CHAPTER XII.
ALASKA'S FIRST AIRSHIP.
The Scouts and their commander reached the mouth of the Gold early in theevening, and made camp on their old ground, the sandy spit between the tworivers. The steamer from Dawson was due some time during the night, andbefore they turned in they set up a red lantern on the long steering sweepas a signal. The dawn had broken when the hoarse siren of the steamer washeard down the Lewes, and by the time all hands were awake she was backingwater at the mouth of the Gold. The flat boat was quickly poled out toher, and what Swiftwater called their "dunnage" was placed aboard. Then,with the steamer's boat in tow the batteau was taken back into the mouthof the creek and securely anchored to the bank to be called for by ColonelSnow's men the following fall.
The trip to White Horse was uneventful, and from there the boys, after acall on Major McClintock at the Mounted Police post, where they leftthanks for their rescuers, who had not yet returned from their patrolduty, took a train to Skagway. They found Colonel Snow awaiting them, andafter Swiftwater had given an account of the work at the camp on the Gold,preparations were made for the journey down the Yukon to St. Michaels andthe Seward Peninsula, where Colonel Snow had some further business totransact for the government. Traveling in Yukon and Alaska is expensive,but Colonel Snow had agreed to defray the expenses of the trip fromSkagway to Nome in payment for the boys' services in the camp, and theyhad already confided to him the scheme they had in mind to make some moneyfor themselves.
The Scouts had given every attention to detail in setting up the machine,and the apparatus had been given a tryout by frequent runs across thegrass and short lifts into the air. A small grandstand had been built forthe town officials and invited guests, and the Scouts attired in theirkhaki uniforms and broad hats acted as a reception committee and asushers.
Swiftwater, who was to go down the Yukon to Dawson with them on his way tothe Fairbanks mining district, where he proposed to carve out what hetermed a new "stake," acted as box office man and ticket taker. There werenearly two thousand persons on the grounds when the boys brought out fromits canvas hanger the neat double plane with its bright motor andvarnished propeller. The skids had been replaced with rubber tired bicyclewheels and the controls were of the latest pattern. The machine wasdressed with tiny flags, and out of compliment to the neighboring Yukonterritory the British colors shared the display equally with the Americanflag.
The hour of the ascent was announced by a bugle call, and the boyssurrounded the aeroplane to keep the crowd back, when Gerald climbed intothe seat. A cleared space of nearly a quarter of a mile had been reservedfor him, and starting the motor he glided gently away over the grass, thenlifted his forward plane and rose into the air. He lifted the plane toabout two hundred feet, circled the lower end of the field and came backover the heads of the crowd. As he swept over the grand stand theastonished crowd recovered somewhat from its amazement and sent forth amighty cheer that was added to by almost as great a throng outside thegrounds. Having given the crowd an opportunity to inspect the machine atclose quarters, Gerald began to mount in spirals until he reached analtitude of nearly two thousand feet, after which he headed directly forthe summit of one of the lofty mountains that form the natural features ofthe Skagway region. It was nearly a dozen miles away, but he passed overthe intervening country at a speed of nearly sixty miles an hour, andafter the lapse of about twenty minutes returned, and dropping slowly inspirals, glided gently to earth within a score of feet of the spot fromwhich he had risen.
Soon after their return to Skagway the mysterious "piano case" was broughtout of storage and unpacked, a vacant but fenced lot was rented and thefirst aeroplane that Alaska had ever seen was soon put together, and wasin process of being tuned up.
As has been told in a previous volume, the Creston Patrol of Boy Scoutshad become fairly proficient airmen, having constructed a glider which ina contest had won for them a motor with which they later equipped anairship. Gerald, especially, had shown himself a most capable andcourageous aviator, and only a short time before coming to Alaska hadreceived from the Aeronautical Society his license as a full fledged airpilot. Needless to say their exhibition was the notable event of the year,and it added as well a goodly sum to the boys' exchequer.
Citizens and visitors were delighted with the exhibition, and begged foranother day of the same thing, but Colonel Snow was anxious to be on hisway to the Klondike country, and could not allow the boys more time. Thesum realized was not only satisfactory to the town officials, but theshare coming to the boys went a considerable way toward providing fundsfor their trip down the Yukon.
The aeroplane was loosely crated for the journey, and early in the monthof July the Scouts took the train for their second trip from Skagway toWhite Horse. Upon their arrival at the end of their three hours' journey,Colonel Snow, Rand and Swiftwater repaired to a nearby Siwash village, towhich the wounded chief had been conveyed upon their return from GoldCreek and found him nearly recovered from his injury.
He showed considerable satisfaction at meeting them, and was evidentlyvery grateful to Swiftwater and the boys for their kindness to him. Hesaid the return of the ancient tribal relic had greatly rejoiced themembers of the tribe, and had aroused great interest among the older menin the old legends attached to the heirloom. These had to do with a greatwealth of ivory which had been stored in a cave at the top of a cliffduring a tribal war over a hundred years before, and that this cave was inthe mountains which "ended near the Great Water." As near as Swiftwatercould make out the mountains referred to were either the great Alaskanrange which swings in a semicircle across the territory from theinternational boundary on the Yukon, where the range bears the name ofNuzotin, west to Cook Inlet, an arm of the North Pacific Ocean or theChugach or Kenai ranges nearer the coast. Four great peaks are features ofthe Alaskan range, chief of them being Mount McKinley, the highestmountain in all America--20,464 feet--until recently unconquered by any ofthe ambitious mountain climbers who have attacked it.
The chief said further that some of his young men were ambitious to huntfor this peak, and that he himself would go with them over into the CookInlet region for the salmon fishing, and later would take up a searchthrough the mountains aided by a remnant of the tribe which still hauntsthat section. He promised Rand that should the treasure be found he wouldshare with the boys who had returned their ancient relic to the village.
While Colonel Snow had little faith in the existence of the cave or thepossibility of its rediscovery, he saw that the spirit of adventure wasaroused in the boys, and as he proposed that they should see as much aspossible of Alaska, and as he himself must later visit the copper miningregion he made an arrangement to meet the chief at Seward in the KenaiPeninsula, the end of the military cable to Seattle, late in August.
The Indians greatly desired that the boys should visit their village thatnight for a "potlatch," but as they could not do so the villagers insistedon presenting each of the party with a handsome hand woven blanket, themanufacture of which is the chief native industry.
Meantime, the other boys had paid a visit to the Custom House to give bondfor their airship, but as the collector could find nothing of the kind onthe tariff list, as none had ever been entered at a Yukon customs house,he concluded it was exempt and allowed it free entry.
"I see that the members of your Congress insist that a protective tariffis for the primary purpose of preventing foreign competition with homeindustries. As I do not believe that you will find an aviation industry onthe Yukon, I guess I am safe in letting you take your machine through."
The boys also visited the police barracks and found their three friends ofthe forest patrol whom they again heartily thanked. At seven o'clock, atwhat would have been night anywhere else, they went aboard the "Yukoner"with the aeroplane, and an hour later cast off lines for Dawson. Hereanother exhibition was made, and under Swiftwater's guidance a visit paidto the mining camps.