The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 28, 1903, Page 7

THE SUNDAY CALL. ? «Co, " Copyrighted by Jack London.) » F .‘ & Tn & ma " Her words €re In themselves indecisive, but the wit g contempt which ber biack eyes was the men folk in the ¥» the English sailor, squirm- s old Dick Humphries, an and erstwhile Ameri- pitalist, beamed upon her They sald nothing, who bhad taken the half- their tent three days warmed her and fed from the In- “ od w28 & man I know what I would e B 4hus reiterated Mol the of the £8hing eyes, and therein spoke the cumu- tive grit of five American- genera- the succeeding silence Tom of biscuits ny thrust 0 the Yukon stove and & pan fresh fuel. Dick palmed a three- o needle through a set of broken pack straps, his good nature in owise dist ed And if you was & man?” he asked, his The three- he damp for the moment be & man. end light here, I'd put the straps on my out. I wouldn't lay in Yukon likely to and the goods mot u—you are ur hands wet, 1 made of ng the trail back camp he tell e gale dealt the tent a d past, and e h snappy spite s. The smoke, ve back through ng with it the t a woman Ils- iifted his head the dense s and turned upon ged eyes. show his men- an cath aps of the tent, was not a heart- few r-soaked reaming grou Down this romped a on the oppos- & siope es of a glacter med dead w through tie driving Even as the oked Its massive led into the valler, on the eas s t, and it cve . . ing s Involun- k with r eves! es he tee f ihe gale ppery k. knee Ceep in a wiig river! .Look, I say u Yankee k! There's Yankee Bal er trem ectidbn of the gla- mt The wind B e doorway, bulging f the tent till it swaved like & huge bladder at its guy ropes. The smoke swirled about them and the sleet drove sharply into their flesh. Tommy pulled the flaps together hastily and re- ed to his fearful task at the fire box. ck Humphries t the mended pack d his pipe. rew ra for moment per- whim- moment pre- e 1op of the I iell you interposed when had wafled it- x u, little ough be your a daughter older 2 out in frippers it takes my Jast t to Dawso! e scorn 2d co k to her throat with a sud- den surge fou'll rot on the way first! rown 2 mud hole! You—you— plosive, intensive, had of her vituperation. If these men, what could? Tommy's neck ran red again, but he kept his tongue between his teeth. Dick's eves mellowed. He had the advan- tage over Tommy, for he had once had & white woman for a wife The blood of five American-born genera- under certain olrcumstances an able heritage. It not alone who pulled on gum boots, straps, for the phantom thousand forbears drew kles, just so as they squared & set her eyes with determina- Molly Travis, intended to shame these Britishers: they, the innum- . shades were asserting the domin- of the common race. men folk did not interfere. Once Dick suggested that she take his oflskins, mackintosh was worth no more per in such a storm. But she her independénce o sharply that ed with his pipe till she tied ] the outside and slushed away floo trall. hink ,:fi':’x make it?” Dick’s face be- the Indifference in his voice. ake it? If she stands the pressure he gets to the cache, what with ‘the “end misery she’ll be stark, raving Stand 1t? She’ll be dumb-crazed. u know it yourself, Dick. You've wind- ammed round the Horn. You know what is 1o Jay out on 3 topsail yard in the thick of it, bicking sleet a;d :m’»w lalm: frozen canvas tli you're really to just le go and cry like a baby. Clpthes? ihe won't be able to tell & bundie of skirts from & gold pan or a tea kettle. “Kind of think we were Wrong in let- ting her go, then?" The ““Not a bit of it. So help me, Dick, she'd 'a’ made this tent 2 hell for the rest of the trip if we hadn't. Trouble with her she's got too much spirit. This'll tone it own a bit."” “Yes Dick admitted, “she’'s too ambi- tious. But, then, Molly’s all right. A cussed little fool to tackle a trip like this, but a plucky sight better than those pick- m p-and- carry -me -kind of women. he's the stock that carried you and me, mmy, you've got to make allow- ance for the spirit.” “And when they're unreasonable we've #ot to put up with it, eh?” “The proposition. A sharp sheath knife cuts deeper on a slip than a dull one; but that’s no reason for to hack the edge off over a-capstam bar.” “All right if you say so, but when it comes to woman, I guess I'll take mine with a little less edge.” ““What do you know about {t?" Dick de- manded. “Some.” -Tommy reached over for = palr of Molly’s wet stockings and stretched them across his knees to dry. ‘Thought you said you were never mar- ried?” he asked. Did I? No more was I—that is—y by Gawd I was. And as good a woma r cooked grub for a man.” Slipped her mooring: Dick symbol- ized infint’ y of his hand. The beans bubbled rowdily on the front 1id, and he pushed the pot back to a cooler surface. After that he investi- gated the biscuits, tested them with a splinter of wood and placed them aside under cover of a damp cloth.- Dick, after the manner of his kind, stified his inter- est and waited sflently. “A different woman to Molly. Siwash.” d -his understanding. roud and willful, but stick by ot S0 p a fellow through thick and thin. Sling a paddle with the next, and starve as contentedly as Job. Go for'ard when the sloop's ten under than a man. Went prospec e up Teslin way, past Sur- prise Leke and the Little Yellow Head. Grub gave out and we ate the dogs. Dogs gave out and we ate harnesses, mocca- Never a whimper. Never carry-me. Before we went 1d ‘look out for grub, but when it happened, never a * Never mind, Tommy," after day, that weak sha could bare lift her a snowshoe and work. ‘Never be feet raw with the I'd sooner be flat- be your woman, potlach every day 's klooch." George was chief of the Chilcoots, you know, and Was a likely chap uck the coast. Jumped , the Pole Star, at Unalaska, and worked my way down to Sitka on an otter-hunter. there—know Had charge of my traps for me,” Dick answered, “down on the Columbia. Pretty wild, wasn't he, with a warm place in his heart for whisky and women?" “The very chap. Went trading with him for a couple .of seasons—booch and blanket and such stufl. Then got a sloop and, not to cut h out, came neau Way. That's re I met Kiillenco; I caMed ‘her Tilly for. short. Met her at & squaw dance on the beach. Chief George had finished the year's trade with the Sticks -over the passes and was down from Dyea with half of his tribe. )PtrkOd up with Happy Jack him 7" No end of Siwashes at the dance and I the only white one. No one knew me, barring a few of the bucks I'd met over Sitka way, but I'd got most of their histories from Happy Jack “Everybody talking Chinook, not guess- ing that I could spit it better than most; and principa two girls who'd run away from Haine's Mission up the Lynn Canal. They were trim creatures, good to the d 1 kind of thought of casting that e, you see. Being a started to twist me, not knowing I gathered in every word of Chi- nook they tered. ‘I never let on, but set to dancing with Tiliy, and the more we danced the more hearts warmed to each oth “Look- for a women,” one of the girls says, the other her head and an- ‘small chance he’ll get one when the en are looking for me And the bucks and squaws standing around began’ to grin and giggle and repeat what had been sald. ‘Quite a pretty boy,’ says the first I'll not de I was rather smooth-faced and youngish, but I'd been a man among men many's the day and it rankled me. ‘Dancing with Chiet George's girl,’ pipes the second. ‘First thing George’ll give him the flat of a pad- dle and send him about his business.’ Chief George had been looking pretty black up to now, but at this he laughed and slapped his knees. He was a husky beggar and would have used the paddle, too ‘Who's the girls? T asked Tilly, as we went ripping down the center in a reel. And as soon as she told me their names I remembered all about them from Happy Jack. Had their pedigree down fine—sev- eral th e'd told me that not even their own tribe knew. But I held my hush, and went on courting Tilly, they a-casting sharp remarks and everybody roaring. tos: ‘Bide a wee, Tommy, 1 says to myseif, ‘bide a wee “Abide I did, till the dance was ripe to break vp, and Chief George had brought a padd for me. Everybody was on the t for mischief when we stopped; but I marched, easy as you please, slap in Mission girls cut me up something clever, and for all I was angry I had to set my teeth to keep from laughing. I turned upon them suddenly. “*Are you done? I asked. “You should have seen them when they heard me spitting Chinook. Then I broke loose. I told them all about themselves and their people before them; their fath- ers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and— everybody, everything. Each mean trick they'd played; every scrape they got into; every shame that'd fallen on them. And I burned them without fear or favor. All hands crowded around. Never had they heard a white man sling their lingo as I did. Everybody was laughing save the Mission girls. Even Chief George forgot his paddie, or at least he was swallowing too much respect to dare to use it. “But the giris, ‘Oh, don't, Tommy," they cried, the tears running down their cheeks., ‘Please don't. We'll be good. Sure, Tommy, sure.’ But I knew them well, and 1 scorched them on every tender spot. Nor did I slack away till they came down on their knees, begging and pleading with me to keep quiet. Then I shot a glance at Chief George; but he did not know whether to have me or not, and passed it off by laughing hollowly “So be. When I passed the parting with Tilly that night I gave her the word that 1 was going to be around for a week or 80, and that I wanted to see more of her. Not thick-skinned, her kind, when it came to showing ltke and ’dislike, and she looked her pleasure for the honest girl she was. Ay, a striking lass, and I didn’t wonder that Chief George was taken with her. “Everything my way. Took the wind from his sails on the first leg. I was for. getting her aboard and salling down Wrangel way till it blew over, leaving him to whistle; but 1 wasn't to get her that easy. Seems she was living with an uncle of hers—guardian, the way such things go—and seems he was nigh to shuffling off with consumption or some sort of lung trouble. He was good and bad by turns, and she wouldn’t leave him till it w over with, Went up to the tepee just before I left to speculate on how long it'd be; but the old beggar had promised her to Chief George, and when he clapped eyes on me his anger brought on a hemorrhage. ‘ ‘Come and take me, Tommy,’ she says when we bid goodby on the beach. ‘Ay,’ I answers; ‘when you give the word.” And I kissed her, white-man fashion and lov- er-fashion, till she was all of a tremble like a quaking aspen, and I was so beside myself I'd half a mind to go up and give the uncle a ift over the divide. “'So I went down Wrangel way, past St. Mary’'s and even to the Queen. Charlottes, trading, running whiskey, turning the sloop to most anything. Winter was on, stiff and crisp, and I was back to Junei when the word came. ‘Come,’ the beg- gar says who brought the news. ‘Kiilis- noo says, “Come now.” ‘What's the row, I asks. ‘Chief George,' says he. ‘Potlach. Killisnoo makum kiooch.” “Ay, it was bitter—the Taku howling down out of the north, the salt water freezing quick as it struck the deck, and the old sloop and I hammering into the teeth of it for a hundred miles to Dyea. Had a Douglass Islander for crew when I started, but midway up he 'was washed over from the bows. Jibed all over and crossed the course three times, but never a sign of him.” ““Doubled up with the cold most likely,” Dick suggested, putting a pause into the narrative while he hung one of Molly's skirts up to dry, “and went down like a pot of lead.” “My idea. So I finished the course alone, half dead when I made Dyea in the dark of the evening. The tide favored and I ran the sloop plump to the bank, in the shelter of the river. Couldn't go an inch farther, for the fresh water was frozen solid. Halyards and blocks were that iced up I didn’t dagre lower mainsail or jib. First I broached a pint of the cargo raw, and then, leaving all standin, ready for the start and with a blanket around me, headed across the flat to the camp. No mistaking, it was a grand lay- out. The Chilcats had come in a body— dogs, babies and canoes—to say nothing of the Dog-Ears, the Little Salons and the Missions. Full half a thousand of them to celebrate Tilly's wedding, and never a white man in a score of miles. “Nobody took note of me, the blanket over my head and hiding my face, and I waded knee deep through the dogs and youngsters till 1 was well up to the front. The show was being pulled off in a big open place among the trees, with great fires burning and the snow moccasin- packed as hard as Portland cement. Next to me was Tilly, beaded and scarlet cloth- ed gelore, and against her Chief George and his head men. The shaman was be- ing helped out by the big medicines from the other trihes, and it shivered my spine up and down, deviitries they cut. I caught myself wondering if the folk in Liverpool could only see me now, and I thought of yellow-haired Gussie, whose brother T licked after my first voyage just because he was not for having a sailos man courting his sister. And with Gussie in my eyes I looked at Tilly. A rum old world, thinks I, with a man a-stepping in trails the mother little dreamed of when he lay at suck. “So bé. When the noise was loudest, walrus hides booming and priests a-sing- ing, I says, ‘Are you ready? Gawd! Not a start, not a shot of the eyes my way, not the twitch of a muscle. “I knew,” she answers, slow and steady as a calm spring tide. ‘Where? ‘The high barik at the edge of the ice,’ I whispers back. ‘Jump out when I give the word. “Did I say there was no end of huskies? ‘Well thete was no end. Hers, there, everywhere, they were scattered about— tame wolves and nothing less. When the strain runs- thin they bred them in the bush with ‘the wild, and they’'re bitter fighters. Right at the toe of my mocca- &in lay a big brute and by the heel gnoth- er. I doubled the first one’s tall, quick, till it snapped in my grip. As his jaws clipped together where my hand should have been I threw the sécond one: by the scruff straight into his mouth. ‘Go! I cried to Tilly. “You know how they fight. In the wink of an eye there was a raging hundred of them, top and bottom, ripping and tear- ing each other, kids and squaws tumb- ling which way and the camp gone wild. Tilly'd slipped away, so I followed. But when I looked over my shoulder at the skirt of the crowd the deyil lald me by the heart and I dropped the blanket and went {back. “By - then the dogs’d been knocked apart and the crowd was untangling it- self. Nobedy was in proper place, so they didn’t note that Tilly’d gone. ‘Hel'lo,’. I says, gripping Chief George by the hand. ‘May your potlach smoke rise often and the sticks bring many furs with the spring.” “Lord love me, D‘ch but he was joyed to see me—him with the upper hand and wedding ' Tilly. Chance to puff big over me. The tale that I was hot after her had spread through the camps and my pres- ence did him proud. All hands knéw me without my blanket and set to grinning and giggling. It was rich, but I made it richer. by playing unbeknowing. ““What's the row? I asks. ‘Who's get- ting married now? “‘Chief George,’ the shaman says, duck- ing his reverence to him. “ “Thought he had two klooches.” 'Him takum more—three,’ with another k. h!' And I turned away as though it didn’t interest me. “But this wouldn’t do and everybody be- gins singing out, “Killisnoo! Killisnoo?" Killisnoo what? T asked. - AR ‘Killisnoo, klooch, Chief George,” they blathered. ‘Killisnoo, klooch.” “I jumped and looked at Chlef George. He nodded his head and threw out his chest. ‘“‘She’ll be no klooch of your: solemnly. ‘No klooch of yours,’ I repe: while his face went black and his hand began dropping to his hunting-knife. “ ‘Look! I cries, striking an attitude. ‘Big medicine. You watch my smoke.” “I pulled off my mittens, rolled® back my sleéves and made half a dozen passes in the air. * “Killisnoo!” I shouts. lisnoo!" ‘I was making medicine and they be- gan to scare. Every eye was on me; no time to find out that Tilly wasn't there. ‘Then I called Killisnoo three times again, and walted; and three times more. All for mystery and to make them nervous. Chlef George couldn’'t guess whaj I was up to, and wanted to put'a stop o the foolery: but the shaman sald wait and that they'd see me and go me one better, or words to that effect. Besides, he was a supersti- tious cuss and I fancy a bit afrald of the white man’s magic. “Then I called Killisnoo, long and soft, like the howl of a wolf, till the women were all a-tremble and the bucks look- ing seriou: “1Look!” I sprang for'ard, pointing my finger into a bunch of squaws—easier to deceive women than men, you know. “Look!” And I raised it aloft, as though following the flight of a bird. Up, up. straight overhead, making to follow it with my eyes till it disappeared in the sky. "y‘KlHllnoo,' I sald, locking at Chief George and pointing upward again. 'Kil- lisnoo.’ “So help me, Dick, the gammon worked. Half of them, at least, saw Tilly disap- pear in the air. They'd drunk my whisky at Juneau and seen stranger sights, I'll warrart. Why should I not do this thing —1, who sold bad spirits corked in bot- tles? Some of the women shrieked. Ev- erybody fell to whispering in bunches. I folded my arms and held my head high, and they drew farther away from me. ‘Killisnoo! Kil- The time was ripe to go. ‘Grab him! Chief George cries. Three or four of them came at me, but [ whirled, quick, made a couple of passes like to send them after Tilly, and pointed up. Touch me? Not for the kingdom of ths earth. Chief George harangues them, but he couldn’t get them to lift & leg. Then he made to take me himseif, but I repeated the mummery and his grit went out through his fingers. ‘* ‘Let your shamans work wonders the like of which I have done this night,’ I says. ‘Let them cali Killlsnoo down out of the sky whither I have sent her." But the priests knew their limits. ‘May your klooches bear you sons as the spawn of the salmon,’ I says, turning to go may your totem pole stand long in the land, and the smoke of your camp rise al- ways. “But if the beggars could have seen me hitting the high places for the sloop as soon as I was clear of them they’'d thought my own medicine had got after me. Tilly'd kept warm by chopping the ice away, and was all ready to cast off. Gawd! how we ran before it, the Taku howling after us and the freezing seas sweeping over at every clip. With every- thing battened down, me a-steering and 2illy chopping fee; we held ‘on” haif-the night, till I plumped the sloop ashore on Porcupine Isiand, and we shivered it out on the beach; blankets wet, and Tily drying the matches on her breast. “So I think I know something about it. Seven years, Dick, man and wife, In rough sailing and smooth. And then she died, in the heart of the winter, up there on the Chilcat station. She held my hand to the last, the ice creeping up Inside the door and spreading thick on the gut of the window. Outside, the lone howl of the wolf and the silence; inside, death and the silence. You've never heard of the silence yet, Dick, and Gawd grant you don’t ever have to hear it when you sit by the side of death. Hear 1t? Aye, till the breath whistles like a siren, and the heart booms, booms, booms, like the surf on the shore. “Siwash, Dick, but a woman. White, Dick, white clear through. Toward the last she says, ‘Keep my feather bed, Tom- my; keep it always.’ And I agreed. Then she opened her eyes, full with the pain. T've been a good woman to you, Tommy, and because of that I want you to prom ise—to promise'—the words seemed to stick in her throat—‘that when you marry the woman be white. No more Siwash, Tommy. I know. Plenty whi women down to Ju ow. I know. Your people call you ‘squaw man’; your women turn their heads to the one side on the street, and you do not go to their cabins like other men. Why? Your wife Siwash. Is it. not so? And this is not good. Wherefore I dle. Promise me. Kiss me in token of your promise.’ “I kissed her, and she dozed off, whis- pering, ‘It is good.' At the end—that near gone my ear was at her lips—she roused for the last time. ‘Remember, Tommy; re- member my feather bed.” Then she died, up there on Chilcat station.” The tent heeled over and half flattened before the gale. Dick refilled his pipe, while Tommy drew the tea and set it aside against Molly’s return. And she of the flashing eya and Yankee blood? Blinded, falling, crawling on hand and knee the wind thrust back in her throat by the wind, she was heading for the tent. On her shoulders a bulky pack )z caught the full fury of the storm. She plucked feebly at the knotted flaps, but it was Tommy and Dick who - cast them loose. Then she set her soul for the last effort, staggered In and fell exhausted on the fidor. Tommy unbuckled the straps and took the pack from her. As he lifted it there was a clanging of pots and. pans. Dick, pouring out a mug of whisky, paused long enough to pass the wink across her body. Tommy winked back, His lips pursed the monosyllable “Clothes,” but Dick shook his head reprovingly. ‘“Here, little woman,” he sald, after she had drunk the whisky and straightened up & bit. “Here’s some dry togs. -Climb into them. We're going out-to extra peg the tent. After that, give us the call and we'll come in and have dinner, Sing out when you're ready.” “So help me, Dick, that's knocked th edge oft her for the rest of this trip, Tommy spluttered as they ¢rouched to the lee of the tent. “But the. edge is her saving grace, Dick replied, ducking his-head to a voll of sleet that drove aroynd a corner of the canvas. “The edge that you and I've got, Tommy, and the edge of our mothers be- fore us.”