| Show At tie the Rainbows End By Jack J a c k L o ondon n don d o n T WAS for two reasons that Ventura Montana Kid die di IT carded hie Itle chap chape and Mexican spur and n I shook the dust of ot the Idaho Id ho ranges from his feet In Inthe Inthe inthe the first place the encroachment of a steady sober and sternly moral civilization had bad destroyed the primeval status of ot the western cattle ranges and re relined lined society turned the cold eye o of disfavor u upon him and his ilk Uk In the second place in ta one oho rae of ot its H II cyclopean moor moments the race rare had arisen en and a 4 shoved back its frontier several thousand mla Biles Thus with lath unconscious foresight did mature society tn te moat room for its adolescent members mehl rs True the new territory was as mostly mUy barren but its several hundred thousand t miles of frigidity at least gave space to those tho e who else Ise would have suffocated td at home ne Montana Kid was such a one Heading for er the tte theT with a haste several sheriffs poss P might l have explained and with more nerve that than n coin oin of the Ute realm he h succeeded in ht shipping from troma a s Puget sound BOund port and managed to survive the con eon ting nt miseries mt erles of steerage seasickness sea and steerage grub He was Wag rather sallow and drawn but b t still sUll his own Indomitable self when he Jand landed on the UI Dyes D Leach beach in the spring of the year Between the cost coat co t of dogs grub and outfits and the customs ems fractions of two clashing governments it speedily penetrated pe to 10 his understanding that the northland was w s any 10 thing save a poor mans Mecca So he cast about ab tit him nihl in search earch of quick harvests Between the beach and the passes pas e were scattered d many naRY thousands of o passionate pilgrims These j ail B grims grime Montana Kid KM proceeded to farm tann At first he dealt d alt faro in do a pine board gambling shack but dis die disagreeable disagreeable agreeable necessity forced foreM fore him to drop a sudden pe period period period into a mans life UCe and to move on up UP trail trait Then T hr he effected fleeted a corner on horseshoe nails and an they t ey cir circulated ct circulated d at par with legal tender four to a dollar r tHlen en an unexpected consignment of barrels or ao so broke Droke the market and forced him to disgorge dl his hie stock at a loss r After that he located at Sheep Camp or the thet t I rr r packers and jumped the freight 19 cents i a pound in a single t day In token of oC their gratitude the packers patronised his faro and roulette layouts f End and were mulcted cheerfully of or their earnings But Buthis Buthis Buthis his commercialism l am was of too lusty a a growth to be belong Belong belong long endured so 80 they rushed him one night burned his shanty divided the bank and headed Him up the t traIl trill with empty pockets was his running mate m te He engaged with responsible parties to run rUIl whisky across the line by byway bya way nay a of precarious and unknown trails lost Joi t his ais In Indian Indian Indian dian guides and had bad the very first outfit confiscated t by the mounted police Numerous other misfortunes mi Ines tended tf to make him bitter of or heart and wanton of ofa a action tion and he be celebrated his arrival at Lake Bennett Ben nett by terrorizing the camp for twenty straight In 11 urs Then a miners meeting took him in hand and commanded him to make himself scarce He H had a 8 wholesome holesome hol me respect for tor such assemblages assemblage and nd he hein obEyed ed in such haste that he inadvertently removed himself 11 i at the of another mans mans mails dog tea This was equivalent to horse stealing in a Amore more mel met mellow mellow low ow clime so he hit only the high places across acmes Ben Benr Bennett rett nett r tt and down Tagish h and made his firSt camp campa ap a full tull hundred miles to the north f p t Now It happened that the break of spring was at hand and many of oC the principal citizens of Dawson Wf were re traveling south on the last ice These he met mett and talked with noted their names and possessions and passed on He had a good memory also a fair imagination nor was veracity one of oC his virtues Dawson DaBOn always eager for tor news beheld Montana Kid Kids s sled heading down doWA the Yukon and went out outon outon outon on the ice to meet him No he any By news neS newspapers newspapers papers dl nt know whether Durrant was hanged h yet Set nor who won the Thanksgiving game heard whether hether the United States and Spain had Bad gone gORe gonet to t 1 fighting know kno who Dreyfus Drefus was but 0 OBrien Brien they heard beard OBrien why w y he was wass drowned in the White Horse Sitka Charley Charity was the only one of the party who escaped Joe Ladue Both legs frozen an and ani m ted ed at the Fi Fire e Fingers Flagen Ate Jai Jack k Dalton Brew Blown up on the Sea Lion with i hands And Settles Betties Wrecked on the Ute theIn id 8 In Seymour Narrows twenty survivors out o f of 0 91 And Swiftwater Bill Gone through the rotten ice leeo of Lake Le Barge with six female members of or the opera troupe he was convoying Governor Walsh Lost Lo t with ith all hands and eight sleds on the Thirty Mile Mlle Devereaux Who was Devereaux Oh the courier Shot by Indians on Lake Marsh MarshS So S o it went The word was passed along Men lien shouldered in to ask after friends and partners and andIn andin andin In turn were shouldered out too stunned for blas bias blasphemy phemy By the time Montana Kid gained the bank hank bankhe he 11 was surrounded by several hundred bundred min miners miners miners ers When he passed panned pa ed the barracks he was the center oen of If a procession At the opera house he be was the nu nucleus nucleus nucleus cleus of an excited mob each member mem struggling str lIng fory for lor lora fora y a chance to ask after some same absent comrade On every side be he was being invited to drink Never be belore tore lore had the Klondike thus opened its arms to a All AU Dawson was humming Such a 8 cries paries of catastrophes c had never occurred in its his lIis nj f tory tNY ry Every man ma man of note who had gone south in the spring erring had been wiped out The cabins vomited forth their occupants men hurried down from fr m the creeks and gulches to seek out this his man who had told a tale We of such disaster dl a ter The Russian Ian halfbreed ife of Settles Bottles sought the fireplace inconsolable Inco and andr r rill ked back and forth and ever and anon flung dung white whitewood whitewood wood ashes upon her ber raven hair The ling at the barracks arracks 1 flopped dismally at Dawson mourned its dead Why Montana Kid did this thing no man may know Nor beyond the fact that the truth was not in him can explanation be hazarded But for five live whole days he plunged the land in wailing and sorrow and for five fie whole days he was the only man in the Klon Klondike KlondikE Klondike dike The saloons gave him the freedom of C their t bars The country gave him the best bast of ot its bed and board hard Men sought him bim continuously The high of fi bowed down to him for further information and he was as feasted at the barracks by Constantine Co and n i his brother officers And then one ope day Devereaux the ne government courier halted his hia tired dogs does before r hp he gold commissioners office Dead Woo Who said Id so sone trice ne jye him bim a moose steak and hed bed show them how bow howd d dead ad he was Why Governor Walsh Wa h was wag m In camp on OIl th the Little Salmon and OBrien coming iri hl on the that first v seater iter ater Dead Give him a moose steak and aDd hed bed shun show them nd forthwith Dawson hummed The barracks n nag dag r rne e to the tae masthead ma and Settles Betties wife washed ecI her hers s lf I f and put on clean raiment The community subtly signified its desire that Montana Kid obliterate ate at himself from om the landscape And Arid Montana Kid fbi iterated as usual u at the of or some one oneE elPs E ps dog team t Dawson rejoiced when he be we headed d down n the Yukon wand and nd wished wi hed him godspeed to the ultimate destination of the casehardened ca sinner sIn sInAn A An After ter er that tha the the owner of the dogs bestirred r de complaint to Constantine and alit f from him re 1 cm cc n ed the loan Joan of a policeman It With ith Circle ircle a City in prospect and aDd re last la t Ice ri Tumbling crumbling under his hiB runners Montana Kid took ad adi advantage cI vantage i 1 of the lengthening days and aDd traveled his tk dogs gs 1 late te and early Further he had bad but bat little doubt that th t owner of the dogs in question had hail taken his trail and aid he wished to make American territory before Detore the river riveT broke But by the tM afternoon of the third d 11 y it became evident that he be had lost Jo t m tit his race with nith spring The Yukon was wan wa growling and straining s Ft st e 1 its fitters Long detours became necessary ary for tine trail had begun to fall ran through Into ho t the swift swiftcurrent current beneath while ice in constant con tant unrest surest was 8 thundering apart in great gaping uret Through th these f and through countless the water ter began t to swi sweep ep across the surface of the Ice and aDd by the thet t time hp hf pulled d into a woodchoppers cabin On n the yint I of an island the dogs were being rushed off oft their fe feet t and were swimming more often than not notH fir H was greeted sourly by the two residents but he d and proceeded to cook up Tonald and Davy were fair specimens of or frontier front t fi 5 Seem Scots In m a foolish h moment they had resigned counting house bootie 1 ks dr drawn i n upon their sax savings ings and gone ne Ing in And no now they were feeling the rough edge edse edseth ot of th count country r spiritless with a lust for home bome in their then hearts hart they had been ted ed by t the e P C Company company to rut cut wood for Its steamers with the at the end of passage home Disregarding Dl the possibilities poggi of the ice run Tun they bad had fittingly demonstrated their inefficiency by their choice of th the Island on w which they the located Montana Kid though possessing little knowledge of the breakup of eta a great river rl fT looked about him dubiously and cast yearning earning glances pit noes at the th distant bank where the towering T tuffs tiffs promised immunity from all the tee Ice of the northland nd After fter feeding ding f himself and dogs he lighted his pipe and II nd str strolled Hed out to get a better idea of the situation The is ind like all its river brethren stood higher pt at t the uri ui Er t end am and ind It was here hert that Donald and andI andrIa I rIa i v y had quilt built their cabin and plied piled m many PY cords Of ol rood r 1 The tar shore was a full mile mil away while be bet t 5 een en the island and the near shore lay Jay a back chan net nel perhaps yards across At first sight of this Montana Kid was tempted to take his dogs d and es escape escape d cape to the mainland but on closer in he hedt discovered dt a rapid current flooding on top tap Below the river twisted sharply to the the west anti and in 1 this t is turn its breast was studded by a maze e of UP islands where shell sheIL she It Jam 1 he marked to him himself self el y Halt Half dozen sleds sI s evidently bound upstream undo eam to Daws n were ere splashing through the chill chili wa t e to toI tois I is the taU tall of or the island OO Travel on the river was as pass passing passing ing from the precarious to the impossible and it was nip and tuck with them till they gained the island and came up the path p th of the woodchoppers toward the cabin One of them towed tow helplessly at the rear of oC a sled Husky young oung fallows s they were ere and tt Kid had met the breed before and knew at once nce that it was not his kind Hello Helix Hows things up queried the foremost passing his ye eye over ov r Donald and and Day Davy and settling it upon the Kid KidA A first meeting In the bno is poet character characterized by formality The talk qui ly became became general and the news of the Up pert an 1 Bower es was swapped equitably back and forth f rth But the th little Ut the newcomers had was as soon over ove wUll t y hail had wintered at 1000 1800 miles below where nothing w was as doing Montana Kid however r teas f fresh reSh h from Crom salt water and they th annexed anne d hint hl Yi n they y pitched t h camp swamping him with questions the outside from which they had been cut off for a atwel twelvemonth twel A shrieking split suddenly lifting itself above the general uproar on the river drew everybody to the bank The surface water had increased d in iii depth and the ice assailed from above and below was struggling to tear itself from the grip of the shores s Fissures reverberated Into life before their eyes and the air was filled with multitudinous cracking crisp crl p and sharp like the sound that goes up on a clear day from the firing line From up the river rier two men meIl were racing a dog team toward them on an uncovered stretch of fee fire But even as they hey looked the pair struck the water teeter and began to flounder through t rough Behind where their feet had sped the moment before the ice broke up and turned turtle Through this opening the river riv r rushed out upon them to their burying the sled and swinging the dogs off or a at right t angles in a t i i 1 t y r rL 1 L 7 i I d s sr 1 r r Y Ym t m 4 r t t c 1 i I It fi i 1 r tf t tt t tb t r t 1 b OL OLI i S 1 Y f I lT THIS HE SA S s i W v THEN SWAYED SWA D LAN N INSTANT LONGER LO G IN HIS LOFTY oF PERCH AND HURTLED l I Ic 3 c oo S FAR FAB OUT oar INTO THE HEEL C v j t tS r I Ir S 1 t t r tj drowning dro ning tangle But the men stopped their flights flight to give the animals a fighting chance and they groped hurriedly In the cold confusion slashing at the de detaining detaining taming traces with their Then they t ey fought their way aY to the bank through swirling water and grinding ice lee where foremost in leaping to The rescue among the Jarring fragments was the Kid Kidy Why y blame me if it aint Montana Kid ex exclaimed exclaimed claimed one of the men whom the Kid was just placing upon his feet at the top pf of the bank He wore the scarlet tunic of the mounted pollee oe and Jocularly raised his right band hand in salute Got a warrant arrant for you Kid he tIa eJ 4 draw drawing drawing drawing ing a bedraggled paper from his breast pontet anI an Rn i iI I ope opa come along peaceable pe Montana M Kid looked at the tile river and shrugged his shoulders and the policeman following his glance smiled Where are the dogs his companion asked S Gentlemen interrupted the policeman U this is ere erema mate ma o 0 mine is Jack Sutherland owner eC of Twenty two Eldorado Not Sutherland Sut rland of oC 82 91 9 broke in the man groping feebly toward blip AlAi The hesam he same Sutherland gripped his Ms hand nand And AM A Ayou you 7 Oh Im after your time but I remember you fa ht famy my freshman year You were doing P G wt work rk then than th Boys Bo s he called turning half about this is 1 Suther Sutherland c cland land Jack Sutherland erstwhile fullback of the Ute var vac varsity varsity sity city Come Conte up you OU gold chasers and fall tall upon him I Sutherland this is Greenwich played quarter two taro t seasons back Yes I read of the game Sutherland said mid shaking shak shaking s sIng ing hands hand And I remember that big run rull of ot years yaws y for the first touchdown Greenwich flushed awkwardly under und r hs ha tanned skin and awkwardly made room for another And heres Matthews Berkeley man And weva weve got some eastern cracks knocking about too toe Come Conte up you men Come up This Is Sutherland Suther Sutherland land J k Sutherland Then they fell upon |
