"BLOWN OUT TO SEA!"
Meantime, what had happened in the outer world during all these months?
What had been the feelings of Mr. Hazlett on that day in early spring
as, hour after hour, he walked Kadiak dock and peered into the fog in
vain, waiting for the boat which did not appear? And what of his
feelings as all that day and night passed, and yet another, with no
answer to his half-frenzied search of the shores close to the town, of
the decks of the still lingering steamer, and of the surroundings of the
Mission School across the strait? None could answer his questions, and
no guess could be formed as to the missing dory and its crew, until at
last there were discovered the two natives who had rowed the dory away
from the _Nora_.
These told how the boat had disappeared while they were absent. They had
thought that the boys had made their way back to town. Now, finding
that such had not been the case, they expressed it as their belief that
when the latter had pitted their weak strength against the Pacific Ocean
they had failed and had been blown out to sea.
"Blown out to sea!" How many a story has been written in that phrase!
How could this anxious watcher face the parents of those boys and tell
them news such as this? At least for a time he was spared this, for no
boat would go back to Valdez within a month, and those who awaited news
were Alaska mothers and knew the delays of the frontier. None the less,
Mr. Hazlett had borne in upon him all the time the feeling that he
himself had been responsible for this disaster. Even as he set to work
to organize search-parties he felt despair.
The natives, not clear as to the instructions given them, had supposed
that they were to go in search of the revenue-cutter _Bennington_; yet
as a matter of fact that vessel was moored on the western instead of the
eastern side of the island at the time, whereas it seemed sure that the
dory with the missing boys must have been carried along the east coast
of the island, and not through the straits to the westward.
Mr. Hazlett knew well enough the strength of the outgoing Japan Current
here. A boat might be carried to Asia, for all one could tell to the
contrary, although its occupants must long ere that have perished from
hunger and thirst. And what chance had a small boat in waters so rough
as those of this rock-bound coast, risky enough for the most skilled
navigators and in the best of vessels? Was not all this coast-survey
work intended to lessen the danger of navigation, even for the most
skilled commanders? What chance had these, weak, young, and unprepared,
who had thus been thrust into such perils? All that could be held sure
was that the boys had disappeared as completely as though the sea had
opened up and swallowed boat and all!
Duty now required that Mr. Hazlett should report on board the
_Bennington_; so, after a few days spent in fruitless searching within
reach of Kadiak town, he took the pilot-boat and hastened over to the
west side of the island where the _Bennington_ lay at anchor, with her
boat crews engaged in the tedious work of making coast soundings.
Mr. Hazlett laid before Captain Stephens the full story of the
mysterious loss of his young charges. The face of the old naval officer
grew grave, and for some moments he turned away and engaged in thought
before he spoke. Then he turned sharply to his executive officer.
"Call in the boat crews, sir!" he commanded. "We move station within the
hour!"
"Then you mean that you are going to help search for them?" asked Mr.
Hazlett.
"With all my heart, sir!" said the rough commander. "I have boys of my
own back in New England. We'll comb this island rock by rock, and if we
suspect foul play we'll blow every native village off the face of it!"
The hoarse roar of the _Bennington's_ deep-throated signal-whistles
echoed along the rock-bound shore. Within an hour her boats were all
stowed, and with each man at his quarters the trim cutter passed slowly
down the west coast of the island.
"I'm not supposed to be a relief expedition," muttered Captain Stephens,
"and I s'pose we'll all lose our jobs with Uncle Sam; but until we do, I
figure that Uncle Sam can better afford to lose three months' time of
this ship's crew than it can three bright boys who may grow up to be
good sailors sometime.
"We'll skirt the island in the opposite direction from that in which the
youngsters probably went," said he, turning to Mr. Hazlett. "We'll have
to stop at every cannery and settlement, and the boat crews will need to
search every little bay and coast."
"You talk as though you hoped to find them," said Mr. Hazlett, catching
a gleam of courage from the other's resolute speech.
"Find 'em?" said Captain Stephens. "Of course we'll find 'em; we've
_got_ to find 'em!"