"That's it, exactly. One of the other ships of the fleet is cruising now along the coast to pick out the best spot. We're to send a carpenter ashore there and leave him for the winter to look after the erection of igloos. He'll be in charge of enough supplies to last the settlement till spring."
"Whereabouts is this town going to be?" asked the boy.
"It's not definitely decided yet," was the reply, "but probably it'll be on Stepnovak Bay. It'll be quite a place, too, because it'll start out with a population of over 500 natives, maybe a thousand."
"That's a metropolis for Alaska," agreed Eric.
"And, what's more," continued the young engineer, "they're going to give the new town the name of 'Perry,' in honor of our skipper, as the department said, for 'recognition of his heroic services at the time of the eruption.'"
As soon as arrangements for the wintering of the homeless natives had been completed, the Bear returned to Unalaska and thence made one more trip to Nome on business connected with the Federal Courts at that place. Then, as winter was closing in, the Coast Guard cutter stood out to sea up toward the Bering Straits, to await the outcoming of the several vessels in the whaling fleet, and make sure of the safety of every American sailor in the Arctic. The last of the whalers cleared the straits on October 29, and on the following day the Bear started on her southerly course, leaving the Arctic to its annual eight months of unvisited silence.
Eric had wondered a good deal what assignment or appointment he would get for the winter. Great was his delight to find that both he and his chum had been assigned to the Miami, and were to report for duty on December tenth. The extra couple of days allowed him on the journey across the continent gave the boy a chance to visit his relatives in San Francisco, and he also managed it so that he took a short run up to Detroit to see his family and to have a chat with his old friend, the puzzle-maker.
He found the Miami to be a beauty. Unlike the Bear, which depended as much on sails as on steam, the Miami was well-engined. Almost the first thing that struck Eric when he came to go over her arrangements was her unusually large coal and water capacity.
"No wonder she can stay out for months at a time on ice patrol, or chasing up a derelict," said Eric; "she's got coal enough for a trip around the world!"
"Wouldn't mind if she was going to," said Homer, with a grin.