THE MAMMOTH'S TUSKS.
Sure enough, the camp was awakened at an early hour the next day by a
couple of rifle shots, and an excited commotion among the Indians. The
boys in whom, as in all healthy American youths, the hunting instinct was
strong, at once scrambled from under their blankets, seized their rifles
and dashed through the bushes toward the small stream which flowed from
the mountains toward an arm of Prince William Sound.
A dozen rods from the camp, they came upon the guide and the Indians
standing around a large bull caribou whose head boasted a magnificent pair
of antlers. The animal's throat had been cut and the Indians had already
set to work to take off the hide.
"Got him the first shot," said the guide, "and tried to get another, but
they was too swift fer me. They was six in the herd. However, this is
enough, and the poor things is bein' killed off fast enough fer their
hides and horns without our takin' more'n we need."
"Why didn't you call us?" asked Jack, "I should like to have got a shot at
some big game before we leave Alaska."
"Fer that very reason," replied the guide, "it's the close season now, and
we can only kill what we need for meat. Besides that, it's ticklish
business gettin' a shot at caribou, and two persons would have made more
noise than one, and I wanted very much to get one or two fer these
Indians, who need it, as I told you. Hurry up there, you Siwash, and get
yer meat and have yer feast fer we've got to be movin'."
"What a handsome pair of antlers," said Rand, who was something of a
naturalist.
"Best head I ever see," said the guide. "I'd be glad to make ye a present
of it if there was any chance of yer gettin' it out of Alaska at this
season. However, we'll take it back to Seward and maybe Colonel Snow can
find some way to do it."
By this time two of the Indians had cut the carcass up, while the others
had built a hot fire. Several steaks were cut off and roasted before the
flames under the guide's direction for the boys' breakfast, and they found
the meat juicy and palatable. Then the Indians turned to and had their
"feast." They partially roasted the flesh in great chunks, and for an hour
gorged themselves like starving men just escaped from the desert.
"T-t-hey won't be able to walk," commented Pepper, after gazing at the
gastronomic feat that put any of his previous efforts in the shade.
"Let 'em alone fer that," said the guide, "I never in my life see anything
that could carry a bigger cargo of grub, and do a day's work than a
Siwash. I s'pose it's because starvation's got ter be a regeler perfession
with 'em. They can lay in food like a camel does water, and then go fer
days without it."
The Indians, having packed some of the meat for the next day, cut the rest
into thin strips, and with the caribou's head, hung them to the branches
of trees out of reach of bears, to be called for on their return. The
riding horses were also turned loose, in a broad meadow to stay until the
return, and nothing but the pack animals taken.
Their morning journey carried them higher and higher into the foothills of
the Kenai range, and the trail became more rugged. About nine o'clock the
Indians began to show some eagerness and excitement, and the chief told
the guide that they would soon sight the peaks. Finally, the Siwashes ran
ahead to the top of a sharp rise and excitedly beckoned. The boys joined
them, and as they reached the summit of the ridge a peculiar scene met
their gaze.
The other side of the ridge sloped sharply for nearly two hundred feet to
a valley nearly half a mile wide, paved with gravel and boulders, and as
bald of vegetation as a desert. The rocks on the slope of the ridge and
along the sides of this wide shallow ravine were cut as sharply and worn
as smooth as if the stone cutter's chisel had shaped their surfaces.
A quarter of a mile distant, and almost in the middle of the valley stood
an immense obelisk of rock some three hundred feet high, dividing, some
distance from the top into three sharp pinnacles. On the surface of the
middle spire could be seen a small black dot. The Indians were dancing
with excitement, and the boys themselves felt a thrill as they realized
that they were nearing the climax of a great mystery.
"That looks like a great river bed, in which the water had dried up,"
remarked Rand, "I never saw anything like it before."
"Bed of an old glacier," said the guide, who had come up. "Lots of 'em in
this country."
"That explains it, then," said Jack, excitedly.
"Explains what?" inquired Dick.
"How they got up there," replied Jack. "Don't you see? This valley was
full of ice once nearly to the tops of those rocks, and when it came down
and melted off, the bodies of the mammoths dropped out, and the natives
gathered the tusks and stored them in the cave which they could easily
reach with the glacier so near the top. Then the snow gave out somewhere
in the mountains and the glacier gradually pushed its way out and melted,
leaving the cave high and dry."
"All right for you, Jack," said Gerald. "Begorra, you've had that story
already written, I see. But it looks like the real goods."
"I've read of these things before," replied Jack.
"That's about what happened," commented the guide. "Some geological sharps
who were up here last year explained one of these rocky holes the same
way."
The pack horses were now brought up to the top of the ridge and unloaded,
as they could not very easily be taken down the valley slope. With the
greatest care the plane was removed from the two pack animals, and with
ropes lowered on its own wheels down the gravelly slope. The motor and
other machinery was slid down upon skids cut from the forest and placed
along the bank. At the bottom, the Scouts set to work putting the machine
together.
"Ah," said the guide, with the air of a great discoverer, "I see what yer
scheme is now. Ye're goin' up in that arrerplane, and see if ye can git a
peek in that hole up there."
"Better than that," replied Gerald. "We're going to get up and get into
that hole."
Delighted at finding they were nearing the goal of their hopes with so few
obstacles, the Scouts worked cheerfully and earnestly upon the
reassembling of the plane, and by noon had replaced the motor and tested
every stay, brace and control. Then, after a dinner of caribou meat and
coffee, they wheeled the plane over the gravel to the foot of the great
gray granite obelisk. As they neared it they could see that the dot at the
summit took more and more the shape of the ace of clubs, the mouth of the
cave appearing as if cut by the hand of an artist, into gothic form. The
Indians were awe-stricken spectators, scarcely able to raise a hand to
work, so impressed were they with the preparations.
Some seven hundred feet of strong, but light manila rope had been attached
to the lower frame of the machine, and to guard against accidents as much
more had been coiled under the seat. It was Gerald's intention to rise
over the obelisk, and trail the rope over the rock between two of the
pinnacles, thus affording means for the raising eventually of a block and
tackle and a rope ladder by which they would be able to reach the summit.
But the "best laid plans o' mice and men" and even Boy Scouts, "gang
agley," as Burns says.
They found a patch of smooth gravel, clear enough of boulders to allow the
aviator to make an excellent start, and after trying out the engine to
find that it was working without a flaw, Gerald got a fine running start
and mounted into the air. Working west half a mile, mounting all the time
to raise his trailing rope from the ground, he turned and circled around
the mighty mass of rock looking for the most likely point on the top over
which to trail his line. As he passed he caught a glimpse of the interior
of the cave, and saw that it was much larger than it looked from the
ground to be.
Turning again, he concluded to pass between two of the pinnacles, and
immediately volplane down on the other side. As he approached the rock he
shut off the engine, and the aeroplane began to slow down. The propellor
stopped, and the plane sank perceptibly. One plane struck the side of a
pinnacle and crumpled up, the weight of the engine carried the middle
section, and the machine sank down a wrecked mass of canvas and wires upon
a narrow plateau between two of the points. Gerald was scarcely jarred
from his seat by the impact and soon freed himself from the wreckage to
find himself marooned upon the top of a perpendicular rock three hundred
feet from the ground. The Scouts and the Indians set up a cry of dismay
when the possibility of the disaster became apparent, but as soon as he
had freed himself, Gerald assured them of his safety, and of the fact that
he had plenty of room to stand and move around upon. Another thing that
relieved their fears was that he had about sixteen hundred feet of rope
available. He first gave his attention to the cave, and found that by an
easy climb of seven feet he could reach the mouth. He found the hole to be
about ten feet deep, by as many broad. It was perfectly lighted and piled
in the rear was what appeared to be an indiscriminate mass of bones buried
under a pile of dust. Dragging some of them out, he saw that the pile
consisted of some ten fine mammoth tusks, well preserved, two of which
were still attached to part of the skull of the animal, a fine museum
relic. The rest was made up of a miscellaneous collection of
ivory--narwhal's horns and tusks of the walrus--all weighing about five
hundred pounds.
There were also many Indian relics, nearly all in a decayed condition. He
soon notified his companions of what the cave contained, and asked them to
send up the block and tackle on the rope he had dragged over the pinnacle.
Fastening the block by a turn of the rope around a small point of rock
above his head, he bundled up the bones in canvas cut from one of the
planes and lowered it to his comrades. When the last of the ivory had been
lowered, together with the Indian relics which he thought the Siwashes
might prize, he took the other rope from the aeroplane and knotted it at
ten foot intervals. This he fastened to another point of rock and threw
down. Then he placed a noose of the tackle rope around his body under his
arms. Yelling to his companions to lower away he bent a last sorrowful
look upon his beloved aeroplane, and with tears in his eyes, swung off
with his knotted rope in his hands. Placing his feet against the
perpendicular rock, he swung out by his knotted guide line, and fairly
walked down the face of the obelisk backward.
The loss of the machine and Gerald's stupendous adventure and escape was
almost too much for the emotions of the Boy Scouts, and with watering eyes
they surrounded their comrade with many a hug and pat upon the back.
As for the Indians, they were on their knees almost worshipping the
mammoth's tusks and the Indian relics. To hide their emotions the boys
began at once preparations for departure. The ivory was divided up, and
under the guide's direction taken across the gravel and up the ridge,
where it was packed upon the horses. The remainder of the stuff was
abandoned, including the ropes, gasoline and tools to keep the derelict
and exalted plane company. When they reached the top of the ridge, and
were about to descend into the foothills, the Scouts turned, and with
bared heads paid a last tribute to the "First Airship in Alaska."