The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 4, 1903, Page 8

THE SUNDAY CALL. then, mow leave this eyed, bent over and added water to a pot of simmering beans, and rising, & stick of firewood In drove back the circling m the grub box and cook! s blue of eye, and his I a pleasure to K ness. A new horn above packed snow- c the camp and segTe he world. Over head, s t was and cold, the stars g movements. Tw mmediate foreground, Jay up which was their bed. -Between the skin and naked snow was & six-inc boughs. The blankets were r For sheiter, there was & fiy at their backs—a sheet of canvas stretched between two trees and angling at forty-five degrees. This caught the radiating heat from the fire and flung it down upon the skin. An- oth sat on & sled, drawn clbse to the blaze, mer moccasins. To the right a heep of frozen gravel and a rude indlass der e they tolled each oping for the pay streak. r pairs of snowshoes stood erect, showing the mode of travel which when the stamped snow of the k song oL pathetic under the cold not do the men good ut the fire after the tofl It put & dull ache int of God Bigmund, one of the men the streak is t to be e , drew There was a 1 skin parka, gmund and greeted her as Hello,” but n the sled that he asked, broken Eng- “Is the hun- mp? And has found the cause arce and no moose here is little game and Also has the cause of all this he make sacri- e chance to r some poor devil shaky, who is a better out of the wi r the need none other than He The rds rose slowly to Hit k's lip med over, full end dee aw bespoke won- nd by the forking of she went on calmly, h may look once other and once more we mitive stock and traditions and her regarded life stoically and days, =0 she boman rifice part of the natural orcer. The powers which ruled the day- light the dark, the flood and the frost bursting of the bud and the witl of the leaf, were angry dnd i ¢ propitiation. This they exacted i s—death in the bad water, eacherous ice crust, by the d, and the life of his lungs rough his mouth and nostrils. did the powers recelve sacri- was all one. And the witch doc- tor was d in the thoughts ol the powers and chose unerringly. It was very natural. Death came by many ways, yet was it all one after all—mani- festation of the all-powerful and inscru- table But Hiteheock came of a later world Preed, His traditions were less concrete ve and without reverence and he sald: “Not Sipsu. You are young and yet in the joy of life. The witch docter is a and his choice is evil. This thing not be.” She smiled and answered: “Life is not kind and for many reasons. First, it meade of us twain the one white and the other red, which is bad. Then' it crossed our trails, and now it parts them agalin; fool shall we can do nothing. Once bef when the gods were angry did your Lrothers come to the camp. They three, big men and white, and they s the thing shall not be. But they dled quickly and the thing was.” cheock nodded that he heard, half- ed and lifted his voice. *Look here, you fellows! There's a lot of foolery go- ing on over to the camp, and they're get- ting ready to murder Sipsu. What d'ye say?" Wertz looked at Hawes and Hawes looked back, but neither spoke. Sigmund dropped his head and petted the shepherd dog between his knees. He had brought Shep In with him from the outside and thought a great deal of the animal. In fact, & certain girl who.was much in his thoughts, and whose picture In the little locket on his breast often inspired him to sing, had given him the dog and her blessing when they kissed good-by and he started on his northland quest. “What d'ye say?' Hitchcock repeated. " Hawes an- “Most lkely tu “Mebbe it's not so serious swered with deliberation. it's only a girl's story.” That isn’t the point!” Hitchcock felt & hot flush of anger sweep over him at their evident reluctance. “The question 1s, I it 1s so, are we going to stand it? What are we going to do?” “I don't see any call to interfere,” spoke up Wertz. “If it is =o, it is so, and that's all there is about it. It's a w these people have of doing. It's thelr re- ligion, and it's no concern of éurs. Our concern is to get the dust and then get out of this God aken land. 'Tisn't fit for naught else but beasts. And what are these black devils but beasts? Be- sides, 1t'd be damn poor policy.” “That's what I say,” chimed in Hawe: “Here we are, four of us, three hundred miles from the Y on or a white face. And what can we do agal half a hun- dred Indlans? If we arrel with them we have to vamoose; if we fight, we are wiped out. Further, we've struck pay, and, by by it “Ditto here,” supplemented Wertz. Hitcheock turned Impatiently to Sig- mund, who was softly singing: God, I for one am golng to stick “In a year, in a year, When the grapes are ripe, 1 shall stay no more “Well, it's this Hitcheock,” he finally sald. “I'm in the same boat with the rest. If three-score bucks have made up their mind to kil the girl, why, we can’t help it. One rush and we'd be wiped off the landscape. And what good'd that be? They'd still have the girl. There's no use in going against the customs of a people except you're in force.” “But we are in force!” Hitchcock broke in. “Four whites are a match for a hun- dred times as many reds. And think of the girl!” Sigmund stroked the dog meditatively. “But I do think of the girl. And her eyes are blue like summer skies, and laughing like summer seas, and her hair is yellow, like mine, and bralded in ropes the size of a big man's arm. She's walting for me out there in the better land..‘And she’s waited long and now my pile’s in sight I'm not going to throw it away.” “And shamed I would be to look into the girl's blue eyes and remember the black ones of the girl whose blood was on my hands,” Hitchcock sneered; for be was born tb honor and championship, and to do the thing for the thing's sake, nor stop to weigh or measure. Sigmund shook his head. “You can't make me mad, Hischcock, nor do mad things because of your madness. It's a cold business proposition and a question of facts. I didn’t come to this country for my health, and further, it's impos- sible for us to raise a hand. If it is so, it is too bad for the girl, that's all. It's a way of her people, and it just happens we're on the spot this one time. They's done the same for a thousand years and they're going to do it now, and they'll g0 on doing it for all time to come. Be- sides, they're not our kind. Nor's the girl. No, I take my stand with Wertz and Hawes, and—' But the dogs snarled and drew in and he broke off, listening to the crunch, crunch of many snowshoes. Indian after Indian stalked into the firelight, tall and grim, fur clad and silent, their shadows dancing grotesquely on the snow. One, the witch doctor, spoke gutturally to Sipsu. His face was daubed with savage paint blotches, and over his shoulders wes drawn @ wolfskin, the gleaming teeth and cruel snout surmounting his head. No other word was spoken. The prospectors held the peace. Bipsu arose and slipped into her snowshoes. “Good by, O my man,” she sald te Hitcheock. . But the man who had sat beside her on the sled gave no sign, nor lifted his head as they filed away into the white forest. Unlike many men, his faculty of adapt- ation, while large, had never suggested the expediency of an alliance with the women of the Northland. His broad cos- mopolitanism had never impelled toward covenanting in marriage with the daugh- ters of the sofl. If it had, his philosophy of life would not have stood between. But it simply had not. Sipsu? He bad pleasuted in camp fire chats with her, not as & man who knew himself to be a man and she a woman, but as-a man might chat with a child, and as a man of his make certalnly would, if for no other reason than to vary the tedi- um of & bleak exisfence. That was all. But there was a certain chivalric thrill of warm blood in him, despite his Yankes ancestry and New England upbringing, and he was so made that the commercial aspect of life ofien seemed meaningless and bore contradiction to his deeper im- pulse So he sat silent, with head bowed forward, an organic force greater than himeelf, as great as his race, at work ithin “him. Wertz and Hawes looked askance at him from time to time, a faint but perceptible trepidation in their man- ner. Sigmund also felt this. Hitchcock was strong, and his strength had been im- pressed upon them in the course of many an event in their precarious life. So they stood In a certain definite awe and curios- ity as to what his conduct would be when he moved.to_action But his silence was long and the fire nigh out when Wertz stretched his arms and vawned and thought he'd go to bed. Then Hitchcock stood up his full height. *May God-damn your souls to the deep- est hells, you chicken hearted cowards! I'm done with you!” He said it calmly enough, but his strength spoke in every vllable, and every intonation was adver- ement of intention. “Come on,” tinued, “whack Mp, and In whatever way suits you best. I own a quarter interest in the claims: our contracts show: that. There are twenty-five or thirty ounces in the sack from the test pans. Fetch out the scales. We'll divide that now.' and you, Sigmund, measure me my quarter share of the grub and set it apart. Four of the dogs are mine and 1 want four more. I'll trade you my share in the camp outfit and mining gear for the dogs. And T'll throw in my six or seven ounces and the spare 45-%0 with the ammunition, What d'ye say?” The three men drew apart and con- ferred. When they returned Sigmund acted as spokesman. “We'll .whack * up fair with you, Hitchcock. In everything you'll get your quarter share, neither more nor less, and’'you can take it*or leave it. But we want the dogs as bad as you do, so you get four, and that's all. If you don’t want to take your share of the outfit and gear, why, that's your lopkout. If you want it you can have it; if you don’t, leave it.” “The letter of the law,” Hitchcock sneered. “But go ahead. I'm willing. And hurry up. I can’t get out of this camp and away from {ts vermin any too quick.” The division was effected without fur- ther comment. He lashed his ineager be- longings upon one of the sleds, rounded in his four dogs, and harnessed up, His pbrtion of outfit and gear he did not touch, though he threw onto the sled half a dozen dog harnesses, and challenged them with his eyes to interfere. But they shrugged their shoulders and watched him disappear in the forest. A man crawled upon his belly through the snow. On every hand loomed the moose hide lodges of the camp. Ilere and there a miserable dog howled or snarled abuse upon his neighbor. Once one of them approached the creeping man, but the man became. motionless. The dog came closer and sniffed, and came yet closer, till its nose touched the strange object, which had not been there when darkness fell. Then Hitchcock, for it was Hitchcock, upreared suddenly, shooting an unmittened hand out to the brute's shaggy throat. And the dog knew its death in that clutch, and when the man moved on was left broken-necked under the stars. In this manner Hitchcock made the chief’s lodge. For long he lay in the snow without, listening to the voices of the occupants and striving to locate Sipsu. Evidently there were many in the tent, and from the sounds they were in high excitement. At last he heard the girl's vcice and crawled around so that only the moose- hide divided them. Then burrowing in the snow, he slowly wormed his kead and shoulders underneath. When the warm inner air smote his face he stooped and ‘walted, his legs and the greater part of his body still on the outside. He could see nothing, nor did he dare lift his head. On one side of him was a skin bale. He could smell it, though he carefully felt to be certain. On the other side his fac barely touched a furry garment which he knew clothed a body. This must be Sipsu. ‘Though he wished she would speal®agaln, h. resolved to risk it. He could hear the chief and the ‘witch doctor talking high, and in a far corner some hungry child whimpering to sleep. Squirming on his side he carefully raised his head, still just touching the furry gar- ment. He listened to the breathing. It was & woman's breathin, he would chance it. He pressed against her side softly but firmly and felt her start at the contact. Again he walted till a question- ing hand slipped down upon his head and paused among the curls. The next in- stant a hand turned his face gently up- ward and he was gasing inte Sipsu's eyes. She was quite collected. Changing her position casually, she threw an elbow well over on the skin bale, rested her body upon it and arranged her parka. In this way he was completely concealed. Then and still most casually she reclined across him, so tLat he could breathe be- tween her arm and breast, and when she her ear pressed lightly, ‘“When the time suits, go thou,” he whispered, “out of the lodge and across the snow, down the wind to the bunch of jack pines in the curve of the creek. There wilt thou find my dogs and my sled, packed for the trail. This night we go down to the Yukon; and, since we go fast, lay thou hands upon what dogs come nigh thee by the scruff of the neck ond drag them to the sled In the curve of the creek.” Sipsu shook her head in dissent, but her eyes glistened with gladness and she was proud that this man had shown toward her such favor. But she, like the women of all her race, was born to obey the will masculine, and when Hitchcock repeated “Go!” he did it with authority, and though she made no answer he knew that his will was law. “And never mind harness for the dogs,” he added, preparing to go. “T shall walt. But waste no time. The day chaseth the night away, nor does it linger for man's pleasure.” Half an hour later, stamping his feet his arms by the sled, he saw her coming, a surly dog In either hand.. At the approach of these his own animals waxed truculent, and he favored them’ with the butt of his whip till they quieted. He had approached the camp up the wind. and sound was the thing to be mos: feared In making his presence known. “Put them into the sled,” he ordered when she had got.the harness on the two dogs. “I want my leaders to the fore.” But when she had done this the dis- placed animals pitched upon the allens. Though Hitchcock plunged among them with clubbed rifle a riot of sound went up and across the sleeplng camp. “Now we shall have dogs and In plen- ty,” he remarked grimly, slipping an ax from the sled lashings. “Do thou harne; ‘whichever I fling thee and bétween whiles protect the team.” He stepped a space in advance and ‘waited between two pines. The dogs of the camp were disturbing the night with their jangle and he watched for their coming. A dark spot, growing rapidly, took form upon the dim white expanse of snow. It was a fore-runner of the pack, leaping cleanly, and, after the wolf fashlon, singing direction to his brothers. Hitchcock stood in the shadow. As it sprang pest he reached out, gripped its forelegs in mid-career and sent it whirl- AT HER SHRILL i DDENED BR UTL .« RANGC LORPWARD tng earthward. Then he struck judged blow beneath the ear it to Sipsu And while she clapped on the harness, he with his ax sage between the trees, tll flood of white teeth and giistening surged and crested just beyond Sipsu worked rapidiy. When she bad fa- ished he leaped forward, seized and etun- ned a second and flung it to her he repeated thrice again, and whem the sled team stood snariing in a string of ten he called “Enough But at this instant & young buck, the forerunner of the tribe and swift of limb, wading through the dogs and cufing right and left, attempted the passage. The butt of Hitchcock's rifle drove him to his knees, whence he toppied over side- ways. The witch doctor, running lustily, saw the blow fall Hitchcock called to Sipsu to pull out. At her shrill “Chook!” the maddened brutes shot straight ahead, and the sled, bounding mightily, just missed unseating Ler. The powers wers ovidently AngTy with the witch doctor, for &t this mo- ment they The lead dog tripped him up and the nine succeeding dogs trod him under foot and the sled bumped over him. But he was quick to his feet, and the night might have turned out differently had not Sipsu struck back- ward with the long dog whip and smittea him a biinding blow across the eyes. Hitcheock, hurrying to overtaks her, col- lided against him as he swayed with pain in the middle of the Thus it was when the primi fan got back to the chlef's wisdom had been increased ir as concerns the efMcacy of the w n's first. So when he orated the council men. ¥ trafl hrew off thebearskin, sat vered muscle in his “Wonder where F arm them out. “It's a blessing added, “though he was a wor “Yep. Too masterful. That was his trouble. Too bad Stpsu. Think he cared for her much?" “Don’t think so. Just principle. That's all. He thought it wasn't rig course, it wasn't—but that was no reason for us to interfere and get hustled over the divide before o " “Prineiple s principle its place, but it's best d it's good in when Eh yYou go to Alaska ad joined his mate, and both were work pliability into ir frozen moccasin: “Think we ought to take a hand?" Sigmund shook his head. He was very busy. A scud o chocolate-colored foa was rising in bacon needed thinking about the gir summer seas, softly. His mates chuckled to each other and ceased talking. Though it was past 7, daybreak was still three hours distant. The aurora borealis had passed out of the sky, and the camp was an oasis of light in the midst of deep darkness. And fa this light the forms of the thres men were sharply defined. Emboldened by the silence, Sigmund raised his volce and opened the last stanza of the old song: pot, and Also, he was laughing eyes like and he was humming In & year, In a year, when the g STapes are Then the night was split with a rat- tling volley of rifle shots. Hawes sighed, made an effort to straighten himself and collapsed. Wertz went over on an elbow with drooping head. He choked a little, and a dark stream flowed from his mouth. And Sigmund, the Golden Hairea, his throat a-gurgle with the song, threxs up his arms and pitched across the fire.