Hesba Stretton - "The Christmas Child"

Anonymous - "The Little Mother Goose"

Lafcadio Hearn - "Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan"

W. D. Howells - "Annie Kilburn"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Call of the Beaver Patrol

V >> V. T. Sherman >> The Call of the Beaver Patrol




"That's right!" Frank exclaimed.

"You mustn't get into any quarrel with the officers," Dr. Pelton
suggested. "We can soon settle this matter."

"Je-rusalem!" exclaimed Tommy. "Here we've been hanging around an old
blacksmith shop all day, and skulking through the streets, and not
getting half enough to eat, only to get pinched at the last minute! If I
had my way, I'd bump that officer on the coco and make for the landing.
We can't stay in this blooming little burg all the rest of our natural
lives. Will will be anxious."

"Now don't get excited!" laughed Frank. "We'll get out in, a few
minutes, all right."

"If it was so easy to get out in a few minutes," argued Tommy, "why
didn't you get out hours ago?"

Frank only laughed as the impatient question and sprang out of the
carriage. The doctor alighted, too, and they both stood for a moment in
close consultation with the officer.

Jamison, who was now very drunk, stood weaving about in the street,
demanding that all the boys, and the doctor, and the driver of the
carriage, be thrown into jail on a charge of piracy.

"Don't you think," Frank suggested to the officer, "that this man is too
drunk to be out on the street?"

"Why, of course he is," replied the officer beckoning to an associate
who stood watching the group from the next corner.

When the associate came up, Jamison was ordered under arrest, and was
taken away with many threats and exclamations of rage.

"I don't like this man Jamison any better than you do," the officer
said, speaking to Frank and Dr. Pelton, "but the case did look rather
bad for the boys, and I had to do something."

"He collected three hundred dollars of me, for a trip to and from
Cordova," Frank explained, "and then tried to maroon us on one of the
Barren islands. There's a member of his crew back here in the blacksmith
shop who will tell you the same story."

"So you paid him three hundred dollars, did you?" asked the officer.

"Yes, sir," answered the boy.

"And you have proof that he tried to maroon you?"

"Yes, sir!"

"And you took the boat only to enforce the contract you had made?"

"That's the idea!" replied Frank.

"Then I'm not going to bother with the case at all!" replied the
officer. "If you had come to me with this story the minute Jamison began
to rave about arrest, you wouldn't have been put to all this
inconvenience."

"I think," grinned Frank, "that Jamison ought to pay us back the three
hundred dollars, because he never brought us to Cordova at all, and even
if he had, he wouldn't have earned the money until he returned us to
Katalla. He ought not to keep the money."

"That's a fact!" exclaimed the officer with a smile at the boy. "I'll go
down to the jail and make him give it back."

The officer started away, and Tommy and Sam sat in the carriage
regarding Frank with wide open eyes.

"Say, who is that kid?" Tommy asked.

"I don't know," replied Sam.

"Did you notice that any time he said anything to the officer that the
officer just fell right in with his ideas?"

"Sure I did," was the reply.

"And did you notice how the doctor paid special attention to every
remark he made?"

"I couldn't help but notice it," was the reply.

"Well, that kid's got these fellows up here buffaloed all right," Tommy
declared. "And that being the case, I wonder why he didn't use some of
his influence hours ago and get us started on the road to Katalla."

"I give it up!" Sam replied.

Frank and the doctor stood talking together for a few moments, and then
the federal officer returned and handed two hundred dollars in bank
notes over to Frank.

"Jamison thinks he ought to have a hundred dollars because he paid the
tug for bringing him and his crew in," the officer said, "and because
he's going to let you run his motor boat up to Katalla."

"What do you know about that?" whispered Sam.

"I'll bet that boy's father is president of the United States," replied
Tommy. "Or he may be king of England."

"Whoever he is, he's got a pull," replied Sam.

"Drag!" exclaimed Tommy. "Whenever a man's got a dead sure cinch like
that, it's a drag and not a pull!"

"Well," the doctor said, "we're losing time! We may as well go to the
wireless office and get our code message. I presume it's ready for
delivery by this time."

"It's about time we were thinking about that boy with his head in a
sling, too!" Tommy suggested.

"It won't take us long to get there now," Doctor Pelton remarked.

The Gulf of Alaska was remarkably smooth, when the vicious habits of
that body of water are taken into consideration, and the boys made the
run to Katalla without accident in little less than three hours,
arriving at the floating dock with the sun still more than three hours
in the sky.

"Now for the rotten part of the journey," Tommy suggested. "If we hadn't
had to wait for the wireless after we landed at the dock we should have
arrived here in time to reach the cabin before dark."

"Who's got the wireless?" asked Sam.

"Frank's got it tucked away under his uniform!" laughed Doctor Pelton.
"He wouldn't even let me take a look at the envelope!"

"Do you know what's in it, Frank?" asked Tommy.

"Sure I do," was the reply.

"Then, what's all this mystery about? Why don't you pass the information
around?" demanded Tommy impatiently.

"All in good time!" laughed the boy.

"I don't see any use of all this mystery!" Tommy grumbled, turning to
Sam, "I get shut out of the inside features of every game I'm in!"

"Now, how do we get to the cabin?" asked the doctor.

"Walk, I suppose," grumbled Tommy. "It's only about fourteen or fifteen
miles, and the country between the two points is mostly on end. We ought
to get there by an hour or two after midnight, if we don't stop to play
marbles on the way."

"If you will all wait here a few moments," Frank said, "I'll go and see
what I can do in the shape of a rig."

"A rig!" repeated Tommy. "Fat lot of fun you'd have driving a rig over
that moraine!"

"Of course we can't drive clear to the cabin," Frank replied, "but we
can get quite along way from the coast if we have a strong team and a
good wagon!"

"Yes, I remember smooth country somewhere on the route," replied Tommy.

"But even at best," Frank explained, "we shall have to walk five or six
miles, so we may as well be getting busy."

In a very few minutes Frank returned with a pair of strong horses and
wagon more desirable for its strength than its comfort.

"Where'd you find it?" asked Tommy.

"Sent a wireless ahead asking for it!" replied Frank.

"I wish you'd send a wireless over to the cabin," Tommy grinned, "and
ask the boys to have supper all ready when we get there, and you might
suggest that Sandy and George meet us a half a mile this side with a pie
under each arm."

"I believe if that kid should ask to have some one dip him a blue blazer
out of an ice cold spring it would be done," Sam whispered to Tommy, as
the party clambered into the wagon.

"He's certainly got a drag somewhere!" replied Tommy.

"Things are running pretty smoothly boys," suggested Doctor Pelton as
the straggling buildings of the coast town disappeared from view.

"They're running too smoothly!" exclaimed Tommy. "First thing we know,
there'll be a cylinder head blowing out, or a volcanic eruption, or
something of that kind. We've been having things altogether too easy
ever since we landed at Cordova."

"Just listen a moment," Frank said, "I guess there's something going to
happen, right now!"

There came a long, low rumbling sound, apparently moving from east to
west, followed by a tipping of the moraine which almost brought the
horses to their knees.

"It would never answer," Tommy grumbled, "for us to make a trip to
Alaska without bunting into a glacier ready to smash up things!"

"That's not a glacial slide!" Frank said. "It's an earthquake!"




CHAPTER XV

A BREAK IN THE GLACIER


"An earthquake?" repeated Tommy. "I thought they never had earthquakes
in Alaska any more!"

"There are few weeks when there are no earthquakes!" was the reply.

"Well, when's it going to stop quaking?" asked Sam, springing out of the
wagon. "It seems to me that we're getting a sleigh ride!"

The others followed his example, and stood in a moment within fifty feet
of a slowly widening chasm which seemed to run from east to west across
the entire moraine. They had just reached the timber line when the
disturbance began, and now they saw trees a hundred feet in height and
from six to eight inches in diameter dropping like matches into the
great opening in the earth.

"Gee!" exclaimed Tommy. "The breath of the earthquake is enough to
freeze one! I wish I had a couple of fur coats!"

The boy expressed the situation very accurately, for the opening of the
moraine revealed the mighty mass of ice which lay under it. The glacier
which had lain dead under the mat of vegetation for how many hundred
years no one would ever know, showed far down in the great cavern, and a
gust of wind sighing through the ragged jaws laid a chill over the
little party.

Slowly the chasm widened. The ground under the boys' feet seemed to be
unsteady. With a swaying motion it dropped off toward the coast, except
at the very edge of the cavern, which seemed to be doubling down like a
lip folded inside the mouth.

"It strikes me," Frank said, "that we would better be getting the team
out of the track of that chasm! If we don't, the horses and wagon will
take a drop."

Tommy and Sam both sprang forward, but it was too late! The southern
line of the chasm seemed, to drop away for fifty feet or more, and trees
and rocks crashed into the opening. The horses and the wagon went down
with the rest. The screams of the frightened horses cut the air for an
instant, and then all was silent.

"Rotten!" cried Tommy.

"Fierce!" shouted Sam.

"Awful!" declared Doctor Pelton.

Frank stood looking at the ever-widening chasm for a moment and then
faced toward the coast.

"We'll have to walk around it now, I'm thinking," Tommy said, in a
moment. "And a nice job we've got!"

As far as the eye could see the chasm extended, now growing in size, now
contracting. A pale blue mist rose out of the opening, and the air was
that of an August day no longer.

The sliding motion continued, and the chasm increased its width.

"Will it never stop?" asked Sam, almost thrown to the ground by a quick
convulsion of the surface.

"Not just yet!" replied the Doctor gravely. "I can tell you in a moment
just what has taken place. The weight of soil and timber on top of the
dead glacier is shifting. The volcanic action tipped the moraine to the
south and it broke, opening the way to the ice below. There is no
knowing how serious the break may be. For all we know, the upheaval may
send this whole moraine into the Gulf of Alaska."

"That's a cheerful proposition, too!" Tommy exclaimed.

"I wish I could get close enough to the chasm to look down," Sam
observed. "I'll bet it's a thousand feet!"

"You'd better not try that!" advised Frank.

"The question before the house at the present moment," the doctor said,
"is how I am going to get to my patient."

"Can't we get across this little crack in the earth?" asked Sam.

"That depends on the length of it!" answered Frank. "If the Doctor's
theory is correct, this whole point has cracked away from the glacier
above. In that case, we may be obliged to in some way work ourselves to
the bottom of the chasm and up on the other side."

"We never can do that!" Sam insisted.

"Alaska is full of just such gorges as this one," Frank explained. "The
whole country is resting on an icy foundation, and earthquakes find
congenial conditions when it comes to cracking the crust. We don't know
how long this chasm is, but the chances are that it isn't as long now as
it will be!"

"Yes," agreed the doctor. "The chances are that the chasm started here
today will continue to grow in length until it cuts across the point of
land between Controller bay and the Bering glacier. I have known chasms
of this character to travel fifty miles in a night, and I have known
them to walk with such dignity that it took them ten years to go ten
miles."

"But there must be some way of getting across it!" exclaimed Tommy.
"Everything has been going all right up to now, and we're not going to
be kept away from the cabin by any such playful little earthquake as
this!"

"We'll do the best we can," Frank said gravely.

The boys turned to the east and west and traversed the line of the chasm
for long distances. In places the width was not more than thirty feet.
In others it was at least a hundred. Occasionally the walls of soil and
ice sloped down at an angle of forty degrees, in other places the wall
was vertical.

Within an hour the sound of running water was plainly heard, and the
boys understood that the convulsion of nature had opened a reservoir
somewhere in the glacier, and that the long chasm would soon become a
rushing torrent. The prospect was discouraging.

"I wish we had an airship!" suggested Tommy, as they came back to the
starting place, a few minutes before the night closed down upon the
moraine. "It's provoking to think that we can't get across a little
chasm not any wider than a street in old Chicago!"

"I think I could get along very well with a derrick!" said Sam.

After a long conference, it was decided to keep to the west and endeavor
to pass around the chasm in that direction.

"We certainly can't remain here inactive," the doctor argued. "We've got
to go one way or the other, and I think the chances are better toward
the west!"

"It will soon be good and dark," cried Tommy, "and then we'll have to
make some kind of a camp for the night."

"I've got a searchlight with me," suggested Frank.

"So've I," answered Tommy.

"I'll tell you one thing we forgot," Sam cut in. "You didn't make
Jamison give up your automatics!"

"Don't you ever think we didn't," Tommy answered. "That is," he
continued, "the officer made him give them up. At least he brought them
back when he came from the jail!"

"Seems to me," Tommy added, looking at Frank critically, "that you've
got some kind of a drag with the people at Cordova."

"Never mind that now," Frank replied. "What we need now is some kind of
a drag to get us across this chasm."

The electrics illuminated only a narrow path, but the boys and the
doctor made fairly good time as they advanced toward the west.

After walking at least a mile and finding no narrowing in the surface
opening, the boys stopped once more for consultation.

While they stood on the edge of the chasm considering the situation, a
bright blaze leaped up some distance to the north.

"Some one's burning green boughs!" exclaimed Tommy.

"How do you know that?" asked Sam.

"Look at the white smoke!" answered Tommy. "I guess if you had made and
answered as many Boy Scout smoke signals as I have, you'd know how to
make a smudge."

"It's so bloomin' dark I couldn't tell whether the smoke is while or
black!" declared Sam. "I can see only the bulk of it."

"If it was good and black," Tommy answered, "we couldn't see it so
plainly. And, come to think about it," he added, laying a hand excitedly
on Frank's shoulder, "there are two columns of smoke."

"I see the two now," Frank answered. "One column has just begun to show.
You know what that means, of course!"

"It means a Boy Scout signal for assistance," replied Tommy.

Doctor Pelton turned to the boys with an anxious face.

"Do you really mean that?" he asked.

"Sure we do!" replied Tommy. "Two columns of smoke ask for help."

"Then there must be Boy Scouts in trouble on the other side of the
chasm!" the doctor concluded.

"That's about the size of it!" Frank exclaimed.

"Look here," Tommy declared, "we've just got to get across that crack! I
wonder if it would be possible to find walls so slanting that we could
pass down this side and up the other."

"Well, even if we did," Sam argued, "there's a rush of water at the
bottom. I don't see how we could get across that."

"I know how we can get across it if we find the walls accommodating,"
Tommy exclaimed. "You saw how the trees tumbled into the chasm, didn't
you? Well, if we can find a place where the moraine was heavily wooded,
we'll find a bridge of tree trunks across any water there may be at the
bottom! And the bridge may not be very far down, either!"

"Great head, little man!" laughed Frank.

"You ought to consider the matter very seriously before entering the
chasm at all," suggested the doctor. "Remember that it is uncertain as
to size and that the walls are liable to crumble."

"But see here," exclaimed Tommy, "there's a Boy Scout signal for help on
the other side, and we've just got to get across! For all we know, the
cabin may have been wrecked by the earthquake, and the boys may have
been injured in some way!"

"I'm game to go!" shouted Sam.

"Of course I'll go with you," the doctor went on. "In fact, I am
satisfied that you are doing the right thing in making the attempt to
cross. I only uttered a warning which we must all heed whenever we come
to a place where a crossing seems possible."

The boys soon discovered a place where the walls did not appear to be
very steep and where the mass of trees which had fallen completely
covered the bottom. Then, cautiously feeling their way, they crept down.




CHAPTER XVI

GEORGE AND SANDY CAUGHT


When George and Sandy left the cabin they saw the figure of the miner
very dimly outlined away to the west.

"We ought to get closer," Sandy whispered. "First thing we know, he'll
duck down into some hollow, and that'll be the last of him for the
night. I guess we can creep up without his catching us at it."

"Of course we can!" replied George. "He's making so much noise himself
that he can't hear us! He wouldn't make much of a Boy Scout when it came
to stalking, would he?"

The boys succeeded in getting pretty close to the miner; so close in
fact, that occasionally they heard him muttering to himself as he
stumbled over rocks and occasionally became entangled in such underbrush
as grew along the top of the moraine.

"We can't be very far away from the place where the bear tried to beat
me up," Sandy whispered, as they drew up for a moment. "I wouldn't mind
having a bite out of that same bear just about now!"

After a time they came to the head waters of the creek in which Will and
Sandy had fished, and saw Cameron standing on the other side.

"He's going into the mountains!" whispered Sandy.

"That's exactly where he's keeping Bert," George agreed.

In a short time Cameron paused in his walk and uttered a low whistle.

"What do you think of that?" asked Sandy. "He's going to meet some one
here. And that means," the boy went on, "that he's had a pal watching
Bert while he's been away."

"And it also means," George added, "that we can't be very far from the
spot where Bert is concealed. I hope so, anyway, for I'm about tired
enough to crawl into my little nest in the cabin."

"I should think you'd talk about sleep!" scoffed Sandy. "You slept all
the afternoon!"

"If you mention that long sleep of mine again," George said
half-angrily, "I'll tip you over into the creek. I'm sore over that
myself!"

While the boys stood waiting end listening an answering whistle came
from the side of a mountain not far from the rivulet.

"There's his chum!" whispered Sandy. "If we get up nearer, we may be
able to hear what they say."

The boys crept along under the dim light of the infrequent stars, and
finally crouched down behind an angle of rock which was not more than
twenty feet removed from where Cameron stood.

They had hardly taken their position when a second figure made its
appearance. The two stood talking together in whispers for a short time
and then started to walk away.

"There's something doing, all right!" exclaimed Sandy.

"Yes, indeed, there is!" agreed George. "They wouldn't come out into
such a hole as this after midnight to tell each other what good fellows
they are, or anything like that."

"I'm getting suspicious!" Sandy chuckled.

"Why suspicious?"

"Because those fellows whispered!"

"I see the point," replied George. "From our standpoint those fellows
were all alone here in one of the wild places of Alaska, yet they drew
close together and whispered when they communicated with each other!"

"They wouldn't do that," urged Tommy, "unless they were afraid of being
overheard. It shows that they believe some one to be watching them."

The two men were now moving quite swiftly up the slope of the mountain.
At times they were entirely hidden by the luxuriant growths, and at
times they came out on little bald spots where rock outcropped to the
exclusion of vegetation. The boys followed on into the thickets, pausing
now and then to listen for the sounds of the advance of the others.

Presently they came to a shelf of rock which overlooked the valley of
the rivulet. They paused for a moment to listen for the sounds of those
in advance when a strong electric searchlight was thrown on their faces
and they saw the grim, round barrel of an automatic pointing at their
breasts.

"You may as well hand over your automatics, boys!" Cameron said.

"And be quick about it, too."

This last sentence came from a thin, cadaverous looking fellow whose
face was only half revealed through the meshes of the head net.

There was nothing for the boys to do but to pass over their revolvers.
Their searchlights were also taken from them, and then their hands were
tied tightly behind their backs.

"Did you have a pleasant tramp through the woods?" asked Cameron.

"Say," growled Sandy, "if you'll just turn my hands loose, I'll give you
a poke in the jaw!"

"That wouldn't be polite!" sneered Cameron.

"Don't take any lip from the young imps," snarled the other. "They've
given us enough trouble already!"

"You're a foxy old gink!" exclaimed Sandy. "I wish I had you on South
Clark street, Chicago, for a few minutes!"

"So that's why you came to the cabin is it?" asked George.

"Certainly," replied Cameron. "I had an idea that you'd follow me away!
You see I figured it out exactly right!"

"Why did you want to make trouble for us?" asked Sandy.

"Because you're too smart!" answered Cameron.

"What do you mean by that?"

"When you sat sizing me up in the cabin while I was eating supper,"
Cameron went on, "you informed me as plainly as words could have done
that you knew me to be the man who had abducted your friend."

"You didn't show that you knew," George suggested.

"I tried not to show that I knew," answered the other.

"What'd you steal Bert for?" asked Sandy.

"I needed him in my business," answered Cameron.

"Come, don't stand here all night talking with the little gutter-snipes!"
exclaimed Cameron's companion. "We've got work to do!"

"March along, then, boys!" Cameron ordered.

The lads were now pushed forward into a cavern which opened on the shelf
of rock where they had been taken prisoners. The opening in the mountain
side seemed to be of considerable size, for the boys passed from an
outer chamber of fair dimensions to two smaller ones further in.

In the last of these chambers, on a huddle of blankets, lay the boy for
whom they had been searching.

"Is he dead?" asked Sandy.

"No such luck," snarled Cameron.

"If you'll untie my hands, I'll look after him," George said.

The bonds were cut and George bent over the still figure.

"Has he regained consciousness at all?" he asked.

Cameron turned to his companion.

"Tell them, Fenton," he said, "whether the lad woke up during my
absence. You were here all the time?" he added.

"Yes, I was here all the time!" answered Fenton. "And the lad never
opened his eyes once. That was a deuce of a blow you gave him, Cameron!"

"And what did you gain by it?" demanded Sandy.

"We'll show you directly what we gained by it!" Cameron answered.

Seeing a bucket of water at one side of the cavern, George carried it
over to the heap of blankets where the boy lay and began bathing his
forehead and wrists. The boy groaned feebly but did not speak.

"What did you hit him with?" asked George angrily.

"The handle of my gun!" was the sullen reply.

"Why?" asked Sandy.

"Because I wanted to get a paper he had."

"Well, you got it, didn't you?" asked the boy.

"Yes, I got it!"

"And much good it did you, too!" said George angrily.

"Look here!" Cameron almost shouted, "can either one of you boys read
that code despatch?"

George shook his head.

"Is there any one at the cabin who can read it?"

"I have never known of any member of the party reading the cipher,"
replied George. "I never have seen a code despatch before."

"You are lying to me!" shouted Cameron. "The boy to whom the despatch
was addressed can certainly read it! Which one of you bears the name of
Will Smith? Don't lie to me now!"

"Will Smith is at the cabin!" replied Sandy.

"Just my luck!" shouted Cameron.

"What do you want to know about the code despatch?" asked Sandy.

"I want to know what it contains. And what is more, I'm going to know,
too! I want one of you boys to write a note to this Will Smith and get
him to come here to this cave."

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