Show m fc j aft N N 1 tl tl TI i ca r i i H I 1 XI no he white f riv silence Sil alv erx I 1 K A cold and nute mute witness to human hum an heroism devotion and Ty P 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 il ARMEN wont mont last more M than a couple of days 1 l i mason spat out a chunk of lee ice and surveyed the poor animal ruefully then put lier her foot in his 1118 mouth and proceeded to bite out nut the too ice which clustered cruelly between tile the td toes e s 1 I never saw saw d a do dog with a lutin name that ever was worth a rap A he said lis aa lie he edn concluded eluded his task and shoved her aside they just fade away and die under the responsibility did ye ever see one go wrong with a sensible name like casslar or husky no sirl sir take a look at shoo kum here hes snap the lean brute flashed up tile lie white teeth just missing masons masona throat threat ye will will ye A shrewd clout behind the ear car with the butt of the dog whip stretched theu the animal in the snow quivering softly a yellow slaver drip ping from its fangs As I 1 was saying just look at shoo kum here lies iles got the spirit bet ye he be eats cats carmen before the weeks out ill blank bank another proposition against that replied malemute kid reversing the frozen bread placed before the fire tu to thaw well eat cat before the trip it is over what what d ye say ruth the indian woman settled the coffee with a piece of ice fee glanced froni from malemute kid to her husband then at the flogs dogs but vouchsafed no reply it was such a palpable truism that none w was as necessary two hundred miles of unbroken trail in prospect with a scant six days grub for themselves and none for the dogs could admit no other alternative ter native the two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began ther their meager meal ineal the dogs lay in their harnesses for it was a midday holt balt and watched each mouthful enviously sly 20 no more lunches after today said kid and weve got to keep a close eye on the dogs dog petting getting vicious just as aa soon pull a fellow down as not if they get a chance athance and I 1 was president of an mice and taught in the sunday school haying having irrelevantly delivered hims himself elf of this mason maslo n fell into it a dreamy contemplation temp lation of his steaming moccasins but was wag aroused by ruth filling ills his cup thank god weve got sl athers rf of tea lea 1 ive S seen C d it growing down I 1 la tennessee what I 1 give for a hot corn com pone just bowl now never mind ruth huta you wont starve much longer no nor r wear moccasins either the woman threw off her gloom at this flits and in her eyes welled up a great love tor for her white lord the first white wan she had ever seen the first man whom she had known to treat a woman as something better than a mere animal or common beast of burden yes continued her husband having recourse course ic to the macaron le jargon in which it was alone possible for them to understand each other wait till we clean sclean up and pull for the outside well vell take the white man mans I 1 s cal cai noe and go to the salt water yes bad water rough water great mountains dance up and down all the time and so big biff so far so far away you travel ten sleep twenty sleep forty sleep lie he graphically enumerated en ume rated the days on his fingers all the time water bad water then you come to great village plenty people just the same bosqui toes next summer wigwams oh ob so high ten twenty pines hl HI yu auml ile he paused impotently cast an appealing glance at malemute Male muto kid then laboriously placed the twenty pines end on end by sign language malemute kid smiled with cheery cynicism but ruths eyes were wide with wonder and with pleasure for she half believed be was joking and such condescension pleased her poor womans comans heart and then you step into a a box and pouf I 1 up you go ile he tossed his empty cup in the air by way of illustration and as he deftly caught it cried and biffi down you como come oh great medicine men meal I 1 you go fort yukon I 1 go arctic city twenty five sloe sleep p big string all the time I 1 catch him string I 1 say hello how are ye yea and you say bay Is that my good husband and I 1 say yes and you say no can bake good bread bre adno n 6 more soda then I 1 say look in cache under flour goodby you look and catch plenty soda all the time you fort yukon me arctic city hi yu medicine mant ruth smiled si so ingenuously at the fairy story that both men burst into laughter A row among the dogs cut short the wonders of the outside and by the time the snarling combatants were separated she had bad lashed the sleds sleda and all was ready for the trall trail dushl baldal hi 1111 if mush ush on I 1 mason worked his bis whip smartly and as the dogs whined low in the traces broke out the sled with the gee pole ruth followed with the second team leaving malemute kid who had helped her start to br ingup the rear strong man brute that he was capable of felling an ox at a blow he could not bear to beat the poor animals but humored them as a dog doga driver river rarely does nay almost wept with them in their misery come mush on there you poor sore footed brutes brut esl he be murmured after several ineffectual attempts to start the load but his bis patience was at last rewarded and though whimpering with pain they hastened to join their fellows A t 0 7 7 ak stretched the amirr animal W in the S snow n 0 w quivering softly yno no more conversation the wl toll of bf ithe the trail will not permit such e extravagance and of all deadening labors that of th the northland trail frail la Is the worst happy Is the man who ca can n weather a days travel at the price at of silence andt bat on a beaten track andoe and of all heart breaking labors that or 0 breaking trail Is worst at ai every step the great g webbed shoe sinks till the kaow snow Is level with the knee ee then up the deviation of a fraction of an inch being ft certain precursor of disaster the snowshoe must be lifted till the sur surface face 13 cleared bleared then forward ard down and the other foot ls Is raised perpendicularly forthe for the matter i 0 of f half haefli a yard lie ile who tries this for the first time if bably he avoids bringing his shoes in dangerous propinquity and measures not lili his length on the treacherous footing will give up exhausted at the end of a hundred yards Y ards he who cart can keep out of the way of the dogs for a awhile whole day s way may well crawl into his sleeping bg bag with a clear conscience and a pride which basseth all understanding and he who travels twenty sleeps on the long trail Is a man whom the gods may envy the after afternoon wore on and with the awe born of the white silence the voiceless travelers bent to their work nature has many tricks wherewith she convinces man of his tho ceaseless flow of the tides the fury of the storm the shock of the earthquake the long roll of beay heavens exis a artillery but the most tremendous the most stupefying of all is ii tb phase of the white alle silence zice all movement ceases cease s the sky clears efeard the hea heavens y are as brass the slightest whisper seems sacrilege and man becomes timid affrighted at the sound of his own voice sole speck of life jon journey aney ing across the ghostly wastes of a dead world he trembles at his bis audacity realizes that his Is pl a maggots life nothing more strange thoughts arise and the mystery of nit al things strives for utterance and the fear of death of god of the universe comes over him the hope of theres ur and the life the yearning for immortality the vain striving of the imprisoned essence it Is then if every ever man walks alone with god bled so wore the day away the river took a great bend and mason headed ails team for the cutoff cut off across the narrow neck of land but the dos dogs balked at the high bank again and again though ruth and were shoving on the sled bled they slipped back then came the concerted effort the miserable creatures weak from hunger exerted their last strength up up the sled poised on the top of the bank but the leader swung the string of dogs behind him to the right fouling masons snowshoes the result was grievous mason was whipped off his feet one of the dogs fell in the traces and the sled toppled ile b ack dragging everything to the bottom I 1 again 0 slash I 1 the whip fell among the dogs savagely especially upon the one which had bad fallen dont mason entreated malemute kid tho the poor devils devil on its last legs walt wait and well put my team on mason deliberately withheld the whip till the last word had bad fallen then out flashed toe the long lash completely curling about the offending creatures body carmen for it was carmen cowered in the snow cried piteously then rolled over on her side it was a tragic moment a pitiful incident of the trall trail a dying dog two comrades in anger ruth kuth glanced so Itel from man to man but mute kid ye restrained strained himself though there was a world of reproach in his eyes and bending over the dog cut the traces no word was spoken the teams ware double spanned and the difficulty overcome the sleds were under way again the dying do dog dragging herself along in tile the rear As long as an animal can travel it Is not shot and this last chance is accorded accord dd li it the crawling into camp if it scan can in the hope of a moose being killed already penitent for ills his angry action but too stubborn to maky make am amends ends mason tolled on n at the head of the cavalcade little dreaming that danger hovered in the he air the timber clustered thick in the sheltered bottom and through this they threaded their way fifty feet or move mose from the trail towered a lofty pine F for or generations it had stood there and for generations destiny had bad bad this one end in ia view perhaps the same had bad been decreed of mason ile he stooped to fasten the loosened thong of his bis moccasin the sleds came came to a halt and the dogs lay down in the snow without a whimper the stillness was weird not a breath rustled the frost encrusted forest the afie cold and silence of outer space bad chilled the alie heart and smote the trembling lips of nature A sigh pulsed through the air they dao di not seem scorn to actually hear it but rather felt it like the premonition of movement in a motionless void told then the grent great tree burdened with its weight of years and snow played its last part in the tragedy of life mason heard beard the warning crash and attempted to spring up but almost erect caught the blow squarely on the shoulder tile the sudden danger the quick death how bow often bad malemute kid faced it the pine needles were still quivering as he gave bisp commands and sprang into action nor tile indian girl faint or raise her boleo in idle walling wailing as might many of her white sisters at his order she threw her weight on the end of a quickly e extemporized handspike easing the pressure and listening to her husbands groans while Ifa malemute Male muto lemute kid attacked the tree with his ax am the steel rang merrily as it bit into inlo the frozen trunk each stroke being accompanied by a forced audible respiration the huhl huh hub of the woodsman at last iasi the kid laid the pitiable thing that was ance once a man anibe in the sn snow ow 40 lie he stooped to fasten the loosened throng BUt worse than hla his comrades pain was the dumb anguish tn in the womans comans face ther the blended look of hopeful hopeless query little was said those of the northland are early taught the futility of words and the inestimable value of deeds with the temperature at 05 65 below zero a man cannot lie many minutes in the snow and alad live so 0 the sled lashings wor wera cut and d them the sufferer rolled in furs laid oil on ft a couch of boughs before him roared a fire built of the very wood which wrought the mishap behind and partially over ever haat hi was stretched the primitive fly a piece of canvas which caught the radiating heat and thre thie wit bick back and down upon him a trick which mend men may know who study physics at the fount ind and men who have shared their bed with death know when w ben the call Is sounded mason was terribly crushed the most cursory examination revealed it ills his right arm leg and back were bro broken aken jus his limbs limb were paralyzed f from rom the hips aud the likelihood of internal in injuries juric s was large an occasional moan was his onlysion only sign of life xo no hopen hope Nothing to be done the pitiless night crept slowly by ruths portion the despairing sni of her race and malemute kid adding new lines to his face of bronze in fact mason buffe suffered red least of all for he spent his time in eastern tennessee in the great smoky mountains living over the scenes of his bis childhood and I 1 most pathetic was the melody melo dy of his long forgotten southern vernacular as be raved of swimming holes and cooil coon hunts bunts and watermelon raids it vai vas as greek to ruth but the thekia kid understood and felt felt as only one onet can feel who has been shut out for years from all that civilization means morning brought consciousness to the stricken man and malemute kid bent closer closed to catch his whispers you remember when we ered cred on the tanana four years come next lee ice run I 1 care so much for her then it was more like isho was pretty and there was a oi of excitement about it I 1 think thlick but d ye know ive come to think a heap of her ashes beffi a good wife to tome me always at my shoulder in the chich and when it comes to trading you know there her equal dye D ye rec collect tho the time she seq shot the Moose hom rapids to pull you and me off that lock roc the bullets bullet 4 whipping the water like hailstones an and d the time ot of the famine at or when she raced laced the ice run to bring the news yes ashes been a good wife to me 1 attern that other one inow i know now id been there never told you eh well weli I 1 tried it if once down in the th e states stafe thata thaes why im here been raised er r too I 1 came cama away to give her a chance for divorce she got it but got nothing to 0 o do 6 with ruth I 1 had bad thought of cleaning up and pulling for the outside next year ber bee add I 1 but bubics its too late fate dont send her back bacate bac kte to her people kid its beastly hard for ii a woman to go back think of I 1 it t nearly four years 0 on fl our bacon and beans beanman san and d flour floor and dried fruit and then to go back to her felsl and carlbon caribou cari boo I 1 its not good forhez for her to have tried our ways to como come to know battern bet tern her peoples pe and then thea return to them tate tale care of her kid why dont 39 you u but no you always I 1 if fo fought 9 t shy b by efthem of them and you never JAM told me why you cajoto came to this country B kind to her and send her back to the states as soon us as you can but fix it so na as she can come bade back liable 6 to got homes homesick homesley lei you know and the youngster its drawn us ui closer kid J 1 only hope it la Is a hoy boy think of it flesh of my fi flesh esh kid lie he stop in this country and it if ifa a girl why she cant sell my furs fetch at least five ahda tho u sand anti ans ive got as aa more with the bompa company ny And handle my interests luter inter ter ests with yours I 1 think that bench claim will show up see that her gets a good schooling and kid above all dont let him come back this s coone try way not ot made for white men alm a gone man kid three or four sleeps at the best youve got to go on you must go oat on remember alts it my wife C its rhy my boy 0 0 god I 1 hope its aboy a boy cousant you Sant cant aisy stay by me and 11 I 1 charge you a dying manto man to pull on give me three days dais pleaded malemute mu kid you may change for the better something may turn up no just ajust three days |