CHAPTER X.
THE TIDAL "BORE."
"What's the matter, Sandy?"
Tom spoke as the dory swung dizzily between heaven and earth.
"I--I'm scared!" confessed Sandy, turning a white face to his chum.
"Pshaw! Cheer up, Sandy," said Tom, trying to put a bold face on thematter, as was always his way.
"Yes, we'll come out of it all right," struck in Jack bravely,concealing his real fear of the outcome of the adventure.
"We've been in worse fixes than this before and got through allright," supplemented Tom, and Sandy appeared to pluck up some heartfrom the confident tones of his companions.
"Tell you what," suggested Jack suddenly, "I've got an idea."
"What is it?"
"Why, to find out where we are. It's no use asking those woodenIndians; they wouldn't say if they did know, and couldn't if theydidn't."
"Well, but what's your plan?" asked Tom impatiently.
"Just this. You remember how the captain on the _Northerner_ found outwhen he was dangerously near to the coast by blowing the whistle andwaiting for the echo?"
Tom nodded.
"Well, why can't we do the same by hollering at the top of ourvoices?"
"Good boy! I see your idea. If we're near land, we ought to catch theecho of our voices."
"That's the scheme exactly."
The boat was tossing too violently to stand up in it, but the boysplaced their hands to their mouths, funnel-wise, and set up as loudan uproar as they could.
Sure enough, back out of the fog faint and obscure, but still audible,came an unmistakable reply.
"Hul-l-o-o-o-o!"
Their faces brightened. Even Sandy broke into a grin.
"We're aboon the land!" he cried out.
"Must be," declared Tom positively.
He looked at the two natives, who had been regarding the proceedingswith no more interest than they appeared to display in anything else.
"Row that way," he ordered in a loud, clear voice, pointing off intothe fog in the direction from whence the answer to their shouting hadcome. The natives obeyed without a word. Whether they understood himor not Tom never knew, but they appeared to apprehend his vigorousgesture well enough.
As they rowed along, the boys repeated their practice, and every timethe echo came louder and more clearly.
"Wish we'd thought of that before," sighed Jack, "we might be in theharbor by this time."
"Better late than never," Tom assured him cheerily.
Before long they could hear the roar of waves breaking on the coast.The natives apparently heard them, too, and kept the boat out alittle. The angry sound of the breaking waters was sufficient warningthat no landing could be attempted there.
"We must be running along the coast," decided Tom.
"How can you guess that?" inquired Jack.
"Yes, I dinna ken how you know, unless you hae the second sight,"agreed Sandy, who had in a large measure recovered his self-possessionat the idea of the proximity of land.
"Easy enough," responded Tom, "the echo only comes from one side. Ifwe were in a harbor or channel it would come from both sides."
"So much the worse," declared Jack. "We know now that we are notanywhere near Kadiak, for that is rock walled on either side and weshould get the echo from both directions."
"Still, it's something to know that we are even within touch of land,"said Tom, and in this they all agreed.
After a while the roaring of the surge grew less loud. This gave Toman idea.
"We must be near to an inlet or something that will afford a landingplace," he said, as the thunder of the surf diminished and finallyalmost died away. "What do you say if we go ashore?"
"What kind of a country will we find?" objected Jack.
"It couldn't be worse than tossing about in this dory, could it?"demanded Tom. "At any rate, we might find people ashore and a shelterand some food."
Both Jack and Sandy agreed to this, and Tom made motions to the nativeoarsmen that they were to make a landing if possible. In response tohis gesture the men nodded as if they understood what was wanted, andbegan rowing directly toward the direction in which they had guessedthe landing place lay.
As they neared the shore, which was still, however, invisible throughthe mist, the surf thunder grew louder. But the natives did not appearalarmed. No doubt they were thoroughly used to handling their craft inthe surf and such proved to be the case.
When they got quite close to the shore and the boys could see a darkoutline against the mist which they judged was a wall of cliffs, thetwo natives stopped rowing and back-watered. They did this till a bigwave came along behind the dory, lifting its stern high in the air.Then, with a piercing yell they dug their blades into the water.
The dory was flung forward like a stone from a sling. The men leapedout as the wave broke, and ran the craft amidst the surf and spumehigh and dry upon what proved to be a sandy beach in a little covetbetween two frowning battlements of rocky cliff.
The boys scrambled out. Even though they had not the remotest ideawhere they were, the touch of solid earth felt good under their feetafter that blundering voyage in the mist. But their surroundings werecheerless enough. Above them, except where the soft blanket of fogobscured the view, towered the dripping walls of black rock, all moistand shiny with the mist.
On the beach, the surf thundered and screamed as the waves broke andreceded. Now and then the sharp shriek of some sea-bird rosestartlingly clear above the voice of the sea. The boys felt lonely andwretched. But this feeling, seemingly, was not shared by the stoicalAleuts. They drew out pipes and began to smoke in silence. Theyappeared to pay no attention to the boys whatever, and Tom began toget angry at their indifference. After all, their blundering hadplaced the boys in their predicament, and Tom felt, and so did hiscompanions, that the natives ought to make at least some effort toright their error.
"Here, you," he said angrily, addressing one of them, "where are we?"
The man shook his head. If he knew, he did not betray it by a changeof expression or a spoken syllable.
"Ask him about getting something to eat," said Sandy. "Mon, but I'mfamished."
Tom tried to convey this idea to the natives in speech, but it wasplain they did not understand. Then he fell back on the sign language.Here he succeeded better. He pointed to his mouth and then rubbed hisstomach, a sign understood from the Arctic Ocean to Statenland. Thenative grinned and gave over smoking a minute. He nodded his head.
"Bye'm bye," he said, "bye'm bye."
"Well, at least he understands that much English," cried Tomtriumphantly. "I wish I could tell him to hurry up. 'Bye'm bye' mightmean any time."
But in answer to further efforts, the native only nodded and smiledamiably. After a while, during which the boys strolled aboutdisconsolately, the natives smoked their pipes out, and then began totalk in their guttural, grunting tongue. Of course, the boys could notunderstand what they were saying, but as well as they could judge thetwo men were coming to some sort of a decision. Suddenly they got totheir feet and made off through the fog at a swift pace. The boys ranafter them, shouting, but the Aleuts speedily vanished.
It was a pity that the boys could not know that the two natives, aftera discussion, had decided to set off across the island to a fishingsettlement for help. For it was Wolf Island on which the party hadlanded and the natives had only delayed to get a smoke before startingfor aid. But of this the boys knew nothing.
Hour after hour they waited with despairing faces for the two Aleuts,whom they thought had basely deserted them. At length Tom reached adecision.
"Those fellows have left us. We'll leave them," he declared.
"How?" inquired Jack.
"In the dory."
"Which way will we go?"
"Toward the direction from which we came. We are bound to getsomewhere, and at any rate the fog seems to be lifting. We can keeptrack of the shore by the echo, and so find our way back to Kadiak."
/> "The sea's pretty rough," objected Jack.
"The dory's a good sea boat, and anyway it isn't as rough as it was.I'm for pulling out of here right away before we waste any moretime."
"So am I," agreed Jack, and Sandy, although he looked rather sober atthe thought of venturing out on the big swells again, assented toTom's plan.
By good luck they managed to get the dory launched on a big sea, andalmost before they knew it, they were out on the tossing waves oncemore. The dory proved heavy and hard to pull, but the boys all hadwell-seasoned muscles and they made fairly good progress.
They were laboriously toiling in the direction Tom had pointed out,when Jack gave a shrill cry of real fear.
"Look! Look there!" he cried.
For a moment they all stopped rowing and gazed ahead.
Bearing down on them was a towering, walllike ridge of white, foamywaves. They were higher than their heads, even had the boys beenstanding upright in the boat. The mighty phalanx of water appeared tobe rushing down on them with the purpose of engulfing them in itsmaw.
"What is it?" gasped Jack, cowering.
"More whales!" shouted Sandy.
But it was something far worse than any creature of the deep. Althoughthey did not know it, the mighty waves that it appeared certain wouldpresently engulf them, were caused by the tide-bore, the irresistiblewall of water that twice each day sweeps down the east coast of Kadiakbetween the islands that form what is virtually an inland channel. Themighty forces of the Pacific tide and the Japan current unite to makethe titanic tide-rip which now threatened the boys.
With blanched faces they watched its oncoming. Escape was impossible.Sandy covered his eyes and crouched in the bottom of the dory. Jackshook with fear. Tom alone kept a grip on his faculties.
"Get her round. Let her head into the wave quartering, or we'regoners!" he shouted.
Swirling and breaking and crying out with a thousand voices, theparapet of water marched down on the seemingly doomed boat.