id of any
kind, and the villagers had lived in the tortures of that ash-choked air
for three days, waterless. Two were delirious from thirst, all were at
the point of exhaustion when the Coast Guard men appeared to save them.

With her engines throbbing at their utmost speed, the _Redondo_ passed
from point to point of the stricken coast, saving over fourscore lives
that a half a day's delay would have rendered too late to save. When the
dusk of that day deepened into evening, the _Redondo_ turned homeward
from those shrouded shores, bearing to safety the homeless victims of
the peninsula and islands close at hand.

[Illustration: NATIVE REFUGEES FROM KATMAI ERUPTION.

From waterless shores covered six feet deep with orange-grey dust, come
famishing fishers in their kayaks.

Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard.]

Still in the far distance rumbled the defeated earthquake, still upon
the sky was reflected the lurid glow of the volcano, which, through the
daring and the courage of the Coast Guard men, claimed not a single
victim.

CHAPTER IX

DEFYING THE TEMPEST'S VIOLENCE

"I've been wondering," said Eric to Homer, a few days after his rescue
trip on the _Redondo_, "what we're going to do with all these natives.
We can't take them back to the Katmai country. They just about live on
fish and everything that swims was killed during the eruption. How are
they going to exist? It'll be years before the fish come back."

"I can tell you all about that," his friend replied. "You know the
commanding officer of the Bering Sea fleet came up, while you were
away?"

"Yes, you told me."

"I heard all about the plans which the department had approved, on his
suggestion. A new village is going to be built at the place which the
Coast Guard picks out along the shore as being the best site for a town.
It's going to be a regularly laid out place, with sanitary arrangements
and everything else complete."

"Give them all a new start, eh?"

"That's it, exactly. One of the other ships of the fleet is cruising now
along the coast to pick out the best spot. We're to send a carpenter
ashore there and leave him for the winter to look after the erection of
igloos. He'll be in charge of enough supplies to last the settlement
till spring."

"Whereabouts is this town going to be?" asked the boy.

"It's not definitely decided yet," was the reply, "but probably it'll be
on Stepnovak Bay. It'll be quite a place, too, because it'l