"Hoot! d'ye think we'll have to stay here lang?" asked Sandy.

"Impossible to tell," rejoined Tom. "Of course, as soon as they find we're gone they will start on a search for us; but unless they find those rascally Aleuts they'll never know what became of us, unless they stumble on us accidentally."

There was a brief but eloquent silence, which Tom dispelled cheerily.

"The first job is to look for water," said he. "Let's explore a little."

They left the hut, but before they went Tom picked up an old tin pail that lay on the floor in a corner. He did not explain what he wanted this for. As he had expected, where the luxuriant growth flourished, was a stream which ran down crystal clear and cold as ice from the snow mountains to the sea.

The sight of this made the boys forget all their troubles temporarily.

They lay flat on their stomachs and drank to repletion. Never had anything tasted half so good as the waters of that mountain stream.

Their thirst quenched, Tom methodically filled his pail with water and then started back.

"What are you going to do?" demanded Jack in some astonishment.

"Clean out the hut and get ready for supper while you fellows catch some fish."

"Fish for supper? Where?" demanded Jack.

"Right in this creek. I saw them dart off when we came down, but they will soon be back."

"How about hooks?"

"I saw some in the bottom of the boat. And by turning over some of those stones, I guess you'll find some sort of things that will do for bait. Hurry up now, boys, and while you're getting the tackle, bring the rest of the grub and the oars out of the boat."

Glad to be busy, the boys all hurried off on their tasks. When Jack and Sandy had brought the oars and tackle from the boat, they set off on their fishing expedition. Long alder limbs broken off from the bushes that overhung the creek, served them for poles. Under the rocks, as Tom had surmised, they found fat, white grubs in abundance.

The fish bit hungrily, for it was still early in the year. Soon they each had a fine string. With lighter hearts, for now they had at least the essentials of existence, they set out on the return journey to the hut.

When they got back, they found that Tom had made a fire, using matches from his water-proof box, which none of the boys would have gone without. It crackled up cheerily. When he had a good bed of red coals, Tom split the fish which the others had scaled and cleaned, and held them on sharpened sticks above the blaze till they were cooked. With crackers and the broiled fish they made a rough but sufficient meal.

There was plenty of firewood in the hut and they made a roaring blaze, so that, lacking blankets as they did, they would not get cold. In a corner was a pile of sweet-scented dried gra.s.s, evidently used as beds by whoever had occupied the hut before them. On this they threw themselves down while the fire glowed cheerily, warming the hut comfortably since the door had been closed.

Despite the strangeness of their position on this wild, unknown coast, they were too weary to remain awake long. Outside came occasionally the cry of a bird or the booming of the sea, but it all acted as a lullaby to the three tired boys.

One by one their eyes closed and they dropped off into the deep, dreamless slumber of exhaustion. Never, in fact, had they slept more profoundly and peaceably than they did in the smoky native hut on the wild sh.o.r.es upon which they had been so strangely cast away.

CHAPTER XIII.

AN ISLAND LIFE.

Tom was awakened by the sun streaming down into his face. It came through the vent-hole in the roof. At first he could not recall for the life of him where he was, and for a time thought that the vent hole was the port hole of his cabin, oddly misplaced by some accident to the roof. But he soon realized all that had happened, and aroused the others, who at first were equally confused.

"The steward has called for breakfast!" said Tom laughing.

"Humph! And where is the breakfast coming from?" grunted Sandy, looking at the remains of the fried fish and thinking of the scant store of crackers and tinned beef that remained.

The others did not reply to this, and Tom devoted himself to dressing. As he had taken off only his outer garments, this did not take long. Shoving open the door he looked outside.

"Gee whiz, fellows, a dandy day!" he exclaimed. "Clear as a bell and the sea is quite calm."

In a few minutes the others joined Tom at the door. They stood looking about a while, when suddenly a loud splash not far off made them all exclaim.

"What was that?" asked Jack.

"Don't know. Sounded like somebody throwing a big rock into the water," was Tom's reply.

"It did, too," declared Sandy. "Hark! there it is again!"

"It's down by the creek," announced Tom. "I tell you what, fellows, it's fish!"

"Fish!"

"Surely. Fish leaping. Big ones, too, by the sound of them."

Two or three more splashes came while the boys were talking. They hurried down to the creek, and as they went they noted that a great cloud of crows and ravens were hovering above it. Wondering greatly what all this could mean, they quickened their footsteps.

Arrived at the creek, they found the shallow sand bar between its mouth and the sea all aboil with confusion. Ma.s.ses of fish seemed to be trying to get from the sea into the creek. All at once a great fish eagle swooped down out of a cottonwood on the opposite side of the creek. It struck the water with a splash. There was a brief struggle and then the bird of prey shot upward again. In its talons it held a silver-scaled fish of large size.

"Well, he's going to breakfast all right," remarked Jack ruefully.

"My, what a whumping big fish!"

"No wonder: it was a salmon," declared Tom. "This must be the season when they rush up into the rivers to sp.a.w.n."

"Look! there's lots of them wriggling about on the sand bar!" cried Jack.

"Hookey! So there are. If only we could grab some of them we'd solve the breakfast problem in jig-time."

All this time Sandy had been quietly whittling a long stick to a sharp point. Now he rushed suddenly forward, wading waist deep in the creek to the sand bar. Half a dozen salmon lay wriggling there, their silvery scales flashing in the sun. Sandy's arm holding the spear shot up and then descended, spearing one of the stranded fish. Before he could strike again, the others had escaped and joined the rest of the "run" in their mad rush up the creek for their sp.a.w.ning grounds. With a cry of triumph Sandy came ash.o.r.e again and received the congratulations of his comrades. Broiled salmon and the remainder of the crackers formed their breakfast, which they ate with much gusto.

The food problem appeared to be solved by the salmon run and the other fish with which the creek abounded; but a bread supply offered a further puzzle. However, the boys did not worry much about this at the time. After breakfast they visited the dory and found everything all right with the boat.

"I don't know that we'll be so badly off here for a time," said Tom.

"Yes, but we can't stay here forever," objected Jack gloomily.

"Oh, dinna fear but they'll find us oot," declared Sandy hopefully.

"What do you say if we hoist up a flag on the point yonder?"

"That's a good idea," declared Tom, "but in any event we won't stay here long. If no help comes before many days, we'll set out in the dory and keep along the coast till we reach some settlement where we can get into communication with our friends."

The flag question bothered them sadly for a time, but it was solved by utilizing an old bit of canvas that was in the dory. With this they improvised a signal, affixing it to a tall limb of a tree which they had lopped off and anch.o.r.ed on the rocky point by piling stones about its base.

They were coming back from this task, having vainly scanned the sea for a sail, when Tom halted suddenly and pointed toward the hillside that sloped upward behind the hut. The others likewise came to a standstill at his sudden exclamation.

Among the bushes, which grew thickly on the lower part of the slope, some large animal was moving. A glimpse of a s.h.a.ggy back could be seen and the bushes waved and swayed as some big body came lumbering through them.