THE FLIGHT TOWARD THE COAST
Washington White was a good shot, but he did not like fighting. And
he was particularly careful not to show himself above the breastwork
of boulders behind which he, with his companions, were crouching,
holding the Aleuts at bay.
"Disher ain't no place for a'spectable pusson ob color," he muttered.
"Wot do Buttsy an' me want o' shootin'? Wah! Dat bullet chipped de
rock right near ma haid! Ain't dat Injun got no respec' for who I is?"
"I don't believe he knows who you really are, Wash," chuckled Jack,
whose wounded hand was now so much better that it did not keep him
from handling his rifle in a way to make old Andy proud of his pupil's
marksmanship.
"Can dat be a posserbility?" demanded Wash, vainly. "Ain't dey nebber
hearn tell ob me, d'yo s'pose, Massa Jack?"
"I believe they are quite ignorant of who you are," returned Jack,
with gravity.
"But some ob 'em done seed me ober dar at Massa Roebach's camp. Yas,
sah! I reckernize one o' dem Injuns--de short feller behin' dat tree
close up yere. Gollyation! he jest fired dat shot dat come purt nigh
hittin' Buttsy."
"He's trying to kill that Shanghai, Wash," said Jack, wickedly. "That's
what he's trying to do."
"Dat settles it!" ejaculated the colored man, mighty wroth at this
thought. "I ain't goin' ter stan' no sech doin's. Tryin' ter shoot
Buttsy; is he? I'll show him in jest erbout a minute dat nobody kin
shoot at ma Shanghai wid imputation an' git erway wid it--no sah!"
The boys had no idea that he would do so reckless a thing. Wash was
not ordinarily a courageous person. But he was "riled all up" now, and
he feared for the Shanghai's safety.
Up he jumped, threw down his rifle, and agilely leaped the fortification
in the direction of the short Indian who had attracted his anger. He
streaked it across the intervening space so quickly that the startled
enemy did not even fire at him.
But Andy Sudds began firing his magazine rifle as fast as he could
sight her and pull the trigger, and Roebach followed his example. This
volley drove all the Indians to cover and doubtless saved the strangely
reckless negro's life.
Wash reached the cover of the Aleut accused by him of aiming directly
to finish the Shanghai rooster, and before that startled aborigine
could escape, he was disarmed by the black man and dragged across the
intervening space to the fort.
Wash was powerful and could easily do this, for the Indian was not a
heavy fellow. But on the way one Indian had fired at the darkey and
wounded the Aleut in the leg.
"Lemme tell yo'," roared Wash, "I ain't gwine to hab no off-color
critter like disher try ter combobberate ma Shanghai. Dat is ma final
ratification ob de pre-eminent fac's. Does you understand me?"
"We most certainly do, Wash!" declared Jack, when he could speak for
laughing. "And we'll never call you a coward again."
"You have given us a hostage," said the professor. "You have done well."
Wash strutted and preened himself over this praise until another bullet
sang over his head. Then he dropped down flat on the ground and groaned:
"Golly! dat bullet said--jes' as plain as day--'Whar is dat coon?'
D' youse 'speck dat it meant _me_?"
Meanwhile Phineas Roebach had taken the wounded Aleut in hand. He not
only extracted the bullet and bound up the wound, but he made the
fellow explain the situation in Aleukan and tell why the Indians had
attacked the white men. The natives believed implicitly that the white
men in the strange flying machine had brought the awful earthquakes
and storms of ashes, and that now they were burning up the poor Indians
for a part of the day and freezing them the rest of the time.
Believing all the whites in the region leagued together they had at
once driven out the traders at Aleukan. This Indian did not know what
had become of the traders and their assistants. They had started on
dog sleds toward the Polar Ocean.
No train had come in from Coldfoot for a month. Therefore it was plain
that the supplies Professor Henderson had expected to meet him here
would not now arrive. The pass through the Endicott Range was so high
that, so the party all believed, an attempt to cross the mountain range
would result in the death of those who attempted. There was no
atmosphere at the altitude of that pass.
There were no more shots fired after the Indian was brought in by
Washington. The whites talked the situation over and finally the oil
man made the Aleuts an offer through the captive. It was agreed that
if the white men were allowed two sleds and two teams of good dogs,
with provisions for the dogs to last a week, they would instantly set
out on the trail of the departed traders, thus removing their fatal
presence from the vicinity of Aleukan.
This agreement was considered wise by all hands, for they felt the
necessity of joining if possible white men who were more familiar with
the territory than they were. In numbers there would be strength. If
there was to be a war on this new planet between the whites and the
reds, it behooved our friends to join forces with their own kind as
quickly as possible.
The captured Indian was made to accompany the train for two days and
then was freed. The dog teams swept the party over the frozen trail
at good speed toward the Anakturuk River which empties into the
Coleville, which in turn reaches the Arctic Ocean at Nigatuck, in sight
of the Thetis Islands.
Food was very short. Game seemed to have fled from the valleys through
which they passed. The cold at night (the only time they could travel)
remained intense. And that flight toward the ocean shore--or what had
once been that shore--was a perilous journey indeed.