CHAPTER XVI
A SIBERIAN ADVENTURE
“Brrr-rr!” chattered Hiram Dobbs, with a shiver. “I say, Dave, have wegot to stand this much longer?”
“I sincerely hope not,” replied the young pilot of the _Comet_, in areally concerned tone. “I hoped to outride the storm. But it appears tome the snow is coming down thicker and faster every minute.”
“I’m just about drifted in,” piped up Elmer.
The scene was a vast void, a chaos. The three young airmen were much inthe situation of a ship driven before a blinding gale in unknown,fog-covered waters. All bearings were lost. The angle glide was obscuredwith snow; Dave resembled a great white statue. The biplane was therushing center of large driving flakes whirling in eddies all aboutthem.
They had run thus for nearly an hour, but now the machine, staunch andreliable as it was, threatened to depart from its usual good conductrecord. The planes were crusted and over-weighted. The bulk of snowHiram and Elmer tried to dislodge from other parts of the machine wasduplicated before they could go the entire rounds.
There had been several ominous creaks. Once the _Comet_ struck an airpocket. Through some deft but dangerous skidding the pilot evaded thisperil. A sudden change in the wind almost precipitated a newcatastrophe.
“I don’t know what we are going to strike,” said our hero; “but we’vegot to make a landing. No machine could stand much more of this.”
“Good,” cried Hiram heartily, as the _Comet_ made a rapid dive that wasnearly a somersault. “It’s solid land all right. I was afraid it mightbe water, and a ducking just now—brrr—rr!”
When Dave had told his friends way back in Canada that their motto mustbe “business, strictly business,” he and they had set themselveszealously to work to carry out the sentiment. Dave was an expert airman.The _Comet_ was a noble machine of its type. They had met with “goodluck,” too, Hiram had insisted. The biplane crossed the vast stretch ofCanadian wilderness without a mishap.
At Sitka no new trap nor harmful attempt on the part of their enemieshad confronted them. A government official had been deputized bytelegraph from Washington to receive and identify the contestants asthey arrived. The crew of the _Comet_ were proud and happy to learn thatthey were the first on the scene.
They rested a day at Sitka. Dave realized that the hardest part of theroute lay before them. It was no easy task to pilot a course past CapePrince of Wales, across Bering Strait and make sure of reachingStamavoie, a point in Kamchatka where arrangements had been made forgasoline and other supplies.
Elmer had started keeping what he called a “log.” During the ensuing sixdays he had some odd and spirited incidents to record. They had left themild fall weather behind them and encountered genuine wintry blasts. Theexpert young pilot took no unnecessary risks. Their stops were frequent,and for the most part fortunately they managed to land near settlementsor habitations. Dave had to accommodate the machine to new windconditions. He and his friends suffered a good deal with the cold. Itwas now late afternoon, and according to calculations and the chartsthey were traversing Siberian territory.
The storm had not abated one whit as all three of the boys left thebiplane. They found themselves ankle deep in a soft clinging snow.
“We can’t stay here,” said the young aviator.
“Hardly,” replied Hiram, “unless we want to see the machine and allhands covered up in a snowdrift within an hour.”
“We have lost our exact reckoning,” added Dave, “and no landmarks to goby. We are somewhere between Zashiversh and Virkni. Probably we havelanded on what is known as the Nijni steppe. It is something of a barrenwaste, if I remember right, but dotted here and there with stations anda few little farms.”
“Wish we could find one of them,” grumbled Hiram, good naturedly.
“No chance of supper if we don’t,” observed Elmer.
“See here, fellows, we’ll push the machine along, anyway, and see whatwe come to,” remarked Dave. “Any shelter is better than this all out ofdoors position. Even a stretch of timber or the side of a hill wouldseem homelike just now.”
“It’s better to keep moving, anyhow,” declared Hiram, stamping his feetvigorously. “This will be a big thing to tell about if we ever get homeagain, fellows.”
“Steady,” ordered Dave, and he slowed up the biplane, the wheels ofwhich ran along pretty lightly, deep as the snow was. “The ground ischanging. Stop the machine. I’ll prospect a bit ahead.”
In addition to the enveloping gloom of the storm, it had begun to getdusk. Dave proceeded alone. He discovered that the ground was rough andrising. Then he ran against a tree, and clearing his sight of theobstructing snowflakes he made out that they had come upon a littlestretch of timber.
“Come on, but cautiously,” he called back to his comrades.
The _Comet_ was pushed along and halted between two heavily needledtrees, affording it considerable shelter. Hiram gave a shout of delightas he discovered a spot where the ground was almost bare. A double rowof immense fir trees formed a protecting canopy for several yards.
“Come in out of the wet, Dave!” shouted Elmer, in a jolly tone, joiningHiram, and all hands shook the snow from their garments.
“Shelter, plenty of fuel and a chance for a warm meal,” observed Hiramwith satisfaction. “Here’s some good bits of wood,” and he begangathering up pieces of dead branches with which the spot was littered.
“I’ll get a lantern,” said Dave, moving over towards the biplane.
“This is not half bad,” declared Elmer, assisting his comrade ingathering up the loose fuel.
“Say, what’s that?”
Hiram spoke in a startled tone. He dropped his armful of wood and stoodstock still. Elmer edged nearer to him.
An ominous sound had greeted their hearing. It was a howl near at hand,sharp and resonant. Then it was repeated. Staring in the direction fromwhich the sounds came, Hiram jumped back, shouting out sharply:
“It’s wolves! Dave, look out! Elmer, grab a club! Quick! Here theycome!”
Scurrying forms came flying into the tree-formed arcade. The outlineswere dim, but none the less threatening and terrifying. Hiram hadgrabbed up a heavy piece of wood. Elmer was no coward, and did not losehis nerve. He armed himself speedily as his comrade had done, and rangedhimself by his side.
“It’s wolves,” declared Hiram—“two, three, half a dozen of them. Standsteady”—whack!
Fiery-eyed, red-tongued, seeming to skim the ground, the foremost animalof an alarming pack came flying towards the boys. Hiram had struck out.The blow was aimed with all his strength and skill. It sounded like ahammer landing hard on a thick metal ball.
The animal fell back to all fours and limply turned to one side. Twoothers leaped boldly over its slinking body.
“Strike your hardest,” puffed and panted Hiram. Whack! whack! One of thenew combatants of the boys limped off with a shattered paw. The other,infuriated with pain from a terrific clip across the jaws, made directfor Elmer. Its claws clutched its prey by the shoulders. Its distendedmouth sought the lad’s throat.
Once, twice, thrice the billet of wood in the grasp of Hiram arose anddescended. The wolf dropped away, dripping with blood, but Elmer wassaved from its murderous fangs.
“They’re coming,” he cried “A half dozen of them! Oh, good! It’s allright now.”
Over the imperilled lads and beyond them, and squarely into the faces ofthe howling pack, a great glare suddenly shot out. Dave had caught thesituation at Hiram’s first outcry. He could not in a hurry reach thearmament of weapons carried by the _Comet_. The big reflector lantern,however, was kept always in a handy spot, especially at nightfall. Davehad secured this. Lighting it as he ran, he flared its broad beams,focused to a dazzling brilliancy. The wolves, blinded and affrighted,drew off with sullen, menacing growlings.
“Light the fire. It will be an added safeguard,” ordered the youngairman rapidly,
and he moved in a circle, swinging the lantern glowcontinuously.
Hiram hurriedly got leaves, chips and branches together in a heap. Heflared a match and ignited it.
“Those animals have given us up as hard cases, I guess,” observed Elmer,with a laugh, half nervous, but quite triumphant.
“We must draw the machine closer to us,” suggested Dave. “Help me,Elmer.”
The campfire began to blaze, Dave, with the lantern, ventured as far asthe spot where the _Comet_ was. With the aid of his companion thebiplane was wheeled a few yards along the arcade, where it seemed theymust make a camp, at least until the storm abated.
Hiram was getting ready to secure some food and cooking utensils fromthe machine, when he paused, bent his ear, and his face expressed a newalarm.
“Hark!” he cried out sharply. “What was that?”