The Bungalow Boys Along the Yukon
CHAPTER I
A MYSTERIOUS CRAFT
On a certain May afternoon, Tom Jessop, assigned to "cover" the Seattle waterfront for his paper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, had his curiosity aroused by a craft that lay at the Spring Street dock. The vessel was newly painted, trim and trig in appearance and was seemingly of about two thousand tons register. Amidships was a single yellow funnel. From the aftermost of the two masts fluttered a blue flag with a square of white in the center. The reporter knew that this was the "Blue Peter," flown in token that the steamer was about to sail.
But the steamer, which bore the name of Northerner, flew no house flag to indicate the line she belonged to, nor in the shipping news of the day did her name appear. The reporter scented a "story" at once. From some hangerson about the dock he found out that the strange craft had formerly been the James K. Thompson, of San Francisco, in the coastwise trade. She had been refitted and equipped at the Aetna Iron Works by her purchaser, a Mr. Chisholm Dacre. That was all that the longshoremen could tell him.
On the bridge was a stalwart form in a goldlaced cap indicating the rank of captain. By his side stood a well-built man of middle age with a crisp iron-gray beard neatly clipped and a sunburned face, from which two keen blue eyes twinkled quizzically as he gazed down at the figure of the reporter on the dock.
"Are you Mr. Dacre?" hailed the reporter, guessing that the bearded man was the Northerner'snew owner.
"That is my name. What can I do for you?" was the rejoinder.
"My name is Jessop. Ship-news man for the Post-Intelligencer. Can I come on board?"
"I am afraid not, Mr. Jessop," rejoined Mr. Dacre, whom our readers know as the Bungalow Boys' uncle. "What do you want?"
"Why, your destination, the object of your voyage and so forth."
"That will have to remain my private property for the time being," was the reply in a kindly tone. "I appreciate your keenness in looking for news, but I cannot divulge what you would like to know just now."
"It's no time for visiting, anyhow," said the sailor-like man at Mr. Dacre's side, who Tom Jessop had guessed was the skipper of the mysterious craft, "we'll soon be getting under way."
The young reporter's face grew fiery red.
"What line are you?" he demanded. "What's the game, anyway?"
"I am not at liberty to answer questions."
"Private craft, eh? Tramp?"
There was almost a sneer in his tones as he spoke. He was trying to make the captain angry and by that means get him to talk. But the other remained quite unruffled.
"Not in trade at all."
"Pleasure trip, eh? Why can't I come aboard?"
"Against orders."
Just then, and before the young newsgatherer could vent his indignation further a cab came rattling up the dock and disgorged at the foot of the Northerner's gangplank three brightfaced, happy-looking lads. They were Tom and Jack Dacre and their inseparable chum, Sandy MacTavish, the voluble Scotch youth whose "thatch" and freckles gave him his nickname. Jack was Tom's junior by two years, but he was almost as muscular and tall as his brother. Both lads were nephews of Mr. Dacre, who had given them their home in the Sawmill Valley of Maine where they had acquired the name of "Bungalow Boys," by which they were known to a large circle of friends.
Tom Jessop turned from the captain to the new arrivals.
"Where is this vessel bound?" he asked.
"She clears this afternoon for Alaska," responded Tom Dacre.
The reporter's eye flashed a look of triumph upward at the bridge.
"In the northern trade?" he asked.
"I didn't say that," was the quiet rejoinder.
Tom Jessop began to get mad in good earnest. He swept his eyes over the ship's decks. Amidships she carried an odd-looking pile of timber and metal.
"A small steamer in sections, eh?" he questioned with a knowing look.
"You're right as to that," spoke Tom.
"Going gold dredging?"
"I can't say."
"Training ship for kids, maybe?"
"Well, I know some folks who might take lessons in good manners without its hurting them a bit," flashed Jack angrily.
The reporter changed his tone to a more conciliatory one.
"You might help a fellow out," he said. "What are your names?"
"I guess we can tell you that much," said Tom. "I am Tom Dacre, this is my brother, Jack, and this is our friend, Mr. MacTavish."
The good-natured Sandy broke into a grin at this formal introduction. He was about to speak, but the reporter interrupted him.
"Dacre!" he exclaimed. "You're the kids that broke up that gang of Chinese smugglers on the Sound a while ago!"
"You're unco canny to guess it," said Sandy. "We're the boys."
At this instant another figure appeared on the bridge – a tall man with rough-looking clothes and a battered derby hat. It was the pilot. He addressed Mr. Dacre.
"The tide serves, sir. If you are all ready, we'll get under way."
"Come, boys," hailed Mr. Dacre from the bridge. "Time to get aboard."
The three lads hastily gathered up the few packages that they had been purchasing at the last moment. The cabman was paid and they bounded with elastic strides up the gangway. As they reached the end of it, the stern lines were cast off.
"Let go breast and bow lines," bawled the foghorn voice of the pilot.
The order was quickly executed. Jessop shouted something, but his voice was drowned in the three mournful blasts of her siren that were the Northerner's farewell to Seattle. But the instant the whistle ceased and the tug that was to tow the Northerner into the stream began to puff energetically, he found his voice again.
"S-a-y!" he shouted across the widening breach between the steamer and the dock.
"Hullo!" hailed back Tom, who, with his two companions, stood at the rail amidships watching the city they were leaving.
"Won't you tell me anything about this trip?"
"That's just it," hurled back Tom at the top of his voice, "we don't know ourselves!"
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" exclaimed Tom Jessop as he turned away from the dock and the moving vessel, which he now felt certain held a mystery within her gray steel sides.
CHAPTER II
NORTHWARD HO!
It was hardly surprising that the ship-news reporter had instantly recognized the Bungalow Boys when he heard their names. Their exploits in many quarters had received numerous columns of newspaper space, much to their amusement. The clever manner in which they had broken up forever the operations of the gang of counterfeiters in the Sawmill Valley, as related in the first volume of this series, "The Bungalow Boys," had brought them before the public. Further interesting "copy" had been made by their wonderful adventures in search of a sunken treasure galleon. Readers of this series were given full details of that adventurous voyage on the surface and below the ocean, in the second volume dealing with our young friends' experiences, which was called "The Bungalow Boys Marooned in the Tropics."
In the third volume we followed them throughout their venturesome doings in the northwest. "The Bungalow Boys in the Great Northwest" showed how pluck and self-reliance can win out even against such a combination as the boys found in the "Chinese runners." The fourth volume dealt with their voyage on the Great Lakes. The mysteries of Castle Rock Island, the ways of the wreckers who captured the lads, and the daring manner in which the boys escaped from the ruined lighthouse, all were set forth in the book in question, which bore the title, "The Bungalow