The Young Alaskans Part 18

The two birds kept their relative positions--the osprey, either angry or frightened, still struggling to get away with its prey; the eagle, easily circling above it, itself now and then uttering a shrill cry--a scream-like whistle that could be heard at a great distance.

At last the osprey gave up the struggle and attempted to escape. With difficulty it detached one foot from the fish, which now fell down at full length and disarranged the osprey's flight. Finally it succeeded in shaking the talons of the other foot free. The osprey made a swift side dash and left the salmon to fall, at a height of, perhaps, one hundred and fifty feet or so.

The eagle, which seemed to be twice that high above the ground, now performed a feat which the boys could never understand. They did not see how he could fall much faster than the fish; yet before their eyes they saw the great bird half fold its wings and dart down swift as a flash.

Before the salmon had struck the ground the eagle struck it, fair, with both feet, and, never touching the earth itself, swung in a wide, low circle, itself master by robbery of the prize which the labor of the fish-hawk had won.

"Look at that old thief!" said Rob. "It's a funny thing to me that an eagle can't very often catch fish for himself, plentiful as they are here. Yet you'll notice that if an eagle is on a tree directly over the salmon he can't start quick enough to catch a fish--it'll always swim away from him. They catch some in shallow water, but they don't seem to be very good fishermen after all. A bald-headed eagle would rather steal a fish from an osprey than to catch one for himself, and we've just seen how it's done. Watch the old thief!"

The eagle, apparently contented with his morning's work, leisurely rose and flapped on his way toward a clump of small cotton-woods. At the summit of a small tree he perched, holding the fish under his feet and uttering now some short, shrill cries, which the boys could hear answered from the heap of brush which they saw was the nest prepared by these birds. There were scores of these rude nests scattered along the timber flats.

"Let's go and see what they do now," suggested Rob.

As they approached they saw the male bird clumsily flap down to the nest, where it dropped the fish. The hen eagle fell upon it with short, savage screams and began to tear it apart. They also saw, now and again bobbing above the rim of the nest, the heads of two young eagles.

Rob cast a critical look at the trunk of the tree. "I can climb that tree," said he, at last, "and I have a mind to turn the tables on that old thief up there."

He pointed to the male eagle, which was now flapping in short circles above the top of the tree, uttering hoa.r.s.e cries of anger.

"You'd better look out," said John; "old Mother Eagle will pick your eyes out if you're not careful."

"I'm not so sure about that," said Rob; "but I'll take care. Anyhow, here goes!" So saying, he threw off his coat and began to ascend the tree, a feat which grew easier as he reached the wide-spreading limbs.

In a few minutes he stood almost under the nest. Here he kept his left arm in front of his face and made feints with a piece of branch at the mother eagle, which indeed came dangerously close to him. The boys below began to flop their arms and throw up their coats. At length both of the parent birds, contrary to what might be believed or may have been written regarding them, turned tail like cowards and abandoned their young to their fate. They perched on trees a hundred yards or so distant, and watched to see what would go forward. Rob worked his way on up the tree and peered curiously over the edge of the wretched brush-heap which served as the nest. Here he saw two large, ungainly young birds, not yet able to fly, but able to spit, scratch, and flap their wings. Getting a good foothold on a supporting branch, Rob made several attempts to get hold of the young birds. Finally he succeeded in getting one by the neck, and with a jerk threw it out so that it fell flapping to the ground. Skookie would have killed it at once, but the others stopped him. A few moments later they were owners of both these birds, and Rob had rejoined his companions at the foot of the tree.

"I'll tell you what," said he, as he wiped the perspiration from his face; "let's see if we can't make pets of these eagles. We nearly always have more than we can eat, and it's the same sort of food these birds are used to; so why shouldn't we tie them up and keep them around the hut? Maybe they'll scare the crows and ravens away from our fish."

"That's a fine idea," said John. "We'll just try that. I had a couple of hawks once for pets. They ate a great lot, and they fought you, too, for a long while. My hawks used to lie on their backs and grab me by the hand every time I tried to feed them. I suppose these eagles will be worse yet."

"Anyhow, we'll try them," said Rob. "Let's wrap them up in our coats and take them down to the boat."

This they did, and although the old eagles followed them for two or three miles, sometimes coming rather close, and frequently uttering their wild calls of anger, the boys had no trouble in making away with their young captives. The birds seemed rather stupid than otherwise, and were as ready to eat food from human hands as from the talons of their parents. They did not really become tame, but, having learned their source of food, in a few days became so indifferent to human presence that they would only ruffle up their scanty crests and beat their wings a little when approached. They never allowed one to put a hand on their heads, and, indeed, were very far from being friendly. Their presence about the camp, however, did serve in part to mitigate the nuisance of crows and ravens, which continually hovered about, trying to steal from the scaffold where the boys kept their supplies of meat and fish. All boys like pets, and these found their strange captives interesting enough at least to help pa.s.s the time.

XXIV

AN ADVENTURE ON THE GULL ROCKS

"I'll tell you, fellows," began Rob, a day or so after they had brought home the young eagles--"I'll tell you what we ought to do to-day after we have got the breakfast dishes done. Let's make a trip over to the big rocks beyond, where we went with Jimmy that time. If the eggs are not all hatched, and if these birds keep on laying, as maybe they do, we might still get some fresh eggs."

"That would be fine," said John, "because I for one am getting just a little tired of salmon all the while. I'd give anything for a good piece of bread and b.u.t.ter."

"Or pie," said Jesse, his mouth almost watering.

"Now, there you go," said Rob, "talking about things we can't have. Why, I wouldn't give a cent for a piece of pie myself--that is, not unless it was a piece of real cherry pie, with fresh cherries, the kind we used to get--" All three boys looked at one another and broke out laughing.

"Anyhow," said John, "maybe we can make a sort of pie after the salmon-berries get ripe. At least we could if we had a little flour and lard and baking-powder and things--"

"And if we knew how," added Jesse. "It seems to me the best thing we can do, the way things are, is to go egg-hunting as Rob suggests."

There was perhaps more wisdom in Rob's plan than any one of the boys knew at first. He was old and wise enough to know that the best way to keep them all from homesickness was to be busy all the time. This discovery is not new among military men, or those who lead exploring parties, although it was one which Rob thought out for himself; so now he went on:

"We'll just take the dory," he said, "and slip down the coast beyond the mouth of the creek, and so on beyond the rocks where Jimmy and we all went when we got the sea-parrot hides. There are rocks over there, tall needles with straight sides, that have got thousands of birds of all sorts on them."

"What will we do with our eagles?" asked Jesse, hesitating.

"We can leave them plenty of food, and put a few boards together so that they can get under in case the crows or ravens should attack them.

They will get along all right, I am sure."

"I'd like to go with Skookie in the bidarka," said John, but Rob shook his head.

"No, you don't," he said, "you go in the dory with the rest of us. That boy is all right, but he might not be strong enough to handle a bidarka in a high sea; and up here we never can tell when the wind is going to come up."

"Suppose it did upset," said John, st.u.r.dily. "I have been out of it, here in the lagoon."

"Yes, but that is different from getting upset out there in the middle of the bay. You know perfectly well that you could not get back in again; and swimming out there is something different from the lagoon, where the bank is right at hand all the time. I don't even like to go very far out in the dory; but see, it is fair and calm just now. So hurry up and let's get away. Get all the rope you can, too, fellows, because we may have to go down the face of the rock to get at the nests."

"I have seen pictures of that," said Jesse--"how the egg-gatherers go down in a rope handled by other men up above them on the rocks. Do you suppose that three of us could pull the other fellow up and down?

Skookie here looks pretty strong."

"I don't know," said Rob, "but we'll take the rope along and see how it works out."

Not long after they were safely off in the big dory, which, under two pairs of oars and with the wind favorable, astern, made very good time down the long spit at the mouth of the creek. Beyond that point they were obliged to take to the open bay, quite out of touch of land, for a distance of a mile and a half. This brought them to the foot of a small, rocky island, out of which arose two or three sharp, column-like groups of rocks which, as Rob had said, were literally covered with nesting birds.

"We'll have to get around behind," said Rob; "n.o.body could climb up on this side, that's sure."

Scrambling over the loose rocks, left wet and slippery by the tide, they pa.s.sed to the rear of these pillars, first having made fast the dory so that it could not be carried away. In the pools of sea-water they found many strange sh.e.l.ls and several specimens of the squid, or cuttle-fish, upon which Skookie fell gleefully. He and his people are fond of this creature as an article of food; but its loathsome look turned the others against it, so that with reluctance he was forced to throw them away again.

At the back of the largest of these rock pinnacles they stood in hesitation for a moment, for the ascent seemed hard enough. At last, however, Rob found a sort of cleft or large crack, which seemed to lead up toward the top, and whose rough sides seemed to give foothold sufficient for a bold climber. "Here we go, fellows!" he said, and so started on up, hand over hand, the best he could. To their satisfaction, however, they found the going not so hard as it had looked from below.

At the top, the sides of the cleft seemed to pinch together, so that in some places they were obliged to climb as a chimney-sweep does, their legs pressed across the open s.p.a.ce; but as they were all out-of-door boys and well used to Alaska mountain work, they went ahead fearlessly and soon found themselves at the summit of the tower-like rock, whence they had a splendid view of the bay and the surrounding country.

Startled by their presence, the sea-birds took wing in hundreds and thousands, soaring around them, flapping almost in their faces, and uttering wild, discordant cries. The boys fought these off as they began to explore the top of the rock.

"Mostly little gulls here," said John, "and I never heard they were good to eat. I don't like the look of these eggs, either. Looks as if we were too late for a real good egg season."

"Well," said Rob, "anyhow, we have had a good climb and a good look over the country. Now, what I propose to do is to see what there is lower down on the face of the cliff. I'm sure there's a lot of sea-parrots there, because I can see them flying in and out down below."

"Let me go down, Rob," said John. "I'm lighter than you are."

"No," said Jesse, "I think I ought to go down, because I am even lighter than you, John, and Rob is stronger than either of us."

"I'll tell you how we'll fix that," said Rob. "We'll tie the end of the rope around this big rock here; and I'll pa.s.s the other end through my belt and pay it out as I climb down. I won't need to put all my weight on the rope, but will just use it to steady me as I climb. If I have any trouble getting up, why, then you three fellows can see what you can do toward pulling. Don't you let it slip, now. And if I shake the rope three times, then you begin to pull. You can signal me the same way if I get where you can't see me, or where you can't hear me call for the noise the birds are making."

It was really a dangerous thing which Rob proposed to do, but boys do not always stop to figure about danger when there is something interesting ahead. Pa.s.sing the rope through his belt as he had said, he kept hold of the free end with one hand, and so, picking his way from one projecting point to another, he began slowly to pa.s.s down the seaward face of the rock, which proved to be not so steep as it had seemed from below, although ridged here and there with sharp walls or cut banks, which crossed from almost one face of the pinnacle to the other.

Rob's daring was rewarded by the finding of countless numbers of nests of the sea-parrots, which were bored back straight into the face of the cleft. "Here they are, boys!" he called back, his voice being even by this time barely distinguishable amid the clamor of the gulls and other wild birds which continuously circled about.

Rob thrust his arm into one of these holes in the cleft, and was lucky enough to catch a female parrot by the neck and to pull her out without any injury to himself. For a time he examined the bird, laughing at its awkward movements when he flung it on the rocks at last, uninjured.