CHAPTER XXIII
THE FIGHT AT ALEUKAN
Phineas Roebach knew nothing about this narrow defile through which the party traveled. But he agreed that they were breaking through the wall of the glacier on the right side. Aleukan, the big native settlement, was in this direction.
There seemed to be a narrow crack through this cliff which had guarded the river of ice. It had never been used by man as a right of way, but the beasts of the wilderness had used it from time immemorial, as the marks along the way proclaimed.
The scurrying feet of the wolf pack, were long since out of the way.
But yonder a mountain sheep had been killed by a puma, or other big
feline, and the wolves had picked its bones after the Master of the
Chase had eaten his fill.
Where a little rill of sweet water sprang from between two boulders, boiling out white sand from the depths of its spring, was the print of a bear's paw. Many of these marks Jack and Mark saw for themselves; but Andy was quick to point them out as he led the way up the steep path.
Their progress was necessarily slow because of the aged professor. Although the scientist was not the man to retard the party, Andy would let nobody take the lead but himself, so that he could watch the old man's flagging steps and call a halt whenever he thought it best for Mr. Henderson to rest.
"You are babying me, Andy!" ejaculated the professor, with some irritation.
"You're the most important person in this party, sir," declared the hunter. "We can lose any other person and not miss him much. But without you we'd be without a head."
Therefore, when they had clambered through the last steep cut and reached the farther slope of the cliff, the hunter called a halt and built a camp, determined to bivouac here although the oil man assured him that they were now less than twenty miles from Aleukan.
A few hours later they awoke to find the sun rising once more and the heat of the exposed hillside becoming unbearable. Were it not for the wonderful clearness of the air they could not have stood the heat at all. But all agreed that they would better descend the hill to the forest and so be sheltered from the direct rays of the sun.
The bearing of their extra clothing in this tropical heat was an effort, and they were all glad to find shelter beneath the huge-limbed trees at the foot of the slope.
There they lay in the shade and discussed the direction they should travel from this point. It was not until this time they discovered that their pocket compasses pointed the north as being in a totally different direction from what they had supposed. Phineas Roebach had declared the native settlement of Aleukan to be directly north and west of the place where he had tapped the mud-spouter. But now, although he was positive of the contour of the hills and the line of peaks of the Endicott Range under which Aleukan was established, their compasses made the direction southwest.
"Not at all strange, sir," said Professor Henderson. "In becoming detached from the old earth, our new planet was shifted a good bit, and that which was to the north is now almost west. If, by chance, this island in the air includes that point on the earth's surface which once represented the most northerly spot—the North Pole, in fact—it is the North Pole no longer. The magnetic needle points instead to a new North Pole, established on this fragment of a planet since it was shot off into space from its parent world."
Phineas Roebach grunted his disbelief in all this. He could not get it into his head that they were riding on a piece of the old earth far, far above that stable planet. He would not believe it. No marvel of this situation could change his belief. He would not accept the professor's theory of what had happened to them.
The sun went down again and the frost began to creep after it. Already the bulk of vegetation about them (save the hardy firs and kindred trees and shrubs) were black and dead. The change in climate had tolled the knell of all those plants that had withstood heretofore the rigors of the Alaskan summer.
"What do you suppose has happened to the Chrysothele-Byzantium herb that Dr. Todd sent us for?" demanded Jack Darrow. "Seems to me that will be badly frost-bitten by the time we find it; won't it?"
"I fear so, indeed," admitted Professor Henderson.
"Lawsy-massy!" gasped Wash. "Do yo' mean ter tell me dat we ain't gwine ter fin' dat chrysomela bypunktater plant after all? What fo' did we come away off here on dis floatin' islan' if we ain't gwine ter git dat specimen of botanical horrorforbilicalness? I done hoped I could tell ma friends w'en I returned dat we done was successful, an' cure some ob dem ob craziness in de haid by applyin' some ob de bypunktater. If we don't find it, den dey all say we been follerin' a chimera-infantum—in odder words, dat we needs some ob de bypunktater our own selfs!"
"You mean," said Jack, seriously, "that they will think we are crazy if we do not bring home what we were sent for?"
"Dat's wot I done said," grumbled the colored man.
"No, you didn't say it; but you meant it, most likely," admitted Jack. "And I reckon you are right. It does seem as though we have come a long way for nothing."
"And no likelihood of our ever getting back!" added Mark, despondently.
But this was out of the professor's hearing. The party was already on their way again, and the traveling was much easier now. Andy and Roebach led the way, followed by the professor and the boys, Wash, with his rooster in a fur bag, following on behind. They covered the twenty miles to the hilltop which overlooked Aleukan without making more than one short stop. By that time both the earth and her largest satellite, the moon, were shining brightly upon this little planet on which our friends had become marooned.
"Hurrah!" cried Jack. "We are somewhere at last! Do you suppose those supplies got over from Coldfoot before that last eruption?" "If the train did not arrive before that time," said Mark, "make up your mind that it never will arrive. Probably there is no Coldfoot on this planet."
"There are some natives on hand, at least," said the professor, with satisfaction.
They indeed saw several men moving about the town; but Phineas Roebach did not seem at all pleased.
"I don't like that a bit," he declared.
"Don't like what?" asked Andy Sudds, quickly.
"There's always a slather of squaws and children around Aleukan. There are two white traders here, too—one representing the Hudson Bay Company and the other working for the French Company. And always a heap of dogs are in sight."
"What do you suppose is the matter?" Jack queried.
"Don't know," grunted the oil man. "Looks as though the squaws and young ones had been sent off with the sleds. Why, those fellows are all armed, too!"
"I expect that the strange happenings have puzzled and frightened the aborigines," suggested Professor Henderson. "We had better go down into the town and try to allay their fears."
The hunter and Roebach evidently had their doubts regarding the wisdom of this move. Yet they had come all this distance for the express purpose of going into Aleukan. They set out down the trail to enter the big village of cabins and skin huts.
Suddenly the group of bucks in the principal street of the town turned and ran shouting toward the little party descending from the heights. Their actions were extremely warlike.
Then up from a side gulch appeared twice as many other Indians, armed with spears and guns. Several shots were fired at the party approaching the town.
"Lawsy-massy!" yelled Washington White. "Disher don't seem like de us'al 'Welcome to our City' warcry. Dem fellers don't want us nohow!"
"Now we see just how popular we are with the natives of Alaska," said
Jack. "What do you think of it, Mark?"
"I think we're in bad," returned his chum, gripping his rifle nervously.
"Quite remarkable! quite remarkable!" repeated Professor Henderson.
"Back to that bunch o' rocks!" shouted Andy Sudds, who had taken in the strategic advantages of a position they had just passed, at a glance.
All saw the wisdom of the old hunter's suggestion. They hurried to the group of boulders. They made a natural breastwork behind which a few determined men could hold at bay a horde of enemies—for a time, at least.
"The Indians are coming right on," cried Mark, excitedly.
"And I see some of my old workmen among them," declared Phineas Roebach. "That is what is the trouble. Those fellows have got it into their heads that we are somehow the cause of these misfortunes that have overtaken this part of the hemisphere."
"You go out and parley with them, Mr. Roebach," suggested the professor.
"You can't parley with them while their 'mad' is up," said the oil man. "They're charging. Give them a volley—and don't be afraid to shoot low. They will listen better to reason after they taste some of our lead."
His final words were lost in the explosion of the guns. All but the professor fired. He had no weapon. Several Indians fell, wounded in the legs, for all had taken Roebach's advice and fired low.
With shrieks of rage and pain the Aleuts fell back, and found shelter for themselves behind trees and rocks. But they were not minded to give up the fight so easily. They gradually extended their line of battle until they had our friends completely surrounded. Their desultory fire, however, did not at first do any damage to those in the fortress, and the whites replied only occasionally, taking careful aim and winging an Indian at almost every shot.