Ottsjöblogger i Ottsjö

Att jag har sett för mycket av TV serierna om mord och elände, brottsplats USA med flera. Jag får nog ringa polisen och höra efter om det är säkert att gå och lägga sig…..

 

 

Japan is of the world's most advanced nations. The nation is known for its technical proficiency & fine hand at artistry. Japan is also famed for its prosperous cultural heritage remnants which still exist today. Actually there's some elements of the Japanese culture that have been exported outside its boundaries to become a worldwide trend.

of the things that have brought the country of Japan recognition on a worldwide scale is the art of tattooing that the Japanese people wallow in. Tattooing has existed in Japan for hundreds of years. In fact some of the designs that are found today can be traced back to the 5th century BC. It ought to be noted that tattooing was something looked down on in Japan because it was thought about to be an art form associated with criminals.

Today however the trend has changed & the art of tattooing has become a method of making a fashion statement. This is much more so the case outside of Japan like the western countries.

In Japan the field continues to have a bad connotation even today. But for making profit they have developed their tattooing industry which now deals with a worldwide clientle.

No need to say, Japanese tattoo symbols are wonderful with their artistic attractiveness & beauty. Love symbols are exceptional among them achieving a massive number of fans. Western people are in hurry to get themselves tattooed with these Japanese love tattoo symbols.

The love symbol is written in the Kanji script. This is an age elderly ideographical script that was established in the Japanese language lots of years ago. By the looks of it the script appears as though it was originally formed for the purpose of tattooing. This is because it appears to be brilliantly aesthetically beautiful.

Both men & ladies are being captivated to the beauty of the Japanese tattoos & that is the actual resplendence of this art. The romantic beauty of these symbols win over the young people & makes them addicted for lifetime.

The designing of Kanji symbols is not the job of a layperson. In order to get the complicated definition correct each stroke much be done in the correct order & direction. Peace, strength, freedom, unity are other popular symbols along with the love symbol.

Love cannot be expressed in words & so is the meanings of the love symbols. Beyond the surface meanings, Japanese love symbols are conveying what the lovers need to express each other, but they are not capable for it because of the limitations of the words. Along with the artistic appearance, this fact also makes the lovers having no other choice other than tattooing with these love symbols to give words for their final love.

 

Spelling and treatment  In English, the speech indicating origin starting the Friesland province is typically spelled "Frisian." However, the different spelling with an extra "e" is old for Friesian cattle. During much of the history of the Friesch Paarden Stamboek breed registry, most breeders of the horses also were breeders of dairy cattle and the constant spelling was also old for both breeds, all by English-language breeding societies and registries.

However, the spelling "Frisian" is often old modish additional contexts.   Breed characteristics  A Friesian stallion modish show stance  The Friesian is most regularly recognizable near its black coat color, if affect lonely is not their single distinguishing characteristic. Friesian horses also be a long, thick mane and tail, regularly wavy, and "feathers"--long, silky hair to the decrease legs, deliberately left untrimmed. The authoritative breed seldom has white markings of any kind; most registries allocate single a small star to the forehead pro thoroughbred registration.

Though extremely rare, and not accepted pro registration in most cases, Friesians are occasionally chestnut. The Friesian's average height is area 15.3 hands (63Â inches or 1.60 m), although it may contrast starting 14.2 to 17 hands (between 58 in./1.5 m and 68 in./1.7 m) tall at the withers, and mares or geldings should be at least 15.2 hands (1.57 m) tall to be for a 'star-designation' pedigree. The breed is known pro a brisk, high-stepping trot.

The Friesian is painstaking a willing, active, and energetic pony with is also gentle and docile. A Friesian tends to have great incidence and to involve itself including elegance.  The breed has commanding by conformation and good bone structure, with what is and called a "Baroque" body type. Friesians inflicted long, domed necks and well-chiseled, short-eared, "Spanish type" heads. Their sloping shoulders are quite powerful. They have compact, strong bodies including passionate inclined hindquarters and a low-set tail. Their limbs are somewhat short and strong. To be usual as breeding have modish the FPS studbook, a stallion must pass a rigorous praise process.  Today, here are two evident conformation types.

The baroque type has the extra robust build of the classical Friesian. The modern, sport pony category is finer-boned. Conformation category is judged reduced valuable than correct movement, and both types are common, even the Modern type is currently more standard modish the trade seem than is the Baroque Friesian.   History of the Friesian  A historic image of Alva 113, Friesian stallion  The breed was urban modish the province of Friesland modish the northern Netherlands, where here is prove of thousands of years of horse populations, and this breed is understood to be descended from the primeval Forest Horse.

It is also said that Romans obtained ancestors of the Friesian pony for riding and also took them to England, everywhere the breed category could be influenced the Shire horse, Clydesdale, Fell Pony and Dales Pony.  Ancestors of the modern Friesians were used modish medieval times to involve knights to battle. In the 12th and 13th centuries, some eastern horses of crusaders were mated with Friesian stock. During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Netherlands were long linked with Spain, there was of demand for gray war horses as battle arms changed, Andalusian blood was added, lightening its consequence and so rendering it more apposite (in terms of of provisions intake and waste output) for about as a more urban carriage horse. Friesians were also used near riding schools in France and Spain for high-school dressage, and they remain popular today for their gentle temperaments and proud appearance.  The historian

Ann Hyland wrote of the Friesian breed:  The Emperor Charles (reigned 1516-56) nonstop Spanish extension into the Netherlands, which had its Frisian warhorse, prominent by Vegetius and old next the continent and modish Britain in Roman times. Like the Andalusian, the Frisian bred true to type. Even including infusions of Spanish blood during the sixteenth century, it retained its native characteristics, taking the preeminent from both breeds. The Frisian is mentioned in 16th and 17th century works... a courageous horse eminently apposite pro war, lacking the nature of approximately breeds or the phlegm of very gray ones. Generally black, the Frisian was almost 15hh including strong, cobby conformation, for with a business more elegance and quality. The prominent step was a smooth hurry coming starting powerful quarters. Nowadays, even breed classification is retained, the size has markedly increased, as has that of most breeds due to improved rearing and nutritional methods. 

The breed was especially popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, as they were not single in plea as harness horses and pro agricultural work, save also for the trotting races then as popular. The Friesian could be been used as foundation a pro breeds such as the Dole Gudbrandsdal, the Norfolk Trotter (ancestor of the Hackney), and the Morgan. In the 1800s the Friesian was bred to be lighter and faster pro trotting, though this led to what some owners and breeders regarded as inferior stock, as a passage to return to pureblood supply took house near the aim of the century.

A Studbook Society was founded modish 1879 near Frisian farmers and ground owners who had gathered to found the Friesian Cattle Registry (FRS).[citation needed] The Paardenstamboek ("Stud book") was in modish 1880 and initially registered both Friesian horses and a group of heavy warmblood breeds, including East Friesians and Oldenburgers, communally known as "Bovenlanders." At the time, the Friesian pony was declining in numbers, and being replaced by the more fashionable Bovenlanders, both frankly and near crossbreeding Bovenlander stallions to Friesian mares.

This had by effectively exterminated the wholesome Friesian in noteworthy parts of the province modish 1879, which through the inclusion of Bovenlanders necessary. While the bring of the registry produced a revival of the breed's popularity in the of 19th century, it also resulted in the sale and evaporation of many of the best stallions from the breeding area, and Friesian pony populations dwindled. By the very of 20th century until the digit of breeding stallions was not to three.[citation needed] Therefore, modish 1906, the two parts of the registry were joined, and the studbook was renamed the Friesch Paarden Stamboek (FPS) in 1907." 

Friesian horses are and referred to as "Belgian Blacks"  In 1913, a the known as the Het Friesch Paard was founded, dyed-in-the-wool to the protection and promotion of the breed. By 1915 the group convinced FPS to split the registries back up into two groups. By 1943, the breeders of non-Friesian horses missing the FPS completely to shape an entirely separate registry which later became the Koninklijk Warmbloed Paardenstamboek Nederland (Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands (KWPN).  Displacement near petroleum-powered farm gear on dairy farms also was a risk to the survival of Friesian horse.

The last draught function performed by Friesians next a significant extent was to work next farms that raised dairy cattle. World War II slowed not the process of displacement, allowing the breed's population and popularity to rebound. Important in the early boards of the breed's spring was the circus of the Strassburger family, who, having fled Nazi Germany for the Low Countries, discovered the show qualities of the breed and demonstrated its abilities further of its local breeding area all and with the Nazi occupation.[citation needed] 

Today, there are three present bloodlines: Tetman 205, Age 168, and Ritske 202. Each of these sires trail their blood to Paulus 121, who was born modish 1913 and entered into the Studbook modish 1916. He in turn can be traced back three extra generations to the original 19th century Studbook foundation sire, Nemo 51, born modish 1885. All purebred Friesians trace trade to these bloodlines.   The Friesian now  A Friesian in surcingle, showing at the trot  From the end part of the 20th century of the present, demand pro purebreds, all the "Modern style" finer-boned, taller, extra agile version of the Friesian increased, so breeders inflicted bred both purebreds and a lighter-weight crossbred horse including valued characteristics, resulting in the Frieisan cross and Friesian Sporthorse. 

Friesian horses are standard modish both Europe and the United States, and are often used today for Dressage competition, pleasure riding, and driving. Friesian horses can out well modish dressage struggle due to the breed's movement, trainability, appearance, power, and deceased control.  Closeup of the have  The Friesian also remains popular as a carriage horse, as it is a commanding pony and its high-stepping proceedings is eye-catching. It is above popular in competitions the require the pouring of a team, to because of its movement and disposition, and some since it is straightforward to contest teams of black horses. Friesians are also good all-around horses, used pro showing, driving, and all-purpose riding, and are also used as circus horses.  Due to its showy appearance, the Friesian has be standard modish the coat industry.

The breed owes much of its contemporary popularity to the appearance of the Friesian stallion Goliath (real name: Othello) modish the 1985 film, Ladyhawke, which ignited a worldwide appeal in these horses. Films such as Eragon, The Mask of Zorro, Alexander and The Chronicles of Narnia be also featured Friesian horses. An episode of the popular TV series Lost featured a Friesian/Saddlebred cross. Though they are of dramatic appearance, again their aid in dramatizations of real historical events is of unconvinced accuracy, agreed of the breed as it is known now single came into being surrounded the continue 400 to 600 years.  

References  ^ FPS Studbook  ^ "Friesian Encyclopedia" Web page accessed August 24, 2007  ^ Hyland, Ann The Warhorse 1250-1600 UK:Sutton Publishing, 1998, pp 2-3  ^ Historic Notes Web site accessed August 24, 2007.  ^ a b c d "History of the Friesian Horse" Friesian Horse Society Web leaf accessed September 1, 2008   External links  Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Friesian horse  Friesch Paarden-Stamboek Netherlands-based organisation with works globally with local and regional organisations to 'protect the interests of the breed'  Friesian Horse Association of North America North American representative of the FPS studbook. 

FPZV Friesenpferde Zuchtverband e. V. German based Friesian registry  Friesian Horse Society North American representative of the FPZV  International Friesian Show Horse Association USEF recognized representative of the Friesian breed in the show ring.   Equine  Equine knowledge and  management  Equine anatomy Equine nutrition  Horse behavior Horse care Horse breeding Equine conformation. Equine coat color  Horse step  Equestrianism  and sport  Glossary of equestrian terms

Horse tack  Bit  Bridle  Saddle Harness English riding Western riding Driving Horse schooling Horse racing Equestrian at the Summer Olympics Horse show  Equitation  Evolution and description  Domestication  In combat In the Middle Ages Horses in East Asian warfare  History of the pony modish South Asia  Horses modish the Napoleonic Wars Horses in World War I Horses in World War II  Horse breeds, types  and additional Equidae  Horses  List of horse breeds Wild horse Feral horse  Stock horse Gaited pony  Draft pony Warmblood  Sport horse  Other Equus  Donkey Zebra Onager  Hybrids  Hinn  Mule Zebroid  Category: Equidae   Categories: Animal breeds originating in the Netherlands | Horse breeds | ALBC Conservation Priority BreedsHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements starting September 2008

Om du måste sälja din häst och din inte säker på hur man gör det, har du några alternativ. Ett, är att du kan hitta sajter: Hästar till salu, och registrera dem. Ett annat alternativ är att du kan hitta en lokal annonsblad och sälja din häst där, eller så kan du publicera bilder och till salu annonser för honom på lokala sajter räkningen ombord i din stad.

Först av allt, när det gäller hästar, ganska säljer. Detta innebär att din häst måste vara i gott skick för att attrahera rätt typ av köpare. En häst med en fluga biten kappa, utan att vara klippta, som antingen är för feta eller för tunna kommer att bli svårt att sälja oavsett hur bra en häst de är.

Innan du sälja din häst, ta tid att rykta honom och få honom passar nog att rida bra. Vissa platser ska du trimma är brud vägen, under hakan, hans polisonger, och om du kan, hans öron. Om du planerar att sälja honom som en show häst, ska du trimma honom som du ska visa honom i en tävling. En annan stor sak du måste kontrollera innan du sälja din häst, är att se hans fötter är i gott skick. Om han har dåliga fötter, kommer han inte sälja bra.

En häst som är trimmade väl med en vacker päls kommer att sälja bättre än en välformad häst med ingen vård alls. Detta kan göra skillnaden mellan ett par hundra dollar och ibland ett par tusen. Väl utbildad kommer att göra skillnad också.

När du tänker sälja din häst, börja rida. En häst som inte har hanterats på regelbunden basis eller inte har ridit på flera år kommer att vara längst ned av marknaden. Så se till att du förbereder din häst för marknaden på alla tänkbara sätt innan du annonserar dem. Om du behöver, anlita någon att göra det åt dig, får du antagligen kostnaden tillbaka tio gånger om de vet vad de gör.

Sedan är det vidare till beslut om var och hur man säljer. Du måste ange en tidsram. Om du behöver sälja dem snabbt, tänk på ett bra auktionshus. Ja det kostar pengar att sälja där, men om du har förberett dem väl och de är i topp träningsform, du får bra pengar. Bara forskning priserna särskilda auktionshuset blir innan du går, ta inte en 3000 dollar häst till ett auktionshus som är storsäljare var 500 dollar.

Om du har mer tid att sälja, det är ingen tvekan om att sälja dem på nätet kommer att medföra mer pengar. Börja med att kolla alla de olika webbplatser som säljer hästar. Kolla in elak eller genomsnittliga priset på hästarna där, ta en titt på de alternativ som du har och kostnaden. Olika webbplatser kommer att erbjuda dig olika typer av bekvämligheter.

Fråga dig själv dessa frågor, kan du lägga bilder på sajten? Hur många? Kommer det kosta mer att skicka många bilder? Kommer köparna kontakta dig eller på webbplatsen? Kan du lägga upp videoklipp? Vad är det svarsfrekvens försäljning av hästar? Vet svaren på dessa frågor innan du postar på sajten. Du vill inte att lägga till din10,000 till 100.000 kronor  för dyr häst kommer förmodligen inte kommer att sälja.

Sälja din bästa vän är inte lätt, men det finns stora webbplatser för hästar till försäljning, samt auktionshus, och troligen affischtavlor över hela stan. Glöm inte, bilderna är mer än tusen ord. Så ta dem, massor av dem på nära håll och långt borta. Sedan minns, inte skick materia.

Översatt med google

Sad is the destiny,

You don´t wanna know,

Lonely is the tune,

you outha know that,

Sad is the word!

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 138:8“The LORD will vindicate me; your love, LORD, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

by Rick King  


At times we allow thoughts to enter our mind
That will take us to a place that we should never go
And we find that we lose our peace
As it tosses our minds to and fro

God told us in Philippians
Just on what to think
Yet sometimes it seems so right
And we wonder as to why, we did spiritually sink

God promises to us peace
If on the correct things we will dwell
Things that line up with His word
Instead of the suggestions originated from hell

The battle will always come
Until we learn to recognize
Who sent the thoughts?
Are they from God's truths or just satan's lies?

We are told to cast down every imagination and every high thing
That does exalt itself against the knowledge of our God
And bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
For then we may walk where Jesus trod

We are told to lean not on our own understanding
But we get too intellectual and just have to know
Instead of casting the care on God alone
We are determined that down this road, to go

This road will take our peace
And our joy and our power
All because we are trusting in self
Instead of a Holy Spirit shower

It will always be a battle
But we can surely stand
If we will just think on the right things
And allow only the Holy Spirit to take our hand.



I am a 61 year old Born-Again spirit filled Christian, that has been saved for 30 years. Jesus found me when I was suicidal. I learned real quickly that I was powerless to be in control of my life, so I let Jesus take over. He has chosen me to be a warrior for Him. WE win, if we fight His way.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

One sings beautifully, but out of tune,
Not yet the able ape, though all too soon
Eliding notes an untaught heart might croon.

One speaks sounds--the code without the key,
Not yet the able ape, though frequently
Echoing the person she will be.

One has piano legs and chubby cheeks.
Now she babbles, now she nearly speaks,
Embracing heartily the words she seeks.

One has not yet lost the primal wonder,
Nor has she split the self and Self asunder,
Embracing all as One, untamed and tender.

Du var min vän,
vi växte upp i byn som var
vår livsnerv,
du försvann till himlen,
glömde oss kvar här.
Varför?
Saknaden är stor,
du var en man,
du var som jag,
ledsen många gånger,
din son blev kvar,
frågorna blev kvar,
vi undrar och saknar dig.
Vi älskade dig,
kände du inte vår kärlek?
Du var som jag,
deppad och glad ibland, du
behövde kärlek,
kände du den inte?
Den finns kvar, trots du är borta
från oss.

Har du någonsin tänkt dig själv att det inte finns tillräckligt med timmar på dagen, eller kände sig överväldigad på de uppgifter mot dig? Om du har, kan denna artikel hjälpa dig!

• Klargör dina mål och strategi. Var mycket tydlig med dina mål och ambitioner, både på kort och lång sikt. Skriv ner dem. När du vet vad du verkligen vill uppnå (och varför) det är lättare att fatta beslut om vad som behöver göras, och planera därefter.

• Fokusera på dina främsta prioriteringar. Du kommer att bli mer produktiva och lönsamma om du identifierar and.focus på de områden som är viktigast för din verksamhet. Arbetet med grunderna först. Det latinska ordet "fundamentum avses stiftelsen - så agera, bygga en stark grund och resten bör följa.

• Schemalägg tid. Bokstavligen skriva ett möte i ditt arbete planerare (du har en av dessa, inte sant?) Att avsätta en realistisk block av tid för prioriterade åtgärder. Detta minskar ångest över att inte ha tillräckligt med tid och håller dig fokuserad.

• Säg nej!. "Lär dig att säga nej. Låt inte din mun överbelasta ryggen. "Kontrollera alltid ditt schema innan de bestämmer sig för något nytt. Låt inte andra att avleda dig från ditt mål.

• Skapa stödjande system. Detta inkluderar system för arkivering, hantering av information och kommunikation.

• Ta vara verkligheten. Kommer din nuvarande verksamhet har ett positivt resultat, eller gör ni det för att undvika något annat? Fråga dig själv - kommer att göra detta ta mig mot mitt mål? Som Peter F Drucker observerade "Det finns inget så meningslöst som att göra effektivt det som inte bör göras alls."

• Delegera! Det är frestande att göra något själv när du tror att du kan göra det snabbare och bättre. Men tänk på lång sikt - delegationen nu kommer att spara tid i framtiden, och om det görs lämpligen kan motivera dina medarbetare, öka deras självförtroende och hjälpa dem att utveckla sina färdigheter.

• Upprepa din framgång. Kom ihåg senaste gången du gick på semester, och hur du fick så mycket gjort under dessa få dagar innan du kvar? Vilka strategier och tekniker har ni använder som gjorde dig så effektiv och fokuserad? Kan ni upprepa dem? Alternativt tänka mig att du kommer iväg i morgon och gå igenom idag därefter.

• Balans i ditt liv. Formellt schemalägga personliga aktiviteter också, så du gör tid för familj, vänner, din hälsa och roligt att ha ett balanserat liv minskar stress och ökar energi nivåer. Time management handlar egentligen om livet ledningen!

• Avsluta dagen. Vid slutet av arbetsdagen, städa skrivbordet, göra anteckningar om vad som behöver göras i morgon och prioritera dessa uppgifter. Du kommer oroa dig mindre på kvällen och vara beredd och fokuserad nästa morgon.

Och en sista tanke. "Säg inte att du inte har tillräckligt med tid. Du har exakt samma antal timmar per dag som gavs till Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Moder Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson och Albert Einstein. "

På 70-talet när man var en hormonstinn tonåring. Så var det roligaste man kunde göra att sitta och kolla in Aspholm, Brorson med flera, på den tiden var dom rent av sagt sexiga.....Dom hade en overall, och en ibland lite för liten...vilka fantasier, dom vill du nog inte veta. Nu är dom borta, mina Barndoms poliser, dom som gärna stannade och pratade med oss ungdomar, gör dom det idag?

Kanske tur dom inte visste vad vi tjejer hade i våra vilda hjärnor! Så fram med lite fler Sexigare poliser! så man har nått att hmmm, hm ja just det!
Undrar när jag åker i finkan??  Sextokig ottsjöbo i finkan.....:)

Men jag ska vara glad att dom finns, utan dom har jag nog varit i en etta med torvtak vid det här laget.
Kram alla poliser :)

För psyksjukhuset  i Östersund!! Dom tycks inte ens veta att jag finns!!!
Känner mig övergiven, känner inte att det spelar nån roll längre om jag lever eller är död!
Det är kasst, men sant, sen jag kom ut har dom inte ringt och frågat mig, hur går det?
Åre kommun sviker mig, jag trodde jag skulle få hjälp, vilken lögn!
Snart är bara skalet av mig kvar, ingen kommer att tycka det var nått att sakna.
Inga kommer att känna nån förlust,
ingen vill veta, ingen vill bry sig,
jag är inget, bara lite lort i det stora havet som drog förbi.


En liten fluga
susar förbi
ingen ser, ingen vill
se dess sökande
efter kärlek

This Valentine's I wish that you were with me.
It's lonelier than most days I'm alone,
Even though we'll manage on the phone
To touch with words the face we cannot see.

You away are far more dear to me
Than anyone who might remain at home.
My love is in the places that you roam,
Being with you where I cannot be.

We do not choose the objects of our passion,
But passively await the holy fire
That immolates our past and lights our fate,
Twisting through the alleys of desire.
So I am yours, and will contented wait,
Allowing love my life and will to fashion.

Snälla, snälla, nog kan väl skrämma nån turist med den katten?




Savannah. En amerikansk korsning mellan en vildkattenServal och en vanlig katt.
Ser ut som en liten geopard/leopard. Kan väga upp till 15 kilo.Den är inte godkänd här än och  och man får punga ut med drygt 20 000 dollar för att bli ägare till en sådan.. Tänk över 100 000 för en katt! Hallå! Lottovinst………


Mer video: Savanah Cat

 

One night I saw Aaron,
The next he was dead.
Now I can't remember
The last thing he said.

There is no reason,
No reason at all,
Why this one last thing
I need to recall.

The last night I saw him,
He, Mark, and I,
I had no idea
He was going to die.

It was just the usual
Basketball game,
Joking and cheering,
All just the same.

The Earth should have screamed,
Some song should have played,
Some mark should have told us,
All gross and decayed.

But the game simply ended
And we left the gym.
And that was the last
I'll see of him.

Love of Life and other Stories

 

"This out of all will remain -
They have lived and have tossed:
So much of the game will be gain,
Though the gold of the dice has been lost."

 

THEY limped painfully down the bank, and once the foremost of the
two men staggered among the rough-strewn rocks.  They were tired
and weak, and their faces had the drawn expression of patience
which comes of hardship long endured.  They were heavily burdened
with blanket packs which were strapped to their shoulders.  Head-
straps, passing across the forehead, helped support these packs. 
Each man carried a rifle.  They walked in a stooped posture, the
shoulders well forward, the head still farther forward, the eyes
bent upon the ground.

"I wish we had just about two of them cartridges that's layin' in
that cache of ourn," said the second man.

His voice was utterly and drearily expressionless.  He spoke
without enthusiasm; and the first man, limping into the milky
stream that foamed over the rocks, vouchsafed no reply.

The other man followed at his heels.  They did not remove their
foot-gear, though the water was icy cold - so cold that their
ankles ached and their feet went numb.  In places the water dashed
against their knees, and both men staggered for footing.

The man who followed slipped on a smooth boulder, nearly fell, but
recovered himself with a violent effort, at the same time uttering
a sharp exclamation of pain.  He seemed faint and dizzy and put out
his free hand while he reeled, as though seeking support against
the air.  When he had steadied himself he stepped forward, but
reeled again and nearly fell.  Then he stood still and looked at
the other man, who had never turned his head.

The man stood still for fully a minute, as though debating with
himself.  Then he called out:

"I say, Bill, I've sprained my ankle."

Bill staggered on through the milky water.  He did not look around. 
The man watched him go, and though his face was expressionless as
ever, his eyes were like the eyes of a wounded deer.

The other man limped up the farther bank and continued straight on
without looking back.  The man in the stream watched him.  His lips
trembled a little, so that the rough thatch of brown hair which
covered them was visibly agitated.  His tongue even strayed out to
moisten them.

"Bill!" he cried out.

It was the pleading cry of a strong man in distress, but Bill's
head did not turn.  The man watched him go, limping grotesquely and
lurching forward with stammering gait up the slow slope toward the
soft sky-line of the low-lying hill.  He watched him go till he
passed over the crest and disappeared.  Then he turned his gaze and
slowly took in the circle of the world that remained to him now
that Bill was gone.

Near the horizon the sun was smouldering dimly, almost obscured by
formless mists and vapors, which gave an impression of mass and
density without outline or tangibility.  The man pulled out his
watch, the while resting his weight on one leg.  It was four
o'clock, and as the season was near the last of July or first of
August, - he did not know the precise date within a week or two, -
he knew that the sun roughly marked the northwest.  He looked to
the south and knew that somewhere beyond those bleak hills lay the
Great Bear Lake; also, he knew that in that direction the Arctic
Circle cut its forbidding way across the Canadian Barrens.  This
stream in which he stood was a feeder to the Coppermine River,
which in turn flowed north and emptied into Coronation Gulf and the
Arctic Ocean.  He had never been there, but he had seen it, once,
on a Hudson Bay Company chart.

Again his gaze completed the circle of the world about him.  It was
not a heartening spectacle.  Everywhere was soft sky-line.  The
hills were all low-lying.  There were no trees, no shrubs, no
grasses - naught but a tremendous and terrible desolation that sent
fear swiftly dawning into his eyes.

"Bill!" he whispered, once and twice; "Bill!"

He cowered in the midst of the milky water, as though the vastness
were pressing in upon him with overwhelming force, brutally
crushing him with its complacent awfulness.  He began to shake as
with an ague-fit, till the gun fell from his hand with a splash. 
This served to rouse him.  He fought with his fear and pulled
himself together, groping in the water and recovering the weapon. 
He hitched his pack farther over on his left shoulder, so as to
take a portion of its weight from off the injured ankle.  Then he
proceeded, slowly and carefully, wincing with pain, to the bank.

He did not stop.  With a desperation that was madness, unmindful of
the pain, he hurried up the slope to the crest of the hill over
which his comrade had disappeared - more grotesque and comical by
far than that limping, jerking comrade.  But at the crest he saw a
shallow valley, empty of life.  He fought with his fear again,
overcame it, hitched the pack still farther over on his left
shoulder, and lurched on down the slope.

The bottom of the valley was soggy with water, which the thick moss
held, spongelike, close to the surface.  This water squirted out
from under his feet at every step, and each time he lifted a foot
the action culminated in a sucking sound as the wet moss
reluctantly released its grip.  He picked his way from muskeg to
muskeg, and followed the other man's footsteps along and across the
rocky ledges which thrust like islets through the sea of moss.

Though alone, he was not lost.  Farther on he knew he would come to
where dead spruce and fir, very small and weazened, bordered the
shore of a little lake, the TITCHIN-NICHILIE, in the tongue of the
country, the "land of little sticks."  And into that lake flowed a
small stream, the water of which was not milky.  There was rush-
grass on that stream - this he remembered well - but no timber, and
he would follow it till its first trickle ceased at a divide.  He
would cross this divide to the first trickle of another stream,
flowing to the west, which he would follow until it emptied into
the river Dease, and here he would find a cache under an upturned
canoe and piled over with many rocks.  And in this cache would be
ammunition for his empty gun, fish-hooks and lines, a small net -
all the utilities for the killing and snaring of food.  Also, he
would find flour, - not much, - a piece of bacon, and some beans.

Bill would be waiting for him there, and they would paddle away
south down the Dease to the Great Bear Lake.  And south across the
lake they would go, ever south, till they gained the Mackenzie. 
And south, still south, they would go, while the winter raced
vainly after them, and the ice formed in the eddies, and the days
grew chill and crisp, south to some warm Hudson Bay Company post,
where timber grew tall and generous and there was grub without end.

These were the thoughts of the man as he strove onward.  But hard
as he strove with his body, he strove equally hard with his mind,
trying to think that Bill had not deserted him, that Bill would
surely wait for him at the cache.  He was compelled to think this
thought, or else there would not be any use to strive, and he would
have lain down and died.  And as the dim ball of the sun sank
slowly into the northwest he covered every inch - and many times -
of his and Bill's flight south before the downcoming winter.  And
he conned the grub of the cache and the grub of the Hudson Bay
Company post over and over again.  He had not eaten for two days;
for a far longer time he had not had all he wanted to eat.  Often
he stooped and picked pale muskeg berries, put them into his mouth,
and chewed and swallowed them.  A muskeg berry is a bit of seed
enclosed in a bit of water.  In the mouth the water melts away and
the seed chews sharp and bitter.  The man knew there was no
nourishment in the berries, but he chewed them patiently with a
hope greater than knowledge and defying experience.

At nine o'clock he stubbed his toe on a rocky ledge, and from sheer
weariness and weakness staggered and fell.  He lay for some time,
without movement, on his side.  Then he slipped out of the pack-
straps and clumsily dragged himself into a sitting posture.  It was
not yet dark, and in the lingering twilight he groped about among
the rocks for shreds of dry moss.  When he had gathered a heap he
built a fire, - a smouldering, smudgy fire, - and put a tin pot of
water on to boil.

He unwrapped his pack and the first thing he did was to count his
matches.  There were sixty-seven.  He counted them three times to
make sure.  He divided them into several portions, wrapping them in
oil paper, disposing of one bunch in his empty tobacco pouch, of
another bunch in the inside band of his battered hat, of a third
bunch under his shirt on the chest.  This accomplished, a panic
came upon him, and he unwrapped them all and counted them again. 
There were still sixty-seven.

He dried his wet foot-gear by the fire.  The moccasins were in
soggy shreds.  The blanket socks were worn through in places, and
his feet were raw and bleeding.  His ankle was throbbing, and he
gave it an examination.  It had swollen to the size of his knee. 
He tore a long strip from one of his two blankets and bound the
ankle tightly.  He tore other strips and bound them about his feet
to serve for both moccasins and socks.  Then he drank the pot of
water, steaming hot, wound his watch, and crawled between his
blankets.

He slept like a dead man.  The brief darkness around midnight came
and went.  The sun arose in the northeast - at least the day dawned
in that quarter, for the sun was hidden by gray clouds.

At six o'clock he awoke, quietly lying on his back.  He gazed
straight up into the gray sky and knew that he was hungry.  As he
rolled over on his elbow he was startled by a loud snort, and saw a
bull caribou regarding him with alert curiosity.  The animal was
not mere than fifty feet away, and instantly into the man's mind
leaped the vision and the savor of a caribou steak sizzling and
frying over a fire.  Mechanically he reached for the empty gun,
drew a bead, and pulled the trigger.  The bull snorted and leaped
away, his hoofs rattling and clattering as he fled across the
ledges.

The man cursed and flung the empty gun from him.  He groaned aloud
as he started to drag himself to his feet.  It was a slow and
arduous task.

His joints were like rusty hinges.  They worked harshly in their
sockets, with much friction, and each bending or unbending was
accomplished only through a sheer exertion of will.  When he
finally gained his feet, another minute or so was consumed in
straightening up, so that he could stand erect as a man should
stand.

He crawled up a small knoll and surveyed the prospect.  There were
no trees, no bushes, nothing but a gray sea of moss scarcely
diversified by gray rocks, gray lakelets, and gray streamlets.  The
sky was gray.  There was no sun nor hint of sun.  He had no idea of
north, and he had forgotten the way he had come to this spot the
night before.  But he was not lost.  He knew that.  Soon he would
come to the land of the little sticks.  He felt that it lay off to
the left somewhere, not far - possibly just over the next low hill.

He went back to put his pack into shape for travelling.  He assured
himself of the existence of his three separate parcels of matches,
though he did not stop to count them.  But he did linger, debating,
over a squat moose-hide sack.  It was not large.  He could hide it
under his two hands.  He knew that it weighed fifteen pounds, - as
much as all the rest of the pack, - and it worried him.  He finally
set it to one side and proceeded to roll the pack.  He paused to
gaze at the squat moose-hide sack.  He picked it up hastily with a
defiant glance about him, as though the desolation were trying to
rob him of it; and when he rose to his feet to stagger on into the
day, it was included in the pack on his back.

He bore away to the left, stopping now and again to eat muskeg
berries.  His ankle had stiffened, his limp was more pronounced,
but the pain of it was as nothing compared with the pain of his
stomach.  The hunger pangs were sharp.  They gnawed and gnawed
until he could not keep his mind steady on the course he must
pursue to gain the land of little sticks.  The muskeg berries did
not allay this gnawing, while they made his tongue and the roof of
his mouth sore with their irritating bite.

He came upon a valley where rock ptarmigan rose on whirring wings
from the ledges and muskegs.  Ker - ker - ker was the cry they
made.  He threw stones at them, but could not hit them.  He placed
his pack on the ground and stalked them as a cat stalks a sparrow. 
The sharp rocks cut through his pants' legs till his knees left a
trail of blood; but the hurt was lost in the hurt of his hunger. 
He squirmed over the wet moss, saturating his clothes and chilling
his body; but he was not aware of it, so great was his fever for
food.  And always the ptarmigan rose, whirring, before him, till
their ker - ker - ker became a mock to him, and he cursed them and
cried aloud at them with their own cry.

Once he crawled upon one that must have been asleep.  He did not
see it till it shot up in his face from its rocky nook.  He made a
clutch as startled as was the rise of the ptarmigan, and there
remained in his hand three tail-feathers.  As he watched its flight
he hated it, as though it had done him some terrible wrong.  Then
he returned and shouldered his pack.

As the day wore along he came into valleys or swales where game was
more plentiful.  A band of caribou passed by, twenty and odd
animals, tantalizingly within rifle range.  He felt a wild desire
to run after them, a certitude that he could run them down.  A
black fox came toward him, carrying a ptarmigan in his mouth.  The
man shouted.  It was a fearful cry, but the fox, leaping away in
fright, did not drop the ptarmigan.

Late in the afternoon he followed a stream, milky with lime, which
ran through sparse patches of rush-grass.  Grasping these rushes
firmly near the root, he pulled up what resembled a young onion-
sprout no larger than a shingle-nail.  It was tender, and his teeth
sank into it with a crunch that promised deliciously of food.  But
its fibers were tough.  It was composed of stringy filaments
saturated with water, like the berries, and devoid of nourishment. 
He threw off his pack and went into the rush-grass on hands and
knees, crunching and munching, like some bovine creature.

He was very weary and often wished to rest - to lie down and sleep;
but he was continually driven on - not so much by his desire to
gain the land of little sticks as by his hunger.  He searched
little ponds for frogs and dug up the earth with his nails for
worms, though he knew in spite that neither frogs nor worms existed
so far north.

He looked into every pool of water vainly, until, as the long
twilight came on, he discovered a solitary fish, the size of a
minnow, in such a pool.  He plunged his arm in up to the shoulder,
but it eluded him.  He reached for it with both hands and stirred
up the milky mud at the bottom.  In his excitement he fell in,
wetting himself to the waist.  Then the water was too muddy to
admit of his seeing the fish, and he was compelled to wait until
the sediment had settled.

The pursuit was renewed, till the water was again muddied.  But he
could not wait.  He unstrapped the tin bucket and began to bale the
pool.  He baled wildly at first, splashing himself and flinging the
water so short a distance that it ran back into the pool.  He
worked more carefully, striving to be cool, though his heart was
pounding against his chest and his hands were trembling.  At the
end of half an hour the pool was nearly dry.  Not a cupful of water
remained.  And there was no fish.  He found a hidden crevice among
the stones through which it had escaped to the adjoining and larger
pool - a pool which he could not empty in a night and a day.  Had
he known of the crevice, he could have closed it with a rock at the
beginning and the fish would have been his.

Thus he thought, and crumpled up and sank down upon the wet earth. 
At first he cried softly to himself, then he cried loudly to the
pitiless desolation that ringed him around; and for a long time
after he was shaken by great dry sobs.

He built a fire and warmed himself by drinking quarts of hot water,
and made camp on a rocky ledge in the same fashion he had the night
before.  The last thing he did was to see that his matches were dry
and to wind his watch.  The blankets were wet and clammy.  His
ankle pulsed with pain.  But he knew only that he was hungry, and
through his restless sleep he dreamed of feasts and banquets and of
food served and spread in all imaginable ways.

He awoke chilled and sick.  There was no sun.  The gray of earth
and sky had become deeper, more profound.  A raw wind was blowing,
and the first flurries of snow were whitening the hilltops.  The
air about him thickened and grew white while he made a fire and
boiled more water.  It was wet snow, half rain, and the flakes were
large and soggy.  At first they melted as soon as they came in
contact with the earth, but ever more fell, covering the ground,
putting out the fire, spoiling his supply of moss-fuel.

This was a signal for him to strap on his pack and stumble onward,
he knew not where.  He was not concerned with the land of little
sticks, nor with Bill and the cache under the upturned canoe by the
river Dease.  He was mastered by the verb "to eat."  He was hunger-
mad.  He took no heed of the course he pursued, so long as that
course led him through the swale bottoms.  He felt his way through
the wet snow to the watery muskeg berries, and went by feel as he
pulled up the rush-grass by the roots.  But it was tasteless stuff
and did not satisfy.  He found a weed that tasted sour and he ate
all he could find of it, which was not much, for it was a creeping
growth, easily hidden under the several inches of snow.

He had no fire that night, nor hot water, and crawled under his
blanket to sleep the broken hunger-sleep.  The snow turned into a
cold rain.  He awakened many times to feel it falling on his
upturned face.  Day came - a gray day and no sun.  It had ceased
raining.  The keenness of his hunger had departed.  Sensibility, as
far as concerned the yearning for food, had been exhausted.  There
was a dull, heavy ache in his stomach, but it did not bother him so
much.  He was more rational, and once more he was chiefly
interested in the land of little sticks and the cache by the river
Dease.

He ripped the remnant of one of his blankets into strips and bound
his bleeding feet.  Also, he recinched the injured ankle and
prepared himself for a day of travel.  When he came to his pack, he
paused long over the squat moose-hide sack, but in the end it went
with him.

The snow had melted under the rain, and only the hilltops showed
white.  The sun came out, and he succeeded in locating the points
of the compass, though he knew now that he was lost.  Perhaps, in
his previous days' wanderings, he had edged away too far to the
left.  He now bore off to the right to counteract the possible
deviation from his true course.

Though the hunger pangs were no longer so exquisite, he realized
that he was weak.  He was compelled to pause for frequent rests,
when he attacked the muskeg berries and rush-grass patches.  His
tongue felt dry and large, as though covered with a fine hairy
growth, and it tasted bitter in his mouth.  His heart gave him a
great deal of trouble.  When he had travelled a few minutes it
would begin a remorseless thump, thump, thump, and then leap up and
away in a painful flutter of beats that choked him and made him go
faint and dizzy.

In the middle of the day he found two minnows in a large pool.  It
was impossible to bale it, but he was calmer now and managed to
catch them in his tin bucket.  They were no longer than his little
finger, but he was not particularly hungry.  The dull ache in his
stomach had been growing duller and fainter.  It seemed almost that
his stomach was dozing.  He ate the fish raw, masticating with
painstaking care, for the eating was an act of pure reason.  While
he had no desire to eat, he knew that he must eat to live.

In the evening he caught three more minnows, eating two and saving
the third for breakfast.  The sun had dried stray shreds of moss,
and he was able to warm himself with hot water.  He had not covered
more than ten miles that day; and the next day, travelling whenever
his heart permitted him, he covered no more than five miles.  But
his stomach did not give him the slightest uneasiness.  It had gone
to sleep.  He was in a strange country, too, and the caribou were
growing more plentiful, also the wolves.  Often their yelps drifted
across the desolation, and once he saw three of them slinking away
before his path.

Another night; and in the morning, being more rational, he untied
the leather string that fastened the squat moose-hide sack.  From
its open mouth poured a yellow stream of coarse gold-dust and
nuggets.  He roughly divided the gold in halves, caching one half
on a prominent ledge, wrapped in a piece of blanket, and returning
the other half to the sack.  He also began to use strips of the one
remaining blanket for his feet.  He still clung to his gun, for
there were cartridges in that cache by the river Dease.

This was a day of fog, and this day hunger awoke in him again.  He
was very weak and was afflicted with a giddiness which at times
blinded him.  It was no uncommon thing now for him to stumble and
fall; and stumbling once, he fell squarely into a ptarmigan nest. 
There were four newly hatched chicks, a day old - little specks of
pulsating life no more than a mouthful; and he ate them ravenously,
thrusting them alive into his mouth and crunching them like egg-
shells between his teeth.  The mother ptarmigan beat about him with
great outcry.  He used his gun as a club with which to knock her
over, but she dodged out of reach.  He threw stones at her and with
one chance shot broke a wing.  Then she fluttered away, running,
trailing the broken wing, with him in pursuit.

The little chicks had no more than whetted his appetite.  He hopped
and bobbed clumsily along on his injured ankle, throwing stones and
screaming hoarsely at times; at other times hopping and bobbing
silently along, picking himself up grimly and patiently when he
fell, or rubbing his eyes with his hand when the giddiness
threatened to overpower him.

The chase led him across swampy ground in the bottom of the valley,
and he came upon footprints in the soggy moss.  They were not his
own - he could see that.  They must be Bill's.  But he could not
stop, for the mother ptarmigan was running on.  He would catch her
first, then he would return and investigate.

He exhausted the mother ptarmigan; but he exhausted himself.  She
lay panting on her side.  He lay panting on his side, a dozen feet
away, unable to crawl to her.  And as he recovered she recovered,
fluttering out of reach as his hungry hand went out to her.  The
chase was resumed.  Night settled down and she escaped.  He
stumbled from weakness and pitched head foremost on his face,
cutting his cheek, his pack upon his back.  He did not move for a
long while; then he rolled over on his side, wound his watch, and
lay there until morning.

Another day of fog.  Half of his last blanket had gone into foot-
wrappings.  He failed to pick up Bill's trail.  It did not matter. 
His hunger was driving him too compellingly - only - only he
wondered if Bill, too, were lost.  By midday the irk of his pack
became too oppressive.  Again he divided the gold, this time merely
spilling half of it on the ground.  In the afternoon he threw the
rest of it away, there remaining to him only the half-blanket, the
tin bucket, and the rifle.

An hallucination began to trouble him.  He felt confident that one
cartridge remained to him.  It was in the chamber of the rifle and
he had overlooked it.  On the other hand, he knew all the time that
the chamber was empty.  But the hallucination persisted.  He fought
it off for hours, then threw his rifle open and was confronted with
emptiness.  The disappointment was as bitter as though he had
really expected to find the cartridge.

He plodded on for half an hour, when the hallucination arose again. 
Again he fought it, and still it persisted, till for very relief he
opened his rifle to unconvince himself.  At times his mind wandered
farther afield, and he plodded on, a mere automaton, strange
conceits and whimsicalities gnawing at his brain like worms.  But
these excursions out of the real were of brief duration, for ever
the pangs of the hunger-bite called him back.  He was jerked back
abruptly once from such an excursion by a sight that caused him
nearly to faint.  He reeled and swayed, doddering like a drunken
man to keep from falling.  Before him stood a horse.  A horse!  He
could not believe his eyes.  A thick mist was in them, intershot
with sparkling points of light.  He rubbed his eyes savagely to
clear his vision, and beheld, not a horse, but a great brown bear. 
The animal was studying him with bellicose curiosity.

The man had brought his gun halfway to his shoulder before he
realized.  He lowered it and drew his hunting-knife from its beaded
sheath at his hip.  Before him was meat and life.  He ran his thumb
along the edge of his knife.  It was sharp.  The point was sharp. 
He would fling himself upon the bear and kill it.  But his heart
began its warning thump, thump, thump.  Then followed the wild
upward leap and tattoo of flutters, the pressing as of an iron band
about his forehead, the creeping of the dizziness into his brain.

His desperate courage was evicted by a great surge of fear.  In his
weakness, what if the animal attacked him?  He drew himself up to
his most imposing stature, gripping the knife and staring hard at
the bear.  The bear advanced clumsily a couple of steps, reared up,
and gave vent to a tentative growl.  If the man ran, he would run
after him; but the man did not run.  He was animated now with the
courage of fear.  He, too, growled, savagely, terribly, voicing the
fear that is to life germane and that lies twisted about life's
deepest roots.

The bear edged away to one side, growling menacingly, himself
appalled by this mysterious creature that appeared upright and
unafraid.  But the man did not move.  He stood like a statue till
the danger was past, when he yielded to a fit of trembling and sank
down into the wet moss.

He pulled himself together and went on, afraid now in a new way. 
It was not the fear that he should die passively from lack of food,
but that he should be destroyed violently before starvation had
exhausted the last particle of the endeavor in him that made toward
surviving.  There were the wolves.  Back and forth across the
desolation drifted their howls, weaving the very air into a fabric
of menace that was so tangible that he found himself, arms in the
air, pressing it back from him as it might be the walls of a wind-
blown tent.

Now and again the wolves, in packs of two and three, crossed his
path.  But they sheered clear of him.  They were not in sufficient
numbers, and besides they were hunting the caribou, which did not
battle, while this strange creature that walked erect might scratch
and bite.

In the late afternoon he came upon scattered bones where the wolves
had made a kill.  The debris had been a caribou calf an hour
before, squawking and running and very much alive.  He contemplated
the bones, clean-picked and polished, pink with the cell-life in
them which had not yet died.  Could it possibly be that he might be
that ere the day was done!  Such was life, eh?  A vain and fleeting
thing.  It was only life that pained.  There was no hurt in death. 
To die was to sleep.  It meant cessation, rest.  Then why was he
not content to die?

But he did not moralize long.  He was squatting in the moss, a bone
in his mouth, sucking at the shreds of life that still dyed it
faintly pink.  The sweet meaty taste, thin and elusive almost as a
memory, maddened him.  He closed his jaws on the bones and
crunched.  Sometimes it was the bone that broke, sometimes his
teeth.  Then he crushed the bones between rocks, pounded them to a
pulp, and swallowed them.  He pounded his fingers, too, in his
haste, and yet found a moment in which to feel surprise at the fact
that his fingers did not hurt much when caught under the descending
rock.

Came frightful days of snow and rain.  He did not know when he made
camp, when he broke camp.  He travelled in the night as much as in
the day.  He rested wherever he fell, crawled on whenever the dying
life in him flickered up and burned less dimly.  He, as a man, no
longer strove.  It was the life in him, unwilling to die, that
drove him on.  He did not suffer.  His nerves had become blunted,
numb, while his mind was filled with weird visions and delicious
dreams.

But ever he sucked and chewed on the crushed bones of the caribou
calf, the least remnants of which he had gathered up and carried
with him.  He crossed no more hills or divides, but automatically
followed a large stream which flowed through a wide and shallow
valley.  He did not see this stream nor this valley.  He saw
nothing save visions.  Soul and body walked or crawled side by
side, yet apart, so slender was the thread that bound them.

He awoke in his right mind, lying on his back on a rocky ledge. 
The sun was shining bright and warm.  Afar off he heard the
squawking of caribou calves.  He was aware of vague memories of
rain and wind and snow, but whether he had been beaten by the storm
for two days or two weeks he did not know.

For some time he lay without movement, the genial sunshine pouring
upon him and saturating his miserable body with its warmth.  A fine
day, he thought.  Perhaps he could manage to locate himself.  By a
painful effort he rolled over on his side.  Below him flowed a wide
and sluggish river.  Its unfamiliarity puzzled him.  Slowly he
followed it with his eyes, winding in wide sweeps among the bleak,
bare hills, bleaker and barer and lower-lying than any hills he had
yet encountered.  Slowly, deliberately, without excitement or more
than the most casual interest, he followed the course of the
strange stream toward the sky-line and saw it emptying into a
bright and shining sea.  He was still unexcited.  Most unusual, he
thought, a vision or a mirage - more likely a vision, a trick of
his disordered mind.  He was confirmed in this by sight of a ship
lying at anchor in the midst of the shining sea.  He closed his
eyes for a while, then opened them.  Strange how the vision
persisted!  Yet not strange.  He knew there were no seas or ships
in the heart of the barren lands, just as he had known there was no
cartridge in the empty rifle.

He heard a snuffle behind him - a half-choking gasp or cough.  Very
slowly, because of his exceeding weakness and stiffness, he rolled
over on his other side.  He could see nothing near at hand, but he
waited patiently.  Again came the snuffle and cough, and outlined
between two jagged rocks not a score of feet away he made out the
gray head of a wolf.  The sharp ears were not pricked so sharply as
he had seen them on other wolves; the eyes were bleared and
bloodshot, the head seemed to droop limply and forlornly.  The
animal blinked continually in the sunshine.  It seemed sick.  As he
looked it snuffled and coughed again.

This, at least, was real, he thought, and turned on the other side
so that he might see the reality of the world which had been veiled
from him before by the vision.  But the sea still shone in the
distance and the ship was plainly discernible.  Was it reality,
after all?  He closed his eyes for a long while and thought, and
then it came to him.  He had been making north by east, away from
the Dease Divide and into the Coppermine Valley.  This wide and
sluggish river was the Coppermine.  That shining sea was the Arctic
Ocean.  That ship was a whaler, strayed east, far east, from the
mouth of the Mackenzie, and it was lying at anchor in Coronation
Gulf.  He remembered the Hudson Bay Company chart he had seen long
ago, and it was all clear and reasonable to him.

He sat up and turned his attention to immediate affairs.  He had
worn through the blanket-wrappings, and his feet were shapeless
lumps of raw meat.  His last blanket was gone.  Rifle and knife
were both missing.  He had lost his hat somewhere, with the bunch
of matches in the band, but the matches against his chest were safe
and dry inside the tobacco pouch and oil paper.  He looked at his
watch.  It marked eleven o'clock and was still running.  Evidently
he had kept it wound.

He was calm and collected.  Though extremely weak, he had no
sensation of pain.  He was not hungry.  The thought of food was not
even pleasant to him, and whatever he did was done by his reason
alone.  He ripped off his pants' legs to the knees and bound them
about his feet.  Somehow he had succeeded in retaining the tin
bucket.  He would have some hot water before he began what he
foresaw was to be a terrible journey to the ship.

His movements were slow.  He shook as with a palsy.  When he
started to collect dry moss, he found he could not rise to his
feet.  He tried again and again, then contented himself with
crawling about on hands and knees.  Once he crawled near to the
sick wolf.  The animal dragged itself reluctantly out of his way,
licking its chops with a tongue which seemed hardly to have the
strength to curl.  The man noticed that the tongue was not the
customary healthy red.  It was a yellowish brown and seemed coated
with a rough and half-dry mucus.

After he had drunk a quart of hot water the man found he was able
to stand, and even to walk as well as a dying man might be supposed
to walk.  Every minute or so he was compelled to rest.  His steps
were feeble and uncertain, just as the wolf's that trailed him were
feeble and uncertain; and that night, when the shining sea was
blotted out by blackness, he knew he was nearer to it by no more
than four miles.

Throughout the night he heard the cough of the sick wolf, and now
and then the squawking of the caribou calves.  There was life all
around him, but it was strong life, very much alive and well, and
he knew the sick wolf clung to the sick man's trail in the hope
that the man would die first.  In the morning, on opening his eyes,
he beheld it regarding him with a wistful and hungry stare.  It
stood crouched, with tail between its legs, like a miserable and
woe-begone dog.  It shivered in the chill morning wind, and grinned
dispiritedly when the man spoke to it in a voice that achieved no
more than a hoarse whisper.

The sun rose brightly, and all morning the man tottered and fell
toward the ship on the shining sea.  The weather was perfect.  It
was the brief Indian Summer of the high latitudes.  It might last a
week.  To-morrow or next day it might he gone.

In the afternoon the man came upon a trail.  It was of another man,
who did not walk, but who dragged himself on all fours.  The man
thought it might be Bill, but he thought in a dull, uninterested
way.  He had no curiosity.  In fact, sensation and emotion had left
him.  He was no longer susceptible to pain.  Stomach and nerves had
gone to sleep.  Yet the life that was in him drove him on.  He was
very weary, but it refused to die.  It was because it refused to
die that he still ate muskeg berries and minnows, drank his hot
water, and kept a wary eye on the sick wolf.

He followed the trail of the other man who dragged himself along,
and soon came to the end of it - a few fresh-picked bones where the
soggy moss was marked by the foot-pads of many wolves.  He saw a
squat moose-hide sack, mate to his own, which had been torn by
sharp teeth.  He picked it up, though its weight was almost too
much for his feeble fingers.  Bill had carried it to the last.  Ha!
ha!  He would have the laugh on Bill.  He would survive and carry
it to the ship in the shining sea.  His mirth was hoarse and
ghastly, like a raven's croak, and the sick wolf joined him,
howling lugubriously.  The man ceased suddenly.  How could he have
the laugh on Bill if that were Bill; if those bones, so pinky-white
and clean, were Bill?

He turned away.  Well, Bill had deserted him; but he would not take
the gold, nor would he suck Bill's bones.  Bill would have, though,
had it been the other way around, he mused as he staggered on.

He came to a pool of water.  Stooping over in quest of minnows, he
jerked his head back as though he had been stung.  He had caught
sight of his reflected face.  So horrible was it that sensibility
awoke long enough to be shocked.  There were three minnows in the
pool, which was too large to drain; and after several ineffectual
attempts to catch them in the tin bucket he forbore.  He was
afraid, because of his great weakness, that he might fall in and
drown.  It was for this reason that he did not trust himself to the
river astride one of the many drift-logs which lined its sand-
spits.

That day he decreased the distance between him and the ship by
three miles; the next day by two - for he was crawling now as Bill
had crawled; and the end of the fifth day found the ship still
seven miles away and him unable to make even a mile a day.  Still
the Indian Summer held on, and he continued to crawl and faint,
turn and turn about; and ever the sick wolf coughed and wheezed at
his heels.  His knees had become raw meat like his feet, and though
he padded them with the shirt from his back it was a red track he
left behind him on the moss and stones.  Once, glancing back, he
saw the wolf licking hungrily his bleeding trail, and he saw
sharply what his own end might be - unless - unless he could get
the wolf.  Then began as grim a tragedy of existence as was ever
played - a sick man that crawled, a sick wolf that limped, two
creatures dragging their dying carcasses across the desolation and
hunting each other's lives.

Had it been a well wolf, it would not have mattered so much to the
man; but the thought of going to feed the maw of that loathsome and
all but dead thing was repugnant to him.  He was finicky.  His mind
had begun to wander again, and to be perplexed by hallucinations,
while his lucid intervals grew rarer and shorter.

He was awakened once from a faint by a wheeze close in his ear. 
The wolf leaped lamely back, losing its footing and falling in its
weakness.  It was ludicrous, but he was not amused.  Nor was he
even afraid.  He was too far gone for that.  But his mind was for
the moment clear, and he lay and considered.  The ship was no more
than four miles away.  He could see it quite distinctly when he
rubbed the mists out of his eyes, and he could see the white sail
of a small boat cutting the water of the shining sea.  But he could
never crawl those four miles.  He knew that, and was very calm in
the knowledge.  He knew that he could not crawl half a mile.  And
yet he wanted to live.  It was unreasonable that he should die
after all he had undergone.  Fate asked too much of him.  And,
dying, he declined to die.  It was stark madness, perhaps, but in
the very grip of Death he defied Death and refused to die.

He closed his eyes and composed himself with infinite precaution. 
He steeled himself to keep above the suffocating languor that
lapped like a rising tide through all the wells of his being.  It
was very like a sea, this deadly languor, that rose and rose and
drowned his consciousness bit by bit.  Sometimes he was all but
submerged, swimming through oblivion with a faltering stroke; and
again, by some strange alchemy of soul, he would find another shred
of will and strike out more strongly.

Without movement he lay on his back, and he could hear, slowly
drawing near and nearer, the wheezing intake and output of the sick
wolf's breath.  It drew closer, ever closer, through an infinitude
of time, and he did not move.  It was at his ear.  The harsh dry
tongue grated like sandpaper against his cheek.  His hands shot out
- or at least he willed them to shoot out.  The fingers were curved
like talons, but they closed on empty air.  Swiftness and certitude
require strength, and the man had not this strength.

The patience of the wolf was terrible.  The man's patience was no
less terrible.  For half a day he lay motionless, fighting off
unconsciousness and waiting for the thing that was to feed upon him
and upon which he wished to feed.  Sometimes the languid sea rose
over him and he dreamed long dreams; but ever through it all,
waking and dreaming, he waited for the wheezing breath and the
harsh caress of the tongue.

He did not hear the breath, and he slipped slowly from some dream
to the feel of the tongue along his hand.  He waited.  The fangs
pressed softly; the pressure increased; the wolf was exerting its
last strength in an effort to sink teeth in the food for which it
had waited so long.  But the man had waited long, and the lacerated
hand closed on the jaw.  Slowly, while the wolf struggled feebly
and the hand clutched feebly, the other hand crept across to a
grip.  Five minutes later the whole weight of the man's body was on
top of the wolf.  The hands had not sufficient strength to choke
the wolf, but the face of the man was pressed close to the throat
of the wolf and the mouth of the man was full of hair.  At the end
of half an hour the man was aware of a warm trickle in his throat. 
It was not pleasant.  It was like molten lead being forced into his
stomach, and it was forced by his will alone.  Later the man rolled
over on his back and slept.

There were some members of a scientific expedition on the whale-
ship BEDFORD.  From the deck they remarked a strange object on the
shore.  It was moving down the beach toward the water.  They were
unable to classify it, and, being scientific men, they climbed into
the whale-boat alongside and went ashore to see.  And they saw
something that was alive but which could hardly be called a man. 
It was blind, unconscious.  It squirmed along the ground like some
monstrous worm.  Most of its efforts were ineffectual, but it was
persistent, and it writhed and twisted and went ahead perhaps a
score of feet an hour.

Three weeks afterward the man lay in a bunk on the whale-ship
BEDFORD, and with tears streaming down his wasted cheeks told who
he was and what he had undergone.  He also babbled incoherently of
his mother, of sunny Southern California, and a home among the
orange groves and flowers.

The days were not many after that when he sat at table with the
scientific men and ship's officers.  He gloated over the spectacle
of so much food, watching it anxiously as it went into the mouths
of others.  With the disappearance of each mouthful an expression
of deep regret came into his eyes.  He was quite sane, yet he hated
those men at mealtime.  He was haunted by a fear that the food
would not last.  He inquired of the cook, the cabin-boy, the
captain, concerning the food stores.  They reassured him countless
times; but he could not believe them, and pried cunningly about the
lazarette to see with his own eyes.

It was noticed that the man was getting fat.  He grew stouter with
each day.  The scientific men shook their heads and theorized. 
They limited the man at his meals, but still his girth increased
and he swelled prodigiously under his shirt.

The sailors grinned.  They knew.  And when the scientific men set a
watch on the man, they knew too.  They saw him slouch for'ard after
breakfast, and, like a mendicant, with outstretched palm, accost a
sailor.  The sailor grinned and passed him a fragment of sea
biscuit.  He clutched it avariciously, looked at it as a miser
looks at gold, and thrust it into his shirt bosom.  Similar were
the donations from other grinning sailors.

The scientific men were discreet.  They let him alone.  But they
privily examined his bunk.  It was lined with hardtack; the
mattress was stuffed with hardtack; every nook and cranny was
filled with hardtack.  Yet he was sane.  He was taking precautions
against another possible famine - that was all.  He would recover
from it, the scientific men said; and he did, ere the BEDFORD'S
anchor rumbled down in San Francisco Bay.

 

A DAY'S LODGING

 

It was the gosh-dangdest stampede I ever seen.  A thousand dog-
teams hittin' the ice.  You couldn't see 'm fer smoke.  Two white
men an' a Swede froze to death that night, an' there was a dozen
busted their lungs.  But didn't I see with my own eyes the bottom
of the water-hole?  It was yellow with gold like a mustard-plaster. 
That's why I staked the Yukon for a minin' claim.  That's what made
the stampede.  An' then there was nothin' to it.  That's what I
said - NOTHIN' to it.  An' I ain't got over guessin' yet. -
NARRATIVE OF SHORTY.

JOHN MESSNER clung with mittened hand to the bucking gee-pole and
held the sled in the trail.  With the other mittened hand he rubbed
his cheeks and nose.  He rubbed his cheeks and nose every little
while.  In point of fact, he rarely ceased from rubbing them, and
sometimes, as their numbness increased, he rubbed fiercely.  His
forehead was covered by the visor of his fur cap, the flaps of
which went over his ears.  The rest of his face was protected by a
thick beard, golden-brown under its coating of frost.

Behind him churned a heavily loaded Yukon sled, and before him
toiled a string of five dogs.  The rope by which they dragged the
sled rubbed against the side of Messner's leg.  When the dogs swung
on a bend in the trail, he stepped over the rope.  There were many
bends, and he was compelled to step over it often.  Sometimes he
tripped on the rope, or stumbled, and at all times he was awkward,
betraying a weariness so great that the sled now and again ran upon
his heels.

When he came to a straight piece of trail, where the sled could get
along for a moment without guidance, he let go the gee-pole and
batted his right hand sharply upon the hard wood.  He found it
difficult to keep up the circulation in that hand.  But while he
pounded the one hand, he never ceased from rubbing his nose and
cheeks with the other.

"It's too cold to travel, anyway," he said.  He spoke aloud, after
the manner of men who are much by themselves.  "Only a fool would
travel at such a temperature.  If it isn't eighty below, it's
because it's seventy-nine."

He pulled out his watch, and after some fumbling got it back into
the breast pocket of his thick woollen jacket.  Then he surveyed
the heavens and ran his eye along the white sky-line to the south.

"Twelve o'clock," he mumbled, "A clear sky, and no sun."

He plodded on silently for ten minutes, and then, as though there
had been no lapse in his speech, he added:

"And no ground covered, and it's too cold to travel."

Suddenly he yelled "Whoa!" at the dogs, and stopped.  He seemed in
a wild panic over his right hand, and proceeded to hammer it
furiously against the gee-pole.

"You - poor - devils!" he addressed the dogs, which had dropped
down heavily on the ice to rest.  His was a broken, jerky
utterance, caused by the violence with which he hammered his numb
hand upon the wood.  "What have you done anyway that a two-legged
other animal should come along, break you to harness, curb all your
natural proclivities, and make slave-beasts out of you?"

He rubbed his nose, not reflectively, but savagely, in order to
drive the blood into it, and urged the dogs to their work again. 
He travelled on the frozen surface of a great river.  Behind him it
stretched away in a mighty curve of many miles, losing itself in a
fantastic jumble of mountains, snow-covered and silent.  Ahead of
him the river split into many channels to accommodate the freight
of islands it carried on its breast.  These islands were silent and
white.  No animals nor humming insects broke the silence.  No birds
flew in the chill air.  There was no sound of man, no mark of the
handiwork of man.  The world slept, and it was like the sleep of
death.

John Messner seemed succumbing to the apathy of it all.  The frost
was benumbing his spirit.  He plodded on with bowed head,
unobservant, mechanically rubbing nose and cheeks, and batting his
steering hand against the gee-pole in the straight trail-stretches.

But the dogs were observant, and suddenly they stopped, turning
their heads and looking back at their master out of eyes that were
wistful and questioning.  Their eyelashes were frosted white, as
were their muzzles, and they had all the seeming of decrepit old
age, what of the frost-rime and exhaustion.

The man was about to urge them on, when he checked himself, roused
up with an effort, and looked around.  The dogs had stopped beside
a water-hole, not a fissure, but a hole man-made, chopped
laboriously with an axe through three and a half feet of ice.  A
thick skin of new ice showed that it had not been used for some
time.  Messner glanced about him.  The dogs were already pointing
the way, each wistful and hoary muzzle turned toward the dim snow-
path that left the main river trail and climbed the bank of the
island.

"All right, you sore-footed brutes," he said.  "I'll investigate. 
You're not a bit more anxious to quit than I am."

He climbed the bank and disappeared.  The dogs did not lie down,
but on their feet eagerly waited his return.  He came back to them,
took a hauling-rope from the front of the sled, and put it around
his shoulders.  Then he GEE'D the dogs to the right and put them at
the bank on the run.  It was a stiff pull, but their weariness fell
from them as they crouched low to the snow, whining with eagerness
and gladness as they struggled upward to the last ounce of effort
in their bodies.  When a dog slipped or faltered, the one behind
nipped his hind quarters.  The man shouted encouragement and
threats, and threw all his weight on the hauling-rope.

They cleared the bank with a rush, swung to the left, and dashed up
to a small log cabin.  It was a deserted cabin of a single room,
eight feet by ten on the inside.  Messner unharnessed the animals,
unloaded his sled and took possession.  The last chance wayfarer
had left a supply of firewood.  Messner set up his light sheet-iron
stove and starred a fire.  He put five sun-cured salmon into the
oven to thaw out for the dogs, and from the water-hole filled his
coffee-pot and cooking-pail.

While waiting for the water to boil, he held his face over the
stove.  The moisture from his breath had collected on his beard and
frozen into a great mass of ice, and this he proceeded to thaw out. 
As it melted and dropped upon the stove it sizzled and rose about
him in steam.  He helped the process with his fingers, working
loose small ice-chunks that fell rattling to the floor.

A wild outcry from the dogs without did not take him from his task. 
He heard the wolfish snarling and yelping of strange dogs and the
sound of voices.  A knock came on the door.

"Come in," Messner called, in a voice muffled because at the
moment he was sucking loose a fragment of ice from its anchorage on
his upper lip.

The door opened, and, gazing out of his cloud of steam, he saw a
man and a woman pausing on the threshold.

"Come in," he said peremptorily, "and shut the door!"

Peering through the steam, he could make out but little of their
personal appearance.  The nose and cheek strap worn by the woman
and the trail-wrappings about her head allowed only a pair of black
eyes to be seen.  The man was dark-eyed and smooth-shaven all
except his mustache, which was so iced up as to hide his mouth.

"We just wanted to know if there is any other cabin around here,"
he said, at the same time glancing over the unfurnished state of
the room.  "We thought this cabin was empty."

"It isn't my cabin," Messner answered.  "I just found it a few
minutes ago.  Come right in and camp.  Plenty of room, and you
won't need your stove.  There's room for all."

At the sound of his voice the woman peered at him with quick
curiousness.

"Get your things off," her companion said to her.  "I'll unhitch
and get the water so we can start cooking."

Messner took the thawed salmon outside and fed his dogs.  He had to
guard them against the second team of dogs, and when he had
re‰ntered the cabin the other man had unpacked the sled and fetched
water.  Messner's pot was boiling.  He threw in the coffee, settled
it with half a cup of cold water, and took the pot from the stove. 
He thawed some sour-dough biscuits in the oven, at the same time
heating a pot of beans he had boiled the night before and that had
ridden frozen on the sled all morning.

Removing his utensils from the stove, so as to give the newcomers a
chance to cook, he proceeded to take his meal from the top of his
grub-box, himself sitting on his bed-roll.  Between mouthfuls he
talked trail and dogs with the man, who, with head over the stove,
was thawing the ice from his mustache.  There were two bunks in the
cabin, and into one of them, when he had cleared his lip, the
stranger tossed his bed-roll.

"We'll sleep here," he said, "unless you prefer this bunk.  You're
the first comer and you have first choice, you know."

"That's all right," Messner answered.  "One bunk's just as good as
the other."

He spread his own bedding in the second bunk, and sat down on the
edge.  The stranger thrust a physician's small travelling case
under his blankets at one end to serve for a pillow.

"Doctor?" Messner asked.

"Yes," came the answer, "but I assure you I didn't come into the
Klondike to practise."

The woman busied herself with cooking, while the man sliced bacon
and fired the stove.  The light in the cabin was dim, filtering
through in a small window made of onion-skin writing paper and
oiled with bacon grease, so that John Messner could not make out
very well what the woman looked like.  Not that he tried.  He
seemed to have no interest in her.  But she glanced curiously from
time to time into the dark corner where he sat.

"Oh, it's a great life," the doctor proclaimed enthusiastically,
pausing from sharpening his knife on the stovepipe.  "What I like
about it is the struggle, the endeavor with one's own hands, the
primitiveness of it, the realness."

"The temperature is real enough," Messner laughed.

"Do you know how cold it actually is?" the doctor demanded.

The other shook his head.

"Well, I'll tell you.  Seventy-four below zero by spirit
thermometer on the sled."

"That's one hundred and six below freezing point - too cold for
travelling, eh?"

"Practically suicide," was the doctor's verdict.  "One exerts
himself.  He breathes heavily, taking into his lungs the frost
itself.  It chills his lungs, freezes the edges of the tissues.  He
gets a dry, hacking cough as the dead tissue sloughs away, and dies
the following summer of pneumonia, wondering what it's all about. 
I'll stay in this cabin for a week, unless the thermometer rises at
least to fifty below."

"I say, Tess," he said, the next moment, "don't you think that
coffee's boiled long enough!"

At the sound of the woman's name, John Messner became suddenly
alert.  He looked at her quickly, while across his face shot a
haunting expression, the ghost of some buried misery achieving
swift resurrection.  But the next moment, and by an effort of will,
the ghost was laid again.  His face was as placid as before, though
he was still alert, dissatisfied with what the feeble light had
shown him of the woman's face.

Automatically, her first act had been to set the coffee-pot back. 
It was not until she had done this that she glanced at Messner. 
But already he had composed himself.  She saw only a man sitting on
the edge of the bunk and incuriously studying the toes of his
moccasins.  But, as she turned casually to go about her cooking, he
shot another swift look at her, and she, glancing as swiftly back,
caught his look.  He shifted on past her to the doctor, though the
slightest smile curled his lip in appreciation of the way she had
trapped him.

She drew a candle from the grub-box and lighted it.  One look at
her illuminated face was enough for Messner.  In the small cabin
the widest limit was only a matter of several steps, and the next
moment she was alongside of him.  She deliberately held the candle
close to his face and stared at him out of eyes wide with fear and
recognition.  He smiled quietly back at her.

"What are you looking for, Tess?" the doctor called.

"Hairpins," she replied, passing on and rummaging in a clothes-bag
on the bunk.

They served their meal on their grub-box, sitting on Messner's
grub-box and facing him.  He had stretched out on his bunk to rest,
lying on his side, his head on his arm.  In the close quarters it
was as though the three were together at table.

"What part of the States do you come from?" Messner asked.

"San Francisco," answered the doctor.  "I've been in here two
years, though."

"I hail from California myself," was Messner's announcement.

The woman looked at him appealingly, but he smiled and went on:

"Berkeley, you know."

The other man was becoming interested.

"U. C.?" he asked.

"Yes, Class of '86."

"I meant faculty," the doctor explained.  "You remind me of the
type."

"Sorry to hear you say so," Messner smiled back.  "I'd prefer being
taken for a prospector or a dog-musher."

"I don't think he looks any more like a professor than you do a
doctor," the woman broke in.

"Thank you," said Messner.  Then, turning to her companion, "By the
way, Doctor, what is your name, if I may ask?"

"Haythorne, if you'll take my word for it.  I gave up cards with
civilization."

"And Mrs. Haythorne," Messner smiled and bowed.

She flashed a look at him that was more anger than appeal.

Haythorne was about to ask the other's name.  His mouth had opened
to form the question when Messner cut him off.

"Come to think of it, Doctor, you may possibly be able to satisfy
my curiosity.  There was a sort of scandal in faculty circles some
two or three years ago.  The wife of one of the English professors
- er, if you will pardon me, Mrs. Haythorne - disappeared with some
San Francisco doctor, I understood, though his name does not just
now come to my lips.  Do you remember the incident?"

Haythorne nodded his head.  "Made quite a stir at the time.  His
name was Womble - Graham Womble.  He had a magnificent practice.  I
knew him somewhat."

"Well, what I was trying to get at was what had become of them.  I
was wondering if you had heard.  They left no trace, hide nor
hair."

"He covered his tracks cunningly."  Haythorne cleared his throat. 
"There was rumor that they went to the South Seas - were lost on a
trading schooner in a typhoon, or something like that."

"I never heard that," Messner said.  "You remember the case, Mrs.
Haythorne?"

"Perfectly," she answered, in a voice the control of which was in
amazing contrast to the anger that blazed in the face she turned
aside so that Haythorne might not see.

The latter was again on the verge of asking his name, when Messner
remarked:

"This Dr. Womble, I've heard he was very handsome, and - er - quite
a success, so to say, with the ladies."

"Well, if he was, he finished himself off by that affair,"
Haythorne grumbled.

"And the woman was a termagant - at least so I've been told.  It
was generally accepted in Berkeley that she made life - er - not
exactly paradise for her husband."

"I never heard that," Haythorne rejoined.  "In San Francisco the
talk was all the other way."

"Woman sort of a martyr, eh? - crucified on the cross of
matrimony?"

The doctor nodded.  Messner's gray eyes were mildly curious as he
went on:

"That was to be expected - two sides to the shield.  Living in
Berkeley I only got the one side.  She was a great deal in San
Francisco, it seems."

"Some coffee, please," Haythorne said.

The woman refilled his mug, at the same time breaking into light
laughter.

"You're gossiping like a pair of beldames," she chided them.

"It's so interesting," Messner smiled at her, then returned to the
doctor.  "The husband seems then to have had a not very savory
reputation in San Francisco?"

"On the contrary, he was a moral prig," Haythorne blurted out, with
apparently undue warmth.  "He was a little scholastic shrimp
without a drop of red blood in his body."

"Did you know him?"

"Never laid eyes on him.  I never knocked about in university
circles."

"One side of the shield again," Messner said, with an air of
weighing the matter judicially.  While he did not amount to much,
it is true - that is, physically - I'd hardly say he was as bad as
all that.  He did take an active interest in student athletics. 
And he had some talent.  He once wrote a Nativity play that brought
him quite a bit of local appreciation.  I have heard, also, that he
was slated for the head of the English department, only the affair
happened and he resigned and went away.  It quite broke his career,
or so it seemed.  At any rate, on our side the shield, it was
considered a knock-out blow to him.  It was thought he cared a
great deal for his wife."

Haythorne, finishing his mug of coffee, grunted uninterestedly and
lighted his pipe.

"It was fortunate they had no children," Messner continued.

But Haythorne, with a glance at the stove, pulled on his cap and
mittens.

"I'm going out to get some wood," he said.  "Then I can take off my
moccasins and he comfortable."

The door slammed behind him.  For a long minute there was silence. 
The man continued in the same position on the bed.  The woman sat
on the grub-box, facing him.

"What are you going to do?" she asked abruptly.

Messner looked at her with lazy indecision.  "What do you think I
ought to do?  Nothing scenic, I hope.  You see I am stiff and
trail-sore, and this bunk is so restful."

She gnawed her lower lip and fumed dumbly.

"But - " she began vehemently, then clenched her hands and stopped.

"I hope you don't want me to kill Mr. -er - Haythorne," he said
gently, almost pleadingly.  "It would be most distressing, and, I
assure you, really it is unnecessary."

"But you must do something," she cried.

"On the contrary, it is quite conceivable that I do not have to do
anything."

"You would stay here?"

He nodded.

She glanced desperately around the cabin and at the bed unrolled on
the other bunk.  "Night is coming on.  You can't stop here.  You
can't!  I tell you, you simply can't!"

"Of course I can.  I might remind you that I found this cabin first
and that you are my guests."

Again her eyes travelled around the room, and the terror in them
leaped up at sight of the other bunk.

"Then we'll have to go," she announced decisively.

"Impossible.  You have a dry, hacking cough - the sort Mr. - er -
Haythorne so aptly described.  You've already slightly chilled your
lungs.  Besides, he is a physician and knows.  He would never
permit it."

"Then what are you going to do?" she demanded again, with a tense,
quiet utterance that boded an outbreak.

Messner regarded her in a way that was almost paternal, what of the
profundity of pity and patience with which he contrived to suffuse
it.

"My dear Theresa, as I told you before, I don't know.  I really
haven't thought about it."

"Oh!  You drive me mad!"  She sprang to her feet, wringing her
hands in impotent wrath.  "You never used to be this way."

"I used to be all softness and gentleness," he nodded concurrence. 
"Was that why you left me?"

"You are so different, so dreadfully calm.  You frighten me.  I
feel you have something terrible planned all the while.  But
whatever you do, don't do anything rash.  Don't get excited - "

"I don't get excited any more," he interrupted.  "Not since you
went away."

"You have improved - remarkably," she retorted.

He smiled acknowledgment.  "While I am thinking about what I shall
do, I'll tell you what you will have to do - tell Mr. - er -
Haythorne who I am.  It may make our stay in this cabin more - may
I say, sociable?"

"Why have you followed me into this frightful country?" she asked
irrelevantly.

"Don't think I came here looking for you, Theresa.  Your vanity
shall not be tickled by any such misapprehension.  Our meeting is
wholly fortuitous.  I broke with the life academic and I had to go
somewhere.  To be honest, I came into the Klondike because I
thought it the place you were least liable to be in."

There was a fumbling at the latch, then the door swung in and
Haythorne entered with an armful of firewood.  At the first
warning, Theresa began casually to clear away the dishes. 
Haythorne went out again after more wood.

"Why didn't you introduce us?" Messner queried.

"I'll tell him," she replied, with a toss of her head.  "Don't
think I'm afraid."

"I never knew you to be afraid, very much, of anything."

"And I'm not afraid of confession, either," she said, with
softening face and voice.

"In your case, I fear, confession is exploitation by indirection,
profit-making by ruse, self-aggrandizement at the expense of God."

"Don't be literary," she pouted, with growing tenderness.  "I never
did like epigrammatic discussion.  Besides, I'm not afraid to ask
you to forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive, Theresa.  I really should thank you. 
True, at first I suffered; and then, with all the graciousness of
spring, it dawned upon me that I was happy, very happy.  It was a
most amazing discovery."

"But what if I should return to you?" she asked.

"I should" (he looked at her whimsically), "be greatly perturbed."

"I am your wife.  You know you have never got a divorce."

"I see," he meditated.  "I have been careless.  It will be one of
the first things I attend to."

She came over to his side, resting her hand on his arm.  "You don't
want me, John?"  Her voice was soft and caressing, her hand rested
like a lure.  "If I told you I had made a mistake?  If I told you
that I was very unhappy? - and I am.  And I did make a mistake."

Fear began to grow on Messner.  He felt himself wilting under the
lightly laid hand.  The situation was slipping away from him, all
his beautiful calmness was going.  She looked at him with melting
eyes, and he, too, seemed all dew and melting.  He felt himself on
the edge of an abyss, powerless to withstand the force that was
drawing him over.

"I am coming back to you, John.  I am coming back to-day . . .
now."

As in a nightmare, he strove under the hand.  While she talked, he
seemed to hear, rippling softly, the song of the Lorelei.  It was
as though, somewhere, a piano were playing and the actual notes
were impinging on his ear-drums.

Suddenly he sprang to his feet, thrust her from him as her arms
attempted to clasp him, and retreated backward to the door.  He was
in a panic.

"I'll do something desperate!" he cried.

"I warned you not to get excited."  She laughed mockingly, and went
about washing the dishes.  "Nobody wants you.  I was just playing
with you.  I am happier where I am."

But Messner did not believe.  He remembered her facility in
changing front.  She had changed front now.  It was exploitation by
indirection.  She was not happy with the other man.  She had
discovered her mistake.  The flame of his ego flared up at the
thought.  She wanted to come back to him, which was the one thing
he did not want.  Unwittingly, his hand rattled the door-latch.

"Don't run away," she laughed.  "I won't bite you."

"I am not running away," he replied with child-like defiance, at
the same time pulling on his mittens.  "I'm only going to get some
water."

He gathered the empty pails and cooking pots together and opened
the door.  He looked back at her.

"Don't forget you're to tell Mr. - er - Haythorne who I am."

Messner broke the skin that had formed on the water-hole within the
hour, and filled his pails.  But he did not return immediately to
the cabin.  Leaving the pails standing in the trail, he walked up
and down, rapidly, to keep from freezing, for the frost bit into
the flesh like fire.  His beard was white with his frozen breath
when the perplexed and frowning brows relaxed and decision came
into his face.  He had made up his mind to his course of action,
and his frigid lips and cheeks crackled into a chuckle over it. 
The pails were already skinned over with young ice when he picked
them up and made for the cabin.

When he entered he found the other man waiting, standing near the
stove, a certain stiff awkwardness and indecision in his manner. 
Messner set down his water-pails.

"Glad to meet you, Graham Womble," he said in conventional tones,
as though acknowledging an introduction.

Messner did not offer his hand.  Womble stirred uneasily, feeling
for the other the hatred one is prone to feel for one he has
wronged.

"And so you're the chap," Messner said in marvelling accents. 
"Well, well.  You see, I really am glad to meet you.  I have been -
er - curious to know what Theresa found in you - where, I may say,
the attraction lay.  Well, well."

And he looked the other up and down as a man would look a horse up
and down.

"I know how you must feel about me," Womble began.

"Don't mention it," Messner broke in with exaggerated cordiality of
voice and manner.  "Never mind that.  What I want to know is how do
you find her?  Up to expectations?  Has she worn well?  Life been
all a happy dream ever since?"

"Don't be silly," Theresa interjected.

"I can't help being natural," Messner complained.

"You can be expedient at the same time, and practical," Womble said
sharply.  "What we want to know is what are you going to do?"

Messner made a well-feigned gesture of helplessness.  "I really
don't know.  It is one of those impossible situations against which
there can be no provision."

"All three of us cannot remain the night in this cabin."

Messner nodded affirmation.

"Then somebody must get out."

"That also is incontrovertible," Messner agreed.  "When three
bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time, one must get
out."

"And you're that one," Womble announced grimly.  "It's a ten-mile
pull to the next camp, but you can make it all right."

"And that's the first flaw in your reasoning," the other objected. 
"Why, necessarily, should I be the one to get out?  I found this
cabin first."

"But Tess can't get out," Womble explained.  "Her lungs are already
slightly chilled."

"I agree with you.  She can't venture ten miles of frost.  By all
means she must remain."

"Then it is as I said," Womble announced with finality.

Messner cleared his throat.  "Your lungs are all right, aren't
they?"

"Yes, but what of it?"

Again the other cleared his throat and spoke with painstaking and
judicial slowness.  "Why, I may say, nothing of it, except, ah,
according to your own reasoning, there is nothing to prevent your
getting out, hitting the frost, so to speak, for a matter of ten
miles.  You can make it all right."

Womble looked with quick suspicion at Theresa and caught in her
eyes a glint of pleased surprise.

"Well?" he demanded of her.

She hesitated, and a surge of anger darkened his face.  He turned
upon Messner.

"Enough of this.  You can't stop here."

"Yes, I can."

"I won't let you." Womble squared his shoulders.  "I'm running
things."

"I'll stay anyway," the other persisted.

"I'll put you out."

"I'll come back."

Womble stopped a moment to steady his voice and control himself. 
Then he spoke slowly, in a low, tense voice.

"Look here, Messner, if you refuse to get out, I'll thrash you. 
This isn't California.  I'll beat you to a jelly with my two
fists."

Messner shrugged his shoulders.  "If you do, I'll call a miners'
meeting and see you strung up to the nearest tree.  As you said,
this is not California.  They're a simple folk, these miners, and
all I'll have to do will be to show them the marks of the beating,
tell them the truth about you, and present my claim for my wife."

The woman attempted to speak, but Womble turned upon her fiercely.

"You keep out of this," he cried.

In marked contrast was Messner's "Please don't intrude, Theresa."

What of her anger and pent feelings, her lungs were irritated into
the dry, hacking cough, and with blood-suffused face and one hand
clenched against her chest, she waited for the paroxysm to pass.

Womble looked gloomily at her, noting her cough.

"Something must be done," he said.  "Yet her lungs can't stand the
exposure.  She can't travel till the temperature rises.  And I'm
not going to give her up."

Messner hemmed, cleared his throat, and hemmed again, semi-
apologetically, and said, "I need some money."

Contempt showed instantly in Womble's face.  At last, beneath him
in vileness, had the other sunk himself.

"You've got a fat sack of dust," Messner went on.  "I saw you
unload it from the sled."

"How much do you want?" Womble demanded, with a contempt in his
voice equal to that in his face.

"I made an estimate of the sack, and I - ah - should say it weighed
about twenty pounds.  What do you say we call it four thousand?"

"But it's all I've got, man!" Womble cried out.

"You've got her," the other said soothingly.  "She must be worth
it.  Think what I'm giving up.  Surely it is a reasonable price."

"All right."  Womble rushed across the floor to the gold-sack. 
"Can't put this deal through too quick for me, you - you little
worm!"

"Now, there you err," was the smiling rejoinder.  "As a matter of
ethics isn't the man who gives a bribe as bad as the man who takes
a bribe?  The receiver is as bad as the thief, you know; and you
needn't console yourself with any fictitious moral superiority
concerning this little deal."

"To hell with your ethics!" the other burst out.  "Come here and
watch the weighing of this dust.  I might cheat you."

And the woman, leaning against the bunk, raging and impotent,
watched herself weighed out in yellow dust and nuggets in the
scales erected on the grub-box.  The scales were small, making
necessary many weighings, and Messner with precise care verified
each weighing.

"There's too much silver in it," he remarked as he tied up the
gold-sack.  "I don't think it will run quite sixteen to the ounce. 
You got a trifle the better of me, Womble."

He handled the sack lovingly, and with due appreciation of its
preciousness carried it out to his sled.

Returning, he gathered his pots and pans together, packed his grub-
box, and rolled up his bed.  When the sled was lashed and the
complaining dogs harnessed, he returned into the cabin for his
mittens.

"Good-by, Tess," he said, standing at the open door.

She turned on him, struggling for speech but too frantic to word
the passion that burned in her.

"Good-by, Tess," he repeated gently.

"Beast!" she managed to articulate.

She turned and tottered to the bunk, flinging herself face down
upon it, sobbing:  "You beasts!  You beasts!"

John Messner closed the door softly behind him, and, as he started
the dogs, looked back at the cabin with a great relief in his face. 
At the bottom of the bank, beside the water-hole, he halted the
sled.  He worked the sack of gold out between the lashings and
carried it to the water-hole.  Already a new skin of ice had
formed.  This he broke with his fist.  Untying the knotted mouth
with his teeth, he emptied the contents of the sack into the water. 
The river was shallow at that point, and two feet beneath the
surface he could see the bottom dull-yellow in the fading light. 
At the sight of it, he spat into the hole.

He started the dogs along the Yukon trail.  Whining spiritlessly,
they were reluctant to work.  Clinging to the gee-pole with his
right band and with his left rubbing cheeks and nose, he stumbled
over the rope as the dogs swung on a bend.

"Mush-on, you poor, sore-footed brutes!" he cried.  "That's it,
mush-on!"

 

THE WHITE MAN'S WAY

 

"TO cook by your fire and to sleep under your roof for the night,"
I had announced on entering old Ebbits's cabin; and he had looked
at me blear-eyed and vacuous, while Zilla had favored me with a
sour face and a contemptuous grunt.  Zilla was his wife, and no
more bitter-tongued, implacable old squaw dwelt on the Yukon.  Nor
would I have stopped there had my dogs been less tired or had the
rest of the village been inhabited.  But this cabin alone had I
found occupied, and in this cabin, perforce, I took my shelter.

Old Ebbits now and again pulled his tangled wits together, and
hints and sparkles of intelligence came and went in his eyes. 
Several times during the preparation of my supper he even essayed
hospitable inquiries about my health, the condition and number of
my dogs, and the distance I had travelled that day.  And each time
Zilla had looked sourer than ever and grunted more contemptuously.

Yet I confess that there was no particular call for cheerfulness on
their part.  There they crouched by the fire, the pair of them, at
the end of their days, old and withered and helpless, racked by
rheumatism, bitten by hunger, and tantalized by the frying-odors of
my abundance of meat.  They rocked back and forth in a slow and
hopeless way, and regularly, once every five minutes, Ebbits
emitted a low groan.  It was not so much a groan of pain, as of
pain-weariness.  He was oppressed by the weight and the torment of
this thing called life, and still more was he oppressed by the fear
of death.  His was that eternal tragedy of the aged, with whom the
joy of life has departed and the instinct for death has not come.

When my moose-meat spluttered rowdily in the frying-pan, I noticed
old Ebbits's nostrils twitch and distend as he caught the food-
scent.  He ceased rocking for a space and forgot to groan, while a
look of intelligence seemed to come into his face.

Zilla, on the other hand, rocked more rapidly, and for the first
time, in sharp little yelps, voiced her pain.  It came to me that
their behavior was like that of hungry dogs, and in the fitness of
things I should not have been astonished had Zilla suddenly
developed a tail and thumped it on the floor in right doggish
fashion.  Ebbits drooled a little and stopped his rocking very
frequently to lean forward and thrust his tremulous nose nearer to
the source of gustatory excitement.

When I passed them each a plate of the fried meat, they ate
greedily, making loud mouth-noises - champings of worn teeth and
sucking intakes of the breath, accompanied by a continuous
spluttering and mumbling.  After that, when I gave them each a mug
of scalding tea, the noises ceased.  Easement and content came into
their faces.  Zilla relaxed her sour mouth long enough to sigh her
satisfaction.  Neither rocked any more, and they seemed to have
fallen into placid meditation.  Then a dampness came into Ebbits's
eyes, and I knew that the sorrow of self-pity was his.  The search
required to find their pipes told plainly that they had been
without tobacco a long time, and the old man's eagerness for the
narcotic rendered him helpless, so that I was compelled to light
his pipe for him.

"Why are you all alone in the village?" I asked.  "Is everybody
dead?  Has there been a great sickness?  Are you alone left of the
living?"

Old Ebbits shook his head, saying:  "Nay, there has been no great
sickness.  The village has gone away to hunt meat.  We be too old,
our legs are not strong, nor can our backs carry the burdens of
camp and trail.  Wherefore we remain here and wonder when the young
men will return with meat."

"What if the young men do return with meat?" Zilla demanded
harshly.

"They may return with much meat," he quavered hopefully.

"Even so, with much meat," she continued, more harshly than before. 
"But of what worth to you and me?  A few bones to gnaw in our
toothless old age.  But the back-fat, the kidneys, and the tongues
- these shall go into other mouths than thine and mine, old man."

Ebbits nodded his head and wept silently.

"There be no one to hunt meat for us," she cried, turning fiercely
upon me.

There was accusation in her manner, and I shrugged my shoulders in
token that I was not guilty of the unknown crime imputed to me.

"Know, O White Man, that it is because of thy kind, because of all
white men, that my man and I have no meat in our old age and sit
without tobacco in the cold."

"Nay," Ebbits said gravely, with a stricter sense of justice. 
"Wrong has been done us, it be true; but the white men did not mean
the wrong."

"Where be Moklan?" she demanded.  "Where be thy strong son, Moklan,
and the fish he was ever willing to bring that you might eat?"

The old man shook his head.

"And where be Bidarshik, thy strong son?  Ever was he a mighty
hunter, and ever did he bring thee the good back-fat and the sweet
dried tongues of the moose and the caribou.  I see no back-fat and
no sweet dried tongues.  Your stomach is full with emptiness
through the days, and it is for a man of a very miserable and lying
people to give you to eat."

"Nay," old Ebbits interposed in kindliness, "the white man's is not
a lying people.  The white man speaks true.  Always does the white
man speak true."  He paused, casting about him for words wherewith
to temper the severity of what he was about to say.  "But the white
man speaks true in different ways.  To-day he speaks true one way,
to-morrow he speaks true another way, and there is no understanding
him nor his way."

"To-day speak true one way, to-morrow speak true another way, which
is to lie," was Zilla's dictum.

"There is no understanding the white man," Ebbits went on doggedly.

The meat, and the tea, and the tobacco seemed to have brought him
back to life, and he gripped tighter hold of the idea behind his
age-bleared eyes.  He straightened up somewhat.  His voice lost its
querulous and whimpering note, and became strong and positive.  He
turned upon me with dignity, and addressed me as equal addresses
equal.

"The white man's eyes are not shut," he began.  "The white man sees
all things, and thinks greatly, and is very wise.  But the white
man of one day is not the white man of next day, and there is no
understanding him.  He does not do things always in the same way. 
And what way his next way is to be, one cannot know.  Always does
the Indian do the one thing in the one way.  Always does the moose
come down from the high mountains when the winter is here.  Always
does the salmon come in the spring when the ice has gone out of the
river.  Always does everything do all things in the same way, and
the Indian knows and understands.  But the white man does not do
all things in the same way, and the Indian does not know nor
understand.

"Tobacco be very good.  It be food to the hungry man.  It makes the
strong man stronger, and the angry man to forget that he is angry. 
Also is tobacco of value.  It is of very great value.  The Indian
gives one large salmon for one leaf of tobacco, and he chews the
tobacco for a long time.  It is the juice of the tobacco that is
good.  When it runs down his throat it makes him feel good inside. 
But the white man!  When his mouth is full with the juice, what
does he do?  That juice, that juice of great value, he spits it out
in the snow and it is lost.  Does the white man like tobacco?  I do
not know.  But if he likes tobacco, why does he spit out its value
and lose it in the snow?  It is a great foolishness and without
understanding."

He ceased, puffed at the pipe, found that it was out, and passed it
over to Zilla, who took the sneer at the white man off her lips in
order to pucker them about the pipe-stem.  Ebbits seemed sinking
back into his senility with the tale untold, and I demanded:

"What of thy sons, Moklan and Bidarshik?  And why is it that you
and your old woman are without meat at the end of your years?"

He roused himself as from sleep, and straightened up with an
effort.

"It is not good to steal," he said.  "When the dog takes your meat
you beat the dog with a club.  Such is the law.  It is the law the
man gave to the dog, and the dog must live to the law, else will it
suffer the pain of the club.  When man takes your meat, or your
canoe, or your wife, you kill that man.  That is the law, and it is
a good law.  It is not good to steal, wherefore it is the law that
the man who steals must die.  Whoso breaks the law must suffer
hurt.  It is a great hurt to die."

"But if you kill the man, why do you not kill the dog?" I asked.

Old Ebbits looked at me in childlike wonder, while Zilla sneered
openly at the absurdity of my question.

"It is the way of the white man," Ebbits mumbled with an air of
resignation.

"It is the foolishness of the white man," snapped Zilla.

"Then let old Ebbits teach the white man wisdom," I said softly.

"The dog is not killed, because it must pull the sled of the man. 
No man pulls another man's sled, wherefore the man is killed."

"Oh," I murmured.

"That is the law," old Ebbits went on.  "Now listen, O White Man,
and I will tell you of a great foolishness.  There is an Indian. 
His name is Mobits.  From white man he steals two pounds of flour. 
What does the white man do?  Does he beat Mobits?  No.  Does he
kill Mobits?  No. What does he do to Mobits?  I will tell you, O
White Man.  He has a house.  He puts Mobits in that house.  The
roof is good.  The walls are thick.  He makes a fire that Mobits
may be warm.  He gives Mobits plenty grub to eat.  It is good grub. 
Never in his all days does Mobits eat so good grub.  There is
bacon, and bread, and beans without end.  Mobits have very good
time.

"There is a big lock on door so that Mobits does not run away. 
This also is a great foolishness.  Mobits will not run away.  All
the time is there plenty grub in that place, and warm blankets, and
a big fire.  Very foolish to run away.  Mobits is not foolish. 
Three months Mobits stop in that place.  He steal two pounds of
flour.  For that, white man take plenty good care of him.  Mobits
eat many pounds of flour, many pounds of sugar, of bacon, of beans
without end.  Also, Mobits drink much tea.  After three months
white man open door and tell Mobits he must go.  Mobits does not
want to go.  He is like dog that is fed long time in one place.  He
want to stay in that place, and the white man must drive Mobits
away.  So Mobits come back to this village, and he is very fat. 
That is the white man's way, and there is no understanding it.  It
is a foolishness, a great foolishness."

"But thy sons?" I insisted.  "Thy very strong sons and thine old-
age hunger?"

"There was Moklan," Ebbits began.

"A strong man," interrupted the mother.  "He could dip paddle all
of a day and night and never stop for the need of rest.  He was
wise in the way of the salmon and in the way of the water.  He was
very wise."

"There was Moklan," Ebbits repeated, ignoring the interruption. 
"In the spring, he went down the Yukon with the young men to trade
at Cambell Fort.  There is a post there, filled with the goods of
the white man, and a trader whose name is Jones.  Likewise is there
a white man's medicine man, what you call missionary.  Also is
there bad water at Cambell Fort, where the Yukon goes slim like a
maiden, and the water is fast, and the currents rush this way and
that and come together, and there are whirls and sucks, and always
are the currents changing and the face of the water changing, so at
any two times it is never the same.  Moklan is my son, wherefore he
is brave man - "

"Was not my father brave man?" Zilla demanded.

"Thy father was brave man," Ebbits acknowledged, with the air of
one who will keep peace in the house at any cost.  "Moklan is thy
son and mine, wherefore he is brave.  Mayhap, because of thy very
brave father, Moklan is too brave.  It is like when too much water
is put in the pot it spills over.  So too much bravery is put into
Moklan, and the bravery spills over.

"The young men are much afraid of the bad water at Cambell Fort. 
But Moklan is not afraid.  He laughs strong, Ho! ho! and he goes
forth into the bad water.  But where the currents come together the
canoe is turned over.  A whirl takes Moklan by the legs, and he
goes around and around, and down and down, and is seen no more."

"Ai! ai!" wailed Zilla.  "Crafty and wise was he, and my first-
born!"

"I am the father of Moklan," Ebbits said, having patiently given
the woman space for her noise.  "I get into canoe and journey down
to Cambell Fort to collect the debt!"

"Debt!" interrupted.  "What debt?"

"The debt of Jones, who is chief trader," came the answer.  "Such
is the law of travel in a strange country."

I shook my head in token of my ignorance, and Ebbits looked
compassion at me, while Zilla snorted her customary contempt.

"Look you, O White Man," he said.  "In thy camp is a dog that
bites.  When the dog bites a man, you give that man a present
because you are sorry and because it is thy dog.  You make payment. 
Is it not so?  Also, if you have in thy country bad hunting, or bad
water, you must make payment.  It is just.  It is the law.  Did not
my father's brother go over into the Tanana Country and get killed
by a bear?  And did not the Tanana tribe pay my father many
blankets and fine furs?  It was just.  It was bad hunting, and the
Tanana people made payment for the bad hunting.

"So I, Ebbits, journeyed down to Cambell Fort to collect the debt. 
Jones, who is chief trader, looked at me, and he laughed.  He made
great laughter, and would not give payment.  I went to the
medicine-man, what you call missionary, and had large talk about
the bad water and the payment that should be mine.  And the
missionary made talk about other things.  He talk about where
Moklan has gone, now he is dead.  There be large fires in that
place, and if missionary make true talk, I know that Moklan will be
cold no more.  Also the missionary talk about where I shall go when
I am dead.  And he say bad things.  He say that I am blind.  Which
is a lie.  He say that I am in great darkness.  Which is a lie. 
And I say that the day come and the night come for everybody just
the same, and that in my village it is no more dark than at Cambell
Fort.  Also, I say that darkness and light and where we go when we
die be different things from the matter of payment of just debt for
bad water.  Then the missionary make large anger, and call me bad
names of darkness, and tell me to go away.  And so I come back from
Cambell Fort, and no payment has been made, and Moklan is dead, and
in my old age I am without fish and meat."

"Because of the white man," said Zilla.

"Because of the white man," Ebbits concurred.  "And other things
because of the white man.  There was Bidarshik.  One way did the
white man deal with him; and yet another way for the same thing did
the white man deal with Yamikan.  And first must I tell you of
Yamikan, who was a young man of this village and who chanced to
kill a white man.  It is not good to kill a man of another people. 
Always is there great trouble.  It was not the fault of Yamikan
that he killed the white man.  Yamikan spoke always soft words and
ran away from wrath as a dog from a stick.  But this white man
drank much whiskey, and in the night-time came to Yamikan's house
and made much fight.  Yamikan cannot run away, and the white man
tries to kill him.  Yamikan does not like to die, so he kills the
white man.

"Then is all the village in great trouble.  We are much afraid that
we must make large payment to the white man's people, and we hide
our blankets, and our furs, and all our wealth, so that it will
seem that we are poor people and can make only small payment. 
After long time white men come.  They are soldier white men, and
they take Yamikan away with them.  His mother make great noise and
throw ashes in her hair, for she knows Yamikan is dead.  And all
the village knows that Yamikan is dead, and is glad that no payment
is asked.

"That is in the spring when the ice has gone out of the river.  One
year go by, two years go by.  It is spring-time again, and the ice
has gone out of the river.  And then Yamikan, who is dead, comes
back to us, and he is not dead, but very fat, and we know that he
has slept warm and had plenty grub to eat.  He has much fine
clothes and is all the same white man, and he has gathered large
wisdom so that he is very quick head man in the village.

"And he has strange things to tell of the way of the white man, for
he has seen much of the white man and done a great travel into the
white man's country.  First place, soldier white men take him down
the river long way.  All the way do they take him down the river to
the end, where it runs into a lake which is larger than all the
land and large as the sky.  I do not know the Yukon is so big
river, but Yamikan has seen with his own eyes.  I do not think
there is a lake larger than all the land and large as the sky, but
Yamikan has seen.  Also, he has told me that the waters of this
lake be salt, which is a strange thing and beyond understanding.

"But the White Man knows all these marvels for himself, so I shall
not weary him with the telling of them.  Only will I tell him what
happened to Yamikan.  The white man give Yamikan much fine grub. 
All the time does Yamikan eat, and all the time is there plenty
more grub.  The white man lives under the sun, so said Yamikan,
where there be much warmth, and animals have only hair and no fur,
and the green things grow large and strong and become flour, and
beans, and potatoes.  And under the sun there is never famine. 
Always is there plenty grub.  I do not know.  Yamikan has said.

"And here is a strange thing that befell Yamikan.  Never did the
white man hurt him.  Only did they give him warm bed at night and
plenty fine grub.  They take him across the salt lake which is big
as the sky.  He is on white man's fire-boat, what you call
steamboat, only he is on boat maybe twenty times bigger than
steamboat on Yukon.  Also, it is made of iron, this boat, and yet
does it not sink.  This I do not understand, but Yamikan has said,
'I have journeyed far on the iron boat; behold! I am still alive.' 
It is a white man's soldier-boat with many soldier men upon it.

"After many sleeps of travel, a long, long time, Yamikan comes to a
land where there is no snow.  I cannot believe this.  It is not in
the nature of things that when winter comes there shall be no snow. 
But Yamikan has seen.  Also have I asked the white men, and they
have said yes, there is no snow in that country.  But I cannot
believe, and now I ask you if snow never come in that country. 
Also, I would hear the name of that country.  I have heard the name
before, but I would hear it again, if it be the same - thus will I
know if I have heard lies or true talk."

Old Ebbits regarded me with a wistful face.  He would have the
truth at any cost, though it was his desire to retain his faith in
the marvel he had never seen.

"Yes," I answered, "it is true talk that you have heard.  There is
no snow in that country, and its name is California."

"Cal-ee-forn-ee-yeh," he mumbled twice and thrice, listening
intently to the sound of the syllables as they fell from his lips. 
He nodded his head in confirmation.  "Yes, it is the same country
of which Yamikan made talk."

I recognized the adventure of Yamikan as one likely to occur in the
early days when Alaska first passed into the possession of the
United States.  Such a murder case, occurring before the instalment
of territorial law and officials, might well have been taken down
to the United States for trial before a Federal court.

"When Yamikan is in this country where there is no snow," old
Ebbits continued, "he is taken to large house where many men make
much talk.  Long time men talk.  Also many questions do they ask
Yamikan.  By and by they tell Yamikan he have no more trouble. 
Yamikan does not understand, for never has he had any trouble.  All
the time have they given him warm place to sleep and plenty grub.

"But after that they give him much better grub, and they give him
money, and they take him many places in white man's country, and he
see many strange things which are beyond the understanding of
Ebbits, who is an old man and has not journeyed far.  After two
years, Yamikan comes back to this village, and he is head man, and
very wise until he dies.

"But before he dies, many times does he sit by my fire and make
talk of the strange things he has seen.  And Bidarshik, who is my
son, sits by the fire and listens; and his eyes are very wide and
large because of the things he hears.  One night, after Yamikan has
gone home, Bidarshik stands up, so, very tall, and he strikes his
chest with his fist, and says, 'When I am a man, I shall journey in
far places, even to the land where there is no snow, and see things
for myself.'"

"Always did Bidarshik journey in far places," Zilla interrupted
proudly.

"It be true," Ebbits assented gravely.  "And always did he return
to sit by the fire and hunger for yet other and unknown far
places."

"And always did he remember the salt lake as big as the sky and the
country under the sun where there is no snow," quoth Zilla.

"And always did he say, 'When I have the full strength of a man, I
will go and see for myself if the talk of Yamikan be true talk,'"
said Ebbits.

"But there was no way to go to the white man's country," said
Zilla.

"Did he not go down to the salt lake that is big as the sky?"
Ebbits demanded.

"And there was no way for him across the salt lake," said Zilla.

"Save in the white man's fire-boat which is of iron and is bigger
than twenty steamboats on the Yukon," said Ebbits.  He scowled at
Zilla, whose withered lips were again writhing into speech, and
compelled her to silence.  "But the white man would not let him
cross the salt lake in the fire-boat, and he returned to sit by the
fire and hunger for the country under the sun where there is no
snow.'"

"Yet on the salt lake had he seen the fire-boat of iron that did
not sink," cried out Zilla the irrepressible.

"Ay," said Ebbits, "and he saw that Yamikan had made true talk of
the things he had seen.  But there was no way for Bidarshik to
journey to the white man's land under the sun, and he grew sick and
weary like an old man and moved not away from the fire.  No longer
did he go forth to kill meat - "

"And no longer did he eat the meat placed before him," Zilla broke
in.  "He would shake his head and say, 'Only do I care to eat the
grub of the white man and grow fat after the manner of Yamikan.'"

"And he did not eat the meat," Ebbits went on.  "And the sickness
of Bidarshik grew into a great sickness until I thought he would
die.  It was not a sickness of the body, but of the head.  It was a
sickness of desire.  I, Ebbits, who am his father, make a great
think.  I have no more sons and I do not want Bidarshik to die.  It
is a head-sickness, and there is but one way to make it well. 
Bidarshik must journey across the lake as large as the sky to the
land where there is no snow, else will he die.  I make a very great
think, and then I see the way for Bidarshik to go.

"So, one night when he sits by the fire, very sick, his head
hanging down, I say, 'My son, I have learned the way for you to go
to the white man's land.'  He looks at me, and his face is glad. 
'Go,' I say, 'even as Yamikan went.'  But Bidarshik is sick and
does not understand.  'Go forth,' I say, 'and find a white man,
and, even as Yamikan, do you kill that white man.  Then will the
soldier white men come and get you, and even as they took Yamikan
will they take you across the salt lake to the white man's land. 
And then, even as Yamikan, will you return very fat, your eyes full
of the things you have seen, your head filled with wisdom.'

"And Bidarshik stands up very quick, and his hand is reaching out
for his gun.  'Where do you go?' I ask.  'To kill the white man,'
he says.  And I see that my words have been good in the ears of
Bidarshik and that he will grow well again.  Also do I know that my
words have been wise.

"There is a white man come to this village.  He does not seek after
gold in the ground, nor after furs in the forest.  All the time
does he seek after bugs and flies.  He does not eat the bugs and
flies, then why does he seek after them?  I do not know.  Only do I
know that he is a funny white man.  Also does he seek after the
eggs of birds.  He does not eat the eggs.  All that is inside he
takes out, and only does he keep the shell.  Eggshell is not good
to eat.  Nor does he eat the eggshells, but puts them away in soft
boxes where they will not break.  He catch many small birds.  But
he does not eat the birds.  He takes only the skins and puts them
away in boxes.  Also does he like bones.  Bones are not good to
eat.  And this strange white man likes best the bones of long time
ago which he digs out of the ground.

"But he is not a fierce white man, and I know he will die very
easy; so I say to Bidarshik, 'My son, there is the white man for
you to kill.'  And Bidarshik says that my words be wise.  So he
goes to a place he knows where are many bones in the ground.  He
digs up very many of these bones and brings them to the strange
white man's camp.  The white man is made very glad.  His face
shines like the sun, and he smiles with much gladness as he looks
at the bones.  He bends his head over, so, to look well at the
bones, and then Bidarshik strikes him hard on the head, with axe,
once, so, and the strange white man kicks and is dead.

"'Now,' I say to Bidarshik, 'will the white soldier men come and
take you away to the land under the sun, where you will eat much
and grow fat.'  Bidarshik is happy.  Already has his sickness gone
from him, and he sits by the fire and waits for the coming of the
white soldier men.

"How was I to know the way of the white man is never twice the
same?" the old man demanded, whirling upon me fiercely.  "How was I
to know that what the white man does yesterday he will not do to-
day, and that what he does to-day he will not do to-morrow?" 
Ebbits shook his head sadly.  "There is no understanding the white
man.  Yesterday he takes Yamikan to the land under the sun and
makes him fat with much grub.  To-day he takes Bidarshik and - what
does he do with Bidarshik?  Let me tell you what he does with
Bidarshik.

"I, Ebbits, his father, will tell you.  He takes Bidarshik to
Cambell Fort, and he ties a rope around his neck, so, and, when his
feet are no more on the ground, he dies."

"Ai! ai!" wailed Zilla.  "And never does he cross the lake large as
the sky, nor see the land under the sun where there is no snow."

"Wherefore," old Ebbits said with grave dignity, "there be no one
to hunt meat for me in my old age, and I sit hungry by my fire and
tell my story to the White Man who has given me grub, and strong
tea, and tobacco for my pipe."

"Because of the lying and very miserable white people," Zilla
proclaimed shrilly.

"Nay," answered the old man with gentle positiveness.  "Because of
the way of the white man, which is without understanding and never
twice the same."

 

THE STORY OF KEESH

 

KEESH lived long ago on the rim of the polar sea, was head man of
his village through many and prosperous years, and died full of
honors with his name on the lips of men.  So long ago did he live
that only the old men remember his name, his name and the tale,
which they got from the old men before them, and which the old men
to come will tell to their children and their children's children
down to the end of time.  And the winter darkness, when the north
gales make their long sweep across the ice-pack, and the air is
filled with flying white, and no man may venture forth, is the
chosen time for the telling of how Keesh, from the poorest IGLOO in
the village, rose to power and place over them all.

He was a bright boy, so the tale runs, healthy and strong, and he
had seen thirteen suns, in their way of reckoning time.  For each
winter the sun leaves the land in darkness, and the next year a new
sun returns so that they may be warm again and look upon one
another's faces.  The father of Keesh had been a very brave man,
but he had met his death in a time of famine, when he sought to
save the lives of his people by taking the life of a great polar
bear.  In his eagerness he came to close grapples with the bear,
and his bones were crushed; but the bear had much meat on him and
the people were saved.  Keesh was his only son, and after that
Keesh lived alone with his mother.  But the people are prone to
forget, and they forgot the deed of his father; and he being but a
boy, and his mother only a woman, they, too, were swiftly
forgotten, and ere long came to live in the meanest of all the
IGLOOS.

It was at a council, one night, in the big IGLOO of Klosh-Kwan, the
chief, that Keesh showed the blood that ran in his veins and the
manhood that stiffened his back.  With the dignity of an elder, he
rose to his feet, and waited for silence amid the babble of voices.

"It is true that meat be apportioned me and mine," he said.  "But
it is ofttimes old and tough, this meat, and, moreover, it has an
unusual quantity of bones."

The hunters, grizzled and gray, and lusty and young, were aghast. 
The like had never been known before.  A child, that talked like a
grown man, and said harsh things to their very faces!

But steadily and with seriousness, Keesh went on.  "For that I know
my father, Bok, was a great hunter, I speak these words.  It is
said that Bok brought home more meat than any of the two best
hunters, that with his own hands he attended to the division of it,
that with his own eyes he saw to it that the least old woman and
the last old man received fair share."

"Na! Na!" the men cried.  "Put the child out!"  "Send him off to
bed!"  "He is no man that he should talk to men and graybeards!"

He waited calmly till the uproar died down.

"Thou hast a wife, Ugh-Gluk," he said, "and for her dost thou
speak.  And thou, too, Massuk, a mother also, and for them dost
thou speak.  My mother has no one, save me; wherefore I speak.  As
I say, though Bok be dead because he hunted over-keenly, it is just
that I, who am his son, and that Ikeega, who is my mother and was
his wife, should have meat in plenty so long as there be meat in
plenty in the tribe.  I, Keesh, the son of Bok, have spoken."

He sat down, his ears keenly alert to the flood of protest and
indignation his words had created.

"That a boy should speak in council!" old Ugh-Gluk was mumbling.

"Shall the babes in arms tell us men the things we shall do?"
Massuk demanded in a loud voice.  "Am I a man that I should be made
a mock by every child that cries for meat?"

The anger boiled a white heat.  They ordered him to bed, threatened
that he should have no meat at all, and promised him sore beatings
for his presumption.  Keesh's eyes began to flash, and the blood to
pound darkly under his skin.  In the midst of the abuse he sprang
to his feet.

"Hear me, ye men!" he cried.  "Never shall I speak in the council
again, never again till the men come to me and say, 'It is well,
Keesh, that thou shouldst speak, it is well and it is our wish.' 
Take this now, ye men, for my last word.  Bok, my father, was a
great hunter.  I, too, his son, shall go and hunt the meat that I
eat.  And be it known, now, that the division of that which I kill
shall be fair.  And no widow nor weak one shall cry in the night
because there is no meat, when the strong men are groaning in great
pain for that they have eaten overmuch.  And in the days to come
there shall be shame upon the strong men who have eaten overmuch. 
I, Keesh, have said it!"

Jeers and scornful laughter followed him out of the IGLOO, but his
jaw was set and he went his way, looking neither to right nor left.

The next day he went forth along the shore-line where the ice and
the land met together.  Those who saw him go noted that he carried
his bow, with a goodly supply of bone-barbed arrows, and that
across his shoulder was his father's big hunting-spear.  And there
was laughter, and much talk, at the event.  It was an unprecedented
occurrence.  Never did boys of his tender age go forth to hunt,
much less to hunt alone.  Also were there shaking of heads and
prophetic mutterings, and the women looked pityingly at Ikeega, and
her face was grave and sad.

"He will be back ere long," they said cheeringly.

"Let him go; it will teach him a lesson," the hunters said.  "And
he will come back shortly, and he will be meek and soft of speech
in the days to follow."

But a day passed, and a second, and on the third a wild gale blew,
and there was no Keesh.  Ikeega tore her hair and put soot of the
seal-oil on her face in token of her grief; and the women assailed
the men with bitter words in that they had mistreated the boy and
sent him to his death; and the men made no answer, preparing to go
in search of the body when the storm abated.

Early next morning, however, Keesh strode into the village.  But he
came not shamefacedly.  Across his shoulders he bore a burden of
fresh-killed meat.  And there was importance in his step and
arrogance in his speech.

"Go, ye men, with the dogs and sledges, and take my trail for the
better part of a day's travel," he said.  "There is much meat on
the ice - a she-bear and two half-grown cubs."

Ikeega was overcome with joy, but he received her demonstrations in
manlike fashion, saying:  "Come, Ikeega, let us eat.  And after
that I shall sleep, for I am weary."

And he passed into their IGLOO and ate profoundly, and after that
slept for twenty running hours.

There was much doubt at first, much doubt and discussion.  The
killing of a polar bear is very dangerous, but thrice dangerous is
it, and three times thrice, to kill a mother bear with her cubs. 
The men could not bring themselves to believe that the boy Keesh,
single-handed, had accomplished so great a marvel.  But the women
spoke of the fresh-killed meat he had brought on his back, and this
was an overwhelming argument against their unbelief.  So they
finally departed, grumbling greatly that in all probability, if the
thing were so, he had neglected to cut up the carcasses.  Now in
the north it is very necessary that this should be done as soon as
a kill is made.  If not, the meat freezes so solidly as to turn the
edge of the sharpest knife, and a three-hundred-pound bear, frozen
stiff, is no easy thing to put upon a sled and haul over the rough
ice.  But arrived at the spot, they found not only the kill, which
they had doubted, but that Keesh had quartered the beasts in true
hunter fashion, and removed the entrails.

Thus began the mystery of Keesh, a mystery that deepened and
deepened with the passing of the days.  His very next trip he
killed a young bear, nearly full-grown, and on the trip following,
a large male bear and his mate.  He was ordinarily gone from three
to four days, though it was nothing unusual for him to stay away a
week at a time on the ice-field.  Always he declined company on
these expeditions, and the people marvelled.  "How does he do it?"
they demanded of one another.  "Never does he take a dog with him,
and dogs are of such great help, too."

"Why dost thou hunt only bear?" Klosh-Kwan once ventured to ask
him.

And Keesh made fitting answer.  "It is well known that there is
more meat on the bear," he said.

But there was also talk of witchcraft in the village.  "He hunts
with evil spirits," some of the people contended, "wherefore his
hunting is rewarded.  How else can it be, save that he hunts with
evil spirits?"

"Mayhap they be not evil, but good, these spirits," others said. 
"It is known that his father was a mighty hunter.  May not his
father hunt with him so that he may attain excellence and patience
and understanding?  Who knows?"

None the less, his success continued, and the less skilful hunters
were often kept busy hauling in his meat.  And in the division of
it he was just.  As his father had done before him, he saw to it
that the least old woman and the last old man received a fair
portion, keeping no more for himself than his needs required.  And
because of this, and of his merit as a hunter, he was looked upon
with respect, and even awe; and there was talk of making him chief
after old Klosh-Kwan.  Because of the things he had done, they
looked for him to appear again in the council, but he never came,
and they were ashamed to ask.

"I am minded to build me an IGLOO," he said one day to Klosh-Kwan
and a number of the hunters.  "It shall be a large IGLOO, wherein
Ikeega and I can dwell in comfort."

"Ay," they nodded gravely.

"But I have no time.  My business is hunting, and it takes all my
time.  So it is but just that the men and women of the village who
eat my meat should build me my IGLOO."

And the IGLOO was built accordingly, on a generous scale which
exceeded even the dwelling of Klosh-Kwan.  Keesh and his mother
moved into it, and it was the first prosperity she had enjoyed
since the death of Bok.  Nor was material prosperity alone hers,
for, because of her wonderful son and the position he had given
her, she came to he looked upon as the first woman in all the
village; and the women were given to visiting her, to asking her
advice, and to quoting her wisdom when arguments arose among
themselves or with the men.

But it was the mystery of Keesh's marvellous hunting that took
chief place in all their minds.  And one day Ugh-Gluk taxed him
with witchcraft to his face.

"It is charged," Ugh-Gluk said ominously, "that thou dealest with
evil spirits, wherefore thy hunting is rewarded."

"Is not the meat good?" Keesh made answer.  "Has one in the village
yet to fall sick from the eating of it?  How dost thou know that
witchcraft be concerned?  Or dost thou guess, in the dark, merely
because of the envy that consumes thee?"

And Ugh-Gluk withdrew discomfited, the women laughing at him as he
walked away.  But in the council one night, after long
deliberation, it was determined to put spies on his track when he
went forth to hunt, so that his methods might be learned.  So, on
his next trip, Bim and Bawn, two young men, and of hunters the
craftiest, followed after him, taking care not to be seen.  After
five days they returned, their eyes bulging and their tongues a-
tremble to tell what they had seen.  The council was hastily called
in Klosh-Kwan's dwelling, and Bim took up the tale.

"Brothers!  As commanded, we journeyed on the trail of Keesh, and
cunningly we journeyed, so that he might not know.  And midway of
the first day he picked up with a great he-bear.  It was a very
great bear."

"None greater," Bawn corroborated, and went on himself.  "Yet was
the bear not inclined to fight, for he turned away and made off
slowly over the ice.  This we saw from the rocks of the shore, and
the bear came toward us, and after him came Keesh, very much
unafraid.  And he shouted harsh words after the bear, and waved his
arms about, and made much noise.  Then did the bear grow angry, and
rise up on his hind legs, and growl.  But Keesh walked right up to
the bear."

"Ay," Bim continued the story.  "Right up to the bear Keesh walked. 
And the bear took after him, and Keesh ran away.  But as he ran he
dropped a little round ball on the ice.  And the bear stopped and
smelled of it, then swallowed it up.  And Keesh continued to run
away and drop little round balls, and the bear continued to swallow
them up."

Exclamations and cries of doubt were being made, and Ugh-Gluk
expressed open unbelief.

"With our own eyes we saw it," Bim affirmed.

And Bawn - "Ay, with our own eyes.  And this continued until the
bear stood suddenly upright and cried aloud in pain, and thrashed
his fore paws madly about.  And Keesh continued to make off over
the ice to a safe distance.  But the bear gave him no notice, being
occupied with the misfortune the little round balls had wrought
within him."

"Ay, within him," Bim interrupted.  "For he did claw at himself,
and leap about over the ice like a playful puppy, save from the way
he growled and squealed it was plain it was not play but pain. 
Never did I see such a sight!"

"Nay, never was such a sight seen," Bawn took up the strain.  "And
furthermore, it was such a large bear."

"Witchcraft," Ugh-Gluk suggested.

"I know not," Bawn replied.  "I tell only of what my eyes beheld. 
And after a while the bear grew weak and tired, for he was very
heavy and he had jumped about with exceeding violence, and he went
off along the shore-ice, shaking his head slowly from side to side
and sitting down ever and again to squeal and cry.  And Keesh
followed after the bear, and we followed after Keesh, and for that
day and three days more we followed.  The bear grew weak, and never
ceased crying from his pain."

"It was a charm!" Ugh-Gluk exclaimed.  "Surely it was a charm!"

"It may well be."

And Bim relieved Bawn.  "The bear wandered, now this way and now
that, doubling back and forth and crossing his trail in circles, so
that at the end he was near where Keesh had first come upon him. 
By this time he was quite sick, the bear, and could crawl no
farther, so Keesh came up close and speared him to death."

"And then?" Klosh-Kwan demanded.

"Then we left Keesh skinning the bear, and came running that the
news of the killing might be told."

And in the afternoon of that day the women hauled in the meat of
the bear while the men sat in council assembled.  When Keesh
arrived a messenger was sent to him, bidding him come to the
council.  But he sent reply, saying that he was hungry and tired;
also that his IGLOO was large and comfortable and could hold many
men.

And curiosity was so strong on the men that the whole council,
Klosh-Kwan to the fore, rose up and went to the IGLOO of Keesh.  He
was eating, but he received them with respect and seated them
according to their rank.  Ikeega was proud and embarrassed by
turns, but Keesh was quite composed.

Klosh-Kwan recited the information brought by Bim and Bawn, and at
its close said in a stern voice:  "So explanation is wanted, O
Keesh, of thy manner of hunting.  Is there witchcraft in it?"

Keesh looked up and smiled.  "Nay, O Klosh-Kwan.  It is not for a
boy to know aught of witches, and of witches I know nothing.  I
have but devised a means whereby I may kill the ice-bear with ease,
that is all.  It be headcraft, not witchcraft."

"And may any man?"

"Any man."

There was a long silence.  The men looked in one another's faces,
and Keesh went on eating.

"And . . . and . . . and wilt thou tell us, O Keesh?" Klosh-Kwan
finally asked in a tremulous voice.

"Yea, I will tell thee."  Keesh finished sucking a marrow-bone and
rose to his feet.  "It is quite simple.  Behold!"

He picked up a thin strip of whalebone and showed it to them.  The
ends were sharp as needle-points.  The strip he coiled carefully,
till it disappeared in his hand.  Then, suddenly releasing it, it
sprang straight again.  He picked up a piece of blubber.

"So," he said, "one takes a small chunk of blubber, thus, and thus
makes it hollow.  Then into the hollow goes the whalebone, so,
tightly coiled, and another piece of blubber is fitted over the
whale-bone.  After that it is put outside where it freezes into a
little round ball.  The bear swallows the little round ball, the
blubber melts, the whalebone with its sharp ends stands out
straight, the bear gets sick, and when the bear is very sick, why,
you kill him with a spear.  It is quite simple."

And Ugh-Gluk said "Oh!" and Klosh-Kwan said "Ah!"  And each said
something after his own manner, and all understood.

And this is the story of Keesh, who lived long ago on the rim of
the polar sea.  Because he exercised headcraft and not witchcraft,
he rose from the meanest IGLOO to be head man of his village, and
through all the years that he lived, it is related, his tribe was
prosperous, and neither widow nor weak one cried aloud in the night
because there was no meat.