AN ISLAND LIFE.
Tom was awakened by the sun streaming down into his face. It came
through the vent-hole in the roof. At first he could not recall for
the life of him where he was, and for a time thought that the vent
hole was the port hole of his cabin, oddly misplaced by some accident
to the roof. But he soon realized all that had happened, and aroused
the others, who at first were equally confused.
"The steward has called for breakfast!" said Tom laughing.
"Humph! And where is the breakfast coming from?" grunted Sandy,
looking at the remains of the fried fish and thinking of the scant
store of crackers and tinned beef that remained.
The others did not reply to this, and Tom devoted himself to
dressing. As he had taken off only his outer garments, this did not
take long. Shoving open the door he looked outside.
"Gee whiz, fellows, a dandy day!" he exclaimed. "Clear as a bell and
the sea is quite calm."
In a few minutes the others joined Tom at the door. They stood looking
about a while, when suddenly a loud splash not far off made them all
exclaim.
"What was that?" asked Jack.
"Don't know. Sounded like somebody throwing a big rock into the
water," was Tom's reply.
"It did, too," declared Sandy. "Hark! there it is again!"
"It's down by the creek," announced Tom. "I tell you what, fellows,
it's fish!"
"Fish!"
"Surely. Fish leaping. Big ones, too, by the sound of them."
Two or three more splashes came while the boys were talking. They
hurried down to the creek, and as they went they noted that a great
cloud of crows and ravens were hovering above it. Wondering greatly
what all this could mean, they quickened their footsteps.
Arrived at the creek, they found the shallow sand bar between its
mouth and the sea all aboil with confusion. Masses of fish seemed to
be trying to get from the sea into the creek. All at once a great fish
eagle swooped down out of a cottonwood on the opposite side of the
creek. It struck the water with a splash. There was a brief struggle
and then the bird of prey shot upward again. In its talons it held a
silver-scaled fish of large size.
"Well, he's going to breakfast all right," remarked Jack ruefully.
"My, what a whumping big fish!"
"No wonder: it was a salmon," declared Tom. "This must be the season
when they rush up into the rivers to spawn."
"Look! there's lots of them wriggling about on the sand bar!" cried
Jack.
"Hookey! So there are. If only we could grab some of them we'd solve
the breakfast problem in jig-time."
All this time Sandy had been quietly whittling a long stick to a sharp
point. Now he rushed suddenly forward, wading waist deep in the creek
to the sand bar. Half a dozen salmon lay wriggling there, their
silvery scales flashing in the sun. Sandy's arm holding the spear shot
up and then descended, spearing one of the stranded fish. Before he
could strike again, the others had escaped and joined the rest of the
"run" in their mad rush up the creek for their spawning grounds. With
a cry of triumph Sandy came ashore again and received the
congratulations of his comrades. Broiled salmon and the remainder of
the crackers formed their breakfast, which they ate with much gusto.
The food problem appeared to be solved by the salmon run and the
other fish with which the creek abounded; but a bread supply offered a
further puzzle. However, the boys did not worry much about this at the
time. After breakfast they visited the dory and found everything all
right with the boat.
"I don't know that we'll be so badly off here for a time," said Tom.
"Yes, but we can't stay here forever," objected Jack gloomily.
"Oh, dinna fear but they'll find us oot," declared Sandy hopefully.
"What do you say if we hoist up a flag on the point yonder?"
"That's a good idea," declared Tom, "but in any event we won't stay
here long. If no help comes before many days, we'll set out in the
dory and keep along the coast till we reach some settlement where we
can get into communication with our friends."
The flag question bothered them sadly for a time, but it was solved by
utilizing an old bit of canvas that was in the dory. With this they
improvised a signal, affixing it to a tall limb of a tree which they
had lopped off and anchored on the rocky point by piling stones about
its base.
They were coming back from this task, having vainly scanned the sea
for a sail, when Tom halted suddenly and pointed toward the hillside
that sloped upward behind the hut. The others likewise came to a
standstill at his sudden exclamation.
Among the bushes, which grew thickly on the lower part of the slope,
some large animal was moving. A glimpse of a shaggy back could be seen
and the bushes waved and swayed as some big body came lumbering
through them.
"What can it be?" wondered Jack, round-eyed, gazing at the
disturbance.
The mystery was soon explained and in no very pleasant way. Out into
an open space there suddenly emerged the huge, clumsy form of an
enormous bear. It was almost as big as a colt, and shaggy and
ferocious looking.
"O-o-oh!" cried Sandy, his cheeks turning white.
There was good reason for the boys to feel scared. The bears of Kadiak
Island are the largest in the world. The specimen the boys were now
gazing at with awestruck faces was a giant even among his own kind.
"Cracky!" cried Jack. "That fellow could eat us all without salt.
What'll we do?"
"Get back to the hut as soon as possible. We must make a detour to
avoid him," decided Tom quickly.
"Is he after us do you think?" asked Sandy.
"No, I guess he's come after salmon. See, he's heading for the creek."
"Wow! Christmas!" yelled Jack suddenly. "Look, there come two more!"
Out of the brush from which the first bear had emerged there came two
more shaggy, lumbering brutes. One was quite tiny, plainly a cub. The
larger animal, which was a sort of yellowish-gray color, the boys
guessed to be the little fellow's mother. It certainly was an exciting
moment as, crouching behind a friendly patch of brier bushes, the boys
watched the mother and cub join the head of the family.
Luckily the wind was blowing offshore, that is from the bears toward
the boys. But, nevertheless, the great animals appeared suspicious.
The mother stopped suddenly and sat up on her haunches. Then she began
swaying a huge head from side to side as if puzzled. But evidently her
suspicions were lulled soon afterward, for after a few minutes in this
attitude of listening, she dropped on all fours and the three bears
began to advance once more.
"Now's our chance," declared Tom as the bears vanished in the tall,
thick growth between the hillside and the creek.
The boys raced down the hill at top speed. They were between the
bears and the sea, and it was their object to cross the creek and gain
the hut on the further side before the bears sighted them. They made
good time and reached the creek and crossed it, while the bears were
still in the thick growth.
They reached the hut and Tom closed the door. Then the boys exchanged
blank glances. Unless the bears went away they would be prisoners, for
the hut was quite visible from the creek. Tom found a peephole in the
sod covering of the shack and peered through. Then he beckoned to the
others. The bears had reached the creek and were fishing. The old
mother sat in midstream with her offspring beside her, while father
bear was further up the creek on a sand bar.
Serious as their position was, the boys could hardly help laughing at
the antics of the old bear and her cub. The cub was apparently
learning to fish. And it was not an easy lesson. His mother proved a
hard task mistress. The boys could see her long hairy paw swoop out in
scoop fashion, land a fine salmon and throw it up on the bank. The cub
wanted to start for the bank every time this was done. But the old
lady would have none of this.
Every time it happened, she raised her huge paw and struck the cub a
box on the ears that knocked him into the water. He would get up
whining and crying pitifully and then try to fish on his own account.
But his small paws failed to land the fish. All his efforts were
failures. At last his mother appeared to relent. She waded ashore
followed by Master Bruin, who was then allowed to regale himself on
the pile of fish the old bear had landed.
While both mother and son were eating greedily, up came the old father
bear. He, apparently, was not much of a success at fishing. At any
rate, with growls and blows he drove his wife and son away from their
pile of fish and pitched into it himself. His blows must have had the
force of a sledge hammer, for huge as she was, the mother bear reeled
under them.
"One of those blows would mean good-night to the strongest man that
ever lived," declared Tom.
"And to think that if they don't go away we've got to stick in here,
or run the risk of getting a dose of the same medicine or worse,"
groaned Jack despairingly.
"Hoot, mon, we're nae sae safe even in here," put in Sandy. "We're
caught in a fine trap and yon bears hae the key."