14 Arctic Adventure

by Willard Price

  ‘Well,’ said Roger, ‘we’ll have to give them the fun of a waddle to the airport.’

  And waddle they did, with Nanook following close behind. The people of Barrow had never seen such a sight—a parade of two boys, two ferocious beasts, and the great white bear acting as policeman to see to it that these mighty fighters should waddle in peace to the airport.

  Chapter 27

  The Whale That Sings The Whale That Whistles

  ‘This is going to be a big day,’ said Hal. ‘Get on your Neoprene suit. We’re going down.’

  ‘What’s up?’ said Roger. ‘I mean what’s down?’

  ‘The humpbacks and the belugas. A lot of both of them have just arrived. They are down there, waiting for us.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I’m talking about two kinds of whales that Dad wanted. They’ve just arrived from Hawaii —hundreds of them. The humpback is the most astonishing of all whales. You’ll understand when you see him and hear him.’

  ‘Hear a whale?’ said Roger. ‘Whales don’t make any sound.’

  ‘That’s what you think,’ said Hal. ‘You’ll put your fingers in your ears when the humpback sings. You’ve heard many sounds under water but nothing like the song of the humpback. So I’ve been told — I’ve never heard it myself. This will be a new experience for both of us.’

  ‘What did you say the other one was he wants us to get —a belly something?’

  ‘Not belly. Beluga. It was named by the Russians. It comes from a Russian word meaning white. It’s the only snow-white whale in the sea. It also is very musical.’

  ‘Does it sing?’ asked Roger.

  ‘Not exactly. It whistles.’

  When they came down, dressed in their rubber suits, the Eskimo landlord said, ‘What are you after today?’

  ‘Whales,’ said Hal.

  The landlord smiled. ‘You are joking. Two boys against a whale! Everybody in town knows how smart you are. You have caught many animals. But when it comes to catching a whale —that’s another matter. You probably don’t even know the ceremony.’

  ‘Ceremony?’ Hal asked. ‘What ceremony?’

  ‘All the women of the town must close their mouths and keep quite silent. If they speak the whale will swim away. They must not move. If they do the whale will thrash about and escape. Also, for good luck, you must wear a magic charm with the picture of a whale on it. We Eskimos know these things.’

  ‘I respect what you know,’ said Hal. ‘But perhaps all that ceremony is for Eskimos, not for us. Don’t tell your women to keep quiet for our sake.’

  ‘But you can’t do this all alone.’

  ‘No,’ said Hal. ‘We’re going to have help. I saw the chief of the Coast Guard yesterday. They will have one of their big boats above us where we go down. i we get into trouble, they will help us. Anyhow, we’re not after the big ones. The zoos would rather have young animals who have a long life ahead of them.’

  ‘But even a young whale will be stronger than a dozen men. Even if you catch it, it will struggle and get away.’

  ‘That’s why we have this,’ said Hal.’ He held a gun.

  ‘You can’t use that,’ said the landlord. ‘There’s a law against killing whales.’

  ‘I know,’ said Hal. ‘But this isn’t to kill a whale. There’s no powder in it —only a spring. Instead of firing a bullet it shoots a dart full of sleep medicine that will simply pierce the skin of the whale and put him to sleep.’

  ‘You can’t fool me,’ said the landlord. ‘A gun is a gun. And a gun kills. I’ll have to tell our policeman what you are up to.’

  ‘Go ahead,’ said Hal. ‘Perhaps he can help us.’

  ‘He’ll help you into the town jail.’

  Hal smiled. ‘Tell him first to talk to the captain of the Coast Guard. He knows that we’re not interested in killing anything or anybody —even you. Now, if you will excuse us, we must get along.’

  Hal and Roger walked to the Coast Guard station, where the men knew very well what the boys were up to and admired them for their courage. . A sleek, clean little vessel carried them around Point Barrow to the western side, where the water boiled with the frolicking whales. One monster who happened to be under the boat raised it up several feet into the air, where it teetered for a moment and then fell with a great splash into the sea.

  The skipper said to Hal, ‘How about it? Want to change your mind? There’s a riot going on down there. You’re taking an awful chance.’

  ‘I don’t think it will be too bad,’ said Hal.

  ‘Whales are not like sharks. They have no reason to attack us. By the way, where do you suppose they all came from?’

  ‘From the warm waters down south. They spend the winter there. When summer comes it’s too warm for them and they come up to the pleasant cool waters of the Arctic. Just as a precaution, give me the name and address of your folks so we can notify them if you get killed.’

  Hal grinned. He didn’t expect to get killed. But he gave the skipper what he had asked for. ‘John Hunt, Hunt Wild Animal Farm, Long Island, New York.’

  The boys adjusted the scubas on their backs, then stepped over the starboard gunwale and sank into the water.

  The peaceful giants made room for them. They gathered around in a great circle and sang. Hal had never heard such a song before. Roger could not believe his ears. The gentle monsters let loose with an underwater concert such as the boys had never heard in any opera house.

  Some of the notes slid from high to low like a police siren. Some were trilled, some were burbled. Sometimes there was a distinct melody. Some sang soprano, some mezzo-soprano, some alto and some bass.

  Underneath it all was a boom-boom like the sound of big drums and the rat-a-tat-tat of snare drums. The big whales thundered, the little ones squeaked. Music boomed, echoed, swelled, a medley of glorious sound. It,’was a fanfare of trumpets, trombones, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, saxophones and flutes—not to mention the deep thunder of the pipe organ.

  Since it came from huge lungs, the roar was deafening.

  Hal remembered that the National Geographic had published a recording of the songs of humpback whales. And now they were listening to the whales themselves doing even better than the record.

  But what was that whistling sound? Somebody or something was whistling a tune. Hal pointed to a smaller whale all in white. It was one of the belugas, sometimes called white whales. Evidently it could not sing, but it whistled its heart out.

  Why were the humpbacks called humpbacks? Like the killer whale, which carries a fin on its back projecting upward about five feet sharp and strong, the humpback also has a fin on its back but quite different in appearance. It was low and thick and looked more like a lump than a fin. And some had no lump at all.

  The humpback was oddly shaped. Hal could understand why it was called the most remarkable of all whales. It had an enormous head and its jaws when open were big enough to swallow a Jonah. Its two swimming fins were unusually long. Its various parts were awkwardly joined together like the segments of an ant. The front section was huge, but then the body tapered down to a narrow tail.

  It went through all sorts of crazy movements. It loved to stand on its head with its tail projecting up out of the water. It could curl up like a doughnut. It would furiously splash the water with the large flukes of its tail. And all the time it sang as lustily as the calliope on a Mississippi steamboat.

  The big ones were 50 feet long. Hal had read that the heart alone of such a monster weighs 430 pounds. The young ones, who were singing high soprano, were about 12 feet long. Even they weighed about 3,000 pounds. Hal, picking out one of them that looked good to him, used his sleep gun. The dart penetrated the young one’s skin. The sleep medicine circulated through its body. It had not been hurt in the least but it quit singing and drifted lazily to the surface. A hawser was cast from the deck of the vessel and Hal looped it around the neck of the whale.

  So far, so good. Now they must
get a beluga. Roger straddled the back of one of the white beauties and Hal gave it a shot of sleep. The men on the Coast Guard boat laughed when they saw Roger and the whale pop up out of the water.

  Roger caught the rope thrown to him and put the noose over this sleeping beauty.

  The boys climbed aboard and the two sleeping whales were towed around the Point to the airport, where airfield employees loaded them into tanks for the flight south. The cargo plane left at once in order to get to Long Island before their big passengers woke up.

  The boys returned to their lodging house. The landlord laughed.

  ‘So, you had to give up,’ he said. ‘I knew you couldn’t do it. The women moved and talked and you didn’t wear any whale charm, so, of course, you failed.’

  Hal smiled. ‘I hope we fail as badly every time,’ he said.

  Chapter 28

  A Sheep Can Kill

  They were climbing a mountain of the Brooks Range. It was difficult because the ground was covered with slippery snow.

  Behind them was a sledge, pulled not by a dog team but by a boy team. The two boys did not mind much since it was light and there was nothing much on it but a folded-up tent and some provisions.

  But an icy wind was blowing. The higher they went, the colder they got.

  Roger stopped and beat his mittened hands together to get them warm. ‘It’s as cold as Greenland,’ he complained.

  ‘We feel it more than we did there because we are climbing,’ Hal said.

  Every time they inhaled the cold air they shivered. It was hard to breathe. The deadly chill started at the feet and went up through the body, numbing the stomach, the kidneys, the heart, turning the nose and chin white with frostbite.

  ‘What did we come here for anyhow?’ Roger demanded.

  ‘To get a sheep,’ said Hal.

  Roger stared at his brother. ‘You mean we’re going through all this just to get a sheep?’

  Hot the kind of sheep you’re thinking about,’ said Hal. ‘We’re not after the sort of sheep the farmer has in his pasture.’

  ‘Is there any other kind?’

  ‘There sure is. I’m hoping to find a bighorn. It’s twice as big as a farmer’s sheep. It’s strong and wild and dangerous.’

  ‘Why do they call it a bighorn?’

  ‘Its horns are the heaviest part of it. They are thick and solid and they go around in a complete circle. One bunt of that great horny head and you are done for.’

  Roger’s sharp eyes saw something moving. ‘It’s a man —a man with a gun.’

  Hal said, ‘Wherever there’s a man with a gun there is trouble.’

  ‘He’s coming this way,’ said Roger.

  The man who joined them was a heavily built brute, with a mean face and a mean gun.

  When he joined them he said, ‘Hello you guys. I’ll bet we’re after the same thing. A bighorn. Sorry to disappoint you, but if we see one, I’ll be the one to get it. You see, I’m a sharpshooter.’

  ‘Where are you from?’ Hal asked.

  ‘Wyoming. I’m a bit famous down there. Perhaps you’ve heard of me. My name is Alec.’

  Hal at once thought of the term ‘Smart Alec’, which according to the dictionary was applied to anyone who was a braggart and felt himself very clever.

  ‘Sorry to meet you,’ said Hal with a smile. ‘I’m afraid we’d better give up right now.’

  ‘Well,’ said Smart Alec, ‘you can tag along if you like and see how I operate. It will be a good lesson for you —to see how an expert does these things.’

  ‘I’m sure we will learn a lot,’ said Hal. ‘Just why do you want to kill a bighorn?’

  ‘To put the head and horns up on the wall in my house. I already have the living-room wall covered with antlers, but I think there’s perhaps room for one more.’

  ‘So you’ve done a lot of killing,’ said Hal.

  ‘Killing is my middle name. I’m afraid of nothing that walks. Why should I be afraid of a dall sheep? That’s another name, you know, for a bighorn.’

  ‘You may find’, said Hal gently, ‘that the dall is no doll.’

  ‘Never mind. I don’t care what it is. The worse it is, the better I’ll like it. I always get away pretty well with a tough job. After all, the Bible says man is superior to any beast.’

  ‘When did you last read your Bible?’

  ‘I don’t read it. Somebody told me. And he was right. No animal on earth is as good as me.’

  Hal said, ‘How about the ones that have sharper eyesight than any man, sharper hearing, better sense of smell, don’t go to war and kill millions of their own kind? They don’t smoke themselves into cancer and they don’t get drunk. They don’t neglect their young ones as some human parents do and don’t go around shooting men in order to put their heads up on the wall.’

  ‘I can see that you’re a couple of mollycoddles,’ said Alec. ‘I’ll go along with you to protect you from the sheep. You’d never make it alone.’

  Hal noticed that the stranger had given his own name, but didn’t bother to learn the names of the two he had met. He was thinking only of himself.

  They proceeded up the mountain. Since Alaska is farther south than the polar part of Greenland, the sun was much higher than it had been in the far north, and stronger. Its reflection on the snow was painful and the three began to feel as if they had sand in their eyes, or hot knives. They were in danger of going snow blind. Roger began to wish that they were animals who didn’t mind the glare.

  Hal had known beforehand that their eyes would suffer.

  He drew out of his pocket a piece of walrus hide and some string.

  ‘Wait a moment,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to make three pairs of goggles.’ He cut out three strips two inches wide and about seven inches long. He put one of the strips over Roger’s eyes.

  ‘What’s that for?’ asked Roger. ‘Now I can’t see a thing.’

  ‘I just wanted to find out if it was a good fit,’ said Hal. ‘Now I’ll finish the job.’

  He took the strip and cut two slits in it, one for each eye. Then he put the strip back over Roger’s eyes and tied it fast around his head with the string.

  Now Roger could see through the slits and the glare was gone.

  ‘Now I’ll make one for you,’ Hal said to Smart Alec.

  But Alec would have none of that. ‘What do you think I am, a child? Don’t try to baby me or I’ll punch you on the nose.’

  ‘O.K.,’ said Hal, ‘but I’ll baby myself.’ And he made a pair of walrus goggles and put them on. He could, see through the slits, but there was no longer any sun-pain. ‘You’d better let me make one for you,’ he said to Alec.

  But Smart Alec was indignant. ‘That’s all right for kids,’ he said. ‘I mean, if you have weak eyes. Mine are strong. I’m no weakling.’

  He trudged on, with his eyes almost closed. Now and then he stumbled. He was evidently suffering intense pain. Hal felt sorry for the boob. He knew that the eyes of Smartypants must feel as if they were full of needles. Alec could hardly see where he was going. Hal took his arm, but Smart Alec shook him off. He was a fool, and a fool is too proud to accept help.

  They came upon a small herd of caribou. Most of them passed by, but one big bull stopped and pawed the ground angrily. He had magnificent horns reaching above his head four feet high. Hal had seen plenty of caribou, but none like this king of the snows.

  Smart Alec could also see the towering horns. ‘I’ve got to have those antlers,’ he said and prepared to shoot.

  Before he could do so, the bull lowered his horns, drove them into Alec’s stomach, and lifted him twelve feet high. Now Smart Alec did not sound very smart’. He howled with pain. No wonder, with those sharp prongs slicing through his hide.

  Hal wanted to do something to help, but before he could think what to do, the bull started off with the herd. Every time he put his foot down with a jolt, the Smartie yelled blue murder as the sharp points dug further into his anatomy.

  T
he climax came when the bull stopped at the edge of a cliff and dropped him twenty feet into a snowbank, screaming as he fell.

  Hal went and helped him up. Alec was crying. ‘I’m full of holes,’ he said. ‘Got to have some antiseptic. Those antlers have poisoned me. I’ll get gangrene and die.’

  ‘No you won’t,’ said Hal. ‘Those antlers are as clean as a surgeon’s knife. They’re always up in the clean air —never get dirty —except that now they have some of your dirty blood.’

  ‘How come you know so much about animals?’ said Alec.

  ‘It’s my business,’ Hal said. ‘Now pull up your coat and your shirt and let’s see what’s happening.’

  The skin was punctured here and there and blood was oozing out. But as soon as it reached the surface it froze solid and stopped the bleeding. So the frigid climate did what a doctor could not do.

  Smart Alec did not feel very peppy. ‘I want to go home.’

  ‘Perk up,’ said Hal. ‘You’re not badly hurt. Don’t forget—we’re after a bighorn.’

  They came upon one an hour later. It stood proudly on a big rock. It was a magnificent fellow with great heavy horns that curled around and came back to where they had started. Smart Alec raised his gun. Smarter Hal had just brushed away the snow and picked up a small pebble. He threw it at the bighorn and when it struck the animal moved a few feet and the bullet missed.

  All Alec had done was just annoy the animal and it now stood up on its hind feet and came toward him. It was taller than he was, and a great deal stronger.

  Hal brought out his sleep gun. ‘I thought you didn’t believe in guns,’ said Alec.

  ‘I believe in this one,’ said Hal, and he fired.

  The dart pierced the skin of the big sheep. He came down on all four feet and began scratching at the dart. He got it loose but the medicine had already gone into his body and was at work. Since he could wander away before the sleep medicine took effect, Hal lassoed him and held fast.

  Roger drew the sledge up beside the animal. When the dall began to teeter Hal pushed it over and tied it fast on the sledge.