The herbage amidst which Tom had flung the blazing bit of wood proved no exception. Fanned by a brisk breeze it ran literally like wildfire among the dried gra.s.ses. Luckily the wind was from the side of the hut in which Tom was perched and blew toward the bears. As the flames swept down on them, they uttered loud snorts of terror and turned tail ingloriously.

The mother bear, with her frightened cub, was the first to depart, and she stood not on the order of her going, but galloped off at top speed. The huge male bear lingered but a few minutes longer, then he, too, fled before the fiery terror which Tom's clever strategem had kindled.

"Hooray, boys, they're on the run!" shouted Tom, unable to restrain his enthusiasm.

He swung down his arms and dragged up Jack without much difficulty.

Then came Sandy's turn. They had just hauled the Scotch lad to the roof, however, when an alarming thing occurred. The covering of the Aleut hut had not been built to withstand any such strain as the weight of the three lads now perched upon it.

Without warning, save for a sharp crack, it suddenly sagged.

"Look out! It's caving in!" roared Tom.

"Cracky, so it is!" echoed Jack as he felt the sod roof begin to sink under them.

"Roll!" shouted Tom. "Roll down it!"

He seized Sandy, who appeared to be paralyzed from alarm, and gave him a shove. Down the roof rolled the Scotch lad, landing in a heap on the ground, shaken and bruised, but not otherwise injured. Close behind him came Tom and Jack. Behind them the roof fell in with a roar, leaving a big gaping cavity.

But the boys had no time to notice this just then. Scrambling to their feet they dashed off toward the beach where the dory lay. The flames almost reached them as they left the hut. But looking back Tom saw something worse than the flames pursuing them. They could easily distance the blazing gra.s.s and that gave him no alarm. But what did cause his heart to stand still for an instant and then resume beating furiously was the sight of the bears.

They had rallied from their fright and perceived the escape of the boys. Now, skirting the flames by outflanking them, they were lumbering toward the fugitives at a speed that would not have been thought possible in such bulky creatures.

CHAPTER XVI.

UNCERTAINTY.

"Run! Run for your lives! Run!"

Tom panted out the words as he pointed behind them. The others saw almost as soon as he, and quickened their pace, though they had been running almost at their top speed before. There was a reason for Tom's thus urging them to hurry, although they had a good start of the bears. The tide, as he had seen, was low. The dory lay at some distance from the water.

That the craft was a heavy one he knew, and it was likely that it might take some time for them to get her to the water's edge. In the circ.u.mstances even a brief delay was a thing to be avoided, and it was important that they should gain every second that they could.

They reached the boat and seized hold of her on either side. But although the beach was hard and sloping, it was terribly slow work to drag the heavy craft along.

Tom spied some dead limbs lying below a cottonwood tree and they used these as rollers, after which their progress was swifter. But just as they reached the water's edge the bears were upon them. One good shove and they were knee deep in the water.

"She's afloat!" cried Jack gleefully.

He sprang into the boat. Sandy was not a minute behind him. But Tom's foot caught on a boulder as he shoved off the bow, and he fell headlong into the water. As he fell, he was conscious of a hot breath and a deafening roar almost in his very ear. Then he heard something crash downward with a dull thud, followed by a scream of pain.

The next instant Jack had him in a strong grip and pulled him on board the dory. Sandy plied the oars furiously. In a few moments more they were out of danger and Jack was telling Tom how, just as the big bear prepared to seize him, following his unlucky stumble, it had come into his, Jack's, head like a flash of inspiration that in the grapple that lay in the bottom of the boat was a weapon that could be utilized against the monster.

He had s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and whirled it around his head for an instant, and then let the weighty mud-hook, with its sharp points, come crashing down on the bear's head. One of the points had wounded the creature too badly for it to give its attention to anything but a gaping cut for the next few seconds, during which the dory had been rowed far out of reach of the big bears of Kadiak with which the boys had had such a thrilling encounter.

"Well, where away?" asked Sandy, as they gazed back at the sh.o.r.e.

On the beach stood the three bears, while beyond them the smoke of the fire they had kindled towered high into the sky in a wavering pillar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: He let the weighty mud-hook ... come crashing down on the bear's head.--_Page 154._]

"We'll pull right along the sh.o.r.e," decided Tom after a moment's thought, "we may fall in with some ship, or at any rate a native canoe."

Accordingly the oars were manned and the dory rowed along the coast, while the boys all kept a sharp lookout to seaward for any sign of a vessel.

"There's one good thing," said Tom presently; "the smoke from that fire would attract the attention of anyone who might be in the neighborhood and lead them to make inquiries."

"Yes, but there's not a vessel in sight," objected Jack.

"Never mind. That smoke must be visible at a great distance. I don't doubt that the _Northerner_ is out hunting for us and they would not be likely to neglect such a clue as that smoke column will afford."

"I think you're right there," agreed Jack, "but they may have started the search in another direction."

"That is a chance we shall have to take."

The brief darkness of the Alaskan night fell without a single sign of a ship being detected on the lonely ocean. Thoroughly disheartened, hungry and half crazy from thirst, the boys rowed on till Tom ordered Jack and Sandy to take some sleep. They obeyed and were soon wrapped in deep slumber. Tom allowed the dory to drift. Rowing only increased his thirst, and in any event could not accomplish much good.

They would have rowed ash.o.r.e long before and searched for water, but the land off to their right was a frowning escarpment of rugged cliff which offered no hope of water. The boy found himself wishing that they had had the foresight to stock up the dory in case of their leaving the cove hurriedly; but it was too late for such regrets now.

Tom caught himself dropping off to sleep. He dozed half awake and half in the land of nod for some time. How long it was he did not know, but he was suddenly awakened by a harsh shout that appeared to come from the air above him.

"Hard over your helm! It's a boat!"

"Where away!"

"Right under our bow! Sheer off! Hard over!"

Tom sprang to his feet, broad awake in an instant. Right above, like an immense black cliff, towered the bow of a steamer. He could see the bright running lights shining like jewels.

"Jack! Sandy!" he bawled out. "Get up! They'll run us down!"

The huge black bulk of the strange craft did, indeed, appear as if it must inevitably cut the drifting dory in two. But the outcry of the bow watch had come in time. Just as Jack and Sandy sprang up and Tom was thinking that everything was over, the great bow swung off. The steamer rushed by so close that Tom could almost have touched her with his hand.

"Ahoy!" roared a voice from the bridge. "What boat is that?"

"It's a native canoe," came another voice.

"Not on your life it isn't," yelled Tom. "This is an unofficial exploring expedition and----"

"Tom Dacre!" bellowed a voice from the bridge.

"Ahoy, uncle!" hailed back Tom, who had caught the word _Northerner_ on the steamer's bow as she was swinging by.

"Tom, is it you? Are you all right?"

There was a ring in Mr. Dacre's tone that showed how he had suffered since the strange disappearance of his nephews and their chum.