After supper the boys cornered Chris Hanson again and discussed football and other sports. At ten o’clock, Professor Stern drove Russ Parker into town.
“Some of the boys invited me to a party at the airport,” Russ explained. “I hate to run away like this, but my brother-in-law is going to be there. I haven’t seen him in a while. He’s in the service, stationed in the Aleutians.”
“That’s perfectly all right,” Mrs. Stern said.
“You don’t fool us, Russ,” Chris Hanson kidded him. “You just want to sneak out of that bear hunt tomorrow.”
Parker snorted. “You aren’t going to drag me off after any bears. Not unless I can hunt them from the air.”
“When are we going back to Cordova, Mr. Parker?” Sandy asked him.
“I figure you can have a couple of days of hunting. The professor expects us back on the third of January.”
Professor Stern asked the boys whether they wanted to ride into town with him and see how the Kodiakans celebrated the New Year, but they declined.
“We heard they had some pretty wild times up here,” Jerry said. “But the way I feel, the only thing that would look good to me is a soft, warm bed.”
And by twelve o’clock they were in bed. “I wonder what the gang is doing back in Valley View,” Jerry sighed as they lay in the dark listening to the sound of foghorns in St. Paul’s harbor blending with church bells and firecrackers in distant Kodiak.