Read Ebook: The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition by Breckenridge Gerald

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 1330 lines and 49729 words, and 27 pages

Mr. Hampton paused. Jack, who had been eyeing his father closely, now put a hand on his arm.

"And now what, Dad?" he asked.

"Now Anderson wants me to attempt to go after the 'Lost Expedition' and try to relocate the oil fields as well as find some trace of Thorwaldsson," said Mr. Hampton.

"I thought so," said Jack, in a tone of satisfaction. "When do we start?"

"We?" Mr. Hampton chuckled. "I like that. Just as cool as you please about it, too. We? Well, well."

"Do we leave at once?" asked Jack, imperturbably, not one whit disturbed by his father's pleasantry.

Mr. Hampton shook his head.

"Whether I take you at all is questionable," he said. "Certainly, I have no intention of going at once. If I go at all, it will not be until the Arctic Summer begins."

"Meantime, I suppose, I'm to return to Yale."

"Yes, you've missed a half year, thanks to our adventures in search of the Incas' treasure in South America, but that is no reason why you should miss the balance of the term. I'll tell you what," he added, taking pity on the three, "if you fellows go back to college and study hard to make up for lost time until Summer, and if the 'Lost Expedition' is still lost at that time, why, I'll see what can be done."

"Hurray," cried Jack. "That's a promise."

"Well, boys, where do we go from here?"

It was Frank who asked the question, and he sat on a heap of luggage on the beach at Nome, with Jack and Bob beside him looking alternately at the mountain beyond the Alaskan outpost and at Mr. Hampton deep in conversation with a short sturdy figure of a man, clad in khaki breeches, high leather boots and a flannel shirt, a short distance away. The figure was that of Tom Farnum, scout of the independent oil interests at Nome.

It was Summer, and Summer in Alaska as the boys were beginning to realize meant hot weather, indeed. All had their coats off, and were perspiring. Only an hour before they had been put ashore by the steamer from Seattle, and Mr. Hampton had left them on the beach with their luggage while he went in search of Tom Farnum, who had failed to meet them at the landing as they had expected.

"Where do we go from here?" Jack repeated Frank's question. "Well, if you ask me, almost any place would be better than Nome."

He looked with disfavor at the little town sprawling at the base of the mountain.

"Not just what I expected," he said. "I've heard of Nome all my life, it seems, and now, just look at it. Why, it's hardly a spot on the map."

"But what a history it has had, Jack," said Frank. "Don't judge by appearances too much. Remember this town has seen the Gold Rush."

"I wonder what Dad is talking about," said Jack, ignoring Frank's remark.

"Probably discussing how soon we can get away," said big Bob, speaking for the first time. "At any rate," he added, "I see your father and his companion pointing to that gasoline schooner off shore."

At this moment, their doubts were resolved, for Mr. Hampton and his companion ended their conversation and approached the boys.

"Well, boys, we'll soon be under way," said Mr. Hampton. Whereupon he introduced Farnum all around. The latter was a prepossessing man with a weather-beaten face and a grizzled mustache, above which jutted a promontory of a nose between deep-set, wide, blue eyes.

"That is our schooner out there," Mr. Hampton continued, indicating the boat to which Bob earlier had drawn attention. "Mr. Farnum," he added, "has stated casually around Nome that he is taking a party of hunters up the MacKenzie. We'll get away at once, as nothing is to be gained by a stay in Nome and as, furthermore, we wish to avoid inquiries into our aims. The story Farnum has told will do well enough."

Farnum nodded.

"Just a white lie," he said, grinning. "No use letting the curious know all your secrets."

Then followed an hour of brisk work, at the end of which period the luggage was safely stowed aboard the gasoline schooner, and its screw began to turn. As the little vessel began to throb and draw away from Nome, the boys leaned overside and watched the prospect dwindle in the distance until the houses seemed like toys and the mountainside like a painted backdrop in the theater.

"Hurray," cried Bob, at last, "we're off for the Great Unknown."

"Yes," agreed Frank, "I really feel that way, too. All the way up from Seattle, I felt as if I were nothing more than a tourist, traveling a beaten route. But this, well, this is different."

After that they were silent a long time, while the schooner shook and throbbed and steadily pushed its way up the coast, each boy busy with his thoughts. Yet those thoughts were much the same.

Following that eventful discussion in Seattle, on their return from South America and their adventures there in The Enchanted City of the Incas, they had gone back to Yale and studied hard to make up for lost time in the first half of the term. All three were clever and had the knack of concentrating at their tasks, and all as a consequence had succeeded in making up back work in classroom and lecture. As a result they had entered the succeeding term, or at least were prepared to do so, without conditions. This was a matter for congratulation, indeed, and deserving of especial reward.

That reward had been theirs. For Mr. Hampton and Mr. Temple both decided that their respective sons and Frank, Mr. Temple's ward, should be permitted to accompany Mr. Hampton on his trip to attempt to find some trace of the "Lost Expedition" and of the reputed oil field in search of which Thorwaldsson had set out.

"Farnum is reputed a wizard in knowledge of the Northland," Mr. Hampton had explained to Mr. Temple, "and, as a consequence, I do not consider that we will run any danger. Our greatest danger, of course, would be to become trapped in the Far North in the Fall and be prevented by the rigors of Winter from regaining the outside. For I do not intend to spend the Winter there. Instead, I hope to be back in civilization by the early Fall.

"That," he added, "will give us plenty of opportunity to seek traces of the 'Lost Expedition.' I have been in communication with Farnum. His plan is for us to push up the MacKenzie to one of its tributaries, and then strike eastward. We will leave the gasoline schooner to make its way back to Nome, while we push on overland, lightening our journey on rivers and lakes, in the hope of finding the River of Oil flowing north.

"If we are unsuccessful, when the seasonal warnings of approaching Winter come, we will turn to the southeast and come out in northern Canada.

"The boys are hard and fit, and such a trip will be of inestimable value for them. It will make them self-reliant and teach them to depend upon themselves. Not that they are not in a fair way to be youths of that sort already," he added, smiling. "If you could have seen them in South America, George, it would have done your heart good."

"I know, I know," said Mr. Temple, shaking his head slightly, and smiling. "Several years ago, that time when you were captive in Mexico and they set out to rescue you--"

"Yes, and did," supplied Mr. Hampton.

"And did," agreed Mr. Temple. "Well, they showed the stuff that was in them then. And the very same Summer, when I took them to San Francisco on what I considered was going to be a little pleasure trip combining a bit of business with sight-seeing, and--"

"And you became involved with the Chinese smugglers, and imprisoned, and ended up by busting up their show--"

"Yes," resumed Mr. Temple, "and ended up by bringing the whole outfit into the hands of Uncle Sam's men. Well, I can tell you, they certainly showed their calibre."

"So, I reckon it will be all right to take them along on this trip," said Mr. Hampton.

"I suppose so," agreed Mr. Temple. "But innocent as it looks now, I have my doubts. I have my doubts. Wherever those three boys are found, there you can look for things to move fast. Trouble courts them, it seems to me."

Accordingly, the boys had been told they would be taken on the trip into the Far North. And wildly excited they had gone about their preparations. Jack, the keenest radio enthusiast, was all for packing up radio field equipment of every sort right at home. But his father had dissuaded him, pointing out that Seattle was a large city and there everything necessary in the way of an outfit could be purchased, thus saving the trouble and expense of transporting overland to the Pacific port.

"All right, Dad," Jack had agreed. "But, remember, the selection of the radio equipment is to be left to the fellows and me. We've had a lot of experience with the value of radio when in a tight place, especially in South America, and we want to put that experience to use and be prepared for every contingency this time."

To this Mr. Hampton readily had agreed, with the result that in Seattle the three boys had revelled in the radio equipment stores, which they found well stocked, as the use of radio had developed greatly on the Pacific.

In consequence, their outfit included radio field equipment of the most powerful, yet most compact, designs. For while Mr. Hampton fully realized the value of having the very best yet he had issued a solemn warning that bulk must be considered.

"We will have to travel as lightly as consistent with safety and the purpose of our expedition," he had said. "So don't pile up anything too heavy or bulky, or it will have to be discarded."

Jack knew well that the distance which can be covered with a radiophone transmitter is only about one-fourth as great as that of a wireless telegraph transmitter having the same input of initial current. Therefore, as a means of sending messages, supposedly for aid, over long distances, the wireless telegraph would be the better, inasmuch as equipment for it would be less bulky to transport than equipment for transmitting the human voice. Nevertheless, he was reluctant to place their sole dependence upon the wireless telegraph.

"You see, Dad," he had pointed out to his father, when the outfit was being assembled, "to reach the outside we shall have to depend upon wireless telegraph. But we will also need the radiophone for this reason: that each one of us ought to have a means of calling the main party in case we become separated through going on scouting or hunting expeditions, or for any reason."

"Well, that sounds sensible," his father had agreed. "Go ahead with your plans, but, remember, hold down the bulk."

The result was that equipment capable of telegraphing five hundred miles was assembled, but also Jack made up five light field sets of radio, one for each of their party and for Farnum, which the user could pack in his clothing and which had a radius up to twenty-five miles. The instrument was Jack's now famous ring radio, worn on the finger, with a setting only one inch by five-eighths of an inch. Formerly an umbrella as aerial had been employed but Jack had done entirely away with that in his improved set.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet