the ashes did not hide some newly opened earthquake crevice into which the party might fall. Under the slope of the mountainous sh.o.r.es the swirling spume of gray-yellow dust was so dense and yet so light in weight that the men struggled in ashes to their waists, and it was hard to tell where earth ended and air began. It was as though the earth had no surface. Unconsciously Eric found himself using the motions of swimming, in order to cleave his way through the semi-solid dust.

Suddenly, as Eric prodded the ground before him, the shovel went through with a jolt, almost precipitating the boy on his face. Had it not been for the slowness and the care with which he was advancing, he might have had the same fate as the guide. Lifting up the spade, what was his horror to find that it was wet!

With quick alarm Eric realized that the rescue party was in the utmost peril. They had wandered from the sh.o.r.e and were in very truth within a few inches of disaster. They were walking on the sea! The layer of floating ash, though several feet thick, was but a treacherous surface which might break through at any moment and land them in the water below. There, certain death awaited them, for they would smother and drown under the hideous pall. With his heart in his throat Eric turned sharply to the right, trusting only to a vague sense of direction. A score of steps brought him to a slight billowing of the ash, and with a sigh of relief he knew he was on solid ground again.

The danger was little less upon the sh.o.r.e. Huge avalanches could be heard hurtling down the mountain-side and with each new slide the air became, if possible, more unbreathable than before. A new fear possessed the lad. It might be that they would return alive to the ship, but might not every member of the party be made helpless for life by the clogging of the lung-pa.s.sages with dust?