Boy Scouts on the Yukon Read online

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  THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE YUKON

  By RALPH VICTORAuthor of "Comrades Series"

  Illustrated by RUDOLF MENCL

  New YorkHURST & COMPANYPublishers.

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  THE BOY SCOUTSBy RALPH VICTOR

  The Boy Scout Movement has secured a hold on the American boy that isremarkable in its far-reaching effects. It is doing a great work in thedevelopment of manliness, self-confidence and physical perfection and ismaking better citizens out of the members of the organization.

  This series will foster interest in the Boy Scout Organization. There isexcitement such as every boy's book should contain. There are many andvaried experiences, and much worth-while information about out-door sportsand camp life, in which the youths take part.

  1. The Boy Scouts' Patrol2. The Boy Scouts' Motor-Cycles3. The Boy Scouts' Canoe Trip4. The Boy Scouts in the Canadian Rockies5. The Boy Scouts' Air Craft6. The Boy Scouts on the Yukon7. The Boy Scouts in the North Woods8. The Boy Scouts in the Black Hills

  Illustrated, 12mo, ClothPrice per Volume, 40 Cents

  Copyright, 1912, ByThe Platt & Peck Co.

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  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I. The "Inside Passage." 9 II. "Swiftwater Jim." 21 III. Into Rough Waters. 34 IV. On Alaskan Soil. 46 V. A New Mode of Travel. 58 VI. The Biggest Bear in the World. 70 VII. Into the Wilderness. 83 VIII. Colonel Snow's Ranch. 96 IX. An Heirloom Returned. 108 X. Building the Camp. 121 XI. At the Mercy of the Pest. 136 XII. Alaska's First Airship. 150 XIII. Down the River to Nome. 158 XIV. On the Seward Peninsula. 168 XV. The Mammoth's Tusks. 179 XVI. Homeward Bound. 189

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  BOY SCOUTS ONTHE YUKON

  CHAPTER I.

  THE "INSIDE PASSAGE."

  "Ar-r-rouse ye--r-r-rouse ye, me merry, merry men," boomed the voice ofGerald Moore, with a slightly Celtic roll of the "r's," as he drummedimpatiently on the shutter of the cabin window, while his companion, JackBlake, performed a similar tattoo on the adjoining window. "Faith, and itwas daylight hours ago, and ye don't know what ye're missing."

  The shutter slid back, and the pleasant, if rather drowsy face of RandolphPeyton peered forth, and behind his shoulder that of Donald Graeme.

  "Daylight, did ye say?" remarked the latter. "It's my opinion it's beendaylight all night, for it surely wasn't dark when we retired, and we'veonly been in bed a few minutes."

  The scene was the outside cabin deck of the well-appointed steamer "Queen"of the Alaska Steamship Company, which was plowing her way through thequiet waters of the "Inside Passage," on her way to the land of the Yukonand the Klondike.

  The hour was only four in the morning, but the sun was high, and the dayin those high latitudes was well begun.

  "No regrets, Don, you sleepyhead," said Gerald. "You've already had sevenhours' sleep, and on this trip one ought not to go to bed at all."

  By this time, Jack had succeeded in arousing his brother, Pepper Blake,and the latter's bunk mate, Dick Wilson, who gazed out a littleresentfully, as they threw back the sash, but whose faces quicklybrightened at the scene that met their eyes.

  "Yes," said Jack, "there's mighty little darkness up here at this time ofyear, and I suppose Don thinks it's an awful waste of good daylightturning it on while we sleep."

  "Ye'll see more than this 'wasted' when ye get further north, and Isuppose Don will sit up all night to save it," replied Gerald.

  This reference to be cautious and prudent, not to say economical, natureof the canny Scot, raised a laugh, and the four who had been routed out oftheir bunks, through the energy of Jack, who, brought up in a newspaperoffice and atmosphere, hated to let anything unusual get away from him,hastily dressed and joined their two chums on the deck.

  "I couldn't miss a yard of this scenery," said Jack, "and we've a fewthings in that line, along our native Hudson, to brag about, too."

  The steamer was treading her way through straits and channels amonghundreds of islands that fenced these almost lake-like waters from thelong swells of the North Pacific. Although it was the latter part ofApril, early in the year for these latitudes, the influence of the warmwaters of the Japanese Gulf Stream could be seen in the bright green ofthe islands.

  On the other side of the ship, the dark green forests that clothed themountains of British Columbia came down to the very water's edge, andswept by in one majestic panorama.

  "There's certainly lots of scenery to the mile," said Rand, drawing a longbreath, as he gazed in admiration.

  "My grandfather said that is what makes Scotland such a great country,"remarked Don, catching at Rand's half-humorous comment, "standing the landup on end."

  "Let's give it the Scout's salute," suggested Pepper, with enthusiasm asthe laugh over Don's serious remark died away. "There ought to be a greatecho in those hills."

  "Hold on," cried Jack, catching Pepper's arm as he unshipped his bugle. "Ihad a talk with the purser last night, and I'm afraid we'll have to 'cutout' the bugle calls on this trip. He says they have an official bugleraboard, for the call to meals and for the salute at landings, and we wouldinterfere with him and perhaps affect the comfort of other passengers whomay not be so keen on the early morning hunt for scenery as we."

  The Scout discipline and what might be called the Scout ritual, to whichthe boys had been subjecting themselves for several years, was immediatelyapparent in the murmurs of approval which greeted Jack's suggestion. Tothose who have followed the career of the Boy Scouts of Creston on theHudson, in the preceding volumes of this series, it is scarcely necessaryto introduce the young men with whom this narrative starts.

  The formation of the Patrol of Boy Scouts, at the suggestion of ColonelSnow, a retired officer of the United States army; a mysterious robbery,and a gallant rescue from the waters of the Hudson, are told in the firstvolume, "Boy Scouts' Patrol." The second volume leads them into adventuresand difficulties incident to an excursion on motor cycles that have cometo each of them as a reward for their aid in the rescue referred to whichare told under the title of "Boy Scouts' Motorcycles," in the course ofwhich Jack is captured by moonshiners on whom the boys turn the tables."Boy Scouts' Canoe Trip," brings the chums into conflict with Soundpirates, during a canoe trip along the Long Island shore, and give Pepperand Dick, who are lost in a fog, a chance to help a foghorn operator ofthe United States Lighthouse Service, out of a very serious state ofaffairs. "Boy Scouts in the Rockies," the fourth volume, tells of theperils attending a trip into the Canadian Northwest, in search of a lostmine in which they have been given each an interest by the owner, Mr.Royce; their rescue of the latter from enemies who are also hunting thesame mine; of hunting among the Indians, and of the rediscovery of thelost mine which has been named Uncas, in honor of their patrol.

  The fifth volume, under the caption, "Boy Scouts' Aircraft," relates howtheir interest in aviation is aroused by the evolutions of a militaryaviator viewed during a visit to an army post; of the building bythemselves of a glider with which they win a contest of these elementaryaircraft, the prize being complete airship motors of the highestefficiency. With these engines they equip two aeroplanes and meet withvarious adventures of a thrilling nature, including an aerial kidnappingand pursuit in aeroplane
s, the winning of an aeroplane meet, and thediscovery and deciphering of the Narwhal's Tusk, which starts them ontheir way to Alaska.

  The preceding February, the boys had graduated from Highcrest Academy, andsome weeks before that event Colonel Snow, who had been for several yearson friendly terms with the boys; had been the means of inducing them toform the Scouts' Patrol, and had looked after their promotion to be firstgrade Scouts, had been in consultation with their parents over amysterious matter of which they had as yet learned nothing.

  One day in March, as the boys were gathered in the club room in Mr.Scott's house, discussing plans for a Scout encampment, of the Patrols ofthe nearby towns, Colonel Snow entered the gate, and they crowded out onthe porch to greet him.

  "We were just planning to extend our Scout knowledge and experience by anactual encampment, this summer--sort of 'Spring maneuvres' you know, likethe regulars and National Guard," said Rand.

  "Perhaps I can offer you something of actual field experience," saidColonel Snow. "That's what I'm here for, and if you have time I've aproposition to make ... rather a cold one, however."

  "I-i-ce c-c-cream soda?" inquired Pepper, flippantly, amid reprovingfrowns from the other Scouts.

  "Why, you can't even think of that without shivering in your speech," saidJack, with scorn.

  "Don't mind him, Colonel Snow, his appetite is like the poor, it's alwayswith us," apologized Rand.

  The army officer smiled indulgently upon the somewhat abashed Pepper.

  "Don't lose it, Pepper," said he. "That appetite may prove one of the bestof assets in this proposition of mine. How would you all like a trip toAlaska?"

  The patrol came to "attention," every member on his feet and for themoment speechless.

  "What! the North Pole?" gasped Rand, whose former residence in the SunnySouth inclined him to look upon all high latitudes with suspicion.

  "Not exactly," replied Colonel Snow, with a laugh, in which all joined asa kind of relief to their feelings. "We shall need neither sleeping bagsnor furs nor pemmican. Let me explain the situation. Like all retired armyofficers, I am subject to call, at times by the government, for servicesof various kinds, and I am now intrusted with a mission in the ControllerBay region of Alaska, in connection with certain coal deposits andreservations. In our trip to the Canadian Rockies, I secured personally,as an investment, certain timber lands in British Columbia at theheadwaters of the Yukon watershed, and my purpose is to cut the timber onthese lands, to be eventually floated down the rivers and used in thevarious mines and mining camps, now being developed in both the Yukon andAlaska territories.

  "On my way to my mission, this Spring, I intend to take in my sawmillplant and set it up and get ready for next winter's cutting. I shall beobliged to employ about a dozen men to establish the plant, and myexperience with you Scouts in the field, in the Northwest, indicates to methat you can be as useful to me as anyone I could pick up. It will alsogive you a chance to see for the first time a new and growing country, bywhich you are bound by all the ties of government and flag. I will say atonce that I have talked with your parents and your experience with me inCanada has given them sufficient confidence to furnish their consent. Thedecision rests with you."

  The magnitude of the suggestion stunned the boys for the time, but theysoon regained their self-possession, and promised an early decision. So itcame about that after discussing the matter with their parents they hadanother talk with the Colonel when final arrangements were made. The boys,who had already banked three dividends from the Uncas mine, now a wellpaying property, were to outfit themselves, Colonel Snow paying all otherexpenses to, in and from Alaska, and allowing them fair wages whileactually engaged on the sawmill work. Their outfits were selected byColonel Snow, who had to veto many highly colored and fanciful suggestionsof snowshoes, tents, sleeping bags and heavy furs.

  "I have an idea," said the Colonel, "that there will be many days when youboys will be satisfied with a thin suit of khaki and even yearn for linen.Even if we should reach the Arctic Circle in winter, you will rememberthat our latest Arctic and Antarctic explorers have about discarded fursfor thick woolens. Above all things, don't forget the mosquito nettings."

  The night before the Scouts were to leave Creston they were holding afinal meeting at the club-rooms, when Pepper burst forth excitedly:

  "N-n-now we c-c-an s-solve it."

  "What, your appetite?" asked Jack.

  "N-n-no, the ivory mystery."

  "What's that; your head?" put in Rand.

  "N-n-no," yelped Pepper, whose face now rivaled his locks in color andwhose fists were doubled up. "I mean that ivory--that narwhal's horn.We're going to Alaska and we can find that cave."

  "Faith, that's so. We might get all that ivory," put in Gerald, withinterest.

  "I think I heard somewhere, but I'll not be sure about it," suggested thecautious Don, "that there's more than five hundred and ninety thousandsquare miles in Alaska, and I ha'e me doots that we find it the verrafirst day."

  Despite these gibes, their interest was aroused and the cave, whose mouthwas shaped like the ace of clubs, figured not a little in the imaginationsof the boys, when, followed by the good wishes of relatives, neighbors andfriends, they entrained the next morning like true soldiers in theirpatrol uniforms, and from the rear platform of the train, sounded theScout salute to their native town upon their bugles.

  Four days later they joined Colonel Snow, who had preceded them, inSeattle, and, after two days of sightseeing in the Washington metropolis,boarded the "Queen," and at ten o'clock at night, steamed out upon Puget'sSound, for their long trip of nearly a thousand miles on the water.

  Among the cases of machinery and other freight, traveling in the vessel'shold under Colonel Snow's name, was a long box shaped like anold-fashioned piano case, which had nothing to do with Colonel Snow'senterprises. Despite the fact that it weighed more than half a ton, theboys had clubbed together to pay the rather exorbitant freight chargesupon it. Superfluous as it appeared at one time to the Colonel, it wasdestined to play an important part in the Scouts' adventures in the landof gold and glaciers.

  An hour of gazing on the scenic wonders that sped past on the right andleft the morning after their departure from Seattle, aroused the boys'appetites, and they were beginning to long for the breakfast bugle call,when Colonel Snow came from his stateroom and bade them a hearty goodmorning. He had just redrawn their attention to the magnificent land andwaterscape, with the remark that Major General Greeley, of Arctic fame,had made ten voyages to Alaska, and on each trip found some new wonder inthe "Inside Passage" when there arose a chorus of yells, curses andvituperation from the deck below, and leaning over the railing, the boyssaw a man with a pistol in his hand backing away from two who werestriking at him with handspikes that they had grabbed from the side of thevessel.

  At the same time a youth of about their own age dashed in behind the manwith the pistol, and dived between his legs, tripping him up. He doubledup like a jackknife, fell back against the gangway gate, which had notbeen properly fastened, and shot through it into the tideway, here veryswift, and disappeared. The quickly raised cry of "Man Overboard," reachedthe pilot house, the engine room gong boomed, the screw stopped and the"Queen" gradually lost headway.