Mystery At Devil's Paw Part 9

"Okay! Into the water!" he gasped.

Straining every muscle the trio ripped up the flimsy structure and hurled it into the water.

It sank with a hissing cloud of steam. Panting and streaked with perspiration, the boys watched as the Fames died out.

"Wow!" Tony muttered. "If that fire had spread to the brush, our whole camp would have gone up in smoke!"

Once the danger of an explosion was past, Chet and Ted returned with the boats and canoes. These were moored to the blackened stumps of the dock pilings. Then all of the boys trudged back to camp.

"Good thing you were awake, Frank," Ted remarked wryly.

"We should have kept up our night watches," Joe added. "Tony, I think you and Chet need more protection after we three leave the island."

"At least," Frank concurred, "report what happened right away."

"I'll do it now," Tony replied.

Warming up his radio, Tony tuned to the agency's special frequency and spoke into the microphone: "Kooniak calling Juneau! . . . Can you read me?"

103 Fortunately, the station kept an operator on duty around the clock. After hearing Tony's report of the fire-bomb attack, he consulted his superiors by telephone, and then called back. "We'll send out two men first thing in the morning!"

Much relieved, the five boys drank some hot cocoa which Chet had brewed. Ted volunteered to stand the first watch during the remaining hours of darkness. Then the others crawled into their sleeping bags. The rest of the night pa.s.sed quietly.

Shortly before ten o'clock the next morning a boat arrived at the island, bringing the two agents from Juneau. They came ash.o.r.e, carrying a small but powerful two-way radio set, which they turned over to the Hardys.

"The chief thought this might come in handy on your trip up the Kooniak," one of the men explained. "If you get a lead on the gang, he'd like you to report to Juneau at once."

"Thanks. We'll do that," Frank promised.

Half an hour later the Hardy brothers and Ted set off, paddling to the western sh.o.r.e of the river. Here they unloaded the two canoes and made the portage around the falls.

"Whew! That's a full day's work before we even get started!" Joe remarked, wiping the perspiration from his brow.

Ted chuckled. "These Alaskan rivers are beautiful, but you'll find they're no picnic!"

104 After a brief lunch the boys embarked on the next leg of their journey. Frank volunteered to paddle the trailing canoe which carried the gasoline cans.

Ted approved. "We'll ride better that way, with one man behind. And there'll be no danger of losing the fuel tins in an upset."

Ted himself, as the most experienced woodsman of the trio, took the bow position in the lead canoe. They shoved off, and soon found themselves paddling against a swift current.

They were also traveling "uphill," since the Kooniak flowed down from the Alaskan coastal range.

"Boy, looks as though we're in for a real workout!" Joe called back to his brother. Frank grinned in response.

"Don't worry, you two are in good shape," Ted commented. "This would be rough for a tenderfoot."

At points along the riverbanks the heavy timber thinned out into lush meadowlands.

These were carpeted with wild flowers in every color of the rainbow. Frank and Joe were amazed at the dazzling display.

"It's like a giant garden!" Joe said admiringly.

Ted pointed out many of the species by name .-alpine forget-me-nots, fireweed with its tall reddish spires, yellow Arctic poppies, bluebells, creeping dogwood, and purple irises.

Steering close to sh.o.r.e, he reached out and 105 plucked several flowers from a ma.s.s of yellow blooms that grew down to the water's edge. "Monkey flowers," he told Joe."

"They do look like little faces," Joe said with a chuckle.

After paddling for several hours, they reached an area where the banks of the Kooniak rose in rocky walls. The beetling cliffs formed a canyon for the swift-flowing icy waters.

"Hey, look!" Joe cried suddenly, pointing up at one of the cliff faces. "There's a white streak in the rock! I'll bet it's part of a dinosaur!"

When Joe suggested investigating the streak, Ted and Frank agreed to moor the canoe and accompany him.

"It'll be a tough climb, though," Ted warned.

"We can make it!" Joe urged enthusiastically.

Mooring their canoes to a clump of rock, the boys climbed out and began scaling the cliff. Footholds were few. After skinning their arms and legs on the rugged outcroppings, they finally reached the whitish streak.

"I'm sure it's a bone!" Joe exclaimed.

All three examined it closely.

"Could be," Ted agreed. "But how do we get it out?"

"By the Indian method," Frank suggested. "Chip it loose with a sharp stone."

Arming themselves with chunks of flint, the boys followed Frank's suggestion. For a while they 106 seemed to make little impression on the rock face. But gradually more of the white object became revealed.

"I was right!" Joe exclaimed. "It's definitely a bone!"

"Looks like some kind of an elbow or knee joint," Ted commented. "If dinosaurs had such things!"

"Wait'll I get back and tell Mr. Turner about this find!" Joe said jubilantly.

Frank broke into a chuckle. "I bet they'll give you a medal!" he joked. "It'll be engraved to Joe Hardy-finder of a dinosaur's funny bone!"

Both Joe and Ted joined in the laughter. However, as the boys started down toward the canoes, their smiles faded. The steep cliff, which had been so difficult to climb, seemed almost impossible to descend.

Suddenly Joe gasped as he lost his footing. With a yell, he slid downward, making frantic attempts to slow his descent.

CHAPTER XIII.

A Savage Ordeal ted acted instantly! Leaping out from the cliff, he dived into the water far below. Then, after a few strong strokes, Ted reached the rocky sh.o.r.e and climbed to the foot of the slope.

Joe, tumbling and twisting, was almost at the bottom of the cliff. Timing the descent perfectly, Ted caught hold of Joe, breaking his fall just short of a jagged rock formation.

The impact threw both boys to the flinty ground, where they panted and trembled for a few moments.

"Whew!" gasped Joe finally. "How can I thank you, Ted! Finding that dinosaur bone came close to killing me! If it hadn't been for you, my own bones would be in pretty bad shape by now!"

"Just a lucky catch," Ted said with a grin.

Even so, Joe had suffered many bruises and his skin was sc.r.a.ped raw in several places.

107.

108 Frank, who had tensely watched the rescue, shouted his thanks to Ted and added, "I'll find a safer part of the cliff to come down!"

By climbing higher and crossing a shelf of rock to a point farther upriver, he was able to make the descent in safety.

Ted, meanwhile, had opened their first-aid kit and applied medication to Joe's cuts.

"I never knew fossil hunting could be so dangerous!" Frank quipped wryly as he rejoined the other two. "Guess we should have learned our lesson from that trip out West with Cap Bailey!"

Frank was referring to a fossil-hunting expedition which had led him and Joe into a life-or-death struggle with a band of train robbers. The Hardys listed the case in their files as The Secret of Wildcat Swamp. The Secret of Wildcat Swamp.

"You can say that again!" Joe muttered, blowing on a particularly painful cut on his right knee. "Wow! Does that sting!"

After resting for fifteen minutes, the trio resumed the trip upriver. Although they watched both banks of the river carefully, the boys saw no one, white man or Indian. Nor did they sight any traces of a recent camp.

Toward evening they approached a small, wooded island in mid-river. "Getting hungry?"

Frank inquired.

"If we don't eat soon," Joe replied, "I'll start gnawing on this paddle!"

109 "Then let's camp here," Frank suggested. "It should make a pretty safe spot for the night."

After paddling into a small cove, the travelers beached the canoes and scouted the island thoroughly before unloading their gear.

Soon a campfire was crackling and the aroma of hot corned beef and fried potatoes drifted over the island. After supper the companions chose watch periods. Joe drew the first a.s.signment. Frank and Ted stretched out in their sleeping bags and were soon deep in slumber. All were thoroughly refreshed by daybreak, although Joe was still somewhat stiff and sore.

Breakfast over, the canoeists pushed on. The river lay under a light blanket of mist, not yet burned away by the sun. Several hours of paddling brought them to an open spot on the west bank, where the cl.u.s.tering pines gave way to a narrow clearing.

"Hold it!" Ted cried, signaling with his paddle. "That's an Indian trail!"

"It might lead to the Haida camp," Joe conjectured.

Frank felt certain of this. "Let's go ash.o.r.e and get Fleetfoot," he urged.

"Think our gear will be safe here?" Joe asked, as they drew the canoes up on the riverbank.

"Better not take any chances," Frank replied. "I vote we cache our supplies and each of the canoes in a separate spot."

110 Joe and Ted concurred, and in twenty minutes the boys had everything well hidden under heaps of brush and rocks. Then they headed inland along the trail. Soon they came upon an Indian village.

As they neared the cl.u.s.ter of wooden huts, excited noises reached their ears. A crowd of Indians were swarming about the village clearing.

The boys stopped short in astonishment at an amazing sight. A native woman, wearing a green fringed parka, shot straight upward at least thirty feet above the crowd! She was treading air to remain upright!

Seconds later, she landed on both feet in a walrus skin held by six Indians. They immediately snapped the hide taut and catapulted her up in the air again!

"Good night!" Joe gasped. "What do they think she is-a human medicine ball?"

A slender young Indian turned at the sound of Joe's voice. It was Fleetfoot. He ran toward them with a wide-eyed look of fear. "Quick! Do not let my people see you!" he whispered. "Run for your lives!"

The boys looked puzzled, and Frank said, "Why? Your tribe was friendly enough the other time we came to your village."

"Today we are having a wedding," Fleetfoot explained. "That woman is the bride. She is a Kotzebue Eskimo, and now she is proving to everyone that she will be a good, skook.u.m skook.u.m wife!"

111 "By letting them bounce her on that walrus hide?" Joe asked.

Fleetfoot nodded impatiently. "It is a custom of her people. And today any outsiders who come here must do the same! But it takes much practice. If they bounce you like that, you will break your neck!"

"Wow!" Ted gulped. "We'd better clear out of here! Come on!"

But the boys had tarried too long. Hearing their voices, the Indians swarmed toward them excitedly. Before the Hardys and Ted could take to their heels, they were dragged into the circle of yelling, whooping Haidas!

"Now white man try test!" shouted one tall Indian. The others approved with grins and handclaps.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Frank pleaded, striving to make himself heard above the uproar.

"We just came here as visitors, to see one of your people. We didn't know there was a wedding going on!"

Fleetfoot confirmed this. He jabbered excitedly in the Haida tongue, trying to persuade his fellow Indians to let the white youths go. But the tall man swept him aside.

"White men come to village, they must join in wedding games too!" the brave a.s.serted.

He pointed to Frank. "This one biggest, look plenty skook.u.m. skook.u.m. He try test with walrus hide!" He try test with walrus hide!"

112 The brave explained the rules of the game. Frank would be bounced in the air three times. If he failed to land upright after three tries, he would be made to jump through a circle of burning arrows.

Frank stared at the speaker unbelievingly. "This is crazy!" he thought. "They can't really mean it!" But one look at the circle of intense coppery faces told him they were not jesting.

For the moment at least, the Haidas had reverted to the savage customs of the Alaskan wilderness!

Smothering the protests of Joe, Ted, and Fleet-foot, the Indians seized Frank and hustled him onto the walrus hide. Then the hide was raised aloft and snapped taut. Frank went hurtling high in the air!

He tried frantically to tread air with his hands and feet as he had seen the Eskimo woman do. But the dizzying momentum of his flight upward seemed to rob him of his sense of balance. Twisting helplessly, Frank plummeted back toward the walrus hide and landed on his back with jarring force.