With the guide, they put in their time visiting the surrounding country, and in a trip to the celebrated Columbia glacier, considered the most beautiful and impressive on Prince William’s Sound. It is about four miles wide, and about three hundred feet high. There are ten other glaciers in Prince William’s Sound which keep its magnificent fiords filled with icebergs which fall from the glaciers, with the sound of thunder. The Scouts made a trip over the ice fields of Columbia, which were full enough of ice bridges and crevasses to furnish many a thrill.
“I wonder if there are any more mammoths on ice under us here,” said Don as they tramped over the snowy surface.
“If there are, we shan’t need an airship to get them,” responded Rand.
“No,” said Jack, “we shall want another kind of ship if we catch any more of that sort.”
Two days later the steamer from Seattle, by way of Cordova and Valdez, reached Seward and the Colonel was a passenger. He brought with him a large package of letters from Creston which had been wandering over the Yukon, and had finally come across from Eagle to Valdez by way of Fairbanks.
The boys repeated the newsy gossip of their home town, and exchanged their letters freely. Pepper had three, however, which he read quietly by himself.
“Come, Pepper,” said Jack, “produce.”
“These are entirely for private consumption,” replied Pepper, turning red, but with an effort at dignity.
“Pretty much everything you get your hands on seems to be,” commented Dick, and the boys surrounded Pepper with joined hands, singing: “I’ll Bet He’s Had a Letter from Home,” until the badgered youth tackled his brother and broke through the line of his tormentors. The Colonel had also found at Valdez a brief letter from Swiftwater, who announced that he had gotten hold of what he considered a good claim, and if any of his late “command” cared to come up and help him work it, they might all be millionaires before the following spring.
“Any of you care to take the job?” asked the Colonel with a smile. “I’ve taken an interest with Swiftwater in any claims he may file on, and you might find it worth while. However, I’m frank to say that, having gotten you this far without disaster I should prefer to return you to your homes safe and in good order.”