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diff --git a/old/klndk10.txt b/old/klndk10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4525654 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/klndk10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6143 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of Tales of the Klondyke, by Jack London +#51-#61 in our series by Jack London + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared from the 1906 Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons +edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +TALES OF THE KLONDYKE + + + + +THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS + + + + +Contents: + +The God of His Fathers +The Great Interrogation +Which Make Men Remember +Siwash +The Man with the Gash +Jan, the Unrepentant +Grit of Women +Where the Trail Forks +A Daughter of the Aurora +At the Rainbow's End +The Scorn of Women + + + + +THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS + + + +On every hand stretched the forest primeval,--the home of noisy +comedy and silent tragedy. Here the struggle for survival +continued to wage with all its ancient brutality. Briton and +Russian were still to overlap in the Land of the Rainbow's End-- +and this was the very heart of it--nor had Yankee gold yet +purchased its vast domain. The wolf-pack still clung to the flank +of the cariboo-herd, singling out the weak and the big with calf, +and pulling them down as remorselessly as were it a thousand, +thousand generations into the past. The sparse aborigines still +acknowledged the rule of their chiefs and medicine men, drove out +bad spirits, burned their witches, fought their neighbors, and ate +their enemies with a relish which spoke well of their bellies. +But it was at the moment when the stone age was drawing to a +close. Already, over unknown trails and chartless wildernesses, +were the harbingers of the steel arriving,--fair-faced, blue-eyed, +indomitable men, incarnations of the unrest of their race. By +accident or design, single-handed and in twos and threes, they +came from no one knew whither, and fought, or died, or passed on, +no one knew whence. The priests raged against them, the chiefs +called forth their fighting men, and stone clashed with steel; but +to little purpose. Like water seeping from some mighty reservoir, +they trickled through the dark forests and mountain passes, +threading the highways in bark canoes, or with their moccasined +feet breaking trail for the wolf-dogs. They came of a great +breed, and their mothers were many; but the fur-clad denizens of +the Northland had this yet to learn. So many an unsung wanderer +fought his last and died under the cold fire of the aurora, as did +his brothers in burning sands and reeking jungles, and as they +shall continue to do till in the fulness of time the destiny of +their race be achieved. + +It was near twelve. Along the northern horizon a rosy glow, +fading to the west and deepening to the east, marked the unseen +dip of the midnight sun. The gloaming and the dawn were so +commingled that there was no night,--simply a wedding of day with +day, a scarcely perceptible blending of two circles of the sun. A +kildee timidly chirped good-night; the full, rich throat of a +robin proclaimed good-morrow. From an island on the breast of the +Yukon a colony of wild fowl voiced its interminable wrongs, while +a loon laughed mockingly back across a still stretch of river. + +In the foreground, against the bank of a lazy eddy, birch-bark +canoes were lined two and three deep. Ivory-bladed spears, bone- +barbed arrows, buckskin-thonged bows, and simple basket-woven +traps bespoke the fact that in the muddy current of the river the +salmon-run was on. In the background, from the tangle of skin +tents and drying frames, rose the voices of the fisher folk. +Bucks skylarked with bucks or flirted with the maidens, while the +older squaws, shut out from this by virtue of having fulfilled the +end of their existence in reproduction, gossiped as they braided +rope from the green roots of trailing vines. At their feet their +naked progeny played and squabbled, or rolled in the muck with the +tawny wolf-dogs. + +To one side of the encampment, and conspicuously apart from it, +stood a second camp of two tents. But it was a white man's camp. +If nothing else, the choice of position at least bore convincing +evidence of this. In case of offence, it commanded the Indian +quarters a hundred yards away; of defence, a rise to the ground +and the cleared intervening space; and last, of defeat, the swift +slope of a score of yards to the canoes below. From one of the +tents came the petulant cry of a sick child and the crooning song +of a mother. In the open, over the smouldering embers of a fire, +two men held talk. + +"Eh? I love the church like a good son. Bien! So great a love +that my days have been spent in fleeing away from her, and my +nights in dreaming dreams of reckoning. Look you!" The half- +breed's voice rose to an angry snarl. "I am Red River born. My +father was white--as white as you. But you are Yankee, and he was +British bred, and a gentleman's son. And my mother was the +daughter of a chief, and I was a man. Ay, and one had to look the +second time to see what manner of blood ran in my veins; for I +lived with the whites, and was one of them, and my father's heart +beat in me. It happened there was a maiden--white--who looked on +me with kind eyes. Her father had much land and many horses; also +he was a big man among his people, and his blood was the blood of +the French. He said the girl knew not her own mind, and talked +overmuch with her, and became wroth that such things should be. + +"But she knew her mind, for we came quick before the priest. And +quicker had come her father, with lying words, false promises, I +know not what; so that the priest stiffened his neck and would not +make us that we might live one with the other. As at the +beginning it was the church which would not bless my birth, so now +it was the church which refused me marriage and put the blood of +men upon my hands. Bien! Thus have I cause to love the church. +So I struck the priest on his woman's mouth, and we took swift +horses, the girl and I, to Fort Pierre, where was a minister of +good heart. But hot on our trail was her father, and brothers, +and other men he had gathered to him. And we fought, our horses +on the run, till I emptied three saddles and the rest drew off and +went on to Fort Pierre. Then we took east, the girl and I, to the +hills and forests, and we lived one with the other, and we were +not married,--the work of the good church which I love like a son. + +"But mark you, for this is the strangeness of woman, the way of +which no man may understand. One of the saddles I emptied was +that of her father's, and the hoofs of those who came behind had +pounded him into the earth. This we saw, the girl and I, and this +I had forgot had she not remembered. And in the quiet of the +evening, after the day's hunt were done, it came between us, and +in the silence of the night when we lay beneath the stars and +should have been one. It was there always. She never spoke, but +it sat by our fire and held us ever apart. She tried to put it +aside, but at such times it would rise up till I could read it in +the look of her eyes, in the very in-take of her breath. + +"So in the end she bore me a child, a woman-child, and died. Then +I went among my mother's people, that it might nurse at a warm +breast and live. But my hands were wet with the blood of men, +look you, because of the church, wet with the blood of men. And +the Riders of the North came for me, but my mother's brother, who +was then chief in his own right, hid me and gave me horses and +food. And we went away, my woman-child and I, even to the Hudson +Bay Country, where white men were few and the questions they asked +not many. And I worked for the company a hunter, as a guide, as a +driver of dogs, till my woman-child was become a woman, tall, and +slender, and fair to the eye. + +"You know the winter, long and lonely, breeding evil thoughts and +bad deeds. The Chief Factor was a hard man, and bold. And he was +not such that a woman would delight in looking upon. But he cast +eyes upon my woman-child who was become a woman. Mother of God! +he sent me away on a long trip with the dogs, that he might--you +understand, he was a hard man and without heart. She was most +white, and her soul was white, and a good woman, and--well, she +died. + +"It was bitter cold the night of my return, and I had been away +months, and the dogs were limping sore when I came to the fort. +The Indians and breeds looked on me in silence, and I felt the +fear of I knew not what, but I said nothing till the dogs were fed +and I had eaten as a man with work before him should. Then I +spoke up, demanding the word, and they shrank from me, afraid of +my anger and what I should do; but the story came out, the pitiful +story, word for word and act for act, and they marvelled that I +should be so quiet. + +"When they had done I went to the Factor's house, calmer than now +in the telling of it. He had been afraid and called upon the +breeds to help him; but they were not pleased with the deed, and +had left him to lie on the bed he had made. So he had fled to the +house of the priest. Thither I followed. But when I was come to +that place, the priest stood in my way, and spoke soft words, and +said a man in anger should go neither to the right nor left, but +straight to God. I asked by the right of a father's wrath that he +give me past, but he said only over his body, and besought with me +to pray. Look you, it was the church, always the church; for I +passed over his body and sent the Factor to meet my woman-child +before his god, which is a bad god, and the god of the white men. + +Then was there hue and cry, for word was sent to the station +below, and I came away. Through the Land of the Great Slave, down +the Valley of the Mackenzie to the never-opening ice, over the +White Rockies, past the Great Curve of the Yukon, even to this +place did I come. And from that day to this, yours is the first +face of my father's people I have looked upon. May it be the +last! These people, which are my people, are a simple folk, and I +have been raised to honor among them. My word is their law, and +their priests but do my bidding, else would I not suffer them. +When I speak for them I speak for myself. We ask to be let alone. +We do not want your kind. If we permit you to sit by our fires, +after you will come your church, your priests, and your gods. And +know this, for each white man who comes to my village, him will I +make deny his god. You are the first, and I give you grace. So +it were well you go, and go quickly." + +"I am not responsible for my brothers," the second man spoke up, +filling his pipe in a meditative manner. Hay Stockard was at +times as thoughtful of speech as he was wanton of action; but only +at times. + +"But I know your breed," responded the other. "Your brothers are +many, and it is you and yours who break the trail for them to +follow. In time they shall come to possess the land, but not in +my time. Already, have I heard, are they on the head-reaches of +the Great River, and far away below are the Russians." + +Hay Stockard lifted his head with a quick start. This was +startling geographical information. The Hudson Bay post at Fort +Yukon had other notions concerning the course of the river, +believing it to flow into the Arctic. + +"Then the Yukon empties into Bering Sea?" he asked. + +"I do not know, but below there are Russians, many Russians. +Which is neither here nor there. You may go on and see for +yourself; you may go back to your brothers; but up the Koyukuk you +shall not go while the priests and fighting men do my bidding. +Thus do I command, I, Baptiste the Red, whose word is law and who +am head man over this people." + +"And should I not go down to the Russians, or back to my +brothers?" + +"Then shall you go swift-footed before your god, which is a bad +god, and the god of the white men." + +The red sun shot up above the northern skyline, dripping and +bloody. Baptiste the Red came to his feet, nodded curtly, and +went back to his camp amid the crimson shadows and the singing of +the robins. + +Hay Stockard finished his pipe by the fire, picturing in smoke and +coal the unknown upper reaches of the Koyukuk, the strange stream +which ended here its arctic travels and merged its waters with the +muddy Yukon flood. Somewhere up there, if the dying words of a +ship-wrecked sailorman who had made the fearful overland journey +were to be believed, and if the vial of golden grains in his pouch +attested anything,--somewhere up there, in that home of winter, +stood the Treasure House of the North. And as keeper of the gate, +Baptiste the Red, English half-breed and renegade, barred the way. + +"Bah!" He kicked the embers apart and rose to his full height, +arms lazily outstretched, facing the flushing north with careless +soul. + + +II + + +Hay Stockard swore, harshly, in the rugged monosyllables of his +mother tongue. His wife lifted her gaze from the pots and pans, +and followed his in a keen scrutiny of the river. She was a woman +of the Teslin Country, wise in the ways of her husband's +vernacular when it grew intensive. From the slipping of a snow- +shoe thong to the forefront of sudden death, she could gauge +occasion by the pitch and volume of his blasphemy. So she knew +the present occasion merited attention. A long canoe, with +paddles flashing back the rays of the westering sun, was crossing +the current from above and urging in for the eddy. Hay Stockard +watched it intently. Three men rose and dipped, rose and dipped, +in rhythmical precision; but a red bandanna, wrapped about the +head of one, caught and held his eye. + +"Bill!" he called. "Oh, Bill!" + +A shambling, loose-jointed giant rolled out of one of the tents, +yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Then he sighted the +strange canoe and was wide awake on the instant. + +"By the jumping Methuselah! That damned sky-pilot!" + +Hay Stockard nodded his head bitterly, half-reached for his rifle, +then shrugged his shoulders. + +"Pot-shot him," Bill suggested, "and settle the thing out of hand. +He'll spoil us sure if we don't." But the other declined this +drastic measure and turned away, at the same time bidding the +woman return to her work, and calling Bill back from the bank. +The two Indians in the canoe moored it on the edge of the eddy, +while its white occupant, conspicuous by his gorgeous head-gear, +came up the bank. + +"Like Paul of Tarsus, I give you greeting. Peace be unto you and +grace before the Lord." + +His advances were met sullenly, and without speech. + +"To you, Hay Stockard, blasphemer and Philistine, greeting. In +your heart is the lust of Mammon, in your mind cunning devils, in +your tent this woman whom you live with in adultery; yet of these +divers sins, even here in the wilderness, I, Sturges Owen, apostle +to the Lord, bid you to repent and cast from you your iniquities." + +"Save your cant! Save your cant!" Hay Stockard broke in testily. +"You'll need all you've got, and more, for Red Baptiste over +yonder." + +He waved his hand toward the Indian camp, where the half-breed was +looking steadily across, striving to make out the newcomers. +Sturges Owen, disseminator of light and apostle to the Lord, +stepped to the edge of the steep and commanded his men to bring up +the camp outfit. Stockard followed him. + +"Look here," he demanded, plucking the missionary by the shoulder +and twirling him about. "Do you value your hide?" + +"My life is in the Lord's keeping, and I do but work in His +vineyard," he replied solemnly. + +"Oh, stow that! Are you looking for a job of martyrship?" + +"If He so wills." + +"Well, you'll find it right here, but I'm going to give you some +advice first. Take it or leave it. If you stop here, you'll be +cut off in the midst of your labors. And not you alone, but your +men, Bill, my wife--" + +"Who is a daughter of Belial and hearkeneth not to the true +Gospel." + +"And myself. Not only do you bring trouble upon yourself, but +upon us. I was frozen in with you last winter, as you will well +recollect, and I know you for a good man and a fool. If you think +it your duty to strive with the heathen, well and good; but, do +exercise some wit in the way you go about it. This man, Red +Baptiste, is no Indian. He comes of our common stock, is as bull- +necked as I ever dared be, and as wild a fanatic the one way as +you are the other. When you two come together, hell'll be to pay, +and I don't care to be mixed up in it. Understand? So take my +advice and go away. If you go down-stream, you'll fall in with +the Russians. There's bound to be Greek priests among them, and +they'll see you safe through to Bering Sea,--that's where the +Yukon empties,--and from there it won't be hard to get back to +civilization. Take my word for it and get out of here as fast as +God'll let you." + +"He who carries the Lord in his heart and the Gospel in his hand +hath no fear of the machinations of man or devil," the missionary +answered stoutly. "I will see this man and wrestle with him. One +backslider returned to the fold is a greater victory than a +thousand heathen. He who is strong for evil can be as mighty for +good, witness Saul when he journeyed up to Damascus to bring +Christian captives to Jerusalem. And the voice of the Saviour +came to him, crying, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' And +therewith Paul arrayed himself on the side of the Lord, and +thereafter was most mighty in the saving of souls. And even as +thou, Paul of Tarsus, even so do I work in the vineyard of the +Lord, bearing trials and tribulations, scoffs and sneers, stripes +and punishments, for His dear sake." + +"Bring up the little bag with the tea and a kettle of water," he +called the next instant to his boatmen; "not forgetting the haunch +of cariboo and the mixing-pan." + +When his men, converts by his own hand, had gained the bank, the +trio fell to their knees, hands and backs burdened with camp +equipage, and offered up thanks for their passage through the +wilderness and their safe arrival. Hay Stockard looked upon the +function with sneering disapproval, the romance and solemnity of +it lost to his matter-of-fact soul. Baptiste the Red, still +gazing across, recognized the familiar postures, and remembered +the girl who had shared his star-roofed couch in the hills and +forests, and the woman-child who lay somewhere by bleak Hudson's +Bay. + + +III + + +"Confound it, Baptiste, couldn't think of it. Not for a moment. +Grant that this man is a fool and of small use in the nature of +things, but still, you know, I can't give him up." + +Hay Stockard paused, striving to put into speech the rude ethics +of his heart. + +"He's worried me, Baptiste, in the past and now, and caused me all +manner of troubles; but can't you see, he's my own breed--white-- +and--and--why, I couldn't buy my life with his, not if he was a +nigger." + +"So be it," Baptiste the Red made answer. "I have given you grace +and choice. I shall come presently, with my priests and fighting +men, and either shall I kill you, or you deny your god. Give up +the priest to my pleasure, and you shall depart in peace. +Otherwise your trail ends here. My people are against you to the +babies. Even now have the children stolen away your canoes." He +pointed down to the river. Naked boys had slipped down the water +from the point above, cast loose the canoes, and by then had +worked them into the current. When they had drifted out of rifle- +shot they clambered over the sides and paddled ashore. + +"Give me the priest, and you may have them back again. Come! +Speak your mind, but without haste." + +Stockard shook his head. His glance dropped to the woman of the +Teslin Country with his boy at her breast, and he would have +wavered had he not lifted his eyes to the men before him. + +"I am not afraid," Sturges Owen spoke up. "The Lord bears me in +his right hand, and alone am I ready to go into the camp of the +unbeliever. It is not too late. Faith may move mountains. Even +in the eleventh hour may I win his soul to the true +righteousness." + +"Trip the beggar up and make him fast," Bill whispered hoarsely in +the ear of his leader, while the missionary kept the floor and +wrestled with the heathen. "Make him hostage, and bore him if +they get ugly." + +"No," Stockard answered. "I gave him my word that he could speak +with us unmolested. Rules of warfare, Bill; rules of warfare. +He's been on the square, given us warning, and all that, and--why, +damn it, man, I can't break my word!" + +"He'll keep his, never fear." + +"Don't doubt it, but I won't let a half-breed outdo me in fair +dealing. Why not do what he wants,--give him the missionary and +be done with it?" + +"N-no," Bill hesitated doubtfully. + +"Shoe pinches, eh?" + +Bill flushed a little and dropped the discussion. Baptiste the +Red was still waiting the final decision. Stockard went up to +him. + +"It's this way, Baptiste. I came to your village minded to go up +the Koyukuk. I intended no wrong. My heart was clean of evil. +It is still clean. Along comes this priest, as you call him. I +didn't bring him here. He'd have come whether I was here or not. +But now that he is here, being of my people, I've got to stand by +him. And I'm going to. Further, it will be no child's play. +When you have done, your village will be silent and empty, your +people wasted as after a famine. True, we will he gone; likewise +the pick of your fighting men--" + +"But those who remain shall be in peace, nor shall the word of +strange gods and the tongues of strange priests be buzzing in +their ears." + +Both men shrugged their shoulder and turned away, the half-breed +going back to his own camp. The missionary called his two men to +him, and they fell into prayer. Stockard and Bill attacked the +few standing pines with their axes, felling them into convenient +breastworks. The child had fallen asleep, so the woman placed it +on a heap of furs and lent a hand in fortifying the camp. Three +sides were thus defended, the steep declivity at the rear +precluding attack from that direction. When these arrangements +had been completed, the two men stalked into the open, clearing +away, here and there, the scattered underbrush. From the opposing +camp came the booming of war-drums and the voices of the priests +stirring the people to anger. + +"Worst of it is they'll come in rushes," Bill complained as they +walked back with shouldered axes. + +"And wait till midnight, when the light gets dim for shooting." + +"Can't start the ball a-rolling too early, then." Bill exchanged +the axe for a rifle, and took a careful rest. One of the +medicine-men, towering above his tribesmen, stood out distinctly. +Bill drew a bead on him. + +"All ready?" he asked. + +Stockard opened the ammunition box, placed the woman where she +could reload in safety, and gave the word. The medicine-man +dropped. For a moment there was silence, then a wild howl went up +and a flight of bone arrows fell short. + +"I'd like to take a look at the beggar," Bill remarked, throwing a +fresh shell into place. "I'll swear I drilled him clean between +the eyes." + +"Didn't work." Stockard shook his head gloomily. Baptiste had +evidently quelled the more warlike of his followers, and instead +of precipitating an attack in the bright light of day, the shot +had caused a hasty exodus, the Indians drawing out of the village +beyond the zone of fire. + +In the full tide of his proselyting fervor, borne along by the +hand of God, Sturges Owen would have ventured alone into the camp +of the unbeliever, equally prepared for miracle or martyrdom; but +in the waiting which ensued, the fever of conviction died away +gradually, as the natural man asserted itself. Physical fear +replaced spiritual hope; the love of life, the love of God. It +was no new experience. He could feel his weakness coming on, and +knew it of old time. He had struggled against it and been +overcome by it before. He remembered when the other men had +driven their paddles like mad in the van of a roaring ice-flood, +how, at the critical moment, in a panic of worldly terror, he had +dropped his paddle and besought wildly with his God for pity. And +there were other times. The recollection was not pleasant. It +brought shame to him that his spirit should be so weak and his +flesh so strong. But the love of life! the love of life! He +could not strip it from him. Because of it had his dim ancestors +perpetuated their line; because of it was he destined to +perpetuate his. His courage, if courage it might be called, was +bred of fanaticism. The courage of Stockard and Bill was the +adherence to deep-rooted ideals. Not that the love of life was +less, but the love of race tradition more; not that they were +unafraid to die, but that they were brave enough not to live at +the price of shame. + +The missionary rose, for the moment swayed by the mood of +sacrifice. He half crawled over the barricade to proceed to the +other camp, but sank back, a trembling mass, wailing: "As the +spirit moves! As the spirit moves! Who am I that I should set +aside the judgments of God? Before the foundations of the world +were all things written in the book of life. Worm that I am, +shall I erase the page or any portion thereof? As God wills, so +shall the spirit move!" + +Bill reached over, plucked him to his feet, and shook him, +fiercely, silently. Then he dropped the bundle of quivering +nerves and turned his attention to the two converts. But they +showed little fright and a cheerful alacrity in preparing for the +coming passage at arms. + +Stockard, who had been talking in undertones with the Teslin +woman, now turned to the missionary. + +"Fetch him over here," he commanded of Bill. + +"Now," he ordered, when Sturges Owen had been duly deposited +before him, "make us man and wife, and be lively about it." Then +he added apologetically to Bill: "No telling how it's to end, so +I just thought I'd get my affairs straightened up." + +The woman obeyed the behest of her white lord. To her the +ceremony was meaningless. By her lights she was his wife, and had +been from the day they first foregathered. The converts served as +witnesses. Bill stood over the missionary, prompting him when he +stumbled. Stockard put the responses in the woman's mouth, and +when the time came, for want of better, ringed her finger with +thumb and forefinger of his own. + +"Kiss the bride!" Bill thundered, and Sturges Owen was too weak to +disobey. + +"Now baptize the child!" + +"Neat and tidy," Bill commented. + +"Gathering the proper outfit for a new trail," the father +explained, taking the boy from the mother's arms. "I was grub- +staked, once, into the Cascades, and had everything in the kit +except salt. Never shall forget it. And if the woman and the kid +cross the divide to-night they might as well be prepared for pot- +luck. A long shot, Bill, between ourselves, but nothing lost if +it misses." + +A cup of water served the purpose, and the child was laid away in +a secure corner of the barricade. The men built the fire, and the +evening meal was cooked. + +The sun hurried round to the north, sinking closer to the horizon. +The heavens in that quarter grew red and bloody. The shadows +lengthened, the light dimmed, and in the sombre recesses of the +forest life slowly died away. Even the wild fowl in the river +softened their raucous chatter and feigned the nightly farce of +going to bed. Only the tribesmen increased their clamor, war- +drums booming and voices raised in savage folk songs. But as the +sun dipped they ceased their tumult. The rounded hush of midnight +was complete. Stockard rose to his knees and peered over the +logs. Once the child wailed in pain and disconcerted him. The +mother bent over it, but it slept again. The silence was +interminable, profound. Then, of a sudden, the robins burst into +full-throated song. The night had passed. + +A flood of dark figures boiled across the open. Arrows whistled +and bow-thongs sang. The shrill-tongued rifles answered back. A +spear, and a mighty cast, transfixed the Teslin woman as she +hovered above the child. A spent arrow, diving between the logs, +lodged in the missionary's arm. + +There was no stopping the rush. The middle distance was cumbered +with bodies, but the rest surged on, breaking against and over the +barricade like an ocean wave. Sturges Owen fled to the tent, +while the men were swept from their feet, buried beneath the human +tide. Hay Stockard alone regained the surface, flinging the +tribesmen aside like yelping curs. He had managed to seize an +axe. A dark hand grasped the child by a naked foot, and drew it +from beneath its mother. At arm's length its puny body circled +through the air, dashing to death against the logs. Stockard +clove the man to the chin and fell to clearing space. The ring of +savage faces closed in, raining upon him spear-thrusts and bone- +barbed arrows. The sun shot up, and they swayed back and forth in +the crimson shadows. Twice, with his axe blocked by too deep a +blow, they rushed him; but each time he flung them clear. They +fell underfoot and he trampled dead and dying, the way slippery +with blood. And still the day brightened and the robins sang. +Then they drew back from him in awe, and he leaned breathless upon +his axe. + +"Blood of my soul!" cried Baptiste the Red. "But thou art a man. +Deny thy god, and thou shalt yet live." + +Stockard swore his refusal, feebly but with grace. + +"Behold! A woman!" Sturges Owen had been brought before the +half-breed. + +Beyond a scratch on the arm, he was uninjured, but his eyes roved +about him in an ecstasy of fear. The heroic figure of the +blasphemer, bristling with wounds and arrows, leaning defiantly +upon his axe, indifferent, indomitable, superb, caught his +wavering vision. And he felt a great envy of the man who could go +down serenely to the dark gates of death. Surely Christ, and not +he, Sturges Owen, had been moulded in such manner. And why not +he? He felt dimly the curse of ancestry, the feebleness of spirit +which had come down to him out of the past, and he felt an anger +at the creative force, symbolize it as he would, which had formed +him, its servant, so weakly. For even a stronger man, this anger +and the stress of circumstance were sufficient to breed apostasy, +and for Sturges Owen it was inevitable. In the fear of man's +anger he would dare the wrath of God. He had been raised up to +serve the Lord only that he might be cast down. He had been given +faith without the strength of faith; he had been given spirit +without the power of spirit. It was unjust. + +"Where now is thy god?" the half-breed demanded. + +"I do not know." He stood straight and rigid, like a child +repeating a catechism. + +"Hast thou then a god at all?" + +"I had." + +"And now?" + +"No." + +Hay Stockard swept the blood from his eyes and laughed. The +missionary looked at him curiously, as in a dream. A feeling of +infinite distance came over him, as though of a great remove. In +that which had transpired, and which was to transpire, he had no +part. He was a spectator--at a distance, yes, at a distance. The +words of Baptiste came to him faintly:- + +"Very good. See that this man go free, and that no harm befall +him. Let him depart in peace. Give him a canoe and food. Set +his face toward the Russians, that he may tell their priests of +Baptiste the Red, in whose country there is no god." + +They led him to the edge of the steep, where they paused to +witness the final tragedy. The half-breed turned to Hay Stockard. + +"There is no god," he prompted. + +The man laughed in reply. One of the young men poised a war-spear +for the cast. + +"Hast thou a god?" + +"Ay, the God of my fathers." + +He shifted the axe for a better grip. Baptiste the Red gave the +sign, and the spear hurtled full against his breast. Sturges Owen +saw the ivory head stand out beyond his back, saw the man sway, +laughing, and snap the shaft short as he fell upon it. Then he +went down to the river, that he might carry to the Russians the +message of Baptiste the Red, in whose country there was no god. + + + +THE GREAT INTERROGATION + + + +To say the least, Mrs. Sayther's career in Dawson was meteoric. +She arrived in the spring, with dog sleds and French-Canadian +voyageurs, blazed gloriously for a brief month, and departed up +the river as soon as it was free of ice. Now womanless Dawson +never quite understood this hurried departure, and the local Four +Hundred felt aggrieved and lonely till the Nome strike was made +and old sensations gave way to new. For it had delighted in Mrs. +Sayther, and received her wide-armed. She was pretty, charming, +and, moreover, a widow. And because of this she at once had at +heel any number of Eldorado Kings, officials, and adventuring +younger sons, whose ears were yearning for the frou-frou of a +woman's skirts. + +The mining engineers revered the memory of her husband, the late +Colonel Sayther, while the syndicate and promoter representatives +spoke awesomely of his deals and manipulations; for he was known +down in the States as a great mining man, and as even a greater +one in London. Why his widow, of all women, should have come into +the country, was the great interrogation. But they were a +practical breed, the men of the Northland, with a wholesome +disregard for theories and a firm grip on facts. And to not a few +of them Karen Sayther was a most essential fact. That she did not +regard the matter in this light, is evidenced by the neatness and +celerity with which refusal and proposal tallied off during her +four weeks' stay. And with her vanished the fact, and only the +interrogation remained. + +To the solution, Chance vouchsafed one clew. Her last victim, +Jack Coughran, having fruitlessly laid at her feet both his heart +and a five-hundred-foot creek claim on Bonanza, celebrated the +misfortune by walking all of a night with the gods. In the +midwatch of this night he happened to rub shoulders with Pierre +Fontaine, none other than head man of Karen Sayther's voyageurs. +This rubbing of shoulders led to recognition and drinks, and +ultimately involved both men in a common muddle of inebriety. + +"Heh?" Pierre Fontaine later on gurgled thickly. "Vot for Madame +Sayther mak visitation to thees country? More better you spik wit +her. I know no t'ing 'tall, only all de tam her ask one man's +name. 'Pierre,' her spik wit me; 'Pierre, you moos' find thees +mans, and I gif you mooch--one thousand dollar you find thees +mans.' Thees mans? Ah, oui. Thees man's name--vot you call-- +Daveed Payne. Oui, m'sieu, Daveed Payne. All de tam her spik das +name. And all de tam I look rount vaire mooch, work lak hell, but +no can find das dam mans, and no get one thousand dollar 'tall. +By dam! + +"Heh? Ah, oui. One tam dose mens vot come from Circle City, dose +mens know thees mans. Him Birch Creek, dey spik. And madame? +Her say 'Bon!' and look happy lak anyt'ing. And her spik wit me. +'Pierre,' her spik, 'harness de dogs. We go queek. We find thees +mans I gif you one thousand dollar more.' And I say, 'Oui, queek! +Allons, madame!' + +"For sure, I t'ink, das two thousand dollar mine. Bully boy! Den +more mens come from Circle City, and dey say no, das thees mans, +Daveed Payne, come Dawson leel tam back. So madame and I go not +'tall. + +"Oui, m'sieu. Thees day madame spik. 'Pierre,' her spik, and gif +me five hundred dollar, 'go buy poling-boat. To-morrow we go up +de river.' Ah, oui, to-morrow, up de river, and das dam Sitka +Charley mak me pay for de poling-boat five hundred dollar. Dam!" + +Thus it was, when Jack Coughran unburdened himself next day, that +Dawson fell to wondering who was this David Payne, and in what way +his existence bore upon Karen Sayther's. But that very day, as +Pierre Fontaine had said, Mrs. Sayther and her barbaric crew of +voyageurs towed up the east bank to Klondike City, shot across to +the west bank to escape the bluffs, and disappeared amid the maze +of islands to the south. + + +II + + +"Oui, madame, thees is de place. One, two, t'ree island below +Stuart River. Thees is t'ree island." + +As he spoke, Pierre Fontaine drove his pole against the bank and +held the stern of the boat against the current. This thrust the +bow in, till a nimble breed climbed ashore with the painter and +made fast. + +"One leel tam, madame, I go look see." + +A chorus of dogs marked his disappearance over the edge of the +bank, but a minute later he was back again. + +"Oui, madame, thees is de cabin. I mak investigation. No can +find mans at home. But him no go vaire far, vaire long, or him no +leave dogs. Him come queek, you bet!" + +"Help me out, Pierre. I'm tired all over from the boat. You +might have made it softer, you know." + +From a nest of furs amidships, Karen Sayther rose to her full +height of slender fairness. But if she looked lily-frail in her +elemental environment, she was belied by the grip she put upon +Pierre's hand, by the knotting of her woman's biceps as it took +the weight of her body, by the splendid effort of her limbs as +they held her out from the perpendicular bank while she made the +ascent. Though shapely flesh clothed delicate frame, her body was +a seat of strength. + +Still, for all the careless ease with which she had made the +landing, there was a warmer color than usual to her face, and a +perceptibly extra beat to her heart. But then, also, it was with +a certain reverent curiousness that she approached the cabin, +while the Hush on her cheek showed a yet riper mellowness. + +"Look, see!" Pierre pointed to the scattered chips by the +woodpile. "Him fresh--two, t'ree day, no more." + +Mrs. Sayther nodded. She tried to peer through the small window, +but it was made of greased parchment which admitted light while it +blocked vision. Failing this, she went round to the door, half +lifted the rude latch to enter, but changed her mind and let it +fall back into place. Then she suddenly dropped on one knee and +kissed the rough-hewn threshold. If Pierre Fontaine saw, he gave +no sign, and the memory in the time to come was never shared. But +the next instant, one of the boatmen, placidly lighting his pipe, +was startled by an unwonted harshness in his captain's voice. + +"Hey! You! Le Goire! You mak'm soft more better," Pierre +commanded. "Plenty bear-skin; plenty blanket. Dam!" + +But the nest was soon after disrupted, and the major portion +tossed up to the crest of the shore, where Mrs. Sayther lay down +to wait in comfort. + +Reclining on her side, she looked out and over the wide-stretching +Yukon. Above the mountains which lay beyond the further shore, +the sky was murky with the smoke of unseen forest fires, and +through this the afternoon sun broke feebly, throwing a vague +radiance to earth, and unreal shadows. To the sky-line of the +four quarters--spruce-shrouded islands, dark waters, and ice- +scarred rocky ridges--stretched the immaculate wilderness. No +sign of human existence broke the solitude; no sound the +stillness. The land seemed bound under the unreality of the +unknown, wrapped in the brooding mystery of great spaces. + +Perhaps it was this which made Mrs. Sayther nervous; for she +changed her position constantly, now to look up the river, now +down, or to scan the gloomy shores for the half-hidden mouths of +back channels. After an hour or so the boatmen were sent ashore +to pitch camp for the night, but Pierre remained with his mistress +to watch. + +"Ah! him come thees tam," he whispered, after a long silence, his +gaze bent up the river to the head of the island. + +A canoe, with a paddle flashing on either side, was slipping down +the current. In the stern a man's form, and in the bow a woman's, +swung rhythmically to the work. Mrs. Sayther had no eyes for the +woman till the canoe drove in closer and her bizarre beauty +peremptorily demanded notice. A close-fitting blouse of moose- +skin, fantastically beaded, outlined faithfully the well-rounded +lines of her body, while a silken kerchief, gay of color and +picturesquely draped, partly covered great masses of blue-black +hair. But it was the face, cast belike in copper bronze, which +caught and held Mrs. Sayther's fleeting glance. Eyes, piercing +and black and large, with a traditionary hint of obliqueness, +looked forth from under clear-stencilled, clean-arching brows. +Without suggesting cadaverousness, though high-boned and +prominent, the cheeks fell away and met in a mouth, thin-lipped +and softly strong. It was a face which advertised the dimmest +trace of ancient Mongol blood, a reversion, after long centuries +of wandering, to the parent stem. This effect was heightened by +the delicately aquiline nose with its thin trembling nostrils, and +by the general air of eagle wildness which seemed to characterize +not only the face but the creature herself. She was, in fact, the +Tartar type modified to idealization, and the tribe of Red Indian +is lucky that breeds such a unique body once in a score of +generations. + +Dipping long strokes and strong, the girl, in concert with the +man, suddenly whirled the tiny craft about against the current and +brought it gently to the shore. Another instant and she stood at +the top of the bank, heaving up by rope, hand under hand, a +quarter of fresh-killed moose. Then the man followed her, and +together, with a swift rush, they drew up the canoe. The dogs +were in a whining mass about them, and as the girl stooped among +them caressingly, the man's gaze fell upon Mrs. Sayther, who had +arisen. He looked, brushed his eyes unconsciously as though his +sight were deceiving him, and looked again. + +"Karen," he said simply, coming forward and extending his hand, "I +thought for the moment I was dreaming. I went snow-blind for a +time, this spring, and since then my eyes have been playing tricks +with me." + +Mrs. Sayther, whose flush had deepened and whose heart was urging +painfully, had been prepared for almost anything save this coolly +extended hand; but she tactfully curbed herself and grasped it +heartily with her own. + +"You know, Dave, I threatened often to come, and I would have, +too, only--only--" + +"Only I didn't give the word." David Payne laughed and watched +the Indian girl disappearing into the cabin. + +"Oh, I understand, Dave, and had I been in your place I'd most +probably have done the same. But I have come--now." + +"Then come a little bit farther, into the cabin and get something +to eat," he said genially, ignoring or missing the feminine +suggestion of appeal in her voice. "And you must be tired too. +Which way are you travelling? Up? Then you wintered in Dawson, +or came in on the last ice. Your camp?" He glanced at the +voyageurs circled about the fire in the open, and held back the +door for her to enter. + +"I came up on the ice from Circle City last winter," he continued, +"and settled down here for a while. Am prospecting some on +Henderson Creek, and if that fails, have been thinking of trying +my hand this fall up the Stuart River." + +"You aren't changed much, are you?" she asked irrelevantly, +striving to throw the conversation upon a more personal basis. + +"A little less flesh, perhaps, and a little more muscle. How did +YOU mean?" + +But she shrugged her shoulders and peered I through the dim light +at the Indian girl, who had lighted the fire and was frying great +chunks of moose meat, alternated with thin ribbons of bacon. + +"Did you stop in Dawson long?" The man was whittling a stave of +birchwood into a rude axe-handle, and asked the question without +raising his head. + +"Oh, a few days," she answered, following the girl with her eyes, +and hardly hearing. "What were you saying? In Dawson? A month, +in fact, and glad to get away. The arctic male is elemental, you +know, and somewhat strenuous in his feelings." + +"Bound to be when he gets right down to the soil. He leaves +convention with the spring bed at borne. But you were wise in +your choice of time for leaving. You'll be out of the country +before mosquito season, which is a blessing your lack of +experience will not permit you to appreciate." + +"I suppose not. But tell me about yourself, about your life. +What kind of neighbors have you? Or have you any?" + +While she queried she watched the girl grinding coffee in the +corner of a flower sack upon the hearthstone. With a steadiness +and skill which predicated nerves as primitive as the method, she +crushed the imprisoned berries with a heavy fragment of quartz. +David Payne noted his visitor's gaze, and the shadow of a smile +drifted over his lips. + +"I did have some," he replied. "Missourian chaps, and a couple of +Cornishmen, but they went down to Eldorado to work at wages for a +grubstake." + +Mrs. Sayther cast a look of speculative regard upon the girl. +"But of course there are plenty of Indians about?" + +"Every mother's son of them down to Dawson long ago. Not a native +in the whole country, barring Winapie here, and she's a Koyokuk +lass,--comes from a thousand miles or so down the river." + +Mrs. Sayther felt suddenly faint; and though the smile of interest +in no wise waned, the face of the man seemed to draw away to a +telescopic distance, and the tiered logs of the cabin to whirl +drunkenly about. But she was bidden draw up to the table, and +during the meal discovered time and space in which to find +herself. She talked little, and that principally about the land +and weather, while the man wandered off into a long description of +the difference between the shallow summer diggings of the Lower +Country and the deep winter diggings of the Upper Country. + +"You do not ask why I came north?" she asked. "Surely you know." +They had moved back from the table, and David Payne had returned +to his axe-handle. "Did you get my letter?" + +"A last one? No, I don't think so. Most probably it's trailing +around the Birch Creek Country or lying in some trader's shack on +the Lower River. The way they run the mails in here is shameful. +No order, no system, no--" + +"Don't be wooden, Dave! Help me!" She spoke sharply now, with an +assumption of authority which rested upon the past. "Why don't +you ask me about myself? About those we knew in the old times? +Have you no longer any interest in the world? Do you know that my +husband is dead?" + +"Indeed, I am sorry. How long--" + +"David!" She was ready to cry with vexation, but the reproach she +threw into her voice eased her. + +"Did you get any of my letters? You must have got some of them, +though you never answered." + +"Well, I didn't get the last one, announcing, evidently, the death +of your husband, and most likely others went astray; but I did get +some. I--er--read them aloud to Winapie as a warning--that is, +you know, to impress upon her the wickedness of her white sisters. +And I--er--think she profited by it. Don't you?" + +She disregarded the sting, and went on. "In the last letter, +which you did not receive, I told, as you have guessed, of Colonel +Sayther's death. That was a year ago. I also said that if you +did not come out to me, I would go in to you. And as I had often +promised, I came." + +"I know of no promise." + +"In the earlier letters?" + +"Yes, you promised, but as I neither asked nor answered, it was +unratified. So I do not know of any such promise. But I do know +of another, which you, too, may remember. It was very long ago." +He dropped the axe-handle to the floor and raised his head. "It +was so very long ago, yet I remember it distinctly, the day, the +time, every detail. We were in a rose garden, you and I,--your +mother's rose garden. All things were budding, blossoming, and +the sap of spring was in our blood. And I drew you over--it was +the first--and kissed you full on the lips. Don't you remember?" + +"Don't go over it, Dave, don't! I know every shameful line of it. +How often have I wept! If you only knew how I have suffered--" + +"You promised me then--ay, and a thousand times in the sweet days +that followed. Each look of your eyes, each touch of your hand, +each syllable that fell from your lips, was a promise. And then-- +how shall I say?--there came a man. He was old--old enough to +have begotten you--and not nice to look upon, but as the world +goes, clean. He had done no wrong, followed the letter of the +law, was respectable. Further, and to the point, he possessed +some several paltry mines,--a score; it does not matter: and he +owned a few miles of lands, and engineered deals, and clipped +coupons. He--" + +"But there were other things," she interrupted, "I told you. +Pressure--money matters--want--my people--trouble. You understood +the whole sordid situation. I could not help it. It was not my +will. I was sacrificed, or I sacrificed, have it as you wish. +But, my God! Dave, I gave you up! You never did ME justice. +Think what I have gone through!" + +"It was not your will? Pressure? Under high heaven there was no +thing to will you to this man's bed or that." + +"But I cared for you all the time," she pleaded. + +"I was unused to your way of measuring love. I am still unused. +I do not understand." + +"But now! now!" + +"We were speaking of this man you saw fit to marry. What manner +of man was he? Wherein did he charm your soul? What potent +virtues were his? True, he had a golden grip,--an almighty golden +grip. He knew the odds. He was versed in cent per cent. He had +a narrow wit and excellent judgment of the viler parts, whereby he +transferred this man's money to his pockets, and that man's money, +and the next man's. And the law smiled. In that it did not +condemn, our Christian ethics approved. By social measure he was +not a bad man. But by your measure, Karen, by mine, by ours of +the rose garden, what was he?" + +"Remember, he is dead." + +"The fact is not altered thereby. What was he? A great, gross, +material creature, deaf to song, blind to beauty, dead to the +spirit. He was fat with laziness, and flabby-cheeked, and the +round of his belly witnessed his gluttony--" + +"But he is dead. It is we who are now--now! now! Don't you hear? +As you say, I have been inconstant. I have sinned. Good. But +should not you, too, cry peccavi? If I have broken promises, have +not you? Your love of the rose garden was of all time, or so you +said. Where is it now?" + +"It is here! now!" he cried, striking his breast passionately with +clenched hand. "It has always been." + +"And your love was a great love; there was none greater," she +continued; "or so you said in the rose garden. Yet it is not fine +enough, large enough, to forgive me here, crying now at your +feet?" + +The man hesitated. His mouth opened; words shaped vainly on his +lips. She had forced him to bare his heart and speak truths which +he had hidden from himself. And she was good to look upon, +standing there in a glory of passion, calling back old +associations and warmer life. He turned away his head that he +might not see, but she passed around and fronted him. + +"Look at me, Dave! Look at me! I am the same, after all. And so +are you, if you would but see. We are not changed." + +Her hand rested on his shoulder, and his had half-passed, roughly, +about her, when the sharp crackle of a match startled him to +himself. Winapie, alien to the scene, was lighting the slow wick +of the slush lamp. She appeared to start out against a background +of utter black, and the flame, flaring suddenly up, lighted her +bronze beauty to royal gold. + +"You see, it is impossible," he groaned, thrusting the fair-haired +woman gently from him. "It is impossible," he repeated. "It is +impossible." + +"I am not a girl, Dave, with a girl's illusions," she said softly, +though not daring to come back to him. "It is as a woman that I +understand. Men are men. A common custom of the country. I am +not shocked. I divined it from the first. But--ah!--it is only a +marriage of the country--not a real marriage?" + +"We do not ask such questions in Alaska," he interposed feebly. + +"I know, but--" + +"Well, then, it is only a marriage of the country--nothing else." + +"And there are no children?" + +"No." + +"Nor--" + +"No, no; nothing--but it is impossible." + +"But it is not." She was at his side again, her hand touching +lightly, caressingly, the sunburned back of his. "I know the +custom of the land too well. Men do it every day. They do not +care to remain here, shut out from the world, for all their days; +so they give an order on the P. C. C. Company for a year's +provisions, some money in hand, and the girl is content. By the +end of that time, a man--" She shrugged her shoulders. "And so +with the girl here. We will give her an order upon the company, +not for a year, but for life. What was she when you found her? A +raw, meat-eating savage; fish in summer, moose in winter, feasting +in plenty, starving in famine. But for you that is what she would +have remained. For your coming she was happier; for your going, +surely, with a life of comparative splendor assured, she will be +happier than if you had never been." + +"No, no," he protested. "It is not right." + +"Come, Dave, you must see. She is not your kind. There is no +race affinity. She is an aborigine, sprung from the soil, yet +close to the soil, and impossible to lift from the soil. Born +savage, savage she will die. But we--you and I--the dominant, +evolved race--the salt of the earth and the masters thereof! We +are made for each other. The supreme call is of kind, and we are +of kind. Reason and feeling dictate it. Your very instinct +demands it. That you cannot deny. You cannot escape the +generations behind you. Yours is an ancestry which has survived +for a thousand centuries, and for a hundred thousand centuries, +and your line must not stop here. It cannot. Your ancestry will +not permit it. Instinct is stronger than the will. The race is +mightier than you. Come, Dave, let us go. We are young yet, and +life is good. Come." + +Winapie, passing out of the cabin to feed the dogs, caught his +attention and caused him to shake his head and weakly to +reiterate. But the woman's hand slipped about his neck, and her +cheek pressed to his. His bleak life rose up and smote him,--the +vain struggle with pitiless forces; the dreary years of frost and +famine; the harsh and jarring contact with elemental life; the +aching void which mere animal existence could not fill. And +there, seduction by his side, whispering of brighter, warmer +lands, of music, light, and joy, called the old times back again. +He visioned it unconsciously. Faces rushed in upon him; glimpses +of forgotten scenes, memories of merry hours; strains of song and +trills of laughter - + +"Come, Dave, Come. I have for both. The way is soft." She +looked about her at the bare furnishings of the cabin. "I have +for both. The world is at our feet, and all joy is ours. Come! +come!" + +She was in his arms, trembling, and he held her tightly. He rose +to his feet . . . But the snarling of hungry dogs, and the shrill +cries of Winapie bringing about peace between the combatants, came +muffled to his ear through the heavy logs. And another scene +flashed before him. A struggle in the forest,--a bald-face +grizzly, broken-legged, terrible; the snarling of the dogs and the +shrill cries of Winapie as she urged them to the attack; himself +in the midst of the crush, breathless, panting, striving to hold +off red death; broken-backed, entrail-ripped dogs howling in +impotent anguish and desecrating the snow; the virgin white +running scarlet with the blood of man and beast; the bear, +ferocious, irresistible, crunching, crunching down to the core of +his life; and Winapie, at the last, in the thick of the frightful +muddle, hair flying, eyes flashing, fury incarnate, passing the +long hunting knife again and again--Sweat started to his forehead. +He shook off the clinging woman and staggered back to the wall. +And she, knowing that the moment had come, but unable to divine +what was passing within him, felt all she had gained slipping +away. + +"Dave! Dave!" she cried. "I will not give you up! I will not +give you up! If you do not wish to come, we will stay. I will +stay with you. The world is less to me than are you. I will be a +Northland wife to you. I will cook your food, feed your dogs, +break trail for you, lift a paddle with you. I can do it. +Believe me, I am strong." + +Nor did he doubt it, looking upon her and holding her off from +him; but his face had grown stern and gray, and the warmth had +died out of his eyes. + +"I will pay off Pierre and the boatmen, and let them go. And I +will stay with you, priest or no priest, minister or no minister; +go with you, now, anywhere! Dave! Dave! Listen to me! You say +I did you wrong in the past--and I did--let me make up for it, let +me atone. If I did not rightly measure love before, let me show +that I can now." + +She sank to the floor and threw her arms about his knees, sobbing. +"And you DO care for me. You DO care for me. Think! The long +years I have waited, suffered! You can never know!" He stooped +and raised her to her feet. + +"Listen," he commanded, opening the door and lifting her bodily +outside. "It cannot be. We are not alone to be considered. You +must go. I wish you a safe journey. You will find it tougher +work when you get up by the Sixty Mile, but you have the best +boatmen in the world, and will get through all right. Will you +say good-by?" + +Though she already had herself in hand, she looked at him +hopelessly. "If--if--if Winapie should--" She quavered and +stopped. + +But he grasped the unspoken thought, and answered, "Yes." Then +struck with the enormity of it, "It cannot be conceived. There is +no likelihood. It must not be entertained." + +"Kiss me," she whispered, her face lighting. Then she turned and +went away. + + +"Break camp, Pierre," she said to the boatman, who alone had +remained awake against her return. "We must be going." + +By the firelight his sharp eyes scanned the woe in her face, but +he received the extraordinary command as though it were the most +usual thing in the world. "Oui, madame," he assented. "Which +way? Dawson?" + +"No," she answered, lightly enough; "up; out; Dyea." + +Whereat he fell upon the sleeping voyageurs, kicking them, +grunting, from their blankets, and buckling them down to the work, +the while his voice, vibrant with action, shrilling through all +the camp. In a trice Mrs. Sayther's tiny tent had been struck, +pots and pans were being gathered up, blankets rolled, and the men +staggering under the loads to the boat. Here, on the banks, Mrs. +Sayther waited till the luggage was made ship-shape and her nest +prepared. + +"We line up to de head of de island," Pierre explained to her +while running out the long tow rope. "Den we tak to das back +channel, where de water not queek, and I t'ink we mak good tam." + +A scuffling and pattering of feet in the last year's dry grass +caught his quick ear, and he turned his head. The Indian girl, +circled by a bristling ring of wolf dogs, was coming toward them. +Mrs. Sayther noted that the girl's face, which had been apathetic +throughout the scene in the cabin, had now quickened into blazing +and wrathful life. + +"What you do my man?" she demanded abruptly of Mrs. Sayther. "Him +lay on bunk, and him look bad all the time. I say, 'What the +matter, Dave? You sick?' But him no say nothing. After that him +say, 'Good girl Winapie, go way. I be all right bimeby.' What +you do my man, eh? I think you bad woman." + +Mrs. Sayther looked curiously at the barbarian woman who shared +the life of this man, while she departed alone in the darkness of +night. + +"I think you bad woman," Winapie repeated in the slow, methodical +way of one who gropes for strange words in an alien tongue. "I +think better you go way, no come no more. Eh? What you think? I +have one man. I Indian girl. You 'Merican woman. You good to +see. You find plenty men. Your eyes blue like the sky. Your +skin so white, so soft." + +Coolly she thrust out a brown forefinger and pressed the soft +cheek of the other woman. And to the eternal credit of Karen +Sayther, she never flinched. Pierre hesitated and half stepped +forward; but she motioned him away, though her heart welled to him +with secret gratitude. "It's all right, Pierre," she said. +"Please go away." + +He stepped back respectfully out of earshot, where he stood +grumbling to himself and measuring the distance in springs. + +"Um white, um soft, like baby." Winapie touched the other cheek +and withdrew her hand. "Bimeby mosquito come. Skin get sore in +spot; um swell, oh, so big; um hurt, oh, so much. Plenty +mosquito; plenty spot. I think better you go now before mosquito +come. This way," pointing down the stream, "you go St. Michael's; +that way," pointing up, "you go Dyea. Better you go Dyea. Good- +by." + +And that which Mrs. Sayther then did, caused Pierre to marvel +greatly. For she threw her arms around the Indian girl, kissed +her, and burst into tears. + +"Be good to him," she cried. "Be good to him." + +Then she slipped half down the face of the bank, called back +"Good-by," and dropped into the boat amidships. Pierre followed +her and cast off. He shoved the steering oar into place and gave +the signal. Le Goire lifted an old French chanson; the men, like +a row of ghosts in the dim starlight, bent their backs to the tow +line; the steering oar cut the black current sharply, and the boat +swept out into the night. + + + +WHICH MAKE MEN REMEMBER + + + +Fortune La Pearle crushed his way through the snow, sobbing, +straining, cursing his luck, Alaska, Nome, the cards, and the man +who had felt his knife. The hot blood was freezing on his hands, +and the scene yet bright in his eyes,--the man, clutching the +table and sinking slowly to the floor; the rolling counters and +the scattered deck; the swift shiver throughout the room, and the +pause; the game-keepers no longer calling, and the clatter of the +chips dying away; the startled faces; the infinite instant of +silence; and then the great blood-roar and the tide of vengeance +which lapped his heels and turned the town mad behind him. + +"All hell's broke loose," he sneered, turning aside in the +darkness and heading for the beach. Lights were flashing from +open doors, and tent, cabin, and dance-hall let slip their +denizens upon the chase. The clamor of men and howling of dogs +smote his ears and quickened his feet. He ran on and on. The +sounds grew dim, and the pursuit dissipated itself in vain rage +and aimless groping. But a flitting shadow clung to him. Head +thrust over shoulder, he caught glimpses of it, now taking vague +shape on an open expanse of snow, how merging into the deeper +shadows of some darkened cabin or beach-listed craft. + +Fortune La Pearle swore like a woman, weakly, with the hint of +tears that comes of exhaustion, and plunged deeper into the maze +of heaped ice, tents, and prospect holes. He stumbled over taut +hawsers and piles of dunnage, tripped on crazy guy-ropes and +insanely planted pegs, and fell again and again upon frozen dumps +and mounds of hoarded driftwood. At times, when he deemed he had +drawn clear, his head dizzy with the painful pounding of his heart +and the suffocating intake of his breath, he slackened down; and +ever the shadow leaped out of the gloom and forced him on in +heart-breaking flight. A swift intuition lashed upon him, leaving +in its trail the cold chill of superstition. The persistence of +the shadow he invested with his gambler's symbolism. Silent, +inexorable, not to be shaken off, he took it as the fate which +waited at the last turn when chips were cashed in and gains and +losses counted up. Fortune La Pearle believed in those rare, +illuminating moments, when the intelligence flung from it time and +space, to rise naked through eternity and read the facts of life +from the open book of chance. That this was such a moment he had +no doubt; and when he turned inland and sped across the snow- +covered tundra he was not startled because the shadow took upon it +greater definiteness and drew in closer. Oppressed with his own +impotence, he halted in the midst of the white waste and whirled +about. His right hand slipped from its mitten, and a revolver, at +level, glistened in the pale light of the stars. + +"Don't shoot. I haven't a gun." + +The shadow had assumed tangible shape, and at the sound of its +human voice a trepidation affected Fortune La Pearle's knees, and +his stomach was stricken with the qualms of sudden relief. + +Perhaps things fell out differently because Uri Bram had no gun +that night when he sat on the hard benches of the El Dorado and +saw murder done. To that fact also might be attributed the trip +on the Long Trail which he took subsequently with a most unlikely +comrade. But be it as it may, he repeated a second time, "Don't +shoot. Can't you see I haven't a gun?" + +"Then what the flaming hell did you take after me for?" demanded +the gambler, lowering his revolver. + +Uri Bram shrugged his shoulders. "It don't matter much, anyhow. +I want you to come with me." + +"Where?" + +"To my shack, over on the edge of the camp." + +But Fortune La Pearle drove the heel of his moccasin into the snow +and attested by his various deities to the madness of Uri Bram. +"Who are you," he perorated, "and what am I, that I should put my +neck into the rope at your bidding?" + +"I am Uri Bram," the other said simply, "and my shack is over +there on the edge of camp. I don't know who you are, but you've +thrust the soul from a living man's body,--there's the blood red +on your sleeve,--and, like a second Cain, the hand of all mankind +is against you, and there is no place you may lay your head. Now, +I have a shack--" + +"For the love of your mother, hold your say, man," interrupted +Fortune La Pearle, "or I'll make you a second Abel for the joy of +it. So help me, I will! With a thousand men to lay me by the +heels, looking high and low, what do I want with your shack? I +want to get out of here--away! away! away! Cursed swine! I've +half a mind to go back and run amuck, and settle for a few of +them, the pigs! One gorgeous, glorious fight, and end the whole +damn business! It's a skin game, that's what life is, and I'm +sick of it!" + +He stopped, appalled, crushed by his great desolation, and Uri +Bram seized the moment. He was not given to speech, this man, and +that which followed was the longest in his life, save one long +afterward in another place. + +"That's why I told you about my shack. I can stow you there so +they'll never find you, and I've got grub in plenty. Elsewise you +can't get away. No dogs, no nothing, the sea closed, St. Michael +the nearest post, runners to carry the news before you, the same +over the portage to Anvik--not a chance in the world for you! Now +wait with me till it blows over. They'll forget all about you in +a month or less, what of stampeding to York and what not, and you +can hit the trail under their noses and they won't bother. I've +got my own ideas of justice. When I ran after you, out of the El +Dorado and along the beach, it wasn't to catch you or give you up. +My ideas are my own, and that's not one of them." + +He ceased as the murderer drew a prayer-book from his pocket. +With the aurora borealis glimmering yellow in the northeast, heads +bared to the frost and naked hands grasping the sacred book, +Fortune La Pearle swore him to the words he had spoken--an oath +which Uri Bram never intended breaking, and never broke. + +At the door of the shack the gambler hesitated for an instant, +marvelling at the strangeness of this man who had befriended him, +and doubting. But by the candlelight he found the cabin +comfortable and without occupants, and he was quickly rolling a +cigarette while the other man made coffee. His muscles relaxed in +the warmth and he lay back with half-assumed indolence, intently +studying Uri's face through the curling wisps of smoke. It was a +powerful face, but its strength was of that peculiar sort which +stands girt in and unrelated. The seams were deep-graven, more +like scars, while the stern features were in no way softened by +hints of sympathy or humor. Under prominent bushy brows the eyes +shone cold and gray. The cheekbones, high and forbidding, were +undermined by deep hollows. The chin and jaw displayed a +steadiness of purpose which the narrow forehead advertised as +single, and, if needs be, pitiless. Everything was harsh, the +nose, the lips, the voice, the lines about the mouth. It was the +face of one who communed much with himself, unused to seeking +counsel from the world; the face of one who wrestled oft of nights +with angels, and rose to face the day with shut lips that no man +might know. He was narrow but deep; and Fortune, his own humanity +broad and shallow, could make nothing of him. Did Uri sing when +merry and sigh when sad, he could have understood; but as it was, +the cryptic features were undecipherable; he could not measure the +soul they concealed. + +"Lend a hand, Mister Man," Uri ordered when the cups had been +emptied. "We've got to fix up for visitors." + +Fortune purred his name for the other's benefit, and assisted +understandingly. The bunk was built against a side and end of the +cabin. It was a rude affair, the bottom being composed of drift- +wood logs overlaid with moss. At the foot the rough ends of these +timbers projected in an uneven row. From the side next the wall +Uri ripped back the moss and removed three of the logs. The +jagged ends he sawed off and replaced so that the projecting row +remained unbroken. Fortune carried in sacks of flour from the +cache and piled them on the floor beneath the aperture. On these +Uri laid a pair of long sea-bags, and over all spread several +thicknesses of moss and blankets. Upon this Fortune could lie, +with the sleeping furs stretching over him from one side of the +bunk to the other, and all men could look upon it and declare it +empty. + +In the weeks which followed, several domiciliary visits were paid, +not a shack or tent in Nome escaping, but Fortune lay in his +cranny undisturbed. In fact, little attention was given to Uri +Bram's cabin; for it was the last place under the sun to expect to +find the murderer of John Randolph. Except during such +interruptions, Fortune lolled about the cabin, playing long games +of solitaire and smoking endless cigarettes. Though his volatile +nature loved geniality and play of words and laughter, he quickly +accommodated himself to Uri's taciturnity. Beyond the actions and +plans of his pursuers, the state of the trails, and the price of +dogs, they never talked; and these things were only discussed at +rare intervals and briefly. But Fortune fell to working out a +system, and hour after hour, and day after day, he shuffled and +dealt, shuffled and dealt, noted the combinations of the cards in +long columns, and shuffled and dealt again. Toward the end even +this absorption failed him, and, head bowed upon the table, he +visioned the lively all-night houses of Nome, where the +gamekeepers and lookouts worked in shifts and the clattering +roulette ball never slept. At such times his loneliness and +bankruptcy stunned him till he sat for hours in the same +unblinking, unchanging position. At other times, his long-pent +bitterness found voice in passionate outbursts; for he had rubbed +the world the wrong way and did not like the feel of it. + +"Life's a skin-game," he was fond of repeating, and on this one +note he rang the changes. "I never had half a chance," he +complained. "I was faked in my birth and flim-flammed with my +mother's milk. The dice were loaded when she tossed the box, and +I was born to prove the loss. But that was no reason she should +blame me for it, and look on me as a cold deck; but she did--ay, +she did. Why didn't she give me a show? Why didn't the world? +Why did I go broke in Seattle? Why did I take the steerage, and +live like a hog to Nome? Why did I go to the El Dorado? I was +heading for Big Pete's and only went for matches. Why didn't I +have matches? Why did I want to smoke? Don't you see? All +worked out, every bit of it, all parts fitting snug. Before I was +born, like as not. I'll put the sack I never hope to get on it, +before I was born. That's why! That's why John Randolph passed +the word and his checks in at the same time. Damn him! It served +him well right! Why didn't he keep his tongue between his teeth +and give me a chance? He knew I was next to broke. Why didn't I +hold my hand? Oh, why? Why? Why?" + +And Fortune La Pearle would roll upon the floor, vainly +interrogating the scheme of things. At such outbreaks Uri said no +word, gave no sign, save that his grey eyes seemed to turn dull +and muddy, as though from lack of interest. There was nothing in +common between these two men, and this fact Fortune grasped +sufficiently to wonder sometimes why Uri had stood by him. + +But the time of waiting came to an end. Even a community's blood +lust cannot stand before its gold lust. The murder of John +Randolph had already passed into the annals of the camp, and there +it rested. Had the murderer appeared, the men of Nome would +certainly have stopped stampeding long enough to see justice done, +whereas the whereabouts of Fortune La Pearle was no longer an +insistent problem. There was gold in the creek beds and ruby +beaches, and when the sea opened, the men with healthy sacks would +sail away to where the good things of life were sold absurdly +cheap. + +So, one night, Fortune helped Uri Bram harness the dogs and lash +the sled, and the twain took the winter trail south on the ice. +But it was not all south; for they left the sea east from St. +Michael's, crossed the divide, and struck the Yukon at Anvik, many +hundred miles from its mouth. Then on, into the northeast, past +Koyokuk, Tanana, and Minook, till they rounded the Great Curve at +Fort Yukon, crossed and recrossed the Arctic Circle, and headed +south through the Flats. It was a weary journey, and Fortune +would have wondered why the man went with him, had not Uri told +him that he owned claims and had men working at Eagle. Eagle lay +on the edge of the line; a few miles farther on, the British flag +waved over the barracks at Fort Cudahy. Then came Dawson, Pelly, +the Five Fingers, Windy Arm, Caribou Crossing, Linderman, the +Chilcoot and Dyea. + +On the morning after passing Eagle, they rose early. This was +their last camp, and they were now to part. Fortune's heart was +light. There was a promise of spring in the land, and the days +were growing longer. The way was passing into Canadian territory. +Liberty was at hand, the sun was returning, and each day saw him +nearer to the Great Outside. The world was big, and he could once +again paint his future in royal red. He whistled about the +breakfast and hummed snatches of light song while Uri put the dogs +in harness and packed up. But when all was ready, Fortune's feet +itching to be off, Uri pulled an unused back-log to the fire and +sat down. + +"Ever hear of the Dead Horse Trail?" + +He glanced up meditatively and Fortune shook his head, inwardly +chafing at the delay. + +"Sometimes there are meetings under circumstances which make men +remember," Uri continued, speaking in a low voice and very slowly, +"and I met a man under such circumstances on the Dead Horse Trail. +Freighting an outfit over the White Pass in '97 broke many a man's +heart, for there was a world of reason when they gave that trail +its name. The horses died like mosquitoes in the first frost, and +from Skaguay to Bennett they rotted in heaps. They died at the +Rocks, they were poisoned at the Summit, and they starved at the +Lakes; they fell off the trail, what there was of it, or they went +through it; in the river they drowned under their loads, or were +smashed to pieces against the boulders; they snapped their legs in +the crevices and broke their backs falling backwards with their +packs; in the sloughs they sank from sight or smothered in the +slime, and they were disembowelled in the bogs where the corduroy +logs turned end up in the mud; men shot them, worked them to +death, and when they were gone, went back to the beach and bought +more. Some did not bother to shoot them,--stripping the saddles +off and the shoes and leaving them where they fell. Their hearts +turned to stone--those which did not break--and they became +beasts, the men on Dead Horse Trail. + +"It was there I met a man with the heart of a Christ and the +patience. And he was honest. When he rested at midday he took +the packs from the horses so that they, too, might rest. He paid +$50 a hundred-weight for their fodder, and more. He used his own +bed to blanket their backs when they rubbed raw. Other men let +the saddles eat holes the size of water-buckets. Other men, when +the shoes gave out, let them wear their hoofs down to the bleeding +stumps. He spent his last dollar for horseshoe nails. I know +this because we slept in the one bed and ate from the one pot, and +became blood brothers where men lost their grip of things and died +blaspheming God. He was never too tired to ease a strap or +tighten a cinch, and often there were tears in his eyes when he +looked on all that waste of misery. At a passage in the rocks, +where the brutes upreared hindlegged and stretched their forelegs +upward like cats to clear the wall, the way was piled with +carcasses where they had toppled back. And here he stood, in the +stench of hell, with a cheery word and a hand on the rump at the +right time, till the string passed by. And when one bogged he +blocked the trail till it was clear again; nor did the man live +who crowded him at such time. + +"At the end of the trail a man who had killed fifty horses wanted +to buy, but we looked at him and at our own,--mountain cayuses +from eastern Oregon. Five thousand he offered, and we were broke, +but we remembered the poison grass of the Summit and the passage +in the Rocks, and the man who was my brother spoke no word, but +divided the cayuses into two bunches,--his in the one and mine in +the other,--and he looked at me and we understood each other. So +he drove mine to the one side and I drove his to the other, and we +took with us our rifles and shot them to the last one, while the +man who had killed fifty horses cursed us till his throat cracked. +But that man, with whom I welded blood-brothership on the Dead +Horse Trail--" + +"Why, that man was John Randolph," Fortune, sneering the while, +completed the climax for him. + +Uri nodded, and said, "I am glad you understand." + +"I am ready," Fortune answered, the old weary bitterness strong in +his face again. "Go ahead, but hurry." + +Uri Bram rose to his feet. + +"I have had faith in God all the days of my life. I believe He +loves justice. I believe He is looking down upon us now, choosing +between us. I believe He waits to work His will through my own +right arm. And such is my belief, that we will take equal chance +and let Him speak His own judgment." + +Fortune's heart leaped at the words. He did not know much +concerning Uri's God, but he believed in Chance, and Chance had +been coming his way ever since the night he ran down the beach and +across the snow. "But there is only one gun," he objected. + +"We will fire turn about," Uri replied, at the same time throwing +out the cylinder of the other man's Colt and examining it. + +"And the cards to decide! One hand of seven up!" + +Fortune's blood was warming to the game, and he drew the deck from +his pocket as Uri nodded. Surely Chance would not desert him now! +He thought of the returning sun as he cut for deal, and he +thrilled when he found the deal was his. He shuffled and dealt, +and Uri cut him the Jack of Spades. They laid down their hands. +Uri's was bare of trumps, while he held ace, deuce. The outside +seemed very near to him as they stepped off the fifty paces. + +"If God withholds His hand and you drop me, the dogs and outfit +are yours. You'll find a bill of sale, already made out, in my +pocket," Uri explained, facing the path of the bullet, straight +and broad-breasted. + +Fortune shook a vision of the sun shining on the ocean from his +eyes and took aim. He was very careful. Twice he lowered as the +spring breeze shook the pines. But the third time he dropped on +one knee, gripped the revolver steadily in both hands, and fired. +Uri whirled half about, threw up his arms, swayed wildly for a +moment, and sank into the snow. But Fortune knew he had fired too +far to one side, else the man would not have whirled. + +When Uri, mastering the flesh and struggling to his feet, beckoned +for the weapon, Fortune was minded to fire again. But he thrust +the idea from him. Chance had been very good to him already, he +felt, and if he tricked now he would have to pay for it afterward. +No, he would play fair. Besides Uri was hard hit and could not +possibly hold the heavy Colt long enough to draw a bead. + +"And where is your God now?" he taunted, as he gave the wounded +man the revolver. + +And Uri answered: "God has not yet spoken. Prepare that He may +speak." + +Fortune faced him, but twisted his chest sideways in order to +present less surface. Uri tottered about drunkenly, but waited, +too, for the moment's calm between the catspaws. The revolver was +very heavy, and he doubted, like Fortune, because of its weight. +But he held it, arm extended, above his head, and then let it +slowly drop forward and down. At the instant Fortune's left +breast and the sight flashed into line with his eye, he pulled the +trigger. Fortune did not whirl, but gay San Francisco dimmed and +faded, and as the sun-bright snow turned black and blacker, he +breathed his last malediction on the Chance he had misplayed. + + + +SIWASH + + + +"If I was a man--" Her words were in themselves indecisive, but +the withering contempt which flashed from her black eyes was not +lost upon the men-folk in the tent. + +Tommy, the English sailor, squirmed, but chivalrous old Dick +Humphries, Cornish fisherman and erstwhile American salmon +capitalist, beamed upon her benevolently as ever. He bore women +too large a portion of his rough heart to mind them, as he said, +when they were in the doldrums, or when their limited vision would +not permit them to see all around a thing. So they said nothing, +these two men who had taken the half-frozen woman into their tent +three days back, and who had warmed her, and fed her, and rescued +her goods from the Indian packers. This latter had necessitated +the payment of numerous dollars, to say nothing of a demonstration +in force--Dick Humphries squinting along the sights of a +Winchester while Tommy apportioned their wages among them at his +own appraisement. It had been a little thing in itself, but it +meant much to a woman playing a desperate single-hand in the +equally desperate Klondike rush of '97. Men were occupied with +their own pressing needs, nor did they approve of women playing, +single-handed, the odds of the arctic winter. "If I was a man, I +know what I would do." Thus reiterated Molly, she of the flashing +eyes, and therein spoke the cumulative grit of five American-born +generations. + +In the succeeding silence, Tommy thrust a pan of biscuits into the +Yukon stove and piled on fresh fuel. A reddish flood pounded +along under his sun-tanned skin, and as he stooped, the skin of +his neck was scarlet. Dick palmed a three-cornered sail needle +through a set of broken pack straps, his good nature in nowise +disturbed by the feminine cataclysm which was threatening to burst +in the storm-beaten tent. + +"And if you was a man?" he asked, his voice vibrant with kindness. +The three-cornered needle jammed in the damp leather, and he +suspended work for the moment. + +"I'd be a man. I'd put the straps on my back and light out. I +wouldn't lay in camp here, with the Yukon like to freeze most any +day, and the goods not half over the portage. And you--you are +men, and you sit here, holding your hands, afraid of a little wind +and wet. I tell you straight, Yankee-men are made of different +stuff. They'd be hitting the trail for Dawson if they had to wade +through hell-fire. And you, you--I wish I was a man." + +"I'm very glad, my dear, that you're not." Dick Humphries threw +the bight of the sail twine over the point of the needle and drew +it clear with a couple of deft turns and a jerk. + +A snort of the gale dealt the tent a broad-handed slap as it +hurtled past, and the sleet rat-tat-tatted with snappy spite +against the thin canvas. The smoke, smothered in its exit, drove +back through the fire-box door, carrying with it the pungent odor +of green spruce. + +"Good Gawd! Why can't a woman listen to reason?" Tommy lifted +his head from the denser depths and turned upon her a pair of +smoke-outraged eyes. + +"And why can't a man show his manhood?" + +Tommy sprang to his feet with an oath which would have shocked a +woman of lesser heart, ripped loose the sturdy reef-knots and +flung back the flaps of the tent. + +The trio peered out. It was not a heartening spectacle. A few +water-soaked tents formed the miserable foreground, from which the +streaming ground sloped to a foaming gorge. Down this ramped a +mountain torrent. Here and there, dwarf spruce, rooting and +grovelling in the shallow alluvium, marked the proximity of the +timber line. Beyond, on the opposing slope, the vague outlines of +a glacier loomed dead-white through the driving rain. Even as +they looked, its massive front crumbled into the valley, on the +breast of some subterranean vomit, and it lifted its hoarse +thunder above the screeching voice of the storm. Involuntarily, +Molly shrank back. + +"Look, woman! Look with all your eyes! Three miles in the teeth +of the gale to Crater Lake, across two glaciers, along the +slippery rim-rock, knee-deep in a howling river! Look, I say, you +Yankee woman! Look! There's your Yankee-men!" Tommy pointed a +passionate hand in the direction of the struggling tents. +"Yankees, the last mother's son of them. Are they on trail? Is +there one of them with the straps to his back? And you would +teach us men our work? Look, I say!" + +Another tremendous section of the glacier rumbled earthward. The +wind whipped in at the open doorway, bulging out the sides of the +tent till it swayed like a huge bladder at its guy ropes. The +smoke swirled about them, and the sleet drove sharply into their +flesh. Tommy pulled the flaps together hastily, and returned to +his tearful task at the fire-box. Dick Humphries threw the mended +pack straps into a corner and lighted his pipe. Even Molly was +for the moment persuaded. + +"There's my clothes," she half-whimpered, the feminine for the +moment prevailing. "They're right at the top of the cache, and +they'll be ruined! I tell you, ruined!" + +"There, there," Dick interposed, when the last quavering syllable +had wailed itself out. "Don't let that worry you, little woman. +I'm old enough to be your father's brother, and I've a daughter +older than you, and I'll tog you out in fripperies when we get to +Dawson if it takes my last dollar." + +"When we get to Dawson!" The scorn had come back to her throat +with a sudden surge. "You'll rot on the way, first. You'll drown +in a mudhole. You--you--Britishers!" + +The last word, explosive, intensive, had strained the limits of +her vituperation. If that would not stir these men, what could? +Tommy's neck ran red again, but he kept his tongue between his +teeth. Dick's eyes mellowed. He had the advantage over Tommy, +for he had once had a white woman for a wife. + +The blood of five American-born generations is, under certain +circumstances, an uncomfortable heritage; and among these +circumstances might be enumerated that of being quartered with +next of kin. These men were Britons. On sea and land her +ancestry and the generations thereof had thrashed them and theirs. +On sea and land they would continue to do so. The traditions of +her race clamored for vindication. She was but a woman of the +present, but in her bubbled the whole mighty past. It was not +alone Molly Travis who pulled on gum boots, mackintosh, and +straps; for the phantom hands of ten thousand forbears drew tight +the buckles, just so as they squared her jaw and set her eyes with +determination. She, Molly Travis, intended to shame these +Britishers; they, the innumerable shades, were asserting the +dominance of the common race. + +The men-folk did not interfere. Once Dick suggested that she take +his oilskins, as her mackintosh was worth no more than paper in +such a storm. But she sniffed her independence so sharply that he +communed with his pipe till she tied the flaps on the outside and +slushed away on the flooded trail. + +"Think she'll make it?" Dick's face belied the indifference of +his voice. + +"Make it? If she stands the pressure till she gets to the cache, +what of the cold and misery, she'll be stark, raving mad. Stand +it? She'll be dumb-crazed. You know it yourself, Dick. You've +wind-jammed round the Horn. You know what it is to lay out on a +topsail yard in the thick of it, bucking sleet and snow and frozen +canvas till you're ready to just let go and cry like a baby. +Clothes? She won't be able to tell a bundle of skirts from a gold +pan or a tea-kettle." + +"Kind of think we were wrong in letting her go, then?" + +"Not a bit of it. So help me, Dick, she'd 'a' made this tent a +hell for the rest of the trip if we hadn't. Trouble with her +she's got too much spirit. This'll tone it down a bit." + +"Yes," Dick admitted, "she's too ambitious. But then Molly's all +right. A cussed little fool to tackle a trip like this, but a +plucky sight better than those pick-me-up-and-carry-me kind of +women. She's the stock that carried you and me, Tommy, and you've +got to make allowance for the spirit. Takes a woman to breed a +man. You can't suck manhood from the dugs of a creature whose +only claim to womanhood is her petticoats. Takes a she-cat, not a +cow, to mother a tiger." + +"And when they're unreasonable we've got to put up with it, eh?" + +"The proposition. A sharp sheath-knife cuts deeper on a slip than +a dull one; but that's no reason for to hack the edge off over a +capstan bar." + +"All right, if you say so, but when it comes to woman, I guess +I'll take mine with a little less edge." + +"What do you know about it?" Dick demanded. + +"Some." Tommy reached over for a pair of Molly's wet stockings +and stretched them across his knees to dry. + +Dick, eying him querulously, went fishing in her hand satchel, +then hitched up to the front of the stove with divers articles of +damp clothing spread likewise to the heat. + +"Thought you said you never were married?" he asked. + +"Did I? No more was I--that is--yes, by Gawd! I was. And as good +a woman as ever cooked grub for a man." + +"Slipped her moorings?" Dick symbolized infinity with a wave of +his hand. + +"Ay." + +"Childbirth," he added, after a moment's pause. + +The beans bubbled rowdily on the front lid, and he pushed the pot +back to a cooler surface. After that he investigated the +biscuits, tested them with a splinter of wood, and placed them +aside under cover of a damp cloth. Dick, after the manner of his +kind, stifled his interest and waited silently. "A different +woman to Molly. Siwash." + +Dick nodded his understanding. + +"Not so proud and wilful, but stick by a fellow through thick and +thin. Sling a paddle with the next and starve as contentedly as +Job. Go for'ard when the sloop's nose was more often under than +not, and take in sail like a man. Went prospecting once, up +Teslin way, past Surprise Lake and the Little Yellow-Head. Grub +gave out, and we ate the dogs. Dogs gave out, and we ate +harnesses, moccasins, and furs. Never a whimper; never a pick-me- +up-and-carry-me. Before we went she said look out for grub, but +when it happened, never a I-told-you-so. 'Never mind, Tommy,' +she'd say, day after day, that weak she could bare lift a snow- +shoe and her feet raw with the work. 'Never mind. I'd sooner be +flat-bellied of hunger and be your woman, Tommy, than have a +potlach every day and be Chief George's klooch.' George was chief +of the Chilcoots, you know, and wanted her bad. + +"Great days, those. Was a likely chap myself when I struck the +coast. Jumped a whaler, the Pole Star, at Unalaska, and worked my +way down to Sitka on an otter hunter. Picked up with Happy Jack +there--know him?" + +"Had charge of my traps for me," Dick answered, "down on the +Columbia. Pretty wild, wasn't he, with a warm place in his heart +for whiskey and women?" + +"The very chap. Went trading with him for a couple of seasons-- +hooch, and blankets, and such stuff. Then got a sloop of my own, +and not to cut him out, came down Juneau way. That's where I met +Killisnoo; I called her Tilly for short. Met her at a squaw dance +down on the beach. Chief George had finished the year's trade +with the Sticks over the Passes, and was down from Dyea with half +his tribe. No end of Siwashes at the dance, and I the only white. +No one knew me, barring a few of the bucks I'd met over Sitka way, +but I'd got most of their histories from Happy Jack. + +"Everybody talking Chinook, not guessing that I could spit it +better than most; and principally two girls who'd run away from +Haine's Mission up the Lynn Canal. They were trim creatures, good +to the eye, and I kind of thought of casting that way; but they +were fresh as fresh-caught cod. Too much edge, you see. Being a +new-comer, they started to twist me, not knowing I gathered in +every word of Chinook they uttered. + +"I never let on, but set to dancing with Tilly, and the more we +danced the more our hearts warmed to each other. 'Looking for a +woman,' one of the girls says, and the other tosses her head and +answers, 'Small chance he'll get one when the women are looking +for men.' And the bucks and squaws standing around began to grin +and giggle and repeat what had been said. 'Quite a pretty boy,' +says the first one. I'll not deny I was rather smooth-faced and +youngish, but I'd been a man amongst men many's the day, and it +rankled me. 'Dancing with Chief George's girl,' pipes the second. +'First thing George'll give him the flat of a paddle and send him +about his business.' Chief George had been looking pretty black +up to now, but at this he laughed and slapped his knees. He was a +husky beggar and would have used the paddle too. + +"'Who's the girls?' I asked Tilly, as we went ripping down the +centre in a reel. And as soon as she told me their names I +remembered all about them from Happy Jack. Had their pedigree +down fine--several things he'd told me that not even their own +tribe knew. But I held my hush, and went on courting Tilly, they +a-casting sharp remarks and everybody roaring. 'Bide a wee, +Tommy,' I says to myself; 'bide a wee.' + +"And bide I did, till the dance was ripe to break up, and Chief +George had brought a paddle all ready for me. Everybody was on +the lookout for mischief when we stopped; but I marched, easy as +you please, slap into the thick of them. The Mission girls cut me +up something clever, and for all I was angry I had to set my teeth +to keep from laughing. I turned upon them suddenly. + +"'Are you done?' I asked. + +"You should have seen them when they heard me spitting Chinook. +Then I broke loose. I told them all about themselves, and their +people before them; their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers-- +everybody, everything. Each mean trick they'd played; every +scrape they'd got into; every shame that'd fallen them. And I +burned them without fear or favor. All hands crowded round. +Never had they heard a white man sling their lingo as I did. +Everybody was laughing save the Mission girls. Even Chief George +forgot the paddle, or at least he was swallowing too much respect +to dare to use it. + +"But the girls. 'Oh, don't, Tommy,' they cried, the tears running +down their cheeks. 'Please don't. We'll be good. Sure, Tommy, +sure.' But I knew them well, and I scorched them on every tender +spot. Nor did I slack away till they came down on their knees, +begging and pleading with me to keep quiet. Then I shot a glance +at Chief George; but he did not know whether to have at me or not, +and passed it off by laughing hollowly. + +"So be. When I passed the parting with Tilly that night I gave +her the word that I was going to be around for a week or so, and +that I wanted to see more of her. Not thick-skinned, her kind, +when it came to showing like and dislike, and she looked her +pleasure for the honest girl she was. Ay, a striking lass, and I +didn't wonder that Chief George was taken with her. + +"Everything my way. Took the wind from his sails on the first +leg. I was for getting her aboard and sailing down Wrangel way +till it blew over, leaving him to whistle; but I wasn't to get her +that easy. Seems she was living with an uncle of hers--guardian, +the way such things go--and seems he was nigh to shuffling off +with consumption or some sort of lung trouble. He was good and +bad by turns, and she wouldn't leave him till it was over with. +Went up to the tepee just before I left, to speculate on how long +it'd be; but the old beggar had promised her to Chief George, and +when he clapped eyes on me his anger brought on a hemorrhage. + +"'Come and take me, Tommy,' she says when we bid good-by on the +beach. 'Ay,' I answers; 'when you give the word.' And I kissed +her, white-man-fashion and lover-fashion, till she was all of a +tremble like a quaking aspen, and I was so beside myself I'd half +a mind to go up and give the uncle a lift over the divide. + +"So I went down Wrangel way, past St. Mary's and even to the Queen +Charlottes, trading, running whiskey, turning the sloop to most +anything. Winter was on, stiff and crisp, and I was back to +Juneau, when the word came. 'Come,' the beggar says who brought +the news. 'Killisnoo say, "Come now."' 'What's the row?' I asks. +'Chief George,' says he. 'Potlach. Killisnoo, makum klooch.' + +"Ay, it was bitter--the Taku howling down out of the north, the +salt water freezing quick as it struck the deck, and the old sloop +and I hammering into the teeth of it for a hundred miles to Dyea. +Had a Douglass Islander for crew when I started, but midway up he +was washed over from the bows. Jibed all over and crossed the +course three times, but never a sign of him." + +"Doubled up with the cold most likely," Dick suggested, putting a +pause into the narrative while he hung one of Molly's skirts up to +dry, "and went down like a pot of lead." + +"My idea. So I finished the course alone, half-dead when I made +Dyea in the dark of the evening. The tide favored, and I ran the +sloop plump to the bank, in the shelter of the river. Couldn't go +an inch further, for the fresh water was frozen solid. Halyards +and blocks were that iced up I didn't dare lower mainsail or jib. +First I broached a pint of the cargo raw, and then, leaving all +standing, ready for the start, and with a blanket around me, +headed across the flat to the camp. No mistaking, it was a grand +layout. The Chilcats had come in a body--dogs, babies, and +canoes--to say nothing of the Dog-Ears, the Little Salmons, and +the Missions. Full half a thousand of them to celebrate Tilly's +wedding, and never a white man in a score of miles. + +"Nobody took note of me, the blanket over my head and hiding my +face, and I waded knee deep through the dogs and youngsters till I +was well up to the front. The show was being pulled off in a big +open place among the trees, with great fires burning and the snow +moccasin-packed as hard as Portland cement. Next me was Tilly, +beaded and scarlet-clothed galore, and against her Chief George +and his head men. The shaman was being helped out by the big +medicines from the other tribes, and it shivered my spine up and +down, the deviltries they cut. I caught myself wondering if the +folks in Liverpool could only see me now; and I thought of yellow- +haired Gussie, whose brother I licked after my first voyage, just +because he was not for having a sailor-man courting his sister. +And with Gussie in my eyes I looked at Tilly. A rum old world, +thinks I, with man a-stepping in trails the mother little dreamed +of when he lay at suck. + +"So be. When the noise was loudest, walrus hides booming and +priests a-singing, I says, 'Are you ready?' Gawd! Not a start, +not a shot of the eyes my way, not the twitch of a muscle. 'I +knew,' she answers, slow and steady as a calm spring tide. +'Where?' 'The high bank at the edge of the ice,' I whispers back. +'Jump out when I give the word.' + +"Did I say there was no end of huskies? Well, there was no end. +Here, there, everywhere, they were scattered about,--tame wolves +and nothing less. When the strain runs thin they breed them in +the bush with the wild, and they're bitter fighters. Right at the +toe of my moccasin lay a big brute, and by the heel another. I +doubled the first one's tail, quick, till it snapped in my grip. +As his jaws clipped together where my hand should have been, I +threw the second one by the scruff straight into his mouth. 'Go!' +I cried to Tilly. + +"You know how they fight. In the wink of an eye there was a +raging hundred of them, top and bottom, ripping and tearing each +other, kids and squaws tumbling which way, and the camp gone wild. +Tilly'd slipped away, so I followed. But when I looked over my +shoulder at the skirt of the crowd, the devil laid me by the +heart, and I dropped the blanket and went back. + +"By then the dogs'd been knocked apart and the crowd was +untangling itself. Nobody was in proper place, so they didn't +note that Tilly'd gone. 'Hello,' I says, gripping Chief George by +the hand. 'May your potlach-smoke rise often, and the Sticks +bring many furs with the spring.' + +"Lord love me, Dick, but he was joyed to see me,--him with the +upper hand and wedding Tilly. Chance to puff big over me. The +tale that I was hot after her had spread through the camps, and my +presence did him proud. All hands knew me, without my blanket, +and set to grinning and giggling. It was rich, but I made it +richer by playing unbeknowing. + +"'What's the row?' I asks. 'Who's getting married now?' + +"'Chief George,' the shaman says, ducking his reverence to him. + +"'Thought he had two klooches.' + +"'Him takum more,--three,' with another duck. + +"'Oh!' And I turned away as though it didn't interest me. + +"But this wouldn't do, and everybody begins singing out, +'Killisnoo! Killisnoo!' + +"'Killisnoo what?' I asked. + +"'Killisnoo, klooch, Chief George,' they blathered. 'Killisnoo, +klooch.' + +"I jumped and looked at Chief George. He nodded his head and +threw out his chest. + +"She'll be no klooch of yours,' I says solemnly. 'No klooch of +yours,' I repeats, while his face went black and his hand began +dropping to his hunting-knife. + +"'Look!' I cries, striking an attitude. 'Big Medicine. You watch +my smoke.' + +"I pulled off my mittens, rolled back my sleeves, and made half-a- +dozen passes in the air. + +"'Killisnoo!' I shouts. 'Killisnoo! Killisnoo!' + +"I was making medicine, and they began to scare. Every eye was on +me; no time to find out that Tilly wasn't there. Then I called +Killisnoo three times again, and waited; and three times more. +All for mystery and to make them nervous. Chief George couldn't +guess what I was up to, and wanted to put a stop to the foolery; +but the shamans said to wait, and that they'd see me and go me one +better, or words to that effect. Besides, he was a superstitious +cuss, and I fancy a bit afraid of the white man's magic. + +"Then I called Killisnoo, long and soft like the howl of a wolf, +till the women were all a-tremble and the bucks looking serious. + +"'Look!' I sprang for'ard, pointing my finger into a bunch of +squaws--easier to deceive women than men, you know. 'Look!' And +I raised it aloft as though following the flight of a bird. Up, +up, straight overhead, making to follow it with my eyes till it +disappeared in the sky. + +"'Killisnoo,' I said, looking at Chief George and pointing upward +again. 'Killisnoo.' + +"So help me, Dick, the gammon worked. Half of them, at least, saw +Tilly disappear in the air. They'd drunk my whiskey at Juneau and +seen stranger sights, I'll warrant. Why should I not do this +thing, I, who sold bad spirits corked in bottles? Some of the +women shrieked. Everybody fell to whispering in bunches. I +folded my arms and held my head high, and they drew further away +from me. The time was ripe to go. 'Grab him,' Chief George +cries. Three or four of them came at me, but I whirled, quick, +made a couple of passes like to send them after Tilly, and pointed +up. Touch me? Not for the kingdoms of the earth. Chief George +harangued them, but he couldn't get them to lift a leg. Then he +made to take me himself; but I repeated the mummery and his grit +went out through his fingers. + +"'Let your shamans work wonders the like of which I have done this +night,' I says. 'Let them call Killisnoo down out of the sky +whither I have sent her.' But the priests knew their limits. +'May your klooches bear you sons as the spawn of the salmon,' I +says, turning to go; 'and may your totem pole stand long in the +land, and the smoke of your camp rise always.' + +"But if the beggars could have seen me hitting the high places for +the sloop as soon as I was clear of them, they'd thought my own +medicine had got after me. Tilly'd kept warm by chopping the ice +away, and was all ready to cast off. Gawd! how we ran before it, +the Taku howling after us and the freezing seas sweeping over at +every clip. With everything battened down, me a-steering and +Tilly chopping ice, we held on half the night, till I plumped the +sloop ashore on Porcupine Island, and we shivered it out on the +beach; blankets wet, and Tilly drying the matches on her breast. + +"So I think I know something about it. Seven years, Dick, man and +wife, in rough sailing and smooth. And then she died, in the +heart of the winter, died in childbirth, up there on the Chilcat +Station. She held my hand to the last, the ice creeping up inside +the door and spreading thick on the gut of the window. Outside, +the lone howl of the wolf and the Silence; inside, death and the +Silence. You've never heard the Silence yet, Dick, and Gawd grant +you don't ever have to hear it when you sit by the side of death. +Hear it? Ay, till the breath whistles like a siren, and the heart +booms, booms, booms, like the surf on the shore. + +"Siwash, Dick, but a woman. White, Dick, white, clear through. +Towards the last she says, 'Keep my feather bed, Tommy, keep it +always.' And I agreed. Then she opened her eyes, full with the +pain. 'I've been a good woman to you, Tommy, and because of that +I want you to promise--to promise'--the words seemed to stick in +her throat--'that when you marry, the woman be white. No more +Siwash, Tommy. I know. Plenty white women down to Juneau now. I +know. Your people call you "squaw-man," your women turn their +heads to the one side on the street, and you do not go to their +cabins like other men. Why? Your wife Siwash. Is it not so? +And this is not good. Wherefore I die. Promise me. Kiss me in +token of your promise.' + +"I kissed her, and she dozed off, whispering, 'It is good.' At +the end, that near gone my ear was at her lips, she roused for the +last time. 'Remember, Tommy; remember my feather bed.' Then she +died, in childbirth, up there on the Chilcat Station." + +The tent heeled over and half flattened before the gale. Dick +refilled his pipe, while Tommy drew the tea and set it aside +against Molly's return. + +And she of the flashing eyes and Yankee blood? Blinded, falling, +crawling on hand and knee, the wind thrust back in her throat by +the wind, she was heading for the tent. On her shoulders a bulky +pack caught the full fury of the storm. She plucked feebly at the +knotted flaps, but it was Tommy and Dick who cast them loose. +Then she set her soul for the last effort, staggered in, and fell +exhausted on the floor. + +Tommy unbuckled the straps and took the pack from her. As he +lifted it there was a clanging of pots and pans. Dick, pouring +out a mug of whiskey, paused long enough to pass the wink across +her body. Tommy winked back. His lips pursed the monosyllable, +"clothes," but Dick shook his head reprovingly. "Here, little +woman," he said, after she had drunk the whiskey and straightened +up a bit. + +"Here's some dry togs. Climb into them. We're going out to +extra-peg the tent. After that, give us the call, and we'll come +in and have dinner. Sing out when you're ready." + +"So help me, Dick, that's knocked the edge off her for the rest of +this trip," Tommy spluttered as they crouched to the lee of the +tent. + +"But it's the edge is her saving grace." Dick replied, ducking his +head to a volley of sleet that drove around a corner of the +canvas. "The edge that you and I've got, Tommy, and the edge of +our mothers before us." + + + +THE MAN WITH THE GASH + + + +Jacob Kent had suffered from cupidity all the days of his life. +This, in turn, had engendered a chronic distrustfulness, and his +mind and character had become so warped that he was a very +disagreeable man to deal with. He was also a victim to +somnambulic propensities, and very set in his ideas. He had been +a weaver of cloth from the cradle, until the fever of Klondike had +entered his blood and torn him away from his loom. His cabin +stood midway between Sixty Mile Post and the Stuart River; and men +who made it a custom to travel the trail to Dawson, likened him to +a robber baron, perched in his fortress and exacting toll from the +caravans that used his ill-kept roads. Since a certain amount of +history was required in the construction of this figure, the less +cultured wayfarers from Stuart River were prone to describe him +after a still more primordial fashion, in which a command of +strong adjectives was to be chiefly noted. + +This cabin was not his, by the way, having been built several +years previously by a couple of miners who had got out a raft of +logs at that point for a grub-stake. They had been most +hospitable lads, and, after they abandoned it, travelers who knew +the route made it an object to arrive there at nightfall. It was +very handy, saving them all the time and toil of pitching camp; +and it was an unwritten rule that the last man left a neat pile of +firewood for the next comer. Rarely a night passed but from half +a dozen to a score of men crowded into its shelter. Jacob Kent +noted these things, exercised squatter sovereignty, and moved in. +Thenceforth, the weary travelers were mulcted a dollar per head +for the privilege of sleeping on the floor, Jacob Kent weighing +the dust and never failing to steal the down-weight. Besides, he +so contrived that his transient guests chopped his wood for him +and carried his water. This was rank piracy, but his victims were +an easy-going breed, and while they detested him, they yet +permitted him to flourish in his sins. + +One afternoon in April he sat by his door,--for all the world like +a predatory spider,--marvelling at the heat of the returning sun, +and keeping an eye on the trail for prospective flies. The Yukon +lay at his feet, a sea of ice, disappearing around two great bends +to the north and south, and stretching an honest two miles from +bank to bank. Over its rough breast ran the sled-trail, a slender +sunken line, eighteen inches wide and two thousand miles in +length, with more curses distributed to the linear foot than any +other road in or out of all Christendom. + +Jacob Kent was feeling particularly good that afternoon. The +record had been broken the previous night, and he had sold his +hospitality to no less than twenty-eight visitors. True, it had +been quite uncomfortable, and four had snored beneath his bunk all +night; but then it had added appreciable weight to the sack in +which he kept his gold dust. That sack, with its glittering +yellow treasure, was at once the chief delight and the chief bane +of his existence. Heaven and hell lay within its slender mouth. +In the nature of things, there being no privacy to his one-roomed +dwelling, he was tortured by a constant fear of theft. It would +be very easy for these bearded, desperate-looking strangers to +make away with it. Often he dreamed that such was the case, and +awoke in the grip of nightmare. A select number of these robbers +haunted him through his dreams, and he came to know them quite +well, especially the bronzed leader with the gash on his right +cheek. This fellow was the most persistent of the lot, and, +because of him, he had, in his waking moments, constructed several +score of hiding-places in and about the cabin. After a +concealment he would breathe freely again, perhaps for several +nights, only to collar the Man with the Gash in the very act of +unearthing the sack. Then, on awakening in the midst of the usual +struggle, he would at once get up and transfer the bag to a new +and more ingenious crypt. It was not that he was the direct +victim of these phantasms; but he believed in omens and thought- +transference, and he deemed these dream-robbers to be the astral +projection of real personages who happened at those particular +moments, no matter where they were in the flesh, to be harboring +designs, in the spirit, upon his wealth. So he continued to bleed +the unfortunates who crossed his threshold, and at the same time +to add to his trouble with every ounce that went into the sack. + +As he sat sunning himself, a thought came to Jacob Kent that +brought him to his feet with a jerk. The pleasures of life had +culminated in the continual weighing and reweighing of his dust; +but a shadow had been thrown upon this pleasant avocation, which +he had hitherto failed to brush aside. His gold-scales were quite +small; in fact, their maximum was a pound and a half,--eighteen +ounces,--while his hoard mounted up to something like three and a +third times that. He had never been able to weigh it all at one +operation, and hence considered himself to have been shut out from +a new and most edifying coign of contemplation. Being denied +this, half the pleasure of possession had been lost; nay, he felt +that this miserable obstacle actually minimized the fact, as it +did the strength, of possession. It was the solution of this +problem flashing across his mind that had just brought him to his +feet. He searched the trail carefully in either direction. There +was nothing in sight, so he went inside. + +In a few seconds he had the table cleared away and the scales set +up. On one side he placed the stamped disks to the equivalent of +fifteen ounces, and balanced it with dust on the other. Replacing +the weights with dust, he then had thirty ounces precisely +balanced. These, in turn, he placed together on one side and +again balanced with more dust. By this time the gold was +exhausted, and he was sweating liberally. He trembled with +ecstasy, ravished beyond measure. Nevertheless he dusted the sack +thoroughly, to the last least grain, till the balance was overcome +and one side of the scales sank to the table. Equilibrium, +however, was restored by the addition of a pennyweight and five +grains to the opposite side. He stood, head thrown back, +transfixed. The sack was empty, but the potentiality of the +scales had become immeasurable. Upon them he could weigh any +amount, from the tiniest grain to pounds upon pounds. Mammon laid +hot fingers on his heart. The sun swung on its westering way till +it flashed through the open doorway, full upon the yellow-burdened +scales. The precious heaps, like the golden breasts of a bronze +Cleopatra, flung back the light in a mellow glow. Time and space +were not. + +"Gawd blime me! but you 'aye the makin' of several quid there, +'aven't you?" + +Jacob Kent wheeled about, at the same time reaching for his +double-barrelled shot-gun, which stood handy. But when his eyes +lit on the intruder's face, he staggered back dizzily. IT WAS THE +FACE OF THE MAN WITH THE GASH! + +The man looked at him curiously. + +"Oh, that's all right," he said, waving his hand deprecatingly. +"You needn't think as I'll 'arm you or your blasted dust. + +"You're a rum 'un, you are," he added reflectively, as he watched +the sweat pouring from off Kent's face and the quavering of his +knees. + +"W'y don't you pipe up an' say somethin'?" he went on, as the +other struggled for breath. "Wot's gone wrong o' your gaff? +Anythink the matter?" + +"W--w--where'd you get it?" Kent at last managed to articulate, +raising a shaking forefinger to the ghastly scar which seamed the +other's cheek. + +"Shipmate stove me down with a marlin-spike from the main-royal. +An' now as you 'aye your figger'ead in trim, wot I want to know +is, wot's it to you? That's wot I want to know--wot's it to you? +Gawd blime me! do it 'urt you? Ain't it smug enough for the likes +o' you? That's wot I want to know!" + +"No, no," Kent answered, sinking upon a stool with a sickly grin. +"I was just wondering." + +"Did you ever see the like?" the other went on truculently. + +"No." + +"Ain't it a beute?" + +"Yes." Kent nodded his head approvingly, intent on humoring this +strange visitor, but wholly unprepared for the outburst which was +to follow his effort to be agreeable. + +"You blasted, bloomin', burgoo-eatin' son-of-a-sea-swab! Wot do +you mean, a sayin' the most onsightly thing Gawd Almighty ever put +on the face o' man is a beute? Wot do you mean, you--" + +And thereat this fiery son of the sea broke off into a string of +Oriental profanity, mingling gods and devils, lineages and men, +metaphors and monsters, with so savage a virility that Jacob Kent +was paralyzed. He shrank back, his arms lifted as though to ward +off physical violence. So utterly unnerved was he that the other +paused in the mid-swing of a gorgeous peroration and burst into +thunderous laughter. + +"The sun's knocked the bottom out o' the trail," said the Man with +the Gash, between departing paroxysms of mirth. "An' I only 'ope +as you'll appreciate the hoppertunity of consortin' with a man o' +my mug. Get steam up in that fire-box o' your'n. I'm goin' to +unrig the dogs an' grub 'em. An' don't be shy o' the wood, my +lad; there's plenty more where that come from, and it's you've got +the time to sling an axe. An' tote up a bucket o' water while +you're about it. Lively! or I'll run you down, so 'elp me!" + +Such a thing was unheard of. Jacob Kent was making the fire, +chopping wood, packing water--doing menial tasks for a guest! +When Jim Cardegee left Dawson, it was with his head filled with +the iniquities of this roadside Shylock; and all along the trail +his numerous victims had added to the sum of his crimes. Now, Jim +Cardegee, with the sailor's love for a sailor's joke, had +determined, when he pulled into the cabin, to bring its inmate +down a peg or so. That he had succeeded beyond expectation he +could not help but remark, though he was in the dark as to the +part the gash on his cheek had played in it. But while he could +not understand, he saw the terror it created, and resolved to +exploit it as remorselessly as would any modern trader a choice +bit of merchandise. + +"Strike me blind, but you're a 'ustler," he said admiringly, his +head cocked to one side, as his host bustled about. "You never +'ort to 'ave gone Klondiking. It's the keeper of a pub' you was +laid out for. An' it's often as I 'ave 'eard the lads up an' down +the river speak o' you, but I 'adn't no idea you was so jolly +nice." + +Jacob Kent experienced a tremendous yearning to try his shotgun on +him, but the fascination of the gash was too potent. This was the +real Man with the Gash, the man who had so often robbed him in the +spirit. This, then, was the embodied entity of the being whose +astral form had been projected into his dreams, the man who had so +frequently harbored designs against his hoard; hence--there could +be no other conclusion--this Man with the Gash had now come in the +flesh to dispossess him. And that gash! He could no more keep +his eyes from it than stop the beating of his heart. Try as he +would, they wandered back to that one point as inevitably as the +needle to the pole. + +"Do it 'urt you?" Jim Cardegee thundered suddenly, looking up from +the spreading of his blankets and encountering the rapt gaze of +the other. "It strikes me as 'ow it 'ud be the proper thing for +you to draw your jib, douse the glim, an' turn in, seein' as 'ow +it worrits you. Jes' lay to that, you swab, or so 'elp me I'll +take a pull on your peak-purchases!" + +Kent was so nervous that it took three puffs to blow out the +slush-lamp, and he crawled into his blankets without even removing +his moccasins. The sailor was soon snoring lustily from his hard +bed on the floor, but Kent lay staring up into the blackness, one +hand on the shotgun, resolved not to close his eyes the whole +night. He had not had an opportunity to secrete his five pounds +of gold, and it lay in the ammunition box at the head of his bunk. +But, try as he would, he at last dozed off with the weight of his +dust heavy on his soul. Had he not inadvertently fallen asleep +with his mind in such condition, the somnambulic demon would not +have been invoked, nor would Jim Cardegee have gone mining next +day with a dish-pan. + +The fire fought a losing battle, and at last died away, while the +frost penetrated the mossy chinks between the logs and chilled the +inner atmosphere. The dogs outside ceased their howling, and, +curled up in the snow, dreamed of salmon-stocked heavens where +dog-drivers and kindred task-masters were not. Within, the sailor +lay like a log, while his host tossed restlessly about, the victim +of strange fantasies. As midnight drew near he suddenly threw off +the blankets and got up. It was remarkable that he could do what +he then did without ever striking a light. Perhaps it was because +of the darkness that he kept his eyes shut, and perhaps it was for +fear he would see the terrible gash on the cheek of his visitor; +but, be this as it may, it is a fact that, unseeing, he opened his +ammunition box, put a heavy charge into the muzzle of the shotgun +without spilling a particle, rammed it down with double wads, and +then put everything away and got back into bed. + +Just as daylight laid its steel-gray fingers on the parchment +window, Jacob Kent awoke. Turning on his elbow, he raised the lid +and peered into the ammunition box. Whatever he saw, or whatever +he did not see, exercised a very peculiar effect upon him, +considering his neurotic temperament. He glanced at the sleeping +man on the floor, let the lid down gently, and rolled over on his +back. It was an unwonted calm that rested on his face. Not a +muscle quivered. There was not the least sign of excitement or +perturbation. He lay there a long while, thinking, and when he +got up and began to move about, it was in a cool, collected +manner, without noise and without hurry. + +It happened that a heavy wooden peg had been driven into the +ridge-pole just above Jim Cardegee's head. Jacob Kent, working +softly, ran a piece of half-inch manila over it, bringing both +ends to the ground. One end he tied about his waist, and in the +other he rove a running noose. Then he cocked his shotgun and +laid it within reach, by the side of numerous moose-hide thongs. +By an effort of will he bore the sight of the scar, slipped the +noose over the sleeper's head, and drew it taut by throwing back +on his weight, at the same time seizing the gun and bringing it to +bear. + +Jim Cardegee awoke, choking, bewildered, staring down the twin +wells of steel. + +"Where is it?" Kent asked, at the same time slacking on the rope. + +"You blasted--ugh--" + +Kent merely threw back his weight, shutting off the other's wind. + +"Bloomin'--Bur--ugh--" + +"Where is it?" Kent repeated. + +"Wot?" Cardegee asked, as soon as he had caught his breath. + +"The gold-dust." + +"Wot gold-dust?" the perplexed sailor demanded. + +"You know well enough,--mine." + +"Ain't seen nothink of it. Wot do ye take me for? A safe- +deposit? Wot 'ave I got to do with it, any'ow?" + +"Mebbe you know, and mebbe you don't know, but anyway, I'm going +to stop your breath till you do know. And if you lift a hand, +I'll blow your head off!" + +"Vast heavin'!" Cardegee roared, as the rope tightened. + +Kent eased away a moment, and the sailor, wriggling his neck as +though from the pressure, managed to loosen the noose a bit and +work it up so the point of contact was just under the chin. + +"Well?" Kent questioned, expecting the disclosure. + +But Cardegee grinned. "Go ahead with your 'angin', you bloomin' +old pot-wolloper!" + +Then, as the sailor had anticipated, the tragedy became a farce. +Cardegee being the heavier of the two, Kent, throwing his body +backward and down, could not lift him clear of the ground. Strain +and strive to the uttermost, the sailor's feet still stuck to the +floor and sustained a part of his weight. The remaining portion +was supported by the point of contact just under his chin. +Failing to swing him clear, Kent clung on, resolved to slowly +throttle him or force him to tell what he had done with the hoard. +But the Man with the Gash would not throttle. Five, ten, fifteen +minutes passed, and at the end of that time, in despair, Kent let +his prisoner down. + +"Well," he remarked, wiping away the sweat, "if you won't hang +you'll shoot. Some men wasn't born to be hanged, anyway." + +"An' it's a pretty mess as you'll make o' this 'ere cabin floor." +Cardegee was fighting for time. "Now, look 'ere, I'll tell you +wot we do; we'll lay our 'eads 'longside an' reason together. +You've lost some dust. You say as 'ow I know, an' I say as 'ow I +don't. Let's get a hobservation an' shape a course--" + +"Vast heavin'!" Kent dashed in, maliciously imitating the other's +enunciation. "I'm going to shape all the courses of this shebang, +and you observe; and if you do anything more, I'll bore you as +sure as Moses!" + +"For the sake of my mother--" + +"Whom God have mercy upon if she loves you. Ah! Would you?" He +frustrated a hostile move on the part of the other by pressing the +cold muzzle against his forehead. "Lay quiet, now! If you lift +as much as a hair, you'll get it." + +It was rather an awkward task, with the trigger of the gun always +within pulling distance of the finger; but Kent was a weaver, and +in a few minutes had the sailor tied hand and foot. Then he +dragged him without and laid him by the side of the cabin, where +he could overlook the river and watch the sun climb to the +meridian. + +"Now I'll give you till noon, and then--" + +"Wot?" + +"You'll be hitting the brimstone trail. But if you speak up, I'll +keep you till the next bunch of mounted police come by." + +"Well, Gawd blime me, if this ain't a go! 'Ere I be, innercent as +a lamb, an' 'ere you be, lost all o' your top 'amper an' out o' +your reckonin', run me foul an' goin' to rake me into 'ell-fire. +You bloomin' old pirut! You--" + +Jim Cardegee loosed the strings of his profanity and fairly outdid +himself. Jacob Kent brought out a stool that he might enjoy it in +comfort. Having exhausted all the possible combinations of his +vocabulary, the sailor quieted down to hard thinking, his eyes +constantly gauging the progress of the sun, which tore up the +eastern slope of the heavens with unseemly haste. His dogs, +surprised that they had not long since been put to harness, +crowded around him. His helplessness appealed to the brutes. +They felt that something was wrong, though they knew not what, and +they crowded about, howling their mournful sympathy. + +"Chook! Mush-on! you Siwashes!" he cried, attempting, in a +vermicular way, to kick at them, and discovering himself to be +tottering on the edge of a declivity. As soon as the animals had +scattered, he devoted himself to the significance of that +declivity which he felt to be there but could not see. Nor was he +long in arriving at a correct conclusion. In the nature of +things, he figured, man is lazy. He does no more than he has to. +When he builds a cabin he must put dirt on the roof. From these +premises it was logical that he should carry that dirt no further +than was absolutely necessary. Therefore, he lay upon the edge of +the hole from which the dirt had been taken to roof Jacob Kent's +cabin. This knowledge, properly utilized, might prolong things, +he thought; and he then turned his attention to the moose-hide +thongs which bound him. His hands were tied behind him, and +pressing against the snow, they were wet with the contact. This +moistening of the raw-hide he knew would tend to make it stretch, +and, without apparent effort, he endeavored to stretch it more and +more. + +He watched the trail hungrily, and when in the direction of Sixty +Mile a dark speck appeared for a moment against the white +background of an ice-jam, he cast an anxious eye at the sun. It +had climbed nearly to the zenith. Now and again he caught the +black speck clearing the hills of ice and sinking into the +intervening hollows; but he dared not permit himself more than the +most cursory glances for fear of rousing his enemy's suspicion. +Once, when Jacob Kent rose to his feet and searched the trail with +care, Cardegee was frightened, but the dog-sled had struck a piece +of trail running parallel with a jam, and remained out of sight +till the danger was past. + +"I'll see you 'ung for this," Cardegee threatened, attempting to +draw the other's attention. "An' you'll rot in 'ell, jes' you see +if you don't. + +"I say," he cried, after another pause; "d'ye b'lieve in ghosts?" +Kent's sudden start made him sure of his ground, and he went on: +"Now a ghost 'as the right to 'aunt a man wot don't do wot he +says; and you can't shuffle me off till eight bells--wot I mean is +twelve o'clock--can you? 'Cos if you do, it'll 'appen as 'ow I'll +'aunt you. D'ye 'ear? A minute, a second too quick, an' I'll +'aunt you, so 'elp me, I will!" + +Jacob Kent looked dubious, but declined to talk. + +"'Ow's your chronometer? Wot's your longitude? 'Ow do you know +as your time's correct?" Cardegee persisted, vainly hoping to beat +his executioner out of a few minutes. "Is it Barrack's time you +'ave, or is it the Company time? 'Cos if you do it before the +stroke o' the bell, I'll not rest. I give you fair warnin'. I'll +come back. An' if you 'aven't the time, 'ow will you know? +That's wot I want--'ow will you tell?" + +"I'll send you off all right," Kent replied. "Got a sun-dial +here." + +"No good. Thirty-two degrees variation o' the needle." + +"Stakes are all set." + +"'Ow did you set 'em? Compass?" + +"No; lined them up with the North Star." + +"Sure?" + +"Sure." + +Cardegee groaned, then stole a glance at the trail. The sled was +just clearing a rise, barely a mile away, and the dogs were in +full lope, running lightly. + +"'Ow close is the shadows to the line?" + +Kent walked to the primitive timepiece and studied it. "Three +inches," he announced, after a careful survey. + +"Say, jes' sing out 'eight bells' afore you pull the gun, will +you?" + +Kent agreed, and they lapsed into silence. The thongs about +Cardegee's wrists were slowly stretching, and he had begun to work +them over his hands. + +"Say, 'ow close is the shadows?" + +"One inch." + +The sailor wriggled slightly to assure himself that he would +topple over at the right moment, and slipped the first turn over +his hands. + +"'Ow close?" + +"Half an inch." Just then Kent heard the jarring churn of the +runners and turned his eyes to the trail. The driver was lying +flat on the sled and the dogs swinging down the straight stretch +to the cabin. Kent whirled back, bringing his rifle to shoulder. + +"It ain't eight bells yet!" Cardegee expostulated. "I'll 'aunt +you, sure!" + +Jacob Kent faltered. He was standing by the sun-dial, perhaps ten +paces from his victim. The man on the sled must have seen that +something unusual was taking place, for he had risen to his knees, +his whip singing viciously among the dogs. + +The shadows swept into line. Kent looked along the sights. + +"Make ready!" he commanded solemnly. "Eight b- " + +But just a fraction of a second too soon, Cardegee rolled backward +into the hole. Kent held his fire and ran to the edge. Bang! +The gun exploded full in the sailor's face as he rose to his feet. +But no smoke came from the muzzle; instead, a sheet of flame burst +from the side of the barrel near its butt, and Jacob Kent went +down. The dogs dashed up the bank, dragging the sled over his +body, and the driver sprang off as Jim Cardegee freed his hands +and drew himself from the hole. + +"Jim!" The new-comer recognized him. "What's the matter?" + +"Wot's the matter? Oh, nothink at all. It jest 'appens as I do +little things like this for my 'ealth. Wot's the matter, you +bloomin' idjit? Wot's the matter, eh? Cast me loose or I'll show +you wot! 'Urry up, or I'll 'olystone the decks with you!" + +"Huh!" he added, as the other went to work with his sheath-knife. +"Wot's the matter? I want to know. Jes' tell me that, will you, +wot's the matter? Hey?" + +Kent was quite dead when they rolled him over. The gun, an old- +fashioned, heavy-weighted muzzle-loader, lay near him. Steel and +wood had parted company. Near the butt of the right-hand barrel, +with lips pressed outward, gaped a fissure several inches in +length. The sailor picked it up, curiously. A glittering stream +of yellow dust ran out through the crack. The facts of the case +dawned upon Jim Cardegee. + +"Strike me standin'!" he roared; "'ere's a go! 'Ere's 'is +bloomin' dust! Gawd blime me, an' you, too, Charley, if you don't +run an' get the dish-pan!" + + + +JAN, THE UNREPENTANT + + + +"For there's never a law of God or man +Runs north of Fifty-three." + + +Jan rolled over, clawing and kicking. He was fighting hand and +foot now, and he fought grimly, silently. Two of the three men +who hung upon him, shouted directions to each other, and strove to +curb the short, hairy devil who would not curb. The third man +howled. His finger was between Jan's teeth. + +"Quit yer tantrums, Jan, an' ease up!" panted Red Bill, getting a +strangle-hold on Jan's neck. "Why on earth can't yeh hang decent +and peaceable?" + +But Jan kept his grip on the third man's finger, and squirmed over +the floor of the tent, into the pots and pans. + +"Youah no gentleman, suh," reproved Mr. Taylor, his body following +his finger, and endeavoring to accommodate itself to every jerk of +Jan's head. "You hev killed Mistah Gordon, as brave and honorable +a gentleman as ever hit the trail aftah the dogs. Youah a +murderah, suh, and without honah." + +"An' yer no comrade," broke in Red Bill. "If you was, you'd hang +'thout rampin' around an' roarin'. Come on, Jan, there's a good +fellow. Don't give us no more trouble. Jes' quit, an' we'll hang +yeh neat and handy, an' be done with it." + +"Steady, all!" Lawson, the sailorman, bawled. "Jam his head into +the bean pot and batten down." + +"But my fingah, suh," Mr. Taylor protested. + +"Leggo with y'r finger, then! Always in the way!" + +"But I can't, Mistah Lawson. It's in the critter's gullet, and +nigh chewed off as 't is." + +"Stand by for stays!" As Lawson gave the warning, Jan half lifted +himself, and the struggling quartet floundered across the tent +into a muddle of furs and blankets. In its passage it cleared the +body of a man, who lay motionless, bleeding from a bullet-wound in +the neck. + +All this was because of the madness which had come upon Jan--the +madness which comes upon a man who has stripped off the raw skin +of earth and grovelled long in primal nakedness, and before whose +eyes rises the fat vales of the homeland, and into whose nostrils +steals the whiff of bay, and grass, and flower, and new-turned +soil. Through five frigid years Jan had sown the seed. Stuart +River, Forty Mile, Circle City, Koyokuk, Kotzebue, had marked his +bleak and strenuous agriculture, and now it was Nome that bore the +harvest,--not the Nome of golden beaches and ruby sands, but the +Nome of '97, before Anvil City was located, or Eldorado District +organized. John Gordon was a Yankee, and should have known +better. But he passed the sharp word at a time when Jan's blood- +shot eyes blazed and his teeth gritted in torment. And because of +this, there was a smell of saltpetre in the tent, and one lay +quietly, while the other fought like a cornered rat, and refused +to hang in the decent and peacable manner suggested by his +comrades. + +"If you will allow me, Mistah Lawson, befoah we go further in this +rumpus, I would say it wah a good idea to pry this hyer varmint's +teeth apart. Neither will he bite off, nor will he let go. He +has the wisdom of the sarpint, suh, the wisdom of the sarpint." + +"Lemme get the hatchet to him!" vociferated the sailor. "Lemme +get the hatchet!" He shoved the steel edge close to Mr. Taylor's +finger and used the man's teeth as a fulcrum. Jan held on and +breathed through his nose, snorting like a grampus. "Steady, all! +Now she takes it!" + +"Thank you, suh; it is a powerful relief." And Mr. Taylor +proceeded to gather into his arms the victim's wildly waving legs. + +But Jan upreared in his Berserker rage; bleeding, frothing, +cursing; five frozen years thawing into sudden hell. They swayed +backward and forward, panted, sweated, like some cyclopean, many- +legged monster rising from the lower deeps. The slush-lamp went +over, drowned in its own fat, while the midday twilight scarce +percolated through the dirty canvas of the tent. + +"For the love of Gawd, Jan, get yer senses back!" pleaded Red +Bill. "We ain't goin' to hurt yeh, 'r kill yeh, 'r anythin' of +that sort. Jes' want to hang yeh, that's all, an' you a-messin' +round an' rampagin' somethin' terrible. To think of travellin' +trail together an' then bein' treated this-a way. Wouldn't +'bleeved it of yeh, Jan!" + +"He's got too much steerage-way. Grab holt his legs, Taylor, and +heave'm over!" + +"Yes, suh, Mistah Lawson. Do you press youah weight above, after +I give the word." The Kentuckian groped about him in the murky +darkness. "Now, suh, now is the accepted time!" + +There was a great surge, and a quarter of a ton of human flesh +tottered and crashed to its fall against the side-wall. Pegs drew +and guy-ropes parted, and the tent, collapsing, wrapped the battle +in its greasy folds. + +"Yer only makin' it harder fer yerself," Red Bill continued, at +the same time driving both his thumbs into a hairy throat, the +possessor of which he had pinned down. "You've made nuisance +enough a' ready, an' it'll take half the day to get things +straightened when we've strung yeh up." + +"I'll thank you to leave go, suh," spluttered Mr. Taylor. + +Red Bill grunted and loosed his grip, and the twain crawled out +into the open. At the same instant Jan kicked clear of the +sailor, and took to his heels across the snow. + +"Hi! you lazy devils! Buck! Bright! Sic'm! Pull 'm down!" sang +out Lawson, lunging through the snow after the fleeing man. Buck +and Bright, followed by the rest of the dogs, outstripped him and +rapidly overhauled the murderer. + +There was no reason that these men should do this; no reason for +Jan to run away; no reason for them to attempt to prevent him. On +the one hand stretched the barren snow-land; on the other, the +frozen sea. With neither food nor shelter, he could not run far. +All they had to do was to wait till he wandered back to the tent, +as he inevitably must, when the frost and hunger laid hold of him. +But these men did not stop to think. There was a certain taint of +madness running in the veins of all of them. Besides, blood had +been spilled, and upon them was the blood-lust, thick and hot. +"Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord, and He saith it in temperate +climes where the warm sun steals away the energies of men. But in +the Northland they have discovered that prayer is only efficacious +when backed by muscle, and they are accustomed to doing things for +themselves. God is everywhere, they have heard, but he flings a +shadow over the land for half the year that they may not find him; +so they grope in darkness, and it is not to be wondered that they +often doubt, and deem the Decalogue out of gear. + +Jan ran blindly, reckoning not of the way of his feet, for he was +mastered by the verb "to live." To live! To exist! Buck flashed +gray through the air, but missed. The man struck madly at him, +and stumbled. Then the white teeth of Bright closed on his +mackinaw jacket, and he pitched into the snow. TO LIVE! TO +EXIST! He fought wildly as ever, the centre of a tossing heap of +men and dogs. His left hand gripped a wolf-dog by the scruff of +the back, while the arm was passed around the neck of Lawson. +Every struggle of the dog helped to throttle the hapless sailor. +Jan's right hand was buried deep in the curling tendrils of Red +Bill's shaggy head, and beneath all, Mr. Taylor lay pinned and +helpless. It was a deadlock, for the strength of his madness was +prodigious; but suddenly, without apparent reason, Jan loosed his +various grips and rolled over quietly on his back. His +adversaries drew away a little, dubious and disconcerted. Jan +grinned viciously. + +"Mine friends," he said, still grinning, "you haf asked me to be +politeful, und now I am politeful. Vot piziness vood you do mit +me?" + +"That's right, Jan. Be ca'm," soothed Red Bill. "I knowed you'd +come to yer senses afore long. Jes' be ca'm now, an' we'll do the +trick with neatness and despatch." + +"Vot piziness? Vot trick?" + +"The hangin'. An' yeh oughter thank yer lucky stars for havin' a +man what knows his business. I've did it afore now, more'n once, +down in the States, an' I can do it to a T." + +"Hang who? Me?" + +"Yep." + +"Ha! ha! Shust hear der man speak foolishness! Gif me a hand, +Bill, und I vill get up und be hung." He crawled stiffly to his +feet and looked about him. "Herr Gott! listen to der man! He +vood hang me! Ho! ho! ho! I tank not! Yes, I tank not!" + +"And I tank yes, you swab," Lawson spoke up mockingly, at the same +time cutting a sled-lashing and coiling it up with ominous care. +"Judge Lynch holds court this day." + +"Von liddle while." Jan stepped back from the proffered noose. +"I haf somedings to ask und to make der great proposition. +Kentucky, you know about der Shudge Lynch?" + +"Yes, suh. It is an institution of free men and of gentlemen, and +it is an ole one and time-honored. Corruption may wear the robe +of magistracy, suh, but Judge Lynch can always be relied upon to +give justice without court fees. I repeat, suh, without court +fees. Law may be bought and sold, but in this enlightened land +justice is free as the air we breathe, strong as the licker we +drink, prompt as--" + +"Cut it short! Find out what the beggar wants," interrupted +Lawson, spoiling the peroration. + +"Vell, Kentucky, tell me dis: von man kill von odder man, Shudge +Lynch hang dot man?" + +"If the evidence is strong enough--yes, suh." + +"An' the evidence in this here case is strong enough to hang a +dozen men, Jan," broke in Red Bill. + +"Nefer you mind, Bill. I talk mit you next. Now von anodder ding +I ask Kentucky. If Shudge Lynch hang not der man, vot den?" + +"If Judge Lynch does not hang the man, then the man goes free, and +his hands are washed clean of blood. And further, suh, our great +and glorious constitution has said, to wit: that no man may twice +be placed in jeopardy of his life for one and the same crime, or +words to that effect." + +"Unt dey can't shoot him, or hit him mit a club over der head +alongside, or do nodings more mit him?" + +"No, suh." + +"Goot! You hear vot Kentucky speaks, all you noddleheads? Now I +talk mit Bill. You know der piziness, Bill, und you hang me up +brown, eh? Vot you say?" + +"'Betcher life, an', Jan, if yeh don't give no more trouble ye'll +be almighty proud of the job. I'm a connesoor." + +"You haf der great head, Bill, und know somedings or two. Und you +know two und one makes tree--ain't it?" + +Bill nodded. + +"Und when you haf two dings, you haf not tree dings--ain't it? +Now you follow mit me close und I show you. It takes tree dings +to hang. First ding, you haf to haf der man. Goot! I am der +man. Second ding, you haf to haf der rope. Lawson haf der rope. +Goot! Und tird ding, you haf to haf someding to tie der rope to. +Sling your eyes over der landscape und find der tird ding to tie +der rope to? Eh? Vot you say?" + +Mechanically they swept the ice and snow with their eyes. It was +a homogeneous scene, devoid of contrasts or bold contours, dreary, +desolate, and monotonous,--the ice-packed sea, the slow slope of +the beach, the background of low-lying hills, and over all thrown +the endless mantle of snow. "No trees, no bluffs, no cabins, no +telegraph poles, nothin'," moaned Red Bill; "nothin' respectable +enough nor big enough to swing the toes of a five-foot man clear +o' the ground. I give it up." He looked yearningly at that +portion of Jan's anatomy which joins the head and shoulders. +"Give it up," he repeated sadly to Lawson. "Throw the rope down. +Gawd never intended this here country for livin' purposes, an' +that's a cold frozen fact." + +Jan grinned triumphantly. "I tank I go mit der tent und haf a +smoke." + +"Ostensiblee y'r correct, Bill, me son," spoke up Lawson; "but y'r +a dummy, and you can lay to that for another cold frozen fact. +Takes a sea farmer to learn you landsmen things. Ever hear of a +pair of shears? Then clap y'r eyes to this." + +The sailor worked rapidly. From the pile of dunnage where they +had pulled up the boat the preceding fall, he unearthed a pair of +long oars. These he lashed together, at nearly right angles, +close to the ends of the blades. Where the handles rested he +kicked holes through the snow to the sand. At the point of +intersection he attached two guy-ropes, making the end of one fast +to a cake of beach-ice. The other guy he passed over to Red Bill. +"Here, me son, lay holt o' that and run it out." + +And to his horror, Jan saw his gallows rise in the air. "No! no!" +he cried, recoiling and putting up his fists. "It is not goot! I +vill not hang! Come, you noddleheads! I vill lick you, all +together, von after der odder! I vill blay hell! I vill do +eferydings! Und I vill die pefore I hang!" + +The sailor permitted the two other men to clinch with the mad +creature. They rolled and tossed about furiously, tearing up snow +and tundra, their fierce struggle writing a tragedy of human +passion on the white sheet spread by nature. And ever and anon a +hand or foot of Jan emerged from the tangle, to be gripped by +Lawson and lashed fast with rope-yarns. Pawing, clawing, +blaspheming, he was conquered and bound, inch by inch, and drawn +to where the inexorable shears lay like a pair of gigantic +dividers on the snow. Red Bill adjusted the noose, placing the +hangman's knot properly under the left ear. Mr. Taylor and Lawson +tailed onto the running-guy, ready at the word to elevate the +gallows. Bill lingered, contemplating his work with artistic +appreciation. + +"Herr Gott! Vood you look at it!" + +The horror in Jan's voice caused the rest to desist. The fallen +tent had uprisen, and in the gathering twilight it flapped ghostly +arms about and titubated toward them drunkenly. But the next +instant John Gordon found the opening and crawled forth. + +"What the flaming--!" For the moment his voice died away in his +throat as his eyes took in the tableau. "Hold on! I'm not dead!" +he cried out, coming up to the group with stormy countenance. + +"Allow me, Mistah Gordon, to congratulate you upon youah escape," +Mr. Taylor ventured. "A close shave, suh, a powahful close +shave." + +" Congratulate hell! I might have been dead and rotten and no +thanks to you, you--!" And thereat John Gordon delivered himself +of a vigorous flood of English, terse, intensive, denunciative, +and composed solely of expletives and adjectives. + +"Simply creased me," he went on when he had eased himself +sufficiently. "Ever crease cattle, Taylor?" + +"Yes, suh, many a time down in God's country." + +"Just so. That's what happened to me. Bullet just grazed the +base of my skull at the top of the neck. Stunned me but no harm +done." He turned to the bound man. "Get up, Jan. I'm going to +lick you to a standstill or you're going to apologize. The rest +of you lads stand clear." + +"I tank not. Shust tie me loose und you see," replied Jan, the +Unrepentant, the devil within him still unconquered. "Und after +as I lick you, I take der rest of der noddleheads, von after der +odder, altogedder!" + + + +GRIT OF WOMEN + + + +A wolfish head, wistful-eyed and frost-rimed, thrust aside the +tent-flaps. + +"Hi! Chook! Siwash! Chook, you limb of Satan!" chorused the +protesting inmates. Bettles rapped the dog sharply with a tin +plate, and it withdrew hastily. Louis Savoy refastened the flaps, +kicked a frying-pan over against the bottom, and warmed his hands. +It was very cold without. Forty-eight hours gone, the spirit +thermometer had burst at sixty-eight below, and since that time it +had grown steadily and bitterly colder. There was no telling when +the snap would end. And it is poor policy, unless the gods will +it, to venture far from a stove at such times, or to increase the +quantity of cold atmosphere one must breathe. Men sometimes do +it, and sometimes they chill their lungs. This leads up to a dry, +hacking cough, noticeably irritable when bacon is being fried. +After that, somewhere along in the spring or summer, a hole is +burned in the frozen muck. Into this a man's carcass is dumped, +covered over with moss, and left with the assurance that it will +rise on the crack of Doom, wholly and frigidly intact. For those +of little faith, sceptical of material integration on that fateful +day, no fitter country than the Klondike can be recommended to die +in. But it is not to be inferred from this that it is a fit +country for living purposes. + +It was very cold without, but it was not over-warm within. The +only article which might be designated furniture was the stove, +and for this the men were frank in displaying their preference. +Upon half of the floor pine boughs had been cast; above this were +spread the sleeping-furs, beneath lay the winter's snowfall. The +remainder of the floor was moccasin-packed snow, littered with +pots and pans and the general impedimenta of an Arctic camp. The +stove was red and roaring hot, but only a bare three feet away lay +a block of ice, as sharp-edged and dry as when first quarried from +the creek bottom. The pressure of the outside cold forced the +inner heat upward. Just above the stove, where the pipe +penetrated the roof, was a tiny circle of dry canvas; next, with +the pipe always as centre, a circle of steaming canvas; next a +damp and moisture-exuding ring; and finally, the rest of the tent, +sidewalls and top, coated with a half-inch of dry, white, crystal- +encrusted frost. + +"Oh! OH! OH!" A young fellow, lying asleep in the furs, bearded +and wan and weary, raised a moan of pain, and without waking +increased the pitch and intensity of his anguish. His body half- +lifted from the blankets, and quivered and shrank spasmodically, +as though drawing away from a bed of nettles. + +"Roll'm over!" ordered Bettles. "He's crampin'." + +And thereat, with pitiless good-will, he was pitched upon and +rolled and thumped and pounded by half-a-dozen willing comrades. + +"Damn the trail," he muttered softly, as he threw off the robes +and sat up. "I've run across country, played quarter three +seasons hand-running, and hardened myself in all manner of ways; +and then I pilgrim it into this God-forsaken land and find myself +an effeminate Athenian without the simplest rudiments of manhood!" +He hunched up to the fire and rolled a cigarette. "Oh, I'm not +whining. I can take my medicine all right, all right; but I'm +just decently ashamed of myself, that's all. Here I am, on top of +a dirty thirty miles, as knocked up and stiff and sore as a pink- +tea degenerate after a five-mile walk on a country turn-pike. +Bah! It makes me sick! Got a match?" "Don't git the tantrums, +youngster." Bettles passed over the required fire-stick and waxed +patriarchal. "Ye've gotter 'low some for the breakin'-in. +Sufferin' cracky! don't I recollect the first time I hit the +trail! Stiff? I've seen the time it'd take me ten minutes to git +my mouth from the waterhole an' come to my feet--every jint +crackin' an' kickin' fit to kill. Cramp? In sech knots it'd take +the camp half a day to untangle me. You're all right, for a cub, +any ye've the true sperrit. Come this day year, you'll walk all +us old bucks into the ground any time. An' best in your favor, +you hain't got that streak of fat in your make-up which has sent +many a husky man to the bosom of Abraham afore his right and +proper time." + +"Streak of fat?" + +"Yep. Comes along of bulk. 'T ain't the big men as is the best +when it comes to the trail." + +"Never heard of it." + +"Never heered of it, eh? Well, it's a dead straight, open-an'- +shut fact, an' no gittin' round. Bulk's all well enough for a +mighty big effort, but 'thout stayin' powers it ain't worth a +continental whoop; an' stayin' powers an' bulk ain't runnin' +mates. Takes the small, wiry fellows when it comes to gittin' +right down an' hangin' on like a lean-jowled dog to a bone. Why, +hell's fire, the big men they ain't in it!" + +"By gar!" broke in Louis Savoy, "dat is no, vot you call, josh! I +know one mans, so vaire beeg like ze buffalo. Wit him, on ze +Sulphur Creek stampede, go one small mans, Lon McFane. You know +dat Lon McFane, dat leetle Irisher wit ze red hair and ze grin. +An' dey walk an' walk an' walk, all ze day long an' ze night long. +And beeg mans, him become vaire tired, an' lay down mooch in ze +snow. And leetle mans keek beeg mans, an' him cry like, vot you +call--ah! vot you call ze kid. And leetle mans keek an' keek an' +keek, an' bime by, long time, long way, keek beeg mans into my +cabin. Tree days 'fore him crawl out my blankets. Nevaire I see +beeg squaw like him. No nevaire. Him haf vot you call ze streak +of fat. You bet." + +"But there was Axel Gunderson," Prince spoke up. The great +Scandinavian, with the tragic events which shadowed his passing, +had made a deep mark on the mining engineer. "He lies up there, +somewhere." He swept his hand in the vague direction of the +mysterious east. + +"Biggest man that ever turned his heels to Salt Water, or run a +moose down with sheer grit," supplemented Bettles; "but he's the +prove-the-rule exception. Look at his woman, Unga,--tip the +scales at a hundred an' ten, clean meat an' nary ounce to spare. +She'd bank grit 'gainst his for all there was in him, an' see him, +an' go him better if it was possible. Nothing over the earth, or +in it, or under it, she wouldn't 'a' done." + +"But she loved him," objected the engineer. + +"'T ain't that. It--" + +"Look you, brothers," broke in Sitka Charley from his seat on the +grub-box. "Ye have spoken of the streak of fat that runs in big +men's muscles, of the grit of women and the love, and ye have +spoken fair; but I have in mind things which happened when the +land was young and the fires of men apart as the stars. It was +then I had concern with a big man, and a streak of fat, and a +woman. And the woman was small; but her heart was greater than +the beef-heart of the man, and she had grit. And we traveled a +weary trail, even to the Salt Water, and the cold was bitter, the +snow deep, the hunger great. And the woman's love was a mighty +love--no more can man say than this." + +He paused, and with the hatchet broke pieces of ice from the large +chunk beside him. These he threw into the gold pan on the stove, +where the drinking-water thawed. The men drew up closer, and he +of the cramps sought greater comfort vainly for his stiffened +body. + +"Brothers, my blood is red with Siwash, but my heart is white. To +the faults of my fathers I owe the one, to the virtues of my +friends the other. A great truth came to me when I was yet a boy. +I learned that to your kind and you was given the earth; that the +Siwash could not withstand you, and like the caribou and the bear, +must perish in the cold. So I came into the warm and sat among +you, by your fires, and behold, I became one of you, I have seen +much in my time. I have known strange things, and bucked big, on +big trails, with men of many breeds. And because of these things, +I measure deeds after your manner, and judge men, and think +thoughts. Wherefore, when I speak harshly of one of your own +kind, I know you will not take it amiss; and when I speak high of +one of my father's people, you will not take it upon you to say, +'Sitka Charley is Siwash, and there is a crooked light in his eyes +and small honor to his tongue.' Is it not so?" + +Deep down in throat, the circle vouchsafed its assent. + +"The woman was Passuk. I got her in fair trade from her people, +who were of the Coast and whose Chilcat totem stood at the head of +a salt arm of the sea. My heart did not go out to the woman, nor +did I take stock of her looks. For she scarce took her eyes from +the ground, and she was timid and afraid, as girls will be when +cast into a stranger's arms whom they have never seen before. As +I say, there was no place in my heart for her to creep, for I had +a great journey in mind, and stood in need of one to feed my dogs +and to lift a paddle with me through the long river days. One +blanket would cover the twain; so I chose Passuk. + +"Have I not said I was a servant to the Government? If not, it is +well that ye know. So I was taken on a warship, sleds and dogs +and evaporated foods, and with me came Passuk. And we went north, +to the winter ice-rim of Bering Sea, where we were landed,-- +myself, and Passuk, and the dogs. I was also given moneys of the +Government, for I was its servant, and charts of lands which the +eyes of man had never dwelt upon, and messages. These messages +were sealed, and protected shrewdly from the weather, and I was to +deliver them to the whale-ships of the Arctic, ice-bound by the +great Mackenzie. Never was there so great a river, forgetting +only our own Yukon, the Mother of all Rivers. + +"All of which is neither here nor there, for my story deals not +with the whale-ships, nor the berg-bound winter I spent by the +Mackenzie. Afterward, in the spring, when the days lengthened and +there was a crust to the snow, we came south, Passuk and I, to the +Country of the Yukon. A weary journey, but the sun pointed out +the way of our feet. It was a naked land then, as I have said, +and we worked up the current, with pole and paddle, till we came +to Forty Mile. Good it was to see white faces once again, so we +put into the bank. And that winter was a hard winter. The +darkness and the cold drew down upon us, and with them the famine. +To each man the agent of the Company gave forty pounds of flour +and twenty of bacon. There were no beans. And, the dogs howled +always, and there were flat bellies and deep-lined faces, and +strong men became weak, and weak men died. There was also much +scurvy. + +"Then came we together in the store one night, and the empty +shelves made us feel our own emptiness the more. We talked low, +by the light of the fire, for the candles had been set aside for +those who might yet gasp in the spring. Discussion was held, and +it was said that a man must go forth to the Salt Water and tell to +the world our misery. At this all eyes turned to me, for it was +understood that I was a great traveler. 'It is seven hundred +miles,' said I, 'to Haines Mission by the sea, and every inch of +it snowshoe work. Give me the pick of your dogs and the best of +your grub, and I will go. And with me shall go Passuk.' + +"To this they were agreed. But there arose one, Long Jeff, a +Yankee-man, big-boned and big-muscled. Also his talk was big. +He, too, was a mighty traveler, he said, born to the snowshoe and +bred up on buffalo milk. He would go with me, in case I fell by +the trail, that he might carry the word on to the Mission. I was +young, and I knew not Yankee-men. How was I to know that big talk +betokened the streak of fat, or that Yankee-men who did great +things kept their teeth together? So we took the pick of the dogs +and the best of the grub, and struck the trail, we three,--Passuk, +Long Jeff, and I. + +"Well, ye have broken virgin snow, labored at the gee-pole, and +are not unused to the packed river-jams; so I will talk little of +the toil, save that on some days we made ten miles, and on others +thirty, but more often ten. And the best of the grub was not +good, while we went on stint from the start. Likewise the pick of +the dogs was poor, and we were hard put to keep them on their +legs. At the White River our three sleds became two sleds, and we +had only come two hundred miles. But we lost nothing; the dogs +that left the traces went into the bellies of those that remained. + +"Not a greeting, not a curl of smoke, till we made Pelly. Here I +had counted on grub; and here I had counted on leaving Long Jeff, +who was whining and trail-sore. But the factor's lungs were +wheezing, his eyes bright, his cache nigh empty; and he showed us +the empty cache of the missionary, also his grave with the rocks +piled high to keep off the dogs. There was a bunch of Indians +there, but babies and old men there were none, and it was clear +that few would see the spring. + +"So we pulled on, light-stomached and heavy-hearted, with half a +thousand miles of snow and silence between us and Haines Mission +by the sea. The darkness was at its worst, and at midday the sun +could not clear the sky-line to the south. But the ice-jams were +smaller, the going better; so I pushed the dogs hard and traveled +late and early. As I said at Forty Mile, every inch of it was +snow-shoe work. And the shoes made great sores on our feet, which +cracked and scabbed but would not heal. And every day these sores +grew more grievous, till in the morning, when we girded on the +shoes, Long Jeff cried like a child. I put him at the fore of the +light sled to break trail, but he slipped off the shoes for +comfort. Because of this the trail was not packed, his moccasins +made great holes, and into these holes the dogs wallowed. The +bones of the dogs were ready to break through their hides, and +this was not good for them. So I spoke hard words to the man, and +he promised, and broke his word. Then I beat him with the dog- +whip, and after that the dogs wallowed no more. He was a child, +what of the pain and the streak of fat. + +"But Passuk. While the man lay by the fire and wept, she cooked, +and in the morning helped lash the sleds, and in the evening to +unlash them. And she saved the dogs. Ever was she to the fore, +lifting the webbed shoes and making the way easy. Passuk--how +shall I say?--I took it for granted that she should do these +things, and thought no more about it. For my mind was busy with +other matters, and besides, I was young in years and knew little +of woman. It was only on looking back that I came to understand. + +"And the man became worthless. The dogs had little strength in +them, but he stole rides on the sled when he lagged behind. +Passuk said she would take the one sled, so the man had nothing to +do. In the morning I gave him his fair share of grub and started +him on the trail alone. Then the woman and I broke camp, packed +the sleds, and harnessed the dogs. By midday, when the sun mocked +us, we would overtake the man, with the tears frozen on his +cheeks, and pass him. In the night we made camp, set aside his +fair share of grub, and spread his furs. Also we made a big fire, +that he might see. And hours afterward he would come limping in, +and eat his grub with moans and groans, and sleep. He was not +sick, this man. He was only trail-sore and tired, and weak with +hunger. But Passuk and I were trail-sore and tired, and weak with +hunger; and we did all the work and he did none. But he had the +streak of fat of which our brother Bettles has spoken. Further, +we gave the man always his fair share of grub. + +"Then one day we met two ghosts journeying through the Silence. +They were a man and a boy, and they were white. The ice had +opened on Lake Le Barge, and through it had gone their main +outfit. One blanket each carried about his shoulders. At night +they built a fire and crouched over it till morning. They had a +little flour. This they stirred in warm water and drank. The man +showed me eight cups of flour--all they had, and Pelly, stricken +with famine, two hundred miles away. They said, also, that there +was an Indian behind; that they had whacked fair, but that he +could not keep up. I did not believe they had whacked fair, else +would the Indian have kept up. But I could give them no grub. +They strove to steal a dog--the fattest, which was very thin--but +I shoved my pistol in their faces and told them begone. And they +went away, like drunken men, through the Silence toward Pelly. + +"I had three dogs now, and one sled, and the dogs were only bones +and hair. When there is little wood, the fire burns low and the +cabin grows cold. So with us. With little grub the frost bites +sharp, and our faces were black and frozen till our own mothers +would not have known us. And our feet were very sore. In the +morning, when I hit the trail, I sweated to keep down the cry when +the pain of the snowshoes smote me. Passuk never opened her lips, +but stepped to the fore to break the way. The man howled. + +"The Thirty Mile was swift, and the current ate away the ice from +beneath, and there were many air-holes and cracks, and much open +water. One day we came upon the man, resting, for he had gone +ahead, as was his wont, in the morning. But between us was open +water. This he had passed around by taking to the rim-ice where +it was too narrow for a sled. So we found an ice-bridge. Passuk +weighed little, and went first, with a long pole crosswise in her +hands in chance she broke through. But she was light, and her +shoes large, and she passed over. Then she called the dogs. But +they had neither poles nor shoes, and they broke through and were +swept under by the water. I held tight to the sled from behind, +till the traces broke and the dogs went on down under the ice. +There was little meat to them, but I had counted on them for a +week's grub, and they were gone. + +"The next morning I divided all the grub, which was little, into +three portions. And I told Long Jeff that he could keep up with +us, or not, as he saw fit; for we were going to travel light and +fast. But he raised his voice and cried over his sore feet and +his troubles, and said harsh things against comradeship. Passuk's +feet were sore, and my feet were sore--ay, sorer than his, for we +had worked with the dogs; also, we looked to see. Long Jeff swore +he would die before he hit the trail again; so Passuk took a fur +robe, and I a cooking pot and an axe, and we made ready to go. +But she looked on the man's portion, and said, 'It is wrong to +waste good food on a baby. He is better dead.' I shook my head +and said no--that a comrade once was a comrade always. Then she +spoke of the men of Forty Mile; that they were many men and good; +and that they looked to me for grub in the spring. But when I +still said no, she snatched the pistol from my belt, quick, and as +our brother Bettles has spoken, Long Jeff went to the bosom of +Abraham before his time. I chided Passuk for this; but she showed +no sorrow, nor was she sorrowful. And in my heart I knew she was +right." + +Sitka Charley paused and threw pieces of ice into the gold pan on +the stove. The men were silent, and their backs chilled to the +sobbing cries of the dogs as they gave tongue to their misery in +the outer cold. + +"And day by day we passed in the snow the sleeping-places of the +two ghosts--Passuk and I--and we knew we would be glad for such +ere we made Salt Water. Then we came to the Indian, like another +ghost, with his face set toward Pelly. They had not whacked up +fair, the man and the boy, he said, and he had had no flour for +three days. Each night he boiled pieces of his moccasins in a +cup, and ate them. He did not have much moccasins left. And he +was a Coast Indian, and told us these things through Passuk, who +talked his tongue. He was a stranger in the Yukon, and he knew +not the way, but his face was set to Pelly. How far was it? Two +sleeps? ten? a hundred--he did not know, but he was going to +Pelly. It was too far to turn back; he could only keep on. + +"He did not ask for grub, for he could see we, too, were hard put. +Passuk looked at the man, and at me, as though she were of two +minds, like a mother partridge whose young are in trouble. So I +turned to her and said, 'This man has been dealt unfair. Shall I +give him of our grub a portion?' I saw her eyes light, as with +quick pleasure; but she looked long at the man and at me, and her +mouth drew close and hard, and she said, 'No. The Salt Water is +afar off, and Death lies in wait. Better it is that he take this +stranger man and let my man Charley pass.' So the man went away +in the Silence toward Pelly. That night she wept. Never had I +seen her weep before. Nor was it the smoke of the fire, for the +wood was dry wood. So I marveled at her sorrow, and thought her +woman's heart had grown soft at the darkness of the trail and the +pain. + +"Life is a strange thing. Much have I thought on it, and pondered +long, yet daily the strangeness of it grows not less, but more. +Why this longing for Life? It is a game which no man wins. To +live is to toil hard, and to suffer sore, till Old Age creeps +heavily upon us and we throw down our hands on the cold ashes of +dead fires. It is hard to live. In pain the babe sucks his first +breath, in pain the old man gasps his last, and all his days are +full of trouble and sorrow; yet he goes down to the open arms of +Death, stumbling, falling, with head turned backward, fighting to +the last. And Death is kind. It is only Life, and the things of +Life that hurt. Yet we love Life, and we hate Death. It is very +strange. + +"We spoke little, Passuk and I, in the days which came. In the +night we lay in the snow like dead people, and in the morning we +went on our way, walking like dead people. And all things were +dead. There were no ptarmigan, no squirrels, no snowshoe +rabbits,--nothing. The river made no sound beneath its white +robes. The sap was frozen in the forest. And it became cold, as +now; and in the night the stars drew near and large, and leaped +and danced; and in the day the sun-dogs mocked us till we saw many +suns, and all the air flashed and sparkled, and the snow was +diamond dust. And there was no heat, no sound, only the bitter +cold and the Silence. As I say, we walked like dead people, as in +a dream, and we kept no count of time. Only our faces were set to +Salt Water, our souls strained for Salt Water, and our feet +carried us toward Salt Water. We camped by the Tahkeena, and knew +it not. Our eyes looked upon the White Horse, but we saw it not. +Our feet trod the portage of the Canyon, but they felt it not. We +felt nothing. And we fell often by the way, but we fell, always, +with our faces toward Salt Water. + +"Our last grub went, and we had shared fair, Passuk and I, but she +fell more often, and at Caribou Crossing her strength left her. +And in the morning we lay beneath the one robe and did not take +the trail. It was in my mind to stay there and meet Death hand- +in-hand with Passuk; for I had grown old, and had learned the love +of woman. Also, it was eighty miles to Haines Mission, and the +great Chilcoot, far above the timber-line, reared his storm-swept +head between. But Passuk spoke to me, low, with my ear against +her lips that I might hear. And now, because she need not fear my +anger, she spoke her heart, and told me of her love, and of many +things which I did not understand. + +"And she said: 'You are my man, Charley, and I have been a good +woman to you. And in all the days I have made your fire, and +cooked your food, and fed your dogs, and lifted paddle or broken +trail, I have not complained. Nor did I say that there was more +warmth in the lodge of my father, or that there was more grub on +the Chilcat. When you have spoken, I have listened. When you +have ordered, I have obeyed. Is it not so, Charley?' + +"And I said: 'Ay, it is so.' + +"And she said: 'When first you came to the Chilcat, nor looked +upon me, but bought me as a man buys a dog, and took me away, my +heart was hard against you and filled with bitterness and fear. +But that was long ago. For you were kind to me, Charley, as a +good man is kind to his dog. Your heart was cold, and there was +no room for me; yet you dealt me fair and your ways were just. +And I was with you when you did bold deeds and led great ventures, +and I measured you against the men of other breeds, and I saw you +stood among them full of honor, and your word was wise, your +tongue true. And I grew proud of you, till it came that you +filled all my heart, and all my thought was of you. You were as +the midsummer sun, when its golden trail runs in a circle and +never leaves the sky. And whatever way I cast my eyes I beheld +the sun. But your heart was ever cold, Charley, and there was no +room.' + +"And I said: 'It is so. It was cold, and there was no room. But +that is past. Now my heart is like the snowfall in the spring, +when the sun has come back. There is a great thaw and a bending, +a sound of running waters, and a budding and sprouting of green +things. And there is drumming of partridges, and songs of robins, +and great music, for the winter is broken, Passuk, and I have +learned the love of woman.' + +"She smiled and moved for me to draw her closer. And she said, 'I +am glad.' After that she lay quiet for a long time, breathing +softly, her head upon my breast. Then she whispered: 'The trail +ends here, and I am tired. But first I would speak of other +things. In the long ago, when I was a girl on the Chilcat, I +played alone among the skin bales of my father's lodge; for the +men were away on the hunt, and the women and boys were dragging in +the meat. It was in the spring, and I was alone. A great brown +bear, just awake from his winter's sleep, hungry, his fur hanging +to the bones in flaps of leanness, shoved his head within the +lodge and said, "Oof!" My brother came running back with the +first sled of meat. And he fought the bear with burning sticks +from the fire, and the dogs in their harnesses, with the sled +behind them, fell upon the bear. There was a great battle and +much noise. They rolled in the fire, the skin bales were +scattered, the lodge overthrown. But in the end the bear lay +dead, with the fingers of my brother in his mouth and the marks of +his claws upon my brother's face. Did you mark the Indian by the +Pelly trail, his mitten which had no thumb, his hand which he +warmed by our fire? He was my brother. And I said he should have +no grub. And he went away in the Silence without grub.' + +"This, my brothers, was the love of Passuk, who died in the snow, +by the Caribou Crossing. It was a mighty love, for she denied her +brother for the man who led her away on weary trails to a bitter +end. And, further, such was this woman's love, she denied +herself. Ere her eyes closed for the last time she took my hand +and slipped it under her squirrel-skin parka to her waist. I felt +there a well-filled pouch, and learned the secret of her lost +strength. Day by day we had shared fair, to the last least bit; +and day by day but half her share had she eaten. The other half +had gone into the well-filled pouch. + +"And she said: 'This is the end of the trail for Passuk; but your +trail, Charley, leads on and on, over the great Chilcoot, down to +Haines Mission and the sea. And it leads on and on, by the light +of many suns, over unknown lands and strange waters, and it is +full of years and honors and great glories. It leads you to the +lodges of many women, and good women, but it will never lead you +to a greater love than the love of Passuk.' + +"And I knew the woman spoke true. But a madness came upon me, and +I threw the well-filled pouch from me, and swore that my trail had +reached an end, till her tired eyes grew soft with tears, and she +said: 'Among men has Sitka Charley walked in honor, and ever has +his word been true. Does he forget that honor now, and talk vain +words by the Caribou Crossing? Does he remember no more the men +of Forty Mile, who gave him of their grub the best, of their dogs +the pick? Ever has Passuk been proud of her man. Let him lift +himself up, gird on his snow-shoes, and begone, that she may still +keep her pride.' + +"And when she grew cold in my arms I arose, and sought out the +well-filled pouch, and girt on my snowshoes, and staggered along +the trail; for there was a weakness in my knees, and my head was +dizzy, and in my ears there was a roaring, and a flashing of fire +upon my eyes. The forgotten trails of boyhood came back to me. I +sat by the full pots of the potlach feast, and raised my voice in +song, and danced to the chanting of the men and maidens and the +booming of the walrus drums. And Passuk held my hand and walked +by my side. When I laid down to sleep, she waked me. When I +stumbled and fell, she raised me. When I wandered in the deep +snow, she led me back to the trail. And in this wise, like a man +bereft of reason, who sees strange visions and whose thoughts are +light with wine, I came to Haines Mission by the sea." + +Sitka Charley threw back the tent-flaps. It was midday. To the +south, just clearing the bleak Henderson Divide, poised the cold- +disked sun. On either hand the sun-dogs blazed. The air was a +gossamer of glittering frost. In the foreground, beside the +trail, a wolf-dog, bristling with frost, thrust a long snout +heavenward and mourned. + + + +WHERE THE TRAIL FORKS + + + +"Must I, then, must I, then, now leave this town - +And you, my love, stay here?"--Schwabian Folk-song. + + +The singer, clean-faced and cheery-eyed, bent over and added water +to a pot of simmering beans, and then, rising, a stick of firewood +in hand, drove back the circling dogs from the grub-box and +cooking-gear. He was blue of eye, and his long hair was golden, +and it was a pleasure to look upon his lusty freshness. A new +moon was thrusting a dim horn above the white line of close-packed +snow-capped pines which ringed the camp and segregated it from all +the world. Overhead, so clear it was and cold, the stars danced +with quick, pulsating movements. To the southeast an evanescent +greenish glow heralded the opening revels of the aurora borealis. +Two men, in the immediate foreground, lay upon the bearskin which +was their bed. Between the skin and naked snow was a six-inch +layer of pine boughs. The blankets were rolled back. For +shelter, there was a fly at their backs,--a sheet of canvas +stretched between two trees and angling at forty-five degrees. +This caught the radiating heat from the fire and flung it down +upon the skin. Another man sat on a sled, drawn close to the +blaze, mending moccasins. To the right, a heap of frozen gravel +and a rude windlass denoted where they toiled each day in dismal +groping for the pay-streak. To the left, four pairs of snowshoes +stood erect, showing the mode of travel which obtained when the +stamped snow of the camp was left behind. + +That Schwabian folk-song sounded strangely pathetic under the cold +northern stars, and did not do the men good who lounged about the +fire after the toil of the day. It put a dull ache into their +hearts, and a yearning which was akin to belly-hunger, and sent +their souls questing southward across the divides to the sun- +lands. + +"For the love of God, Sigmund, shut up!" expostulated one of the +men. His hands were clenched painfully, but he hid them from +sight in the folds of the bearskin upon which he lay. + +"And what for, Dave Wertz?" Sigmund demanded. "Why shall I not +sing when the heart is glad?" + +"Because you've got no call to, that's why. Look about you, man, +and think of the grub we've been defiling our bodies with for the +last twelvemonth, and the way we've lived and worked like beasts!" + +Thus abjured, Sigmund, the golden-haired, surveyed it all, and the +frost-rimmed wolf-dogs and the vapor breaths of the men. "And why +shall not the heart be glad?" he laughed. "It is good; it is all +good. As for the grub--" He doubled up his arm and caressed the +swelling biceps. "And if we have lived and worked like beasts, +have we not been paid like kings? Twenty dollars to the pan the +streak is running, and we know it to be eight feet thick. It is +another Klondike--and we know it--Jim Hawes there, by your elbow, +knows it and complains not. And there's Hitchcock! He sews +moccasins like an old woman, and waits against the time. Only you +can't wait and work until the wash-up in the spring. Then we +shall all be rich, rich as kings, only you cannot wait. You want +to go back to the States. So do I, and I was born there, but I +can wait, when each day the gold in the pan shows up yellow as +butter in the churning. But you want your good time, and, like a +child, you cry for it now. Bah! Why shall I not sing: + + +"In a year, in a year, when the grapes are ripe, +I shall stay no more away. +Then if you still are true, my love, +It will be our wedding day. +In a year, in a year, when my time is past, +Then I'll live in your love for aye. +Then if you still are true, my love, +It will be our wedding day." + + +The dogs, bristling and growling, drew in closer to the firelight. +There was a monotonous crunch-crunch of webbed shoes, and between +each crunch the dragging forward of the heel of the shoe like the +sound of sifting sugar. Sigmund broke off from his song to hurl +oaths and firewood at the animals. Then the light was parted by a +fur-clad figure, and an Indian girl slipped out of the webs, threw +back the hood of her squirrel-skin parka, and stood in their +midst. Sigmund and the men on the bearskin greeted her as +"Sipsu," with the customary "Hello," but Hitchcock made room on +the sled that she might sit beside him. + +"And how goes it, Sipsu?" he asked, talking, after her fashion, in +broken English and bastard Chinook. "Is the hunger still mighty +in the camp? and has the witch doctor yet found the cause +wherefore game is scarce and no moose in the land?" + +"Yes; even so. There is little game, and we prepare to eat the +dogs. Also has the witch doctor found the cause of all this evil, +and to-morrow will he make sacrifice and cleanse the camp." + +"And what does the sacrifice chance to be?--a new-born babe or +some poor devil of a squaw, old and shaky, who is a care to the +tribe and better out of the way?" + +"It chanced not that wise; for the need was great, and he chose +none other than the chief's daughter; none other than I, Sipsu." + +"Hell!" The word rose slowly to Hitchcock's lips, and brimmed +over full and deep, in a way which bespoke wonder and +consideration. + +"Wherefore we stand by a forking of the trail, you and I," she +went on calmly, "and I have come that we may look once more upon +each other, and once more only." + +She was born of primitive stock, and primitive had been her +traditions and her days; so she regarded life stoically, and human +sacrifice as part of the natural order. The powers which ruled +the day-light and the dark, the flood and the frost, the bursting +of the bud and the withering of the leaf, were angry and in need +of propitiation. This they exacted in many ways,--death in the +bad water, through the treacherous ice-crust, by the grip of the +grizzly, or a wasting sickness which fell upon a man in his own +lodge till he coughed, and the life of his lungs went out through +his mouth and nostrils. Likewise did the powers receive +sacrifice. It was all one. And the witch doctor was versed in +the thoughts of the powers and chose unerringly. It was very +natural. Death came by many ways, yet was it all one after all,-- +a manifestation of the all-powerful and inscrutable. + +But Hitchcock came of a later world-breed. His traditions were +less concrete and without reverence, and he said, "Not so, Sipsu. +You are young, and yet in the full joy of life. The witch doctor +is a fool, and his choice is evil. This thing shall not be." + +She smiled and answered, "Life is not kind, and for many reasons. +First, it made of us twain the one white and the other red, which +is bad. Then it crossed our trails, and now it parts them again; +and we can do nothing. Once before, when the gods were angry, did +your brothers come to the camp. They were three, big men and +white, and they said the thing shall not be. But they died +quickly, and the thing was." + +Hitchcock nodded that he heard, half-turned, and lifted his voice. +"Look here, you fellows! There's a lot of foolery going on over +to the camp, and they're getting ready to murder Sipsu. What d'ye +say?" + +Wertz looked at Hawes, and Hawes looked back, but neither spoke. +Sigmund dropped his head, and petted the shepherd dog between his +knees. He had brought Shep in with him from the outside, and +thought a great deal of the animal. In fact, a certain girl, who +was much in his thoughts, and whose picture in the little locket +on his breast often inspired him to sing, had given him the dog +and her blessing when they kissed good-by and he started on his +Northland quest. + +"What d'ye say?" Hitchcock repeated. + +"Mebbe it's not so serious," Hawes answered with deliberation. +"Most likely it's only a girl's story." + +"That isn't the point!" Hitchcock felt a hot flush of anger sweep +over him at their evident reluctance. "The question is, if it is +so, are we going to stand it? What are we going to do?" + +"I don't see any call to interfere," spoke up Wertz. "If it is +so, it is so, and that's all there is about it. It's a way these +people have of doing. It's their religion, and it's no concern of +ours. Our concern is to get the dust and then get out of this +God-forsaken land. 'T isn't fit for naught else but beasts? And +what are these black devils but beasts? Besides, it'd be damn +poor policy." + +"That's what I say," chimed in Hawes. "Here we are, four of us, +three hundred miles from the Yukon or a white face. And what can +we do against half-a-hundred Indians? If we quarrel with them, we +have to vamose; if we fight, we are wiped out. Further, we've +struck pay, and, by God! I, for one, am going to stick by it!" + +"Ditto here," supplemented Wertz. + +Hitchcock turned impatiently to Sigmund, who was softly singing, - + + +"In a year, in a year, when the grapes are ripe, +I shall stay no more away." + + +"Well, it's this way, Hitchcock," he finally said, "I'm in the +same boat with the rest. If three-score bucks have made up their +mind to kill the girl, why, we can't help it. One rush, and we'd +be wiped off the landscape. And what good'd that be? They'd +still have the girl. There's no use in going against the customs +of a people except you're in force." + +"But we are in force!" Hitchcock broke in. "Four whites are a +match for a hundred times as many reds. And think of the girl!" + +Sigmund stroked the dog meditatively. "But I do think of the +girl. And her eyes are blue like summer skies, and laughing like +summer seas, and her hair is yellow, like mine, and braided in +ropes the size of a big man's arms. She's waiting for me, out +there, in a better land. And she's waited long, and now my pile's +in sight I'm not going to throw it away." + +"And shamed I would be to look into the girl's blue eyes and +remember the black ones of the girl whose blood was on my hands," +Hitchcock sneered; for he was born to honor and championship, and +to do the thing for the thing's sake, nor stop to weigh or +measure. + +Sigmund shook his head. "You can't make me mad, Hitchcock, nor do +mad things because of your madness. It's a cold business +proposition and a question of facts. I didn't come to this +country for my health, and, further, it's impossible for us to +raise a hand. If it is so, it is too bad for the girl, that's +all. It's a way of her people, and it just happens we're on the +spot this one time. They've done the same for a thousand-thousand +years, and they're going to do it now, and they'll go on doing it +for all time to come. Besides, they're not our kind. Nor's the +girl. No, I take my stand with Wertz and Hawes, and--" + +But the dogs snarled and drew in, and he broke off, listening to +the crunch-crunch of many snowshoes. Indian after Indian stalked +into the firelight, tall and grim, fur-clad and silent, their +shadows dancing grotesquely on the snow. One, the witch doctor, +spoke gutturally to Sipsu. His face was daubed with savage paint +blotches, and over his shoulders was drawn a wolfskin, the +gleaming teeth and cruel snout surmounting his head. No other +word was spoken. The prospectors held the peace. Sipsu arose and +slipped into her snowshoes. + +"Good-by, O my man," she said to Hitchcock. But the man who had +sat beside her on the sled gave no sign, nor lifted his head as +they filed away into the white forest. + +Unlike many men, his faculty of adaptation, while large, had never +suggested the expediency of an alliance with the women of the +Northland. His broad cosmopolitanism had never impelled toward +covenanting in marriage with the daughters of the soil. If it +had, his philosophy of life would not have stood between. But it +simply had not. Sipsu? He had pleasured in camp-fire chats with +her, not as a man who knew himself to be man and she woman, but as +a man might with a child, and as a man of his make certainly would +if for no other reason than to vary the tedium of a bleak +existence. That was all. But there was a certain chivalric +thrill of warm blood in him, despite his Yankee ancestry and New +England upbringing, and he was so made that the commercial aspect +of life often seemed meaningless and bore contradiction to his +deeper impulses. + +So he sat silent, with head bowed forward, an organic force, +greater than himself, as great as his race, at work within him. +Wertz and Hawes looked askance at him from time to time, a faint +but perceptible trepidation in their manner. Sigmund also felt +this. Hitchcock was strong, and his strength had been impressed +upon them in the course of many an event in their precarious life. +So they stood in a certain definite awe and curiosity as to what +his conduct would be when he moved to action. + +But his silence was long, and the fire nigh out, when Wertz +stretched his arms and yawned, and thought he'd go to bed. Then +Hitchcock stood up his full height. + +"May God damn your souls to the deepest hells, you chicken-hearted +cowards! I'm done with you!" He said it calmly enough, but his +strength spoke in every syllable, and every intonation was +advertisement of intention. "Come on," he continued, "whack up, +and in whatever way suits you best. I own a quarter-interest in +the claims; our contracts show that. There're twenty-five or +thirty ounces in the sack from the test pans. Fetch out the +scales. We'll divide that now. And you, Sigmund, measure me my +quarter-share of the grub and set it apart. Four of the dogs are +mine, and I want four more. I'll trade you my share in the camp +outfit and mining-gear for the dogs. And I'll throw in my six or +seven ounces and the spare 45-90 with the ammunition. What d'ye +say?" + +The three men drew apart and conferred. When they returned, +Sigmund acted as spokesman. "We'll whack up fair with you, +Hitchcock. In everything you'll get your quarter-share, neither +more nor less; and you can take it or leave it. But we want the +dogs as bad as you do, so you get four, and that's all. If you +don't want to take your share of the outfit and gear, why, that's +your lookout. If you want it, you can have it; if you don't, +leave it." + +"The letter of the law," Hitchcock sneered. "But go ahead. I'm +willing. And hurry up. I can't get out of this camp and away +from its vermin any too quick." + +The division was effected without further comment. He lashed his +meagre belongings upon one of the sleds, rounded in his four dogs, +and harnessed up. His portion of outfit and gear he did not +touch, though he threw onto the sled half a dozen dog harnesses, +and challenged them with his eyes to interfere. But they shrugged +their shoulders and watched him disappear in the forest. + + +A man crawled upon his belly through the snow. On every hand +loomed the moose-hide lodges of the camp. Here and there a +miserable dog howled or snarled abuse upon his neighbor. Once, +one of them approached the creeping man, but the man became +motionless. The dog came closer and sniffed, and came yet closer, +till its nose touched the strange object which had not been there +when darkness fell. Then Hitchcock, for it was Hitchcock, +upreared suddenly, shooting an unmittened hand out to the brute's +shaggy throat. And the dog knew its death in that clutch, and +when the man moved on, was left broken-necked under the stars. In +this manner Hitchcock made the chief's lodge. For long he lay in +the snow without, listening to the voices of the occupants and +striving to locate Sipsu. Evidently there were many in the tent, +and from the sounds they were in high excitement. At last he +heard the girl's voice, and crawled around so that only the moose- +hide divided them. Then burrowing in the snow, he slowly wormed +his head and shoulders underneath. When the warm inner air smote +his face, he stopped and waited, his legs and the greater part of +his body still on the outside. He could see nothing, nor did he +dare lift his head. On one side of him was a skin bale. He could +smell it, though he carefully felt to be certain. On the other +side his face barely touched a furry garment which he knew clothed +a body. This must be Sipsu. Though he wished she would speak +again, he resolved to risk it. + +He could hear the chief and the witch doctor talking high, and in +a far corner some hungry child whimpering to sleep. Squirming +over on his side, he carefully raised his head, still just +touching the furry garment. He listened to the breathing. It was +a woman's breathing; he would chance it. + +He pressed against her side softly but firmly, and felt her start +at the contact. Again he waited, till a questioning hand slipped +down upon his head and paused among the curls. The next instant +the hand turned his face gently upward, and he was gazing into +Sipsu's eyes. + +She was quite collected. Changing her position casually, she +threw an elbow well over on the skin bale, rested her body upon +it, and arranged her parka. In this way he was completely +concealed. Then, and still most casually, she reclined across +him, so that he could breathe between her arm and breast, and when +she lowered her head her ear pressed lightly against his lips. + +"When the time suits, go thou," he whispered, "out of the lodge +and across the snow, down the wind to the bunch of jackpine in the +curve of the creek. There wilt thou find my dogs and my sled, +packed for the trail. This night we go down to the Yukon; and +since we go fast, lay thou hands upon what dogs come nigh thee, by +the scruff of the neck, and drag them to the sled in the curve of +the creek." + +Sipsu shook her head in dissent; but her eyes glistened with +gladness, and she was proud that this man had shown toward her +such favor. But she, like the women of all her race, was born to +obey the will masculine, and when Hitchcock repeated "Go!" he did +it with authority, and though she made no answer he knew that his +will was law. + +"And never mind harness for the dogs," he added, preparing to go. +"I shall wait. But waste no time. The day chaseth the night +alway, nor does it linger for man's pleasure." + +Half an hour later, stamping his feet and swinging his arms by the +sled, he saw her coming, a surly dog in either hand. At the +approach of these his own animals waxed truculent, and he favored +them with the butt of his whip till they quieted. He had +approached the camp up the wind, and sound was the thing to be +most feared in making his presence known. + +"Put them into the sled," he ordered when she had got the harness +on the two dogs. "I want my leaders to the fore." + +But when she had done this, the displaced animals pitched upon the +aliens. Though Hitchcock plunged among them with clubbed rifle, a +riot of sound went up and across the sleeping camp. + +"Now we shall have dogs, and in plenty," he remarked grimly, +slipping an axe from the sled lashings. "Do thou harness +whichever I fling thee, and betweenwhiles protect the team." + +He stepped a space in advance and waited between two pines. The +dogs of the camp were disturbing the night with their jangle, and +he watched for their coming. A dark spot, growing rapidly, took +form upon the dim white expanse of snow. It was a forerunner of +the pack, leaping cleanly, and, after the wolf fashion, singing +direction to its brothers. Hitchcock stood in the shadow. As it +sprang past, he reached out, gripped its forelegs in mid-career, +and sent it whirling earthward. Then he struck it a well-judged +blow beneath the ear, and flung it to Sipsu. And while she +clapped on the harness, he, with his axe, held the passage between +the trees, till a shaggy flood of white teeth and glistening eyes +surged and crested just beyond reach. Sipsu worked rapidly. When +she had finished, he leaped forward, seized and stunned a second, +and flung it to her. This he repeated thrice again, and when the +sled team stood snarling in a string of ten, he called, "Enough!" + +But at this instant a young buck, the forerunner of the tribe, and +swift of limb, wading through the dogs and cuffing right and left, +attempted the passage. The butt of Hitchcock's rifle drove him to +his knees, whence he toppled over sideways. The witch doctor, +running lustily, saw the blow fall. + +Hitchcock called to Sipsu to pull out. At her shrill "Chook!" the +maddened brutes shot straight ahead, and the sled, bounding +mightily, just missed unseating her. The powers were evidently +angry with the witch doctor, for at this moment they plunged him +upon the trail. The lead-dog fouled his snowshoes and tripped him +up, and the nine succeeding dogs trod him under foot and the sled +bumped over him. But he was quick to his feet, and the night +might have turned out differently had not Sipsu struck backward +with the long dog-whip and smitten him a blinding blow across the +eyes. Hitchcock, hurrying to overtake her, collided against him +as he swayed with pain in the middle of the trail. Thus it was, +when this primitive theologian got back to the chief's lodge, that +his wisdom had been increased in so far as concerns the efficacy +of the white man's fist. So, when he orated then and there in the +council, he was wroth against all white men. + + +"Tumble out, you loafers! Tumble out! Grub'll be ready before +you get into your footgear!" + +Dave Wertz threw off the bearskin, sat up, and yawned. + +Hawes stretched, discovered a lame muscle in his arm, and rubbed +it sleepily. "Wonder where Hitchcock bunked last night?" he +queried, reaching for his moccasins. They were stiff, and he +walked gingerly in his socks to the fire to thaw them out. "It's +a blessing he's gone," he added, "though he was a mighty good +worker." + +"Yep. Too masterful. That was his trouble. Too bad for Sipsu. +Think he cared for her much?" + +"Don't think so. Just principle. That's all. He thought it +wasn't right--and, of course, it wasn't,--but that was no reason +for us to interfere and get hustled over the divide before our +time." + +"Principle is principle, and it's good in its place, but it's best +left to home when you go to Alaska. Eh?" Wertz had joined his +mate, and both were working pliability into their frozen +moccasins. "Think we ought to have taken a hand?" + +Sigmund shook his head. He was very busy. A scud of chocolate- +colored foam was rising in the coffee-pot, and the bacon needed +turning. Also, he was thinking about the girl with laughing eyes +like summer seas, and he was humming softly. + +His mates chuckled to each other and ceased talking. Though it +was past seven, daybreak was still three hours distant. The +aurora borealis had passed out of the sky, and the camp was an +oasis of light in the midst of deep darkness. And in this light +the forms of the three men were sharply defined. Emboldened by +the silence, Sigmund raised his voice and opened the last stanza +of the old song:- + + +"In a year, in a year, when the grapes are ripe--" + + +Then the night was split with a rattling volley of rifle-shots. +Hawes sighed, made an effort to straighten himself, and collapsed. +Wertz went over on an elbow with drooping head. He choked a +little, and a dark stream flowed from his mouth. And Sigmund, the +Golden-Haired, his throat a-gurgle with the song, threw up his +arms and pitched across the fire. + + +The witch doctor's eyes were well blackened, and his temper none +of the best; for he quarrelled with the chief over the possession +of Wertz's rifle, and took more than his share of the part-sack of +beans. Also he appropriated the bearskin, and caused grumbling +among the tribesmen. And finally, he tried to kill Sigmund's dog, +which the girl had given him, but the dog ran away, while he fell +into the shaft and dislocated his shoulder on the bucket. When +the camp was well looted they went back to their own lodges, and +there was a great rejoicing among the women. Further, a band of +moose strayed over the south divide and fell before the hunters, +so the witch doctor attained yet greater honor, and the people +whispered among themselves that he spoke in council with the gods. + +But later, when all were gone, the shepherd dog crept back to the +deserted camp, and all the night long and a day it wailed the +dead. After that it disappeared, though the years were not many +before the Indian hunters noted a change in the breed of timber +wolves, and there were dashes of bright color and variegated +markings such as no wolf bore before. + + + +A DAUGHTER OF THE AURORA + + + +"You--what you call--lazy mans, you lazy mans would desire me to +haf for wife. It is not good. Nevaire, no, nevaire, will lazy +mans my hoosband be." + +Thus Joy Molineau spoke her mind to Jack Harrington, even as she +had spoken it, but more tritely and in his own tongue, to Louis +Savoy the previous night. + +"Listen, Joy--" + +"No, no; why moos' I listen to lazy mans? It is vaire bad, you +hang rount, make visitation to my cabin, and do nothing. How you +get grub for the famine? Why haf not you the dust? Odder mans +haf plentee." + +"But I work hard, Joy. Never a day am I not on trail or up creek. +Even now have I just come off. My dogs are yet tired. Other men +have luck and find plenty of gold; but I--I have no luck." + +"Ah! But when this mans with the wife which is Indian, this mans +McCormack, when him discovaire the Klondike, you go not. Odder +mans go; odder mans now rich." + +"You know I was prospecting over on the head-reaches of the +Tanana," Harrington protested, "and knew nothing of the Eldorado +or Bonanza until it was too late." + +"That is deeferent; only you are--what you call way off." + +"What?" + +"Way off. In the--yes--in the dark. It is nevaire too late. One +vaire rich mine is there, on the creek which is Eldorado. The +mans drive the stake and him go 'way. No odddr mans know what of +him become. The mans, him which drive the stake, is nevaire no +more. Sixty days no mans on that claim file the papaire. Then +odder mans, plentee odder mans--what you call--jump that claim. +Then they race, O so queek, like the wind, to file the papaire. +Him be vaire rich. Him get grub for famine." + +Harrington hid the major portion of his interest. + +"When's the time up?" he asked. "What claim is it?" + +"So I speak Louis Savoy last night," she continued, ignoring him. +"Him I think the winnaire." + +"Hang Louis Savoy!" + +"So Louis Savoy speak in my cabin last night. Him say, 'Joy, I am +strong mans. I haf good dogs. I haf long wind. I will be +winnaire. Then you will haf me for hoosband?' And I say to him, +I say--" + +"What'd you say?" + +"I say, 'If Louis Savoy is winnaire, then will he haf me for +wife.'" + +"And if he don't win?" + +"Then Louis Savoy, him will not be--what you call--the father of +my children." + +"And if I win?" + +"You winnaire? Ha! ha! Nevaire!" + +Exasperating as it was, Joy Molineau's laughter was pretty to +hear. Harrington did not mind it. He had long since been broken +in. Besides, he was no exception. She had forced all her lovers +to suffer in kind. And very enticing she was just then, her lips +parted, her color heightened by the sharp kiss of the frost, her +eyes vibrant with the lure which is the greatest of all lures and +which may be seen nowhere save in woman's eyes. Her sled-dogs +clustered about her in hirsute masses, and the leader, Wolf Fang, +laid his long snout softly in her lap. + +"If I do win?" Harrington pressed. + +She looked from dog to lover and back again. + +"What you say, Wolf Fang? If him strong mans and file the +papaire, shall we his wife become? Eh? What you say?" + +Wolf Fang picked up his ears and growled at Harrington. + +"It is vaire cold," she suddenly added with feminine irrelevance, +rising to her feet and straightening out the team. + +Her lover looked on stolidly. She had kept him guessing from the +first time they met, and patience had been joined unto his +virtues. + +"Hi! Wolf Fang!" she cried, springing upon the sled as it leaped +into sudden motion. "Ai! Ya! Mush-on!" + +From the corner of his eye Harrington watched her swinging down +the trail to Forty Mile. Where the road forked and crossed the +river to Fort Cudahy, she halted the dogs and turned about. + +"O Mistaire Lazy Mans!" she called back. "Wolf Fang, him say yes- +-if you winnaire!" + + +But somehow, as such things will, it leaked out, and all Forty +Mile, which had hitherto speculated on Joy Molineau's choice +between her two latest lovers, now hazarded bets and guesses as to +which would win in the forthcoming race. The camp divided itself +into two factions, and every effort was put forth in order that +their respective favorites might be the first in at the finish. +There was a scramble for the best dogs the country could afford, +for dogs, and good ones, were essential, above all, to success. +And it meant much to the victor. Besides the possession of a +wife, the like of which had yet to be created, it stood for a mine +worth a million at least. + +That fall, when news came down of McCormack's discovery on +Bonanza, all the Lower Country, Circle City and Forty Mile +included, had stampeded up the Yukon,--at least all save those +who, like Jack Harrington and Louis Savoy, were away prospecting +in the west. Moose pastures and creeks were staked +indiscriminately and promiscuously; and incidentally, one of the +unlikeliest of creeks, Eldorado. Olaf Nelson laid claim to five +hundred of its linear feet, duly posted his notice, and as duly +disappeared. At that time the nearest recording office was in the +police barracks at Fort Cudahy, just across the river from Forty +Mile; but when it became bruited abroad that Eldorado Creek was a +treasure-house, it was quickly discovered that Olaf Nelson had +failed to make the down-Yukon trip to file upon his property. Men +cast hungry eyes upon the ownerless claim, where they knew a +thousand-thousand dollars waited but shovel and sluice-box. Yet +they dared not touch it; for there was a law which permitted sixty +days to lapse between the staking and the filing, during which +time a claim was immune. The whole country knew of Olaf Nelson's +disappearance, and scores of men made preparation for the jumping +and for the consequent race to Fort Cudahy. + +But competition at Forty Mile was limited. With the camp devoting +its energies to the equipping either of Jack Harrington or Louis +Savoy, no man was unwise enough to enter the contest single- +handed. It was a stretch of a hundred miles to the Recorder's +office, and it was planned that the two favorites should have four +relays of dogs stationed along the trail. Naturally, the last +relay was to be the crucial one, and for these twenty-five miles +their respective partisans strove to obtain the strongest possible +animals. So bitter did the factions wax, and so high did they +bid, that dogs brought stiffer prices than ever before in the +annals of the country. And, as it chanced, this scramble for dogs +turned the public eye still more searchingly upon Joy Molineau. +Not only was she the cause of it all, but she possessed the finest +sled-dog from Chilkoot to Bering Sea. As wheel or leader, Wolf +Fang had no equal. The man whose sled he led down the last +stretch was bound to win. There could be no doubt of it. But the +community had an innate sense of the fitness of things, and not +once was Joy vexed by overtures for his use. And the factions +drew consolation from the fact that if one man did not profit by +him, neither should the other. + +However, since man, in the individual or in the aggregate, has +been so fashioned that he goes through life blissfully obtuse to +the deeper subtleties of his womankind, so the men of Forty Mile +failed to divine the inner deviltry of Joy Molineau. They +confessed, afterward, that they had failed to appreciate this +dark-eyed daughter of the aurora, whose father had traded furs in +the country before ever they dreamed of invading it, and who had +herself first opened eyes on the scintillant northern lights. +Nay, accident of birth had not rendered her less the woman, nor +had it limited her woman's understanding of men. They knew she +played with them, but they did not know the wisdom of her play, +its deepness and its deftness. They failed to see more than the +exposed card, so that to the very last Forty Mile was in a state +of pleasant obfuscation, and it was not until she cast her final +trump that it came to reckon up the score. + +Early in the week the camp turned out to start Jack Harrington and +Louis Savoy on their way. They had taken a shrewd margin of time, +for it was their wish to arrive at Olaf Nelson's claim some days +previous to the expiration of its immunity, that they might rest +themselves, and their dogs be fresh for the first relay. On the +way up they found the men of Dawson already stationing spare dog +teams along the trail, and it was manifest that little expense had +been spared in view of the millions at stake. + +A couple of days after the departure of their champions, Forty +Mile began sending up their relays,--first to the seventy-five +station, then to the fifty, and last to the twenty-five. The +teams for the last stretch were magnificent, and so equally +matched that the camp discussed their relative merits for a full +hour at fifty below, before they were permitted to pull out. At +the last moment Joy Molineau dashed in among them on her sled. +She drew Lon McFane, who had charge of Harrington's team, to one +side, and hardly had the first words left her lips when it was +noticed that his lower jaw dropped with a celerity and emphasis +suggestive of great things. He unhitched Wolf Fang from her sled, +put him at the head of Harrington's team, and mushed the string of +animals into the Yukon trail. + +"Poor Louis Savoy!" men said; but Joy Molineau flashed her black +eyes defiantly and drove back to her father's cabin. + + +Midnight drew near on Olaf Nelson's claim. A few hundred fur-clad +men had preferred sixty below and the jumping, to the inducements +of warm cabins and comfortable bunks. Several score of them had +their notices prepared for posting and their dogs at hand. A +bunch of Captain Constantine's mounted police had been ordered on +duty that fair play might rule. The command had gone forth that +no man should place a stake till the last second of the day had +ticked itself into the past. In the northland such commands are +equal to Jehovah's in the matter of potency; the dum-dum as rapid +and effective as the thunderbolt. It was clear and cold. The +aurora borealis painted palpitating color revels on the sky. Rosy +waves of cold brilliancy swept across the zenith, while great +coruscating bars of greenish white blotted out the stars, or a +Titan's hand reared mighty arches above the Pole. And at this +mighty display the wolf-dogs howled as had their ancestors of old +time. + +A bearskin-coated policeman stepped prominently to the fore, watch +in hand. Men hurried among the dogs, rousing them to their feet, +untangling their traces, straightening them out. The entries came +to the mark, firmly gripping stakes and notices. They had gone +over the boundaries of the claim so often that they could now have +done it blindfolded. The policeman raised his hand. Casting off +their superfluous furs and blankets, and with a final cinching of +belts, they came to attention. + +"Time!" + +Sixty pairs of hands unmitted; as many pairs of moccasins gripped +hard upon the snow. + +"Go!" + +They shot across the wide expanse, round the four sides, sticking +notices at every corner, and down the middle where the two centre +stakes were to be planted. Then they sprang for the sleds on the +frozen bed of the creek. An anarchy of sound and motion broke +out. Sled collided with sled, and dog-team fastened upon dog-team +with bristling manes and screaming fangs. The narrow creek was +glutted with the struggling mass. Lashes and butts of dog-whips +were distributed impartially among men and brutes. And to make it +of greater moment, each participant had a bunch of comrades intent +on breaking him out of jam. But one by one, and by sheer +strength, the sleds crept out and shot from sight in the darkness +of the overhanging banks. + +Jack Harrington had anticipated this crush and waited by his sled +until it untangled. Louis Savoy, aware of his rival's greater +wisdom in the matter of dog-driving, had followed his lead and +also waited. The rout had passed beyond ear-shot when they took +the trail, and it was not till they had travelled the ten miles or +so down to Bonanza that they came upon it, speeding along in +single file, but well bunched. There was little noise, and less +chance of one passing another at that stage. The sleds, from +runner to runner, measured sixteen inches, the trail eighteen; but +the trail, packed down fully a foot by the traffic, was like a +gutter. On either side spread the blanket of soft snow crystals. +If a man turned into this in an endeavor to pass, his dogs would +wallow perforce to their bellies and slow down to a snail's pace. +So the men lay close to their leaping sleds and waited. No +alteration in position occurred down the fifteen miles of Bonanza +and Klondike to Dawson, where the Yukon was encountered. Here the +first relays waited. But here, intent to kill their first teams, +if necessary, Harrington and Savoy had had their fresh teams +placed a couple of miles beyond those of the others. In the +confusion of changing sleds they passed full half the bunch. +Perhaps thirty men were still leading them when they shot on to +the broad breast of the Yukon. Here was the tug. When the river +froze in the fall, a mile of open water had been left between two +mighty jams. This had but recently crusted, the current being +swift, and now it was as level, hard, and slippery as a dance +floor. The instant they struck this glare ice Harrington came to +his knees, holding precariously on with one hand, his whip singing +fiercely among his dogs and fearsome abjurations hurtling about +their ears. The teams spread out on the smooth surface, each +straining to the uttermost. But few men in the North could lift +their dogs as did Jack Harrington. At once he began to pull +ahead, and Louis Savoy, taking the pace, hung on desperately, his +leaders running even with the tail of his rival's sled. + +Midway on the glassy stretch their relays shot out from the bank. +But Harrington did not slacken. Watching his chance when the new +sled swung in close, he leaped across, shouting as he did so and +jumping up the pace of his fresh dogs. The other driver fell off +somehow. Savoy did likewise with his relay, and the abandoned +teams, swerving to right and left, collided with the others and +piled the ice with confusion. Harrington cut out the pace; Savoy +hung on. As they neared the end of the glare ice, they swept +abreast of the leading sled. When they shot into the narrow trail +between the soft snowbanks, they led the race; and Dawson, +watching by the light of the aurora, swore that it was neatly +done. + +When the frost grows lusty at sixty below, men cannot long remain +without fire or excessive exercise, and live. So Harrington and +Savoy now fell to the ancient custom of "ride and run." Leaping +from their sleds, tow-thongs in hand, they ran behind till the +blood resumed its wonted channels and expelled the frost, then +back to the sleds till the heat again ebbed away. Thus, riding +and running, they covered the second and third relays. Several +times, on smooth ice, Savoy spurted his dogs, and as often failed +to gain past. Strung along for five miles in the rear, the +remainder of the race strove to overtake them, but vainly, for to +Louis Savoy alone was the glory given of keeping Jack Harrington's +killing pace. + +As they swung into the seventy-five-mile station, Lon McFane +dashed alongside; Wolf Fang in the lead caught Harrington's eye, +and he knew that the race was his. No team in the North could +pass him on those last twenty-five miles. And when Savoy saw Wolf +Fang heading his rival's team, he knew that he was out of the +running, and he cursed softly to himself, in the way woman is most +frequently cursed. But he still clung to the other's smoking +trail, gambling on chance to the last. And as they churned along, +the day breaking in the southeast, they marvelled in joy and +sorrow at that which Joy Molineau had done. + + +Forty Mile had early crawled out of its sleeping furs and +congregated near the edge of the trail. From this point it could +view the up-Yukon course to its first bend several miles away. +Here it could also see across the river to the finish at Fort +Cudahy, where the Gold Recorder nervously awaited. Joy Molineau +had taken her position several rods back from the trail, and under +the circumstances, the rest of Forty Mile forbore interposing +itself. So the space was clear between her and the slender line +of the course. Fires had been built, and around these men wagered +dust and dogs, the long odds on Wolf Fang. + +"Here they come!" shrilled an Indian boy from the top of a pine. + +Up the Yukon a black speck appeared against the snow, closely +followed by a second. As these grew larger, more black specks +manifested themselves, but at a goodly distance to the rear. +Gradually they resolved themselves into dogs and sleds, and men +lying flat upon them. "Wolf Fang leads," a lieutenant of police +whispered to Joy. She smiled her interest back. + +"Ten to one on Harrington!" cried a Birch Creek King, dragging out +his sack. + +"The Queen, her pay you not mooch?" queried Joy. + +The lieutenant shook his head. + +"You have some dust, ah, how mooch?" she continued. + +He exposed his sack. She gauged it with a rapid eye. + +"Mebbe--say--two hundred, eh? Good. Now I give--what you call-- +the tip. Covaire the bet." Joy smiled inscrutably. The +lieutenant pondered. He glanced up the trail. The two men had +risen to their knees and were lashing their dogs furiously, +Harrington in the lead. + +"Ten to one on Harrington!" bawled the Birch Creek King, +flourishing his sack in the lieutenant's face. + +"Covaire the bet," Joy prompted. + +He obeyed, shrugging his shoulders in token that he yielded, not +to the dictate of his reason, but to her charm. Joy nodded to +reassure him. + +All noise ceased. Men paused in the placing of bets. + +Yawing and reeling and plunging, like luggers before the wind, the +sleds swept wildly upon them. Though he still kept his leader up +to the tail of Harrington's sled, Louis Savoy's face was without +hope. Harrington's mouth was set. He looked neither to the right +nor to the left. His dogs were leaping in perfect rhythm, firm- +footed, close to the trail, and Wolf Fang, head low and unseeing, +whining softly, was leading his comrades magnificently. + +Forty Mile stood breathless. Not a sound, save the roar of the +runners and the voice of the whips. + +Then the clear voice of Joy Molineau rose on the air. "Ai! Ya! +Wolf Fang! Wolf Fang!" + +Wolf Fang heard. He left the trail sharply, heading directly for +his mistress. The team dashed after him, and the sled poised an +instant on a single runner, then shot Harrington into the snow. +Savoy was by like a flash. Harrington pulled to his feet and +watched him skimming across the river to the Gold Recorder's. He +could not help hearing what was said. + +"Ah, him do vaire well," Joy Molineau was explaining to the +lieutenant. "Him--what you call--set the pace. Yes, him set the +pace vaire well." + + + +AT THE RAINBOW'S END + + + +It was for two reasons that Montana Kid discarded his "chaps" and +Mexican spurs, and shook the dust of the Idaho ranges from his +feet. In the first place, the encroachments of a steady, sober, +and sternly moral civilization had destroyed the primeval status +of the western cattle ranges, and refined society turned the cold +eye of disfavor upon him and his ilk. In the second place, in one +of its cyclopean moments the race had arisen and shoved back its +frontier several thousand miles. Thus, with unconscious +foresight, did mature society make room for its adolescent +members. True, the new territory was mostly barren; but its +several hundred thousand square miles of frigidity at least gave +breathing space to those who else would have suffocated at home. + +Montana Kid was such a one. Heading for the sea-coast, with a +haste several sheriff's posses might possibly have explained, and +with more nerve than coin of the realm, he succeeded in shipping +from a Puget Sound port, and managed to survive the contingent +miseries of steerage sea-sickness and steerage grub. He was +rather sallow and drawn, but still his own indomitable self, when +he landed on the Dyea beach one day in the spring of the year. +Between the cost of dogs, grub, and outfits, and the customs +exactions of the two clashing governments, it speedily penetrated +to his understanding that the Northland was anything save a poor +man's Mecca. So he cast about him in search of quick harvests. +Between the beach and the passes were scattered many thousands of +passionate pilgrims. These pilgrims Montana Kid proceeded to +farm. At first he dealt faro in a pine-board gambling shack; but +disagreeable necessity forced him to drop a sudden period into a +man's life, and to move on up trail. Then he effected a corner in +horseshoe nails, and they circulated at par with legal tender, +four to the dollar, till an unexpected consignment of a hundred +barrels or so broke the market and forced him to disgorge his +stock at a loss. After that he located at Sheep Camp, organized +the professional packers, and jumped the freight ten cents a pound +in a single day. In token of their gratitude, the packers +patronized his faro and roulette layouts and were mulcted +cheerfully of their earnings. But his commercialism was of too +lusty a growth to be long endured; so they rushed him one night, +burned his shanty, divided the bank, and headed him up the trail +with empty pockets. + +Ill-luck was his running mate. He engaged with responsible +parties to run whisky across the line by way of precarious and +unknown trails, lost his Indian guides, and had the very first +outfit confiscated by the Mounted Police. Numerous other +misfortunes tended to make him bitter of heart and wanton of +action, and he celebrated his arrival at Lake Bennett by +terrorizing the camp for twenty straight hours. Then a miners' +meeting took him in hand, and commanded him to make himself +scarce. He had a wholesome respect for such assemblages, and he +obeyed in such haste that he inadvertently removed himself at the +tail-end of another man's dog team. This was equivalent to horse- +stealing in a more mellow clime, so he hit only the high places +across Bennett and down Tagish, and made his first camp a full +hundred miles to the north. + +Now it happened that the break of spring was at hand, and many of +the principal citizens of Dawson were travelling south on the last +ice. These he met and talked with, noted their names and +possessions, and passed on. He had a good memory, also a fair +imagination; nor was veracity one of his virtues. + + +II + + +Dawson, always eager for news, beheld Montana Kid's sled heading +down the Yukon, and went out on the ice to meet him. No, he +hadn't any newspapers; didn't know whether Durrant was hanged yet, +nor who had won the Thanksgiving game; hadn't heard whether the +United States and Spain had gone to fighting; didn't know who +Dreyfus was; but O'Brien? Hadn't they heard? O'Brien, why, he +was drowned in the White Horse; Sitka Charley the only one of the +party who escaped. Joe Ladue? Both legs frozen and amputated at +the Five Fingers. And Jack Dalton? Blown up on the "Sea Lion" +with all hands. And Bettles? Wrecked on the "Carthagina," in +Seymour Narrows,--twenty survivors out of three hundred. And +Swiftwater Bill? Gone through the rotten ice of Lake LeBarge with +six female members of the opera troupe he was convoying. Governor +Walsh? Lost with all hands and eight sleds on the Thirty Mile. +Devereaux? Who was Devereaux? Oh, the courier! Shot by Indians +on Lake Marsh. + +So it went. The word was passed along. Men shouldered in to ask +after friends and partners, and in turn were shouldered out, too +stunned for blasphemy. By the time Montana Kid gained the bank he +was surrounded by several hundred fur-clad miners. When he passed +the Barracks he was the centre of a procession. At the Opera +House he was the nucleus of an excited mob, each member struggling +for a chance to ask after some absent comrade. On every side he +was being invited to drink. Never before had the Klondike thus +opened its arms to a che-cha-qua. All Dawson was humming. Such a +series of catastrophes had never occurred in its history. Every +man of note who had gone south in the spring had been wiped out. +The cabins vomited forth their occupants. Wild-eyed men hurried +down from the creeks and gulches to seek out this man who had told +a tale of such disaster. The Russian half-breed wife of Bettles +sought the fireplace, inconsolable, and rocked back and forth, and +ever and anon flung white wood-ashes upon her raven hair. The +flag at the Barracks flopped dismally at half-mast. Dawson +mourned its dead. + +Why Montana Kid did this thing no man may know. Nor beyond the +fact that the truth was not in him, can explanation be hazarded. +But for five whole days he plunged the land in wailing and sorrow, +and for five whole days he was the only man in the Klondike. The +country gave him its best of bed and board. The saloons granted +him the freedom of their bars. Men sought him continuously. The +high officials bowed down to him for further information, and he +was feasted at the Barracks by Constantine and his brother +officers. And then, one day, Devereaux, the government courier, +halted his tired dogs before the gold commissioner's office. +Dead? Who said so? Give him a moose steak and he'd show them how +dead he was. Why, Governor Walsh was in camp on the Little +Salmon, and O'Brien coming in on the first water. Dead? Give him +a moose steak and he'd show them. + +And forthwith Dawson hummed. The Barracks' flag rose to the +masthead, and Bettles' wife washed herself and put on clean +raiment. The community subtly signified its desire that Montana +Kid obliterate himself from the landscape. And Montana Kid +obliterated; as usual, at the tail-end of some one else's dog +team. Dawson rejoiced when he headed down the Yukon, and wished +him godspeed to the ultimate destination of the case-hardened +sinner. After that the owner of the dogs bestirred himself, made +complaint to Constantine, and from him received the loan of a +policeman. + + +III + + +With Circle City in prospect and the last ice crumbling under his +runners, Montana Kid took advantage of the lengthening days and +travelled his dogs late and early. Further, he had but little +doubt that the owner of the dogs in question had taken his trail, +and he wished to make American territory before the river broke. +But by the afternoon of the third day it became evident that he +had lost in his race with spring. The Yukon was growling and +straining at its fetters. Long detours became necessary, for the +trail had begun to fall through into the swift current beneath, +while the ice, in constant unrest, was thundering apart in great +gaping fissures. Through these and through countless airholes, +the water began to sweep across the surface of the ice, and by the +time he pulled into a woodchopper's cabin on the point of an +island, the dogs were being rushed off their feet and were +swimming more often than not. He was greeted sourly by the two +residents, but he unharnessed and proceeded to cook up. + +Donald and Davy were fair specimens of frontier inefficients. +Canadian-born, city-bred Scots, in a foolish moment they had +resigned their counting-house desks, drawn upon their savings, and +gone Klondiking. And now they were feeling the rough edge of the +country. Grubless, spiritless, with a lust for home in their +hearts, they had been staked by the P. C. Company to cut wood for +its steamers, with the promise at the end of a passage home. +Disregarding the possibilities of the ice-run, they had fittingly +demonstrated their inefficiency by their choice of the island on +which they located. Montana Kid, though possessing little +knowledge of the break-up of a great river, looked about him +dubiously, and cast yearning glances at the distant bank where the +towering bluffs promised immunity from all the ice of the +Northland. + +After feeding himself and dogs, he lighted his pipe and strolled +out to get a better idea of the situation. The island, like all +its river brethren, stood higher at the upper end, and it was here +that Donald and Davy had built their cabin and piled many cords of +wood. The far shore was a full mile away, while between the +island and the near shore lay a back-channel perhaps a hundred +yards across. At first sight of this, Montana Kid was tempted to +take his dogs and escape to the mainland, but on closer inspection +he discovered a rapid current flooding on top. Below, the river +twisted sharply to the west, and in this turn its breast was +studded by a maze of tiny islands. + +"That's where she'll jam," he remarked to himself. + +Half a dozen sleds, evidently bound up-stream to Dawson, were +splashing through the chill water to the tail of the island. +Travel on the river was passing from the precarious to the +impossible, and it was nip and tuck with them till they gained the +island and came up the path of the wood-choppers toward the cabin. +One of them, snow-blind, towed helplessly at the rear of a sled. +Husky young fellows they were, rough-garmented and trail-worn, yet +Montana Kid had met the breed before and knew at once that it was +not his kind. + +"Hello! How's things up Dawson-way?" queried the foremost, +passing his eye over Donald and Davy and settling it upon the Kid. + +A first meeting in the wilderness is not characterized by +formality. The talk quickly became general, and the news of the +Upper and Lower Countries was swapped equitably back and forth. +But the little the newcomers had was soon over with, for they had +wintered at Minook, a thousand miles below, where nothing was +doing. Montana Kid, however, was fresh from Salt Water, and they +annexed him while they pitched camp, swamping him with questions +concerning the outside, from which they had been cut off for a +twelvemonth. + +A shrieking split, suddenly lifting itself above the general +uproar on the river, drew everybody to the bank. The surface +water had increased in depth, and the ice, assailed from above and +below, was struggling to tear itself from the grip of the shores. +Fissures reverberated into life before their eyes, and the air was +filled with multitudinous crackling, crisp and sharp, like the +sound that goes up on a clear day from the firing line. + +From up the river two men were racing a dog team toward them on an +uncovered stretch of ice. But even as they looked, the pair +struck the water and began to flounder through. Behind, where +their feet had sped the moment before, the ice broke up and turned +turtle. Through this opening the river rushed out upon them to +their waists, burying the sled and swinging the dogs off at right +angles in a drowning tangle. But the men stopped their flight to +give the animals a fighting chance, and they groped hurriedly in +the cold confusion, slashing at the detaining traces with their +sheath-knives. Then they fought their way to the bank through +swirling water and grinding ice, where, foremost in leaping to the +rescue among the jarring fragments, was the Kid. + +"Why, blime me, if it ain't Montana Kid!" exclaimed one of the men +whom the Kid was just placing upon his feet at the top of the +bank. He wore the scarlet tunic of the Mounted Police and +jocularly raised his right hand in salute. + +"Got a warrant for you, Kid," he continued, drawing a bedraggled +paper from his breast pocket, "an' I 'ope as you'll come along +peaceable." + +Montana Kid looked at the chaotic river and shrugged his +shoulders, and the policeman, following his glance, smiled. + +"Where are the dogs?" his companion asked. + +"Gentlemen," interrupted the policeman, "this 'ere mate o' mine is +Jack Sutherland, owner of Twenty-Two Eldorado--" + +"Not Sutherland of '92?" broke in the snow-blinded Minook man, +groping feebly toward him. + +"The same." Sutherland gripped his hand. + +"And you?" + +"Oh, I'm after your time, but I remember you in my freshman year,- +-you were doing P. G. work then. Boys," he called, turning half +about, "this is Sutherland, Jack Sutherland, erstwhile full-back +on the 'Varsity. Come up, you gold-chasers, and fall upon him! +Sutherland, this is Greenwich,--played quarter two seasons back." + +"Yes, I read of the game," Sutherland said, shaking hands. "And I +remember that big run of yours for the first touchdown." + +Greenwich flushed darkly under his tanned skin and awkwardly made +room for another. + +"And here's Matthews,--Berkeley man. And we've got some Eastern +cracks knocking about, too. Come up, you Princeton men! Come up! +This is Sutherland, Jack Sutherland!" + +Then they fell upon him heavily, carried him into camp, and +supplied him with dry clothes and numerous mugs of black tea. + +Donald and Davy, overlooked, had retired to their nightly game of +crib. Montana Kid followed them with the policeman. + +"Here, get into some dry togs," he said, pulling them from out his +scanty kit. "Guess you'll have to bunk with me, too." + +"Well, I say, you're a good 'un," the policeman remarked as he +pulled on the other man's socks. "Sorry I've got to take you back +to Dawson, but I only 'ope they won't be 'ard on you." + +"Not so fast." The Kid smiled curiously. "We ain't under way +yet. When I go I'm going down river, and I guess the chances are +you'll go along." + +"Not if I know myself--" + +"Come on outside, and I'll show you, then. These damn fools," +thrusting a thumb over his shoulder at the two Scots, "played +smash when they located here. Fill your pipe, first--this is +pretty good plug--and enjoy yourself while you can. You haven't +many smokes before you." + +The policeman went with him wonderingly, while Donald and Davy +dropped their cards and followed. The Minook men noticed Montana +Kid pointing now up the river, now down, and came over. + +"What's up?" Sutherland demanded. + +"Nothing much." Nonchalance sat well upon the Kid. "Just a case +of raising hell and putting a chunk under. See that bend down +there? That's where she'll jam millions of tons of ice. Then +she'll jam in the bends up above, millions of tons. Upper jam +breaks first, lower jam holds, pouf!" He dramatically swept the +island with his hand. "Millions of tons," he added reflectively. + +"And what of the woodpiles?" Davy questioned. + +The Kid repeated his sweeping gestures and Davy wailed, "The labor +of months! It canna be! Na, na, lad, it canna be. I doot not +it's a jowk. Ay, say that it is," he appealed. + +But when the Kid laughed harshly and turned on his heel, Davy +flung himself upon the piles and began frantically to toss the +cordwood back from the bank. + +"Lend a hand, Donald!" he cried. "Can ye no lend a hand? 'T is +the labor of months and the passage home!" + +Donald caught him by the arm and shook him, but he tore free. +"Did ye no hear, man? Millions of tons, and the island shall be +sweepit clean." + +"Straighten yersel' up, man," said Donald. "It's a bit fashed ye +are." + +But Davy fell upon the cordwood. Donald stalked back to the +cabin, buckled on his money belt and Davy's, and went out to the +point of the island where the ground was highest and where a huge +pine towered above its fellows. + +The men before the cabin heard the ringing of his axe and smiled. +Greenwich returned from across the island with the word that they +were penned in. It was impossible to cross the back-channel. The +blind Minook man began to sing, and the rest joined in with - + + +"Wonder if it's true? +Does it seem so to you? +Seems to me he's lying - +Oh, I wonder if it's true?" + + +"It's ay sinfu'," Davy moaned, lifting his head and watching them +dance in the slanting rays of the sun. "And my guid wood a' going +to waste." + + +"Oh, I wonder if it's true," + + +was flaunted back. + +The noise of the river ceased suddenly. A strange calm wrapped +about them. The ice had ripped from the shores and was floating +higher on the surface of the river, which was rising. Up it came, +swift and silent, for twenty feet, till the huge cakes rubbed +softly against the crest of the bank. The tail of the island, +being lower, was overrun. Then, without effort, the white flood +started down-stream. But the sound increased with the momentum, +and soon the whole island was shaking and quivering with the shock +of the grinding bergs. Under pressure, the mighty cakes, weighing +hundreds of tons, were shot into the air like peas. The frigid +anarchy increased its riot, and the men had to shout into one +another's ears to be heard. Occasionally the racket from the back +channel could be heard above the tumult. The island shuddered +with the impact of an enormous cake which drove in squarely upon +its point. It ripped a score of pines out by the roots, then +swinging around and over, lifted its muddy base from the bottom of +the river and bore down upon the cabin, slicing the bank and trees +away like a gigantic knife. It seemed barely to graze the corner +of the cabin, but the cribbed logs tilted up like matches, and the +structure, like a toy house, fell backward in ruin. + +"The labor of months! The labor of months, and the passage home!" +Davy wailed, while Montana Kid and the policeman dragged him +backward from the woodpiles. + +"You'll 'ave plenty o' hoppertunity all in good time for yer +passage 'ome," the policeman growled, clouting him alongside the +head and sending him flying into safety. + +Donald, from the top of the pine, saw the devastating berg sweep +away the cordwood and disappear down-stream. As though satisfied +with this damage, the ice-flood quickly dropped to its old level +and began to slacken its pace. The noise likewise eased down, and +the others could hear Donald shouting from his eyrie to look down- +stream. As forecast, the jam had come among the islands in the +bend, and the ice was piling up in a great barrier which stretched +from shore to shore. The river came to a standstill, and the +water finding no outlet began to rise. It rushed up till the +island was awash, the men splashing around up to their knees, and +the dogs swimming to the ruins of the cabin. At this stage it +abruptly became stationary, with no perceptible rise or fall. + +Montana Kid shook his head. "It's jammed above, and no more's +coming down." + +"And the gamble is, which jam will break first," Sutherland added. + +"Exactly," the Kid affirmed. "If the upper jam breaks first, we +haven't a chance. Nothing will stand before it." + +The Minook men turned away in silence, but soon "Rumsky Ho" +floated upon the quiet air, followed by "The Orange and the +Black." Room was made in the circle for Montana Kid and the +policeman, and they quickly caught the ringing rhythm of the +choruses as they drifted on from song to song. + +"Oh, Donald, will ye no lend a hand?" Davy sobbed at the foot of +the tree into which his comrade had climbed. "Oh, Donald, man, +will ye no lend a hand?" he sobbed again, his hands bleeding from +vain attempts to scale the slippery trunk. + +But Donald had fixed his gaze up river, and now his voice rang +out, vibrant with fear: - + + +"God Almichty, here she comes!" + + +Standing knee-deep in the icy water, the Minook men, with Montana +Kid and the policeman, gripped hands and raised their voices in +the terrible, "Battle Hymn of the Republic." But the words were +drowned in the advancing roar. + +And to Donald was vouchsafed a sight such as no man may see and +live. A great wall of white flung itself upon the island. Trees, +dogs, men, were blotted out, as though the hand of God had wiped +the face of nature clean. This much he saw, then swayed an +instant longer in his lofty perch and hurtled far out into the +frozen hell. + + + +THE SCORN OF WOMEN + + + +Once Freda and Mrs. Eppingwell clashed. + +Now Freda was a Greek girl and a dancer. At least she purported +to be Greek; but this was doubted by many, for her classic face +had over-much strength in it, and the tides of hell which rose in +her eyes made at rare moments her ethnology the more dubious. To +a few--men--this sight had been vouchsafed, and though long years +may have passed, they have not forgotten, nor will they ever +forget. She never talked of herself, so that it were well to let +it go down that when in repose, expurgated, Greek she certainly +was. Her furs were the most magnificent in all the country from +Chilcoot to St. Michael's, and her name was common on the lips of +men. But Mrs. Eppingwell was the wife of a captain; also a social +constellation of the first magnitude, the path of her orbit +marking the most select coterie in Dawson,--a coterie captioned by +the profane as the "official clique." Sitka Charley had travelled +trail with her once, when famine drew tight and a man's life was +less than a cup of flour, and his judgment placed her above all +women. Sitka Charley was an Indian; his criteria were primitive; +but his word was flat, and his verdict a hall-mark in every camp +under the circle. + +These two women were man-conquering, man-subduing machines, each +in her own way, and their ways were different. Mrs. Eppingwell +ruled in her own house, and at the Barracks, where were younger +sons galore, to say nothing of the chiefs of the police, the +executive, and the judiciary. Freda ruled down in the town; but +the men she ruled were the same who functioned socially at the +Barracks or were fed tea and canned preserves at the hand of Mrs. +Eppingwell in her hillside cabin of rough-hewn logs. Each knew +the other existed; but their lives were apart as the Poles, and +while they must have heard stray bits of news and were curious, +they were never known to ask a question. And there would have +been no trouble had not a free lance in the shape of the model- +woman come into the land on the first ice, with a spanking dog- +team and a cosmopolitan reputation. Loraine Lisznayi-- +alliterative, dramatic, and Hungarian--precipitated the strife, +and because of her Mrs. Eppingwell left her hillside and invaded +Freda's domain, and Freda likewise went up from the town to spread +confusion and embarrassment at the Governor's ball. + +All of which may be ancient history so far as the Klondike is +concerned, but very few, even in Dawson, know the inner truth of +the matter; nor beyond those few are there any fit to measure the +wife of the captain or the Greek dancer. And that all are now +permitted to understand, let honor be accorded Sitka Charley. +From his lips fell the main facts in the screed herewith +presented. It ill befits that Freda herself should have waxed +confidential to a mere scribbler of words, or that Mrs. Eppingwell +made mention of the things which happened. They may have spoken, +but it is unlikely. + + +II + + +Floyd Vanderlip was a strong man, apparently. Hard work and hard +grub had no terrors for him, as his early history in the country +attested. In danger he was a lion, and when he held in check half +a thousand starving men, as he once did, it was remarked that no +cooler eye ever took the glint of sunshine on a rifle-sight. He +had but one weakness, and even that, rising from out his strength, +was of a negative sort. His parts were strong, but they lacked +co-ordination. Now it happened that while his centre of +amativeness was pronounced, it had lain mute and passive during +the years he lived on moose and salmon and chased glowing +Eldorados over chill divides. But when he finally blazed the +corner-post and centre-stakes on one of the richest Klondike +claims, it began to quicken; and when he took his place in +society, a full-fledged Bonanza King, it awoke and took charge of +him. He suddenly recollected a girl in the States, and it came to +him quite forcibly, not only that she might be waiting for him, +but that a wife was a very pleasant acquisition for a man who +lived some several degrees north of 53. So he wrote an +appropriate note, enclosed a letter of credit generous enough to +cover all expenses, including trousseau and chaperon, and +addressed it to one Flossie. Flossie? One could imagine the +rest. However, after that he built a comfortable cabin on his +claim, bought another in Dawson, and broke the news to his +friends. + +And just here is where the lack of co-ordination came into play. +The waiting was tedious, and having been long denied, the amative +element could not brook further delay. Flossie was coming; but +Loraine Lisznayi was here. And not only was Loraine Lisznayi +here, but her cosmopolitan reputation was somewhat the worse for +wear, and she was not exactly so young as when she posed in the +studios of artist queens and received at her door the cards of +cardinals and princes. Also, her finances were unhealthy. Having +run the gamut in her time, she was now not averse to trying +conclusions with a Bonanza King whose wealth was such that he +could not guess it within six figures. Like a wise soldier +casting about after years of service for a comfortable billet, she +had come into the Northland to be married. So, one day, her eyes +flashed up into Floyd Vanderlip's as he was buying table linen for +Flossie in the P. C. Company's store, and the thing was settled +out of hand. + +When a man is free much may go unquestioned, which, should he be +rash enough to cumber himself with domestic ties, society will +instantly challenge. Thus it was with Floyd Vanderlip. Flossie +was coming, and a low buzz went up when Loraine Lisznayi rode down +the main street behind his wolf-dogs. She accompanied the lady +reporter of the "Kansas City Star" when photographs were taken of +his Bonanza properties, and watched the genesis of a six-column +article. At that time they were dined royally in Flossie's cabin, +on Flossie's table linen. Likewise there were comings and goings, +and junketings, all perfectly proper, by the way, which caused the +men to say sharp things and the women to be spiteful. Only Mrs. +Eppingwell did not hear. The distant hum of wagging tongues rose +faintly, but she was prone to believe good of people and to close +her ears to evil; so she paid no heed. + +Not so with Freda. She had no cause to love men, but, by some +strange alchemy of her nature, her heart went out to women,--to +women whom she had less cause to love. And her heart went out to +Flossie, even then travelling the Long Trail and facing into the +bitter North to meet a man who might not wait for her. A +shrinking, clinging sort of a girl, Freda pictured her, with weak +mouth and pretty pouting lips, blow-away sun-kissed hair, and eyes +full of the merry shallows and the lesser joys of life. But she +also pictured Flossie, face nose-strapped and frost-rimed, +stumbling wearily behind the dogs. Wherefore she smiled, dancing +one night, upon Floyd Vanderlip. + +Few men are so constituted that they may receive the smile of +Freda unmoved; nor among them can Floyd Vanderlip be accounted. +The grace he had found with the model-woman had caused him to re- +measure himself, and by the favor in which he now stood with the +Greek dancer he felt himself doubly a man. There were unknown +qualities and depths in him, evidently, which they perceived. He +did not know exactly what those qualities and depths were, but he +had a hazy idea that they were there somewhere, and of them was +bred a great pride in himself. A man who could force two women +such as these to look upon him a second time, was certainly a most +remarkable man. Some day, when he had the time, he would sit down +and analyze his strength; but now, just now, he would take what +the gods had given him. And a thin little thought began to lift +itself, and he fell to wondering whatever under the sun he had +seen in Flossie, and to regret exceedingly that he had sent for +her. Of course, Freda was out of the running. His dumps were the +richest on Bonanza Creek, and they were many, while he was a man +of responsibility and position. But Loraine Lisznayi--she was +just the woman. Her life had been large; she could do the honors +of his establishment and give tone to his dollars. + +But Freda smiled, and continued to smile, till he came to spend +much time with her. When she, too, rode down the street behind +his wolf-dogs, the model-woman found food for thought, and the +next time they were together dazzled him with her princes and +cardinals and personal little anecdotes of courts and kings. She +also showed him dainty missives, superscribed, "My dear Loraine," +and ended "Most affectionately yours," and signed by the given +name of a real live queen on a throne. And he marvelled in his +heart that the great woman should deign to waste so much as a +moment upon him. But she played him cleverly, making flattering +contrasts and comparisons between him and the noble phantoms she +drew mainly from her fancy, till he went away dizzy with self- +delight and sorrowing for the world which had been denied him so +long. Freda was a more masterful woman. If she flattered, no one +knew it. Should she stoop, the stoop were unobserved. If a man +felt she thought well of him, so subtly was the feeling conveyed +that he could not for the life of him say why or how. So she +tightened her grip upon Floyd Vanderlip and rode daily behind his +dogs. + +And just here is where the mistake occurred. The buzz rose loudly +and more definitely, coupled now with the name of the dancer, and +Mrs. Eppingwell heard. She, too, thought of Flossie lifting her +moccasined feet through the endless hours, and Floyd Vanderlip was +invited up the hillside to tea, and invited often. This quite +took his breath away, and he became drunken with appreciation of +himself. Never was man so maltreated. His soul had become a +thing for which three women struggled, while a fourth was on the +way to claim it. And three such women! + +But Mrs. Eppingwell and the mistake she made. She spoke of the +affair, tentatively, to Sitka Charley, who had sold dogs to the +Greek girl. But no names were mentioned. The nearest approach to +it was when Mrs. Eppingwell said, "This--er--horrid woman," and +Sitka Charley, with the model-woman strong in his thoughts, had +echoed, "--er--horrid woman." And he agreed with her, that it was +a wicked thing for a woman to come between a man and the girl he +was to marry. "A mere girl, Charley," she said, "I am sure she +is. And she is coming into a strange country without a friend +when she gets here. We must do something." Sitka Charley +promised his help, and went away thinking what a wicked woman this +Loraine Lisznayi must be, also what noble women Mrs. Eppingwell +and Freda were to interest themselves in the welfare of the +unknown Flossie. + +Now Mrs. Eppingwell was open as the day. To Sitka Charley, who +took her once past the Hills of Silence, belongs the glory of +having memorialized her clear-searching eyes, her clear-ringing +voice, and her utter downright frankness. Her lips had a way of +stiffening to command, and she was used to coming straight to the +point. Having taken Floyd Vanderlip's measurement, she did not +dare this with him; but she was not afraid to go down into the +town to Freda. And down she went, in the bright light of day, to +the house of the dancer. She was above silly tongues, as was her +husband, the captain. She wished to see this woman and to speak +with her, nor was she aware of any reason why she should not. So +she stood in the snow at the Greek girl's door, with the frost at +sixty below, and parleyed with the waiting-maid for a full five +minutes. She had also the pleasure of being turned away from that +door, and of going back up the hill, wroth at heart for the +indignity which had been put upon her. "Who was this woman that +she should refuse to see her?" she asked herself. One would think +it the other way around, and she herself but a dancing girl denied +at the door of the wife of a captain. As it was, she knew, had +Freda come up the hill to her,--no matter what the errand,--she +would have made her welcome at her fire, and they would have sat +there as two women, and talked, merely as two women. She had +overstepped convention and lowered herself, but she had thought it +different with the women down in the town. And she was ashamed +that she had laid herself open to such dishonor, and her thoughts +of Freda were unkind. + +Not that Freda deserved this. Mrs. Eppingwell had descended to +meet her who was without caste, while she, strong in the +traditions of her own earlier status, had not permitted it. She +could worship such a woman, and she would have asked no greater +joy than to have had her into the cabin and sat with her, just sat +with her, for an hour. But her respect for Mrs. Eppingwell, and +her respect for herself, who was beyond respect, had prevented her +doing that which she most desired. Though not quite recovered +from the recent visit of Mrs. McFee, the wife of the minister, who +had descended upon her in a whirlwind of exhortation and +brimstone, she could not imagine what had prompted the present +visit. She was not aware of any particular wrong she had done, +and surely this woman who waited at the door was not concerned +with the welfare of her soul. Why had she come? For all the +curiosity she could not help but feel, she steeled herself in the +pride of those who are without pride, and trembled in the inner +room like a maid on the first caress of a lover. If Mrs. +Eppingwell suffered going up the hill, she too suffered, lying +face downward on the bed, dry-eyed, dry-mouthed, dumb. + +Mrs. Eppingwell's knowledge of human nature was great. She aimed +at universality. She had found it easy to step from the civilized +and contemplate things from the barbaric aspect. She could +comprehend certain primal and analogous characteristics in a +hungry wolf-dog or a starving man, and predicate lines of action +to be pursued by either under like conditions. To her, a woman +was a woman, whether garbed in purple or the rags of the gutter; +Freda was a woman. She would not have been surprised had she been +taken into the dancer's cabin and encountered on common ground; +nor surprised had she been taken in and flaunted in prideless +arrogance. But to be treated as she had been treated, was +unexpected and disappointing. Ergo, she had not caught Freda's +point of view. And this was good. There are some points of view +which cannot be gained save through much travail and personal +crucifixion, and it were well for the world that its Mrs. +Eppingwells should, in certain ways, fall short of universality. +One cannot understand defilement without laying hands to pitch, +which is very sticky, while there be plenty willing to undertake +the experiment. All of which is of small concern, beyond the fact +that it gave Mrs. Eppingwell ground for grievance, and bred for +her a greater love in the Greek girl's heart. + + +III + + +And in this way things went along for a month,--Mrs. Eppingwell +striving to withhold the man from the Greek dancer's blandishments +against the time of Flossie's coming; Flossie lessening the miles +each day on the dreary trail; Freda pitting her strength against +the model-woman; the model-woman straining every nerve to land the +prize; and the man moving through it all like a flying shuttle, +very proud of himself, whom he believed to be a second Don Juan. + +It was nobody's fault except the man's that Loraine Lisznayi at +last landed him. The way of a man with a maid may be too +wonderful to know, but the way of a woman with a man passeth all +conception; whence the prophet were indeed unwise who would dare +forecast Floyd Vanderlip's course twenty-four hours in advance. +Perhaps the model-woman's attraction lay in that to the eye she +was a handsome animal; perhaps she fascinated him with her old- +world talk of palaces and princes; leastwise she dazzled him whose +life had been worked out in uncultured roughness, and he at last +agreed to her suggestion of a run down the river and a marriage at +Forty Mile. In token of his intention he bought dogs from Sitka +Charley,--more than one sled is necessary when a woman like +Loraine Lisznayi takes to the trail, and then went up the creek to +give orders for the superintendence of his Bonanza mines during +his absence. + +He had given it out, rather vaguely, that he needed the animals +for sledding lumber from the mill to his sluices, and right here +is where Sitka Charley demonstrated his fitness. He agreed to +furnish dogs on a given date, but no sooner had Floyd Vanderlip +turned his toes up-creek, than Charley hied himself away in +perturbation to Loraine Lisznayi. Did she know where Mr. +Vanderlip had gone? He had agreed to supply that gentleman with a +big string of dogs by a certain time; but that shameless one, the +German trader Meyers, had been buying up the brutes and skimped +the market. It was very necessary he should see Mr. Vanderlip, +because of the shameless one he would be all of a week behindhand +in filling the contract. She did know where he had gone? Up- +creek? Good! He would strike out after him at once and inform +him of the unhappy delay. Did he understand her to say that Mr. +Vanderlip needed the dogs on Friday night? that he must have them +by that time? It was too bad, but it was the fault of the +shameless one who had bid up the prices. They had jumped fifty +dollars per head, and should he buy on the rising market he would +lose by the contract. He wondered if Mr. Vanderlip would be +willing to meet the advance. She knew he would? Being Mr. +Vanderlip's friend, she would even meet the difference herself? +And he was to say nothing about it? She was kind to so look to +his interests. Friday night, did she say? Good! The dogs would +be on hand. + +An hour later, Freda knew the elopement was to be pulled off on +Friday night; also, that Floyd Vanderlip had gone up-creek, and +her hands were tied. On Friday morning, Devereaux, the official +courier, bearing despatches from the Governor, arrived over the +ice. Besides the despatches, he brought news of Flossie. He had +passed her camp at Sixty Mile; humans and dogs were in good +condition; and she would doubtless be in on the morrow. Mrs. +Eppingwell experienced a great relief on hearing this; Floyd +Vanderlip was safe up-creek, and ere the Greek girl could again +lay hands upon him, his bride would be on the ground. But that +afternoon her big St. Bernard, valiantly defending her front +stoop, was downed by a foraging party of trail-starved Malemutes. +He was buried beneath the hirsute mass for about thirty seconds, +when rescued by a couple of axes and as many stout men. Had he +remained down two minutes, the chances were large that he would +have been roughly apportioned and carried away in the respective +bellies of the attacking party; but as it was, it was a mere case +of neat and expeditious mangling. Sitka Charley came to repair +the damages, especially a right fore-paw which had inadvertently +been left a fraction of a second too long in some other dog's +mouth. As he put on his mittens to go, the talk turned upon +Flossie and in natural sequence passed on to the--"er horrid +woman." Sitka Charley remarked incidentally that she intended +jumping out down river that night with Floyd Vanderlip, and +further ventured the information that accidents were very likely +at that time of year. + +So Mrs. Eppingwell's thoughts of Freda were unkinder than ever. +She wrote a note, addressed it to the man in question, and +intrusted it to a messenger who lay in wait at the mouth of +Bonanza Creek. Another man, bearing a note from Freda, also +waited at that strategic point. So it happened that Floyd +Vanderlip, riding his sled merrily down with the last daylight, +received the notes together. He tore Freda's across. No, he +would not go to see her. There were greater things afoot that +night. Besides, she was out of the running. But Mrs. Eppingwell! +He would observe her last wish,--or rather, the last wish it would +be possible for him to observe,--and meet her at the Governor's +ball to hear what she had to say. From the tone of the writing it +was evidently important; perhaps-- He smiled fondly, but failed to +shape the thought. Confound it all, what a lucky fellow he was +with the women any way! Scattering her letter to the frost, he +mushed the dogs into a swinging lope and headed for his cabin. It +was to be a masquerade, and he had to dig up the costume used at +the Opera House a couple of months before. Also, he had to shave +and to eat. Thus it was that he, alone of all interested, was +unaware of Flossie's proximity. + +"Have them down to the water-hole off the hospital, at midnight, +sharp. Don't fail me," he said to Sitka Charley, who dropped in +with the advice that only one dog was lacking to fill the bill, +and that that one would be forthcoming in an hour or so. "Here's +the sack. There's the scales. Weigh out your own dust and don't +bother me. I've got to get ready for the ball." + +Sitka Charley weighed out his pay and departed, carrying with him +a letter to Loraine Lisznayi, the contents of which he correctly +imagined to refer to a meeting at the water-hole of the hospital, +at midnight, sharp. + + +IV + + +Twice Freda sent messengers up to the Barracks, where the dance +was in full swing, and as often they came back without answers. +Then she did what only Freda could do--put on her furs, masked her +face, and went up herself to the Governor's ball. Now there +happened to be a custom--not an original one by any means--to +which the official clique had long since become addicted. It was +a very wise custom, for it furnished protection to the womankind +of the officials and gave greater selectness to their revels. +Whenever a masquerade was given, a committee was chosen, the sole +function of which was to stand by the door and peep beneath each +and every mask. Most men did not clamor to be placed upon this +committee, while the very ones who least desired the honor were +the ones whose services were most required. The chaplain was not +well enough acquainted with the faces and places of the +townspeople to know whom to admit and whom to turn away. In like +condition were the several other worthy gentlemen who would have +asked nothing better than to so serve. To fill the coveted place, +Mrs. McFee would have risked her chance of salvation, and did, one +night, when a certain trio passed in under her guns and muddled +things considerably before their identity was discovered. +Thereafter only the fit were chosen, and very ungracefully did +they respond. + +On this particular night Prince was at the door. Pressure had +been brought to bear, and he had not yet recovered from amaze at +his having consented to undertake a task which bid fair to lose +him half his friends, merely for the sake of pleasing the other +half. Three or four of the men he had refused were men whom he +had known on creek and trail,--good comrades, but not exactly +eligible for so select an affair. He was canvassing the +expediency of resigning the post there and then, when a woman +tripped in under the light. Freda! He could swear it by the +furs, did he not know that poise of head so well. The last one to +expect in all the world. He had given her better judgment than to +thus venture the ignominy of refusal, or, if she passed, the scorn +of women. He shook his head, without scrutiny; he knew her too +well to be mistaken. But she pressed closer. She lifted the +black silk ribbon and as quickly lowered it again. For one +flashing, eternal second he looked upon her face. It was not for +nothing, the saying which had arisen in the country, that Freda +played with men as a child with bubbles. Not a word was spoken. +Prince stepped aside, and a few moments later might have been seen +resigning, with warm incoherence, the post to which he had been +unfaithful. + + +A woman, flexible of form, slender, yet rhythmic of strength in +every movement, now pausing with this group, now scanning that, +urged a restless and devious course among the revellers. Men +recognized the furs, and marvelled,--men who should have served +upon the door committee; but they were not prone to speech. Not +so with the women. They had better eyes for the lines of figure +and tricks of carriage, and they knew this form to be one with +which they were unfamiliar; likewise the furs. Mrs. McFee, +emerging from the supper-room where all was in readiness, caught +one flash of the blazing, questing eyes through the silken mask- +slits, and received a start. She tried to recollect where she had +seen the like, and a vivid picture was recalled of a certain proud +and rebellious sinner whom she had once encountered on a fruitless +errand for the Lord. + +So it was that the good woman took the trail in hot and righteous +wrath, a trail which brought her ultimately into the company of +Mrs. Eppingwell and Floyd Vanderlip. Mrs. Eppingwell had just +found the opportunity to talk with the man. She had determined, +now that Flossie was so near at hand, to proceed directly to the +point, and an incisive little ethical discourse was titillating on +the end of her tongue, when the couple became three. She noted, +and pleasurably, the faintly foreign accent of the "Beg pardon" +with which the furred woman prefaced her immediate appropriation +of Floyd Vanderlip; and she courteously bowed her permission for +them to draw a little apart. + +Then it was that Mrs. McFee's righteous hand descended, and +accompanying it in its descent was a black mask torn from a +startled woman. A wonderful face and brilliant eyes were exposed +to the quiet curiosity of those who looked that way, and they were +everybody. Floyd Vanderlip was rather confused. The situation +demanded instant action on the part of a man who was not beyond +his depth, while HE hardly knew where he was. He stared +helplessly about him. Mrs. Eppingwell was perplexed. She could +not comprehend. An explanation was forthcoming, somewhere, and +Mrs. McFee was equal to it. + +"Mrs. Eppingwell," and her Celtic voice rose shrilly, "it is with +great pleasure I make you acquainted with Freda Moloof, MISS Freda +Moloof, as I understand." + +Freda involuntarily turned. With her own face bared, she felt as +in a dream, naked, upon her turned the clothed features and +gleaming eyes of the masked circle. It seemed, almost, as though +a hungry wolf-pack girdled her, ready to drag her down. It might +chance that some felt pity for her, she thought, and at the +thought, hardened. She would by far prefer their scorn. Strong +of heart was she, this woman, and though she had hunted the prey +into the midst of the pack, Mrs. Eppingwell or no Mrs. Eppingwell, +she could not forego the kill. + +But here Mrs. Eppingwell did a strange thing. So this, at last, +was Freda, she mused, the dancer and the destroyer of men; the +woman from whose door she had been turned. And she, too, felt the +imperious creature's nakedness as though it were her own. Perhaps +it was this, her Saxon disinclination to meet a disadvantaged foe, +perhaps, forsooth, that it might give her greater strength in the +struggle for the man, and it might have been a little of both; but +be that as it may, she did do this strange thing. When Mrs. +McFee's thin voice, vibrant with malice, had raised, and Freda +turned involuntarily, Mrs. Eppingwell also turned, removed her +mask, and inclined her head in acknowledgment. + +It was another flashing, eternal second, during which these two +women regarded each other. The one, eyes blazing, meteoric; at +bay, aggressive; suffering in advance and resenting in advance the +scorn and ridicule and insult she had thrown herself open to; a +beautiful, burning, bubbling lava cone of flesh and spirit. And +the other, calm-eyed, cool-browed, serene; strong in her own +integrity, with faith in herself, thoroughly at ease; +dispassionate, imperturbable; a figure chiselled from some cold +marble quarry. Whatever gulf there might exist, she recognized it +not. No bridging, no descending; her attitude was that of perfect +equality. She stood tranquilly on the ground of their common +womanhood. And this maddened Freda. Not so, had she been of +lesser breed; but her soul's plummet knew not the bottomless, and +she could follow the other into the deeps of her deepest depths +and read her aright. "Why do you not draw back your garment's +hem?" she was fain to cry out, all in that flashing, dazzling +second. "Spit upon me, revile me, and it were greater mercy than +this!" She trembled. Her nostrils distended and quivered. But +she drew herself in check, returned the inclination of head, and +turned to the man. + +"Come with me, Floyd," she said simply. "I want you now." + +"What the--" he began explosively, and quit as suddenly, discreet +enough to not round it off. Where the deuce had his wits gone, +anyway? Was ever a man more foolishly placed? He gurgled deep +down in his throat and high up in the roof of his mouth, heaved as +one his big shoulders and his indecision, and glared appealingly +at the two women. + +"I beg pardon, just a moment, but may I speak first with Mr. +Vanderlip?" Mrs. Eppingwell's voice, though flute-like and low, +predicated will in its every cadence. + +The man looked his gratitude. He, at least, was willing enough. + +"I'm very sorry," from Freda. "There isn't time. He must come at +once." The conventional phrases dropped easily from her lips, but +she could not forbear to smile inwardly at their inadequacy and +weakness. She would much rather have shrieked. + +"But, Miss Moloof, who are you that you may possess yourself of +Mr. Vanderlip and command his actions?" + +Whereupon relief brightened his face, and the man beamed his +approval. Trust Mrs. Eppingwell to drag him clear. Freda had met +her match this time. + +"I--I--" Freda hesitated, and then her feminine mind putting on +its harness--"and who are you to ask this question?" + +"I? I am Mrs. Eppingwell, and--" + +"There!" the other broke in sharply. "You are the wife of a +captain, who is therefore your husband. I am only a dancing girl. +What do you with this man?" + +"Such unprecedented behavior!" Mrs. McFee ruffled herself and +cleared for action, but Mrs. Eppingwell shut her mouth with a look +and developed a new attack. + +"Since Miss Moloof appears to hold claims upon you, Mr. Vanderlip, +and is in too great haste to grant me a few seconds of your time, +I am forced to appeal directly to you. May I speak with you, +alone, and now?" + +Mrs. McFee's jaws brought together with a snap. That settled the +disgraceful situation. + +"Why, er--that is, certainly," the man stammered. "Of course, of +course," growing more effusive at the prospect of deliverance. + +Men are only gregarious vertebrates, domesticated and evolved, and +the chances are large that it was because the Greek girl had in +her time dealt with wilder masculine beasts of the human sort; for +she turned upon the man with hell's tides aflood in her blazing +eyes, much as a bespangled lady upon a lion which has suddenly +imbibed the pernicious theory that he is a free agent. The beast +in him fawned to the lash. + +"That is to say, ah, afterward. To-morrow, Mrs. Eppingwell; yes, +to-morrow. That is what I meant." He solaced himself with the +fact, should he remain, that more embarrassment awaited. Also, he +had an engagement which he must keep shortly, down by the water- +hole off the hospital. Ye gods! he had never given Freda credit! +Wasn't she magnificent! + +"I'll thank you for my mask, Mrs. McFee." + +That lady, for the nonce speechless, turned over the article in +question. + +"Good-night, Miss Moloof." Mrs. Eppingwell was royal even in +defeat. + +Freda reciprocated, though barely downing the impulse to clasp the +other's knees and beg forgiveness,--no, not forgiveness, but +something, she knew not what, but which she none the less greatly +desired. + +The man was for her taking his arm; but she had made her kill in +the midst of the pack, and that which led kings to drag their +vanquished at the chariot-tail, led her toward the door alone, +Floyd Vanderlip close at heel and striving to re-establish his +mental equilibrium. + + +V + + +It was bitter cold. As the trail wound, a quarter of a mile +brought them to the dancer's cabin, by which time her moist breath +had coated her face frostily, while his had massed his heavy +mustache till conversation was painful. By the greenish light of +the aurora borealis, the quicksilver showed itself frozen hard in +the bulb of the thermometer which hung outside the door. A +thousand dogs, in pitiful chorus, wailed their ancient wrongs and +claimed mercy from the unheeding stars. Not a breath of air was +moving. For them there was no shelter from the cold, no shrewd +crawling to leeward in snug nooks. The frost was everywhere, and +they lay in the open, ever and anon stretching their trail- +stiffened muscles and lifting the long wolf-howl. + +They did not talk at first, the man and the woman. While the maid +helped Freda off with her wraps, Floyd Vanderlip replenished the +fire; and by the time the maid had withdrawn to an inner room, his +head over the stove, he was busily thawing out his burdened upper +lip. After that he rolled a cigarette and watched her lazily +through the fragrant eddies. She stole a glance at the clock. It +lacked half an hour of midnight. How was she to hold him? Was he +angry for that which she had done? What was his mood? What mood +of hers could meet his best? Not that she doubted herself. No, +no. Hold him she could, if need be at pistol point, till Sitka +Charley's work was done, and Devereaux's too. + +There were many ways, and with her knowledge of this her contempt +for the man increased. As she leaned her head on her hand, a +fleeting vision of her own girlhood, with its mournful climacteric +and tragic ebb, was vouchsafed her, and for the moment she was +minded to read him a lesson from it. God! it must be less than +human brute who could not be held by such a tale, told as she +could tell it, but--bah! He was not worth it, nor worth the pain +to her. The candle was positioned just right, and even as she +thought of these things sacredly shameful to her, he was +pleasuring in the transparent pinkiness of her ear. She noted his +eye, took the cue, and turned her head till the clean profile of +the face was presented. Not the least was that profile among her +virtues. She could not help the lines upon which she had been +builded, and they were very good; but she had long since learned +those lines, and though little they needed, was not above +advantaging them to the best of her ability. The candle began to +flicker. She could not do anything ungracefully, but that did not +prevent her improving upon nature a bit, when she reached forth +and deftly snuffed the red wick from the midst of the yellow +flame. Again she rested head on hand, this time regarding the man +thoughtfully, and any man is pleased when thus regarded by a +pretty woman. + +She was in little haste to begin. If dalliance were to his +liking, it was to hers. To him it was very comfortable, soothing +his lungs with nicotine and gazing upon her. It was snug and warm +here, while down by the water-hole began a trail which he would +soon be hitting through the chilly hours. He felt he ought to be +angry with Freda for the scene she had created, but somehow he +didn't feel a bit wrathful. Like as not there wouldn't have been +any scene if it hadn't been for that McFee woman. If he were the +Governor, he would put a poll tax of a hundred ounces a quarter +upon her and her kind and all gospel sharks and sky pilots. And +certainly Freda had behaved very ladylike, held her own with Mrs. +Eppingwell besides. Never gave the girl credit for the grit. He +looked lingeringly over her, coming back now and again to the +eyes, behind the deep earnestness of which he could not guess lay +concealed a deeper sneer. And, Jove, wasn't she well put up! +Wonder why she looked at him so? Did she want to marry him, too? +Like as not; but she wasn't the only one. Her looks were in her +favor, weren't they? And young--younger than Loraine Lisznayi. +She couldn't be more than twenty-three or four, twenty-five at +most. And she'd never get stout. Anybody could guess that the +first time. He couldn't say it of Loraine, though. SHE certainly +had put on flesh since the day she served as model. Huh! once he +got her on trail he'd take it off. Put her on the snowshoes to +break ahead of the dogs. Never knew it to fail, yet. But his +thought leaped ahead to the palace under the lazy Mediterranean +sky--and how would it be with Loraine then? No frost, no trail, +no famine now and again to cheer the monotony, and she getting +older and piling it on with every sunrise. While this girl Freda- +-he sighed his unconscious regret that he had missed being born +under the flag of the Turk, and came back to Alaska. + +"Well?" Both hands of the clock pointed perpendicularly to +midnight, and it was high time he was getting down to the water- +hole. + +"Oh!" Freda started, and she did it prettily, delighting him as +his fellows have ever been delighted by their womankind. When a +man is made to believe that a woman, looking upon him +thoughtfully, has lost herself in meditation over him, that man +needs be an extremely cold-blooded individual in order to trim his +sheets, set a lookout, and steer clear. + +"I was just wondering what you wanted to see me about," he +explained, drawing his chair up to hers by the table. + +"Floyd," she looked him steadily in the eyes, "I am tired of the +whole business. I want to go away. I can't live it out here till +the river breaks. If I try, I'll die. I am sure of it. I want +to quit it all and go away, and I want to do it at once." + +She laid her hand in mute appeal upon the back of his, which +turned over and became a prison. Another one, he thought, just +throwing herself at him. Guess it wouldn't hurt Loraine to cool +her feet by the water-hole a little longer. + +"Well?" This time from Freda, but softly and anxiously. + +"I don't know what to say," he hastened to answer, adding to +himself that it was coming along quicker than he had expected. +"Nothing I'd like better, Freda. You know that well enough." He +pressed her hand, palm to palm. She nodded. Could she wonder +that she despised the breed? + +"But you see, I--I'm engaged. Of course you know that. And the +girl's coming into the country to marry me. Don't know what was +up with me when I asked her, but it was a long while back, and I +was all-fired young--" + +"I want to go away, out of the land, anywhere," she went on, +disregarding the obstacle he had reared up and apologized for. "I +have been running over the men I know and reached the conclusion +that--that--" + +"I was the likeliest of the lot?" + +She smiled her gratitude for his having saved her the +embarrassment of confession. He drew her head against his +shoulder with the free hand, and somehow the scent of her hair got +into his nostrils. Then he discovered that a common pulse +throbbed, throbbed, throbbed, where their palms were in contact. +This phenomenon is easily comprehensible from a physiological +standpoint, but to the man who makes the discovery for the first +time, it is a most wonderful thing. Floyd Vanderlip had caressed +more shovel-handles than women's hands in his time, so this was an +experience quite new and delightfully strange. And when Freda +turned her head against his shoulder, her hair brushing his cheek +till his eyes met hers, full and at close range, luminously soft, +ay, and tender--why, whose fault was it that he lost his grip +utterly? False to Flossie, why not to Loraine? Even if the women +did keep bothering him, that was no reason he should make up his +mind in a hurry. Why, he had slathers of money, and Freda was +just the girl to grace it. A wife she'd make him for other men to +envy. But go slow. He must be cautious. + +"You don't happen to care for palaces, do you?" he asked. + +She shook her head. + +"Well, I had a hankering after them myself, till I got to +thinking, a while back, and I've about sized it up that one'd get +fat living in palaces, and soft and lazy." + +"Yes, it's nice for a time, but you soon grow tired of it, I +imagine," she hastened to reassure him. "The world is good, but +life should be many-sided. Rough and knock about for a while, and +then rest up somewhere. Off to the South Seas on a yacht, then a +nibble of Paris; a winter in South America and a summer in Norway; +a few months in England--" + +"Good society?" + +"Most certainly--the best; and then, heigho! for the dogs and +sleds and the Hudson Bay Country. Change, you know. A strong man +like you, full of vitality and go, could not possibly stand a +palace for a year. It is all very well for effeminate men, but +you weren't made for such a life. You are masculine, intensely +masculine." + +"Think so?" + +"It does not require thinking. I know. Have you ever noticed +that it was easy to make women care for you?" + +His dubious innocence was superb. + +"It is very easy. And why? Because you are masculine. You +strike the deepest chords of a woman's heart. You are something +to cling to,--big-muscled, strong, and brave. In short, because +you ARE a man." + +She shot a glance at the clock. It was half after the hour. She +had given a margin of thirty minutes to Sitka Charley; and it did +not matter, now, when Devereaux arrived. Her work was done. She +lifted her head, laughed her genuine mirth, slipped her hand +clear, and rising to her feet called the maid. + +"Alice, help Mr. Vanderlip on with his parka. His mittens are on +the sill by the stove." + +The man could not understand. + +"Let me thank you for your kindness, Floyd. Your time was +invaluable to me, and it was indeed good of you. The turning to +the left, as you leave the cabin, leads the quickest to the water- +hole. Good-night. I am going to bed." + +Floyd Vanderlip employed strong words to express his perplexity +and disappointment. Alice did not like to hear men swear, so +dropped his parka on the floor and tossed his mittens on top of +it. Then he made a break for Freda, and she ruined her retreat to +the inner room by tripping over the parka. He brought her up +standing with a rude grip on the wrist. But she only laughed. +She was not afraid of men. Had they not wrought their worst with +her, and did she not still endure? + +"Don't be rough," she said finally. "On second thought," here she +looked at his detaining hand, "I've decided not to go to bed yet a +while. Do sit down and be comfortable instead of ridiculous. Any +questions?" + +"Yes, my lady, and reckoning, too." He still kept his hold. +"What do you know about the water-hole? What did you mean by--no, +never mind. One question at a time." + +"Oh, nothing much. Sitka Charley had an appointment there with +somebody you may know, and not being anxious for a man of your +known charm to be present, fell back upon me to kindly help him. +That's all. They're off now, and a good half hour ago." + +"Where? Down river and without me? And he an Indian!" + +"There's no accounting for taste, you know, especially in a +woman." + +"But how do I stand in this deal? I've lost four thousand +dollars' worth of dogs and a tidy bit of a woman, and nothing to +show for it. Except you," he added as an afterthought, "and cheap +you are at the price." + +Freda shrugged her shoulders. + +"You might as well get ready. I'm going out to borrow a couple of +teams of dogs, and we'll start in as many hours." + +"I am very sorry, but I'm going to bed." + +"You'll pack if you know what's good for you. Go to bed, or not, +when I get my dogs outside, so help me, onto the sled you go. +Mebbe you fooled with me, but I'll just see your bluff and take +you in earnest. Hear me?" + +He closed on her wrist till it hurt, but on her lips a smile was +growing, and she seemed to listen intently to some outside sound. +There was a jingle of dog bells, and a man's voice crying "Haw!" +as a sled took the turning and drew up at the cabin. + +"NOW will you let me go to bed?" + +As Freda spoke she threw open the door. Into the warm room rushed +the frost, and on the threshold, garbed in trail-worn furs, knee- +deep in the swirling vapor, against a background of flaming +borealis, a woman hesitated. She removed her nose-trap and stood +blinking blindly in the white candlelight. Floyd Vanderlip +stumbled forward. + +"Floyd!" she cried, relieved and glad, and met him with a tired +bound. + +What could he but kiss the armful of furs? And a pretty armful it +was, nestling against him wearily, but happy. + +"It was good of you," spoke the armful, "to send Mr. Devereaux +with fresh dogs after me, else I would not have been in till to- +morrow." + +The man looked blankly across at Freda, then the light breaking in +upon him, "And wasn't it good of Devereaux to go?" + +"Couldn't wait a bit longer, could you, dear?" Flossie snuggled +closer. + +"Well, I was getting sort of impatient," he confessed glibly, at +the same time drawing her up till her feet left the floor, and +getting outside the door. + +That same night an inexplicable thing happened to the Reverend +James Brown, missionary, who lived among the natives several miles +down the Yukon and saw to it that the trails they trod led to the +white man's paradise. He was roused from his sleep by a strange +Indian, who gave into his charge not only the soul but the body of +a woman, and having done this drove quickly away. This woman was +heavy, and handsome, and angry, and in her wrath unclean words +fell from her mouth. This shocked the worthy man, but he was yet +young and her presence would have been pernicious (in the simple +eyes of his flock), had she not struck out on foot for Dawson with +the first gray of dawn. + +The shock to Dawson came many days later, when the summer had come +and the population honored a certain royal lady at Windsor by +lining the Yukon's bank and watching Sitka Charley rise up with +flashing paddle and drive the first canoe across the line. On +this day of the races, Mrs. Eppingwell, who had learned and +unlearned numerous things, saw Freda for the first time since the +night of the ball. "Publicly, mind you," as Mrs. McFee expressed +it, "without regard or respect for the morals of the community," +she went up to the dancer and held out her hand. At first, it is +remembered by those who saw, the girl shrank back, then words +passed between the two, and Freda, great Freda, broke down and +wept on the shoulder of the captain's wife. It was not given to +Dawson to know why Mrs. Eppingwell should crave forgiveness of a +Greek dancing girl, but she did it publicly, and it was unseemly. + +It were well not to forget Mrs. McFee. She took a cabin passage +on the first steamer going out. She also took with her a theory +which she had achieved in the silent watches of the long dark +nights; and it is her conviction that the Northland is +unregenerate because it is so cold there. Fear of hell-fire +cannot be bred in an ice-box. This may appear dogmatic, but it is +Mrs. McFee's theory. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Tales of the Klondyke, by Jack London + diff --git a/old/klndk10.zip b/old/klndk10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70da07a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/klndk10.zip |