Part 32 (1/2)

”And, what's more,” continued the young engineer, ”they're going to give the new town the name of 'Perry,' in honor of our skipper, as the department said, for 'recognition of his heroic services at the time of the eruption.'”

As soon as arrangements for the wintering of the homeless natives had been completed, the _Bear_ returned to Unalaska and thence made one more trip to Nome on business connected with the Federal Courts at that place. Then, as winter was closing in, the Coast Guard cutter stood out to sea up toward the Bering Straits, to await the outcoming of the several vessels in the whaling fleet, and make sure of the safety of every American sailor in the Arctic. The last of the whalers cleared the straits on October 29, and on the following day the _Bear_ started on her southerly course, leaving the Arctic to its annual eight months of unvisited silence.

Eric had wondered a good deal what a.s.signment or appointment he would get for the winter. Great was his delight to find that both he and his chum had been a.s.signed to the _Miami_, and were to report for duty on December tenth. The extra couple of days allowed him on the journey across the continent gave the boy a chance to visit his relatives in San Francisco, and he also managed it so that he took a short run up to Detroit to see his family and to have a chat with his old friend, the puzzle-maker.

He found the _Miami_ to be a beauty. Unlike the Bear, which depended as much on sails as on steam, the _Miami_ was well-engined. Almost the first thing that struck Eric when he came to go over her arrangements was her unusually large coal and water capacity.

”No wonder she can stay out for months at a time on ice patrol, or chasing up a derelict,” said Eric; ”she's got coal enough for a trip around the world!”

”Wouldn't mind if she was going to,” said Homer, with a grin.

Eric shook his head.

”Not for mine,” he answered; ”I've a notion there's enough going on right around here. Anyhow, the Gulf of Mexico will feel good after a norther like this,” and he s.h.i.+vered in his uniform, for the wind was nipping.

”How would it feel to be somewhere around Point Barrow now?” his friend suggested.

”It might be all right if a fellow were used to it, and dressed for it.

At that, I don't believe I'd want to put in a whole winter up in that country. It isn't so much the actual cold I'd hate as it would be having to stay indoors half the time because it was too cold to go outside.” He sniffed the salt air. ”Guess my folks have been sea-dogs too many hundred years for me to cotton to anything that means indoors.”

”Me, too,” said his chum. ”From what I know about the _Miami_, what's more, I don't believe we're going to spend too much time ash.o.r.e. When are we sailing, have you heard?”

”Day after to-morrow, I believe,” Eric replied. ”We're going right down to our southern station.”

”The Gulf?”

”Yes, and Florida waters as far north as Fernandina,” was the answer.

”The sooner the quicker, so far as I'm concerned,” said the other, as they strolled below.

Two days later the _Miami_ was steaming down Chesapeake Bay. The weather was ugly and there was a little cross-current that kept the cutter dancing. Eric had his sea legs, after his summer on the _Bear_, but he was surprised to find how different was the motion of a steamer and a sailing s.h.i.+p. The other junior lieutenant, whom he had already come to like rather well, laughed as Eric stumbled at a particularly vicious roll.

”This isn't anything,” he said. ”Wait until we strike the edge of the Gulf Stream. Then she's apt to kick up her heels a bit. And you ought to see the _Yamacraw_! She's got any of these modern dances pushed off the map!”

”I don't mind it,” Eric answered, ”only it's a different kind of roll.

I'm just off the _Bear_. She rolls enough, but it's a longer sort of roll, not short jerks like this.”

”Of course,” said the other, nodding; ”bound to be. A s.h.i.+p under sail is more or less heeled over and she's kept steady by the pressure of the wind on the sail. The long roll you're talking about isn't the sea, but the gustiness of the wind. That's what makes the long roll.”

”At that,” said Eric, ”it seems to me that the _Miami's_ pretty lively now for all the sea there is.”

”There's more sea than you'd reckon,” was the reply. ”Chesapeake Bay can kick up some pretty didoes when in the mood. You'd never believe how suddenly a storm can strike, nor how much trouble it can make. You see that skeleton lighthouse over there?”

”Yes,” said the boy. ”Smith's Point, isn't it? I remember learning all these lights by heart,” and he rattled off a string of names, being the lights down Chesapeake Bay.

”I see you haven't forgotten the Academy yet,” said the other. ”Yes, that's Smith's Point Tower. And while it's not a particularly imposing looking sort of building, it's a very important light. It was when they came to build that light, they found out what Chesapeake Bay can be like. Aside from some of the really big lighthouses like Minot's Ledge, Smith's Point gave as much trouble to build as any lighthouse on the United States coast.”

”Why?”