BUILDING THE CAMP.
The chagrin of Swiftwater Jim was almost too great for expression when the
discovery of the Indians' desertion was made.
"It was what I had feared," he said. "Still, I thought our talk last night
had absolutely satisfied them. I don't think they were so much afraid of
us as that they desired to be sure that the sacred bone got back safely to
their village, and they knew that a big feast would be made for them when
they returned. It would be useless to pursue them, for it would be a hard
trip back to White Horse, and there would be no certainty of our being
able to keep them if we got them back. Our work here is so nearly finished
that I believe if we turn to it heartily we can complete it in the time we
intended and get back to Skagway in time to meet Colonel Snow on his
return from the northwest. How about it?"
The Scouts, and especially Rand, felt themselves to be to a certain extent
responsible for the situation in which they found themselves that they
readily agreed to turn to and exert themselves to the utmost to finish up
the work of preparing the camp for the winter's work.
The sod house had been practically finished by the Indians before they
deserted, the only thing remaining to be done consisting of the hanging of
a pair of stout double doors on the casings that had been let into the sod
as the walls went up, the finishing of the windows and the erection of a
chimney for the big fireplace that had been built into the house at one
end.
The doors had nothing artistic or ornate about them, and in half a day
were constructed of rough lumber and hung on strong hinges from among the
hardware in stock. Instead of glass for the windows, which hard freezing
of the sod house and settling of the walls might have a tendency to
shatter, double sheets of mica, such as is used in the flexible tops of
automobiles, were set in and plastered with clay which was burnt to the
hardness and consistency of brick by a plumber's flash lamp sending out
the hot flame of burning gasoline in the hands of Swiftwater.
The construction of the chimney was a novel experience for the boys, who
knew little of the expedients that pioneers far from stone and lime were
compelled to resort to. It is true there were many boulders in the creek,
but skilled work was necessary to lay them, and the miner resorted to an
easier method.
A considerable amount of lumber sawed by the Indians remained, and this
was split up into stakes about two inches square. These were driven into
the walls of the house alongside of the fireplace and other stakes laid
across them at their outer ends.
As fast as this structure became a foot high it was plastered inside and
out with clay which was burnt hard with the blow lamp. Above the opening
in the fireplace the chimney was continued by putting of clay on the sod
wall and burning it in, making the chimney smaller for better draft.
The top of the chimney above the house was provided by constructing a
cratelike affair by fastening smaller pieces to four stout stakes and
setting these stakes down into the chimney and plastering the whole inside
and out with clay. After a hot fire had been kept up in the fireplace for
twenty-four hours to thoroughly bake the clay Swiftwater announced that
the sod house was finished.
This work was not accomplished without some inconvenience, and even
suffering to the boys as yet scarcely inured to hard labor. Blistered
hands and aching backs were the daily portion, and it was only by working
them in shifts of three that the miner was able to gradually break them
in. But pure air and good food worked wonders, and in a few days they
hardly felt the effects of a day's labor except in increased appetites and
sound sleep. As the days went on, however, the small pests of wood and
water that come with the summer increased in number, and almost drove the
boys frantic. The mosquito seemed to be always present day and night, and
despite the use of nettings and cheesecloth it seemed almost impossible to
keep them out of the tent. A worse plague if possible was the "black fly,"
a minute midge that bored deep into the skin and brought the blood with
every bite. There was also in lesser numbers a large striped fly that had
a habit of hanging on the spruces and birches in clusters, but came at
once to welcome the white man as an old friend.
His bite was like the cut of a knife. Swiftwater said he had never been
able to discover what this fly lived on when the white man was not there,
for it is matter of record that it would not touch an Indian or an
Eskimo.
As it became necessary to protect one's self against these tiny marauders,
Swiftwater dealt out to the boys small vials of a swarthy looking mixture
compounded of oil of cedar, oil of tar and pennyroyal. With this they
bathed their faces and hands frequently, which had the effect of
discouraging the pests and greatly reducing their attacks. The mixture
entered the pores of the skin, however, and it was not many days before
everyone of the Scouts was as tawny colored as the Siwashes who had left
them.
"You're not the only Injun in camp, now," said Jack, addressing Don, who
had been adopted into a tribe of Crees in the Canadian Rockies. "If this
Patrol should step into an Indian village now we'd be adopted offhand on
our complexions alone."
"I'm na so certain," replied Don, "but I think I could get along the rest
of my life in comfort if I never smelled pennyroyal again. 'Tis not a
perfume that grows on ye."
"It certainly has grown on us the last week," said Rand, "and I notice
that lately the mosquitos seem to be taking a liking to it. At least they
don't seem to mind it as they did at first."
It was true that the insects seemed to be growing larger and fiercer as
the summer advanced, and it became essential to secure better protection
for the workers in the daytime. The miner brought out a half dozen
ordinary linen hats, and cutting up sufficient netting for the purpose
with his sailor's "palm," sewed it around each of the headgear. This, when
placed on the head, allowed a fall of netting to drop down on the
shoulders, protecting the face and neck. This was found to be a great
protection, and as the boys had grown somewhat hardened to the stings they
got along very nicely.
The next job undertaken was the foundation for the sawmill itself. For
this purpose, Swiftwater had brought along some bags of cement, and a
small excavation similar to that made for the house was dug about eighteen
inches deep and filled with boulders rammed in with clay. On this a wood
fire was built, and the clay burned hard, resting on this around the edges
a form of boards was placed, making a sort of bottomless box. The cement,
mixed with sand and water from the creek, was made into a concrete which
was poured into the form upon the baked clay and boulders. The plastic
mass when it filled the boxlike structure to the top was smoothed off and
allowed to dry. Forty-eight hours after it had hardened into stone and the
foundation was complete.
The camp duties devolved upon the Scouts as well as the hard labor which
had been a legacy from their Indians. The miner divided up these duties as
best he could, making Rand responsible for the sanitary condition of the
place, and giving such hints as he himself had gained by a service as an
enlisted man in the army and as a shipmaster. He himself took upon himself
most of the cooking, although when the ship's bread they had brought with
them began to pall upon the boys he selected Gerald for baker, and taught
him how to mix a batch of baking powder bread, and bake it in a
"reflector" before an open fire.
The first batch of loaves that Gerald produced came out of the little oven
so dark colored and hard, as they had failed to rise sufficiently that
they could not be eaten, and aroused the jeers of the "baker's" fellow
Scouts, who used them for several days in a game of basketball until
Gerald sneaked them out of camp and threw them into the creek. He had
excellent results with the bakings which followed, and after the chimney
on the sod house was finished a fire was built in the new fireplace that
gave a steadier heat, and he even attempted a batch of biscuit with such
excellent results that they informed him they were as good as any "that
mother used to make."
Swiftwater was indefatigable in his attention to the diet and health of
the Scouts, and made an effort to vary the former as much as possible.
Most of their food was canned or cured provisions, and the miner did his
best to secure fresh food. After the adventure with the bear no large game
was seen at all, but occasionally small birds were shot, and squirrels
were found fairly abundant. These, with a few small trout caught by Pepper
in the creek, helped to form a pleasant change from bacon, canned beans
and what the former sailor called "salt horse," or corned beef. The
commander of the camp was especially anxious to get hold of some green
vegetables, but the time was too short to attempt to grow anything, and he
spent some leisure time in the woods trying to find some substitute. A
change to green stuff is found very essential on shipboard to prevent
certain diseases that follow a too steady diet of salt and canned foods,
and the alternative where vegetables are not obtainable, is lime juice,
occasional doses of which the miner administered to the boys.
One Saturday Swiftwater suggested a half holiday, and with the remaining
boat pole up to the meadow where they had obtained the sod, and search for
some wild vegetables of an edible character. It was also suggested that as
the May flies had begun to appear the party should take their fishing
tackle along and run a few miles further up the Gold and try casting off
for the handsome, brown, steelhead and brown trout that frequent the
interior waters of the British Columbia region, especially near their
mountainous sources.
"Hadn't we better take some larger tackle and try for salmon?" suggested
Dick. "I understand this country is famous for salmon."
"Well, hardly," replied Swiftwater. "If we were on waters that flowed into
the Pacific and Alaskan waters we should probably find them. But the
rivers hereabouts rise in the Coast range mountains which separate us from
the sea and flow northeast. The salmon is not a fresh water fish. He lives
in the most remote depths of the ocean, and only runs up the rivers during
the summer to spawn, and usually dies there. He can climb a pretty high
waterfall, but I don't think he could climb the Coast range to get into
Gold Creek."
As this was the first outing they had had it was decided to take
sufficient provisions and firewood with them to last until the next day
and stay over night if they found encouraging fishing up the stream, and
to return before dark on Sunday.
"While I like to make Sunday a pretty good day, when I can," said the
miner, "I think that our necessity for fresh fish and vegetables makes
this trip a work of necessity."
It was decided that two of the boys should stay and guard the camp, and
Rand and Jack expressed a willingness to do so when they saw that Pepper
and Dick were both anxious to get away from the monotony of the place they
had been tied up to for weeks. So with Swiftwater and Gerald poling on one
side and Don and Dick on the other, and Pepper at the long steering oar in
the rear the boat was pushed off into midstream with a bugle Scout salute
from the garrison left behind.
The day was beautiful, and nearly as warm as midsummer in New England. The
trip up to the meadows would have proven uneventful except for the
unparalleled energy of Pepper, who, as Dick said, was "always sticking his
oar in at unexpected times." As the boat steered easily he attempted to
aid the polesmen by pushing at times with his long stern sweep, until at
an unexpected moment the blade of the oar slipped between two rocks and
down into the soft bottom and stuck there straight upright, dragging the
bewildered Pepper, who clung to it, completely off the stern of the boat.
The frightened young Scout, not knowing how deep the water was under him,
wrapped his legs around the sweep which remained upright, and clung to it
yelling for help.
The impetus of the boat carried the craft on about twenty-five feet before
it was stopped by the current, for the polesmen had stopped work and
turned around to whoop with laughter and delight when they saw the
ridiculous figure perched on the oar in midstream still crying for
rescue.
Shouting words of encouragement they let the boat drift slowly down stream
again. Before they reached him, Pepper's strength gave out, and he slid
slowly down the sweep, and was preparing to battle for his life in the icy
water when his moccasins brought upon a rock in a foot of water, and he
pulled the oar loose, and as the stern of the boat reached him stepped
aboard with a foolish expression on his face, barely wet to the knees.
It would be cruel to Pepper to record in this history the sarcastic
expressions of admiration for his agility and ability "to reach out and
grab trouble every time it went by," as Dick expressed it. There were
references to the "champeen pole vault of Alaska; height ten feet; depth,
twelve inches," "veteran oarsman of the Gold," "Rocked into the Cradle of
the Deep," but the last comment which brought out the old Pepperian red
through the tan and the yellow of the mosquito "dope" was a quotation from
an old boyhood rhyme made by Gerald, apropos of "appearances."
"Willie had a purple monkey, climbing on a
yellow stick,
Willie sucked the purple monkey and it made him
deadly sick."
Arrived at the meadows they found the grass grown to the height of their
heads and a wealth of wild flowers such as they had never seen before.
Acres of yellow poppies, wild geraniums, bluish in color, saxifrage,
magenta colored epilobium, moccasin plants and a hundred others with
familiar faces. But what pleased Swiftwater especially were the immense
quantity of dandelions.
He set the boys at work gathering all the plants they could secure, while
himself began to hunt for a peculiar wild onion, which he finally found in
abundance. He also found sorrel, both the tops and root of which are
pleasant to the taste. They half filled the boat with these and other
harmless edible plants, and then late in the afternoon started to pole up
the river to the fishing grounds, intending to try for the trout in his
most amenable season, the early evening.
After the boat had pulled away from the camp, Rand and Jack cleared up the
remains of the dinner and put things to rights, after which Rand said:
"I say, Jack, I'm going to indulge in a little luxury--a hot bath. This
bathing in the creek is all right, but that water feels as if it came
right out of the snow, and I can't get it to take hold on this 'dope'
stain on my skin at all.
"How are you going to do it? We didn't include anything like a bathtub in
our luggage you know, and we haven't anything big enough to heat more than
a few gallons of water."
"I'll show you; give me a hand and I'll rig up a bath big enough for both
of us." They went to the tent and got the biggest of the tarpaulins lying
there, and taking it to the two seven-foot sawhorses which the Indian
sawyers had used. Placing the two close together they threw the ends over
the horses and fastened them, allowing the middle to hang down almost to
the ground. By drawing the sides a little tighter than the middle of the
ends, they formed a sort of loose bag. While Jack made up a hot fire in
the fireplace, into which he dumped a dozen boulders from the creek, Rand
carried water enough to fill the "bath tub" in the tarpaulin, the texture
of which was so thick and so closely woven that very little of it dripped
out. As the boulders became red hot, Rand and Jack brought the hand barrow
used to cart stones from the stream, with a little sand in the bottom, and
rolling the stones into it carried them to the "tub" and dumped them in.
They soon had the water at a boiling heat, and quickly stripping both
tumbled in and were soon luxuriating the first hot dip they had enjoyed
since leaving the hotel in Skagway.
They were engaged in an effort with strong soap and sand, trying to remove
their lately acquired complexions, when the sound of oars and poles on the
river reached them. They were considerably back of the camp in the timber,
and could not see the landing from the "bathroom," but supposed the sounds
were by their comrades returning. They stepped from the tarpaulin to go to
the creek for a cold plunge as a finishing touch, when over the bank
swarmed the six Siwashes who had so lately deserted them. They were
unarmed and were driven by three men with guns. The two boys seeing the
strangers were about to step aside for their clothing when they were
ordered to stand and throw up their hands. The three newcomers were
Dublin, Rae and Monkey.