FIGHTING OFF THE BEARS
Jimmy’s warning came not a moment too soon, for the words were
hardly out of his mouth before two of the bears came splashing
toward the raft. Buck Looker gave a yell of terror and started
swimming away as fast as he could. Jimmy and Herb had to let go,
too, and swim out of the reach of those big paws that were
propelling the bears forward at surprising speed. The largest one
was soon close to the raft, and Bob could see one big paw lifted in
preparation to climb aboard.
With one hand Bob depressed the key that completed the circuit
through the primary coil and held the end of the high tension lead,
which he had lashed to a long stick, close to the bear’s moist black
nose. Then he released the key.
With a hiss and a snap a long blue spark crackled between the
terminal and the bear’s nose. Bob worked the key rapidly up and
down, and at each break another high voltage spark jumped to the
animal’s sensitive snout. Each spark had the force and effect of a
heavy hammer blow, and the bear half roared and half squealed in
pain and fright. One big paw came up and tried to brush away that
agonizing, stunning thing, but this only transferred the sparks to
his paw. With a terrified squeal he turned about and swam off at top
speed. The other bear was puzzled at the behavior of his companion,
but he could see no reason why he should not get up on the raft,
even though the other, for some incomprehensible reason, had failed.
Accordingly he made a rush, but was even less fortunate than his
predecessor, for by now Joe had gotten his outfit to working
properly, and the animal had to face two streams of sparks instead
of one. They tore through him with paralyzing force, and he slipped
back into the water, hardly able even to swim.
Meanwhile the other three bears had been swimming about the raft,
growling and grunting. The fate of their two companions made them
suspicious and puzzled them, but at last they seemed to muster up
courage all at the same time, and as though through a preconcerted
signal they charged down on the raft at once. For a few minutes it
was nip and tuck, and it looked as though the bears might win by
sheer weight of numbers. One actually dragged himself half way up on
the raft, tilting it at such an angle that it was all Bob and Joe
could do to keep their footing. Once Joe’s stick was knocked out of
his hand, and Bob had to stand off all three until he could recover
it. Herb and Jimmy swam about, almost crazy with the desire to help
their hard-pressed comrades, but of course unarmed as they were,
there was nothing that they could do. Indeed, they were taking big
risks by remaining close to the raft, for there was no telling when
one of the bears, infuriated by the baffling electric discharges,
would attack one of them by way of venting its fury. Luckily,
however, the animals were so dazed and frightened by the novel
defense put up by these strange beings on the raft that there was
little fight left in them, and their only thought was to get away
from that stinging, hammering torment as soon as possible. With
grunts and squeals they turned tail to the raft, their going
accelerated by a string of writhing blue sparks that hissed and
snapped after them as long as Bob and Joe could reach them with
their long poles.
The discomfiture of the big brutes was so sudden and complete that
the boys were actually surprised at their own success. But the
victory had not been won so easily as they had supposed. The bears,
it is true, had been driven off, but they had gone no great distance
when they stopped and began circling about the raft, growling
fiercely and evidently meditating a further attack.
“If they all come on at once, we’d better all be on the raft to ward
them off,” said Bob. “We can rig up two more electrodes, and we may
need them all before we get through.”
“That suits me,” said Jimmy, proceeding with considerable alacrity
to climb up on the raft. “It isn’t hard to see that those fellows
can swim about ten yards to my one, so if they ever took the notion
to go after me, they’d probably get me.”
“And a nice, juicy meal they’d have, too,” said Herb, as he
clambered up on the raft. “I know if I were a bear, Doughnuts, I’d
go after you first thing.”
“Well, naturally,” retorted his friend. “No bear would waste his
time going after a bean pole like you. You wouldn’t make a square
meal for a cub.”
“Hey, can’t you fellows ever cut out that funny stuff?” demanded
Joe. “Suppose you cut out the phony humor and get busy hooking up
some wires here. It won’t be any joking matter if those brutes come
for us again before we’re ready for them.”
“Oh, sure,” said Herb. “Anything to oblige. Just give me a pair of
cutting pliers and watch my speed.”
Joe uttered a grunt that might mean anything, but handed him the
pliers, and they all fell to work with a will. Buck came swimming
back to the raft, and the boys helped him aboard, although he could
do nothing useful and was only in the way. It was in times of stress
such as this that the difference between boys like the Radio Boys
and those of Buck Looker’s stamp became most apparent. All their
lives they had engaged in clean, healthful sports and occupations
that had developed their strength and resourcefulness until they
were equipped to meet the emergencies in life in an efficient
manner. Buck, on the other hand, had just loafed around with friends
as idle as himself, killing time and jeering at the efforts of
others to be of some use in the world. Then when some emergency
arose demanding quick thinking and strong, active muscles, he was
completely at a loss and had neither the resource to plan nor the
ability to execute.
So at the present time, although he was ashamed of having been so
cowardly and would have liked to help in the defense of the raft, he
did not know how to do any of the necessary things, and so could
only sit and watch the others as they deftly performed their tasks,
doing everything quickly and efficiently without any lost motion.
Buck was not so stupid as to be entirely insensible to his
shortcomings, and even formed some vague resolutions to try to do
better in the future.
But those on the raft were afforded little time for idle thoughts.
The bears kept circling closer and closer, and, to make it still
worse, their numbers had been augmented by two new arrivals who had
not had a taste of the induction coil and were proportionately
brave. The boys had barely made their last connection when the
bears, with a chorus of growls, made for the raft, their mouths open
and little eyes twinkling viciously.
The sight was a fearsome one, but there was no way of retreat open
even had the boys been so minded, which was far from the case. They
were resolved to save their radio outfit, and moreover were
encouraged by the success of their former defense.
This time they had a harder rush to stem, as they soon found. The
bears flinched away from the stream of sparks emitted by the four
high tension terminals wielded by the boys, but they could attend to
only four at a time, and meanwhile the other bears were attempting
to get a foothold on the raft.
Fortunately, this was not an easy thing to do, as the logs were
slippery and difficult to climb up on. For several minutes the
result seemed in doubt. Jimmy’s pole was swept out of his grasp and
thrown twenty feet by one sweep of a big black paw. Fortunately the
wire broke under the blow, otherwise the whole coil would have been
dragged into the lake, and the boys would have been helpless against
the attack. As it was, this cut down the number of the defenders,
and it seemed as though the bears would surely overwhelm the frail
raft. Jimmy worked like a madman trying to connect up another wire,
but before he could get one in operating condition the fate of the
battle had been decided. The bears, bewildered and stunned by the
mysterious force that shot through them like the stabs of red hot
wires, and that all their tremendous strength was powerless to ward
off, finally gave way. First one and then another turned tail and
paddled away, splashing and whimpering, baffled by the weapon
wielded by these beings who seemed so puny to look at, compared to
them, and yet held lightning in their hands. One big fellow
persisted when all the others had given up their attempt, but the
boys concentrated three crackling blue spark streams on him, and
that proved to be more than he could stand. With a cross between a
growl and a squeal he splashed away in the wake of his companions,
who were snorting and charging through the water like a fleet of
ferryboats.
Left in undisputed possession of the raft, the boys drew long
breaths of relief and took stock of damages. Herb had four deep
furrows on his left hand, where a bear’s claws had grazed it. Jimmy,
now that the excitement was over for the time, discovered that his
wrist had been badly sprained when the bear had knocked the stick
from his hand, but aside from these comparatively minor injuries,
the boys were in good shape.
The raft had suffered more, in its way, than they had. The efforts
of the big animals to climb aboard had loosened several of the
outside logs, and broken some of the strands of wire that bound them
together. However, there was plenty more wire on the raft, and the
boys immediately set to work to repair the damage. Now that the
bears had gone, they began to realize that the heat, which in the
excitement of the fight they had hardly noticed, was again growing
intense, and they were glad enough to plunge once more into the lake
to make repairs on the raft.
“While we’re about it, we might as well make a thorough job of it,”
observed Bob. “There’s no telling how long we may have to stay out
here in the lake, and we might better take a little more trouble now
and make everything as secure as possible.”
The others had no objection to make to this, except Buck Looker.
“Aw, what’s the use of bothering with it,” he observed. “I guess
these old logs will hold together as long as we need them.”
“Yes, but guessing isn’t quite good enough for us,” observed Joe.
“When we finish a job, we want to _know_ that it will do the work
it’s intended to do. You have to take enough chances in this world,
no matter what you do, without making more chances by your own
carelessness.”
“That’s the stuff!” cried Bob approvingly. “If a job is worth doing
at all, it’s worth doing well, as somebody remarked about ten
thousand years or so ago.”
They wound the wire again and again about the logs, and then
tightened it by looping other strands between each pair of logs and
drawing the wire on opposite sides of the raft as taut as they could
get it. They made a good job of it, even though they were working
under tremendous difficulties, and the time was not far away when
they had good reason to congratulate themselves on the fact that
they had done so.