| Show tiie the wisdom of aise IL trail ral sitka charley indian though he was knew and failed not in the fight with grim death by DY JACK LONDON copyright by jack london 6 i ITKA CHARLEY had achieved the impossible other indians might have njg known ns as much of the wisdom of the trill trail cis as did he but he alone knew the white mans wisdom the honor of the trail and the law but these things had not come to him in a day the aboriginal mind Is slow to generalize and many aca repeated often are required to compass an understanding silica charley from froin boyhood had been thrown continually with white men find and as a man he had elected to cast his fortunes with them expatriating himself once and for all from his own people evert even then respecting almost venerating their power and pondering over it he be had yet to divine its secretes secret essence the honor and the low ipa and tt it was only by the cumulative evidence of years that he had bad finally come to understand being an allen alien when he ud did know khow he knew it better than the white man himself being an indian he had achieved the impossible and of these things had been bred a certain contempt for his own people a contempt which he had bad made it a custom cu storn to conceal but which now burst forth in a polyglot whirlwind of curses upon the heads of kah chucte and glowhee they cringed before him like a brace of snarling wolf dogs too cow ardly to spring too wolfish to cover their fangs they were not handsome creatures neither was sitka charley all three were frightful looking there was no flesh to their faces their cheek bones were massed with hideous scabs which had cracked and frozen alternately under the intense frost while their eyes burned luridly with the light which I 1 15 barnof desperation and hunger men so situated beyond the pale of the honor and the law are notto be trusted sitka charley knew this and this was why he had forced them to abandon their rifles with the rest of the camp outfit ten days before his rifle and captain epping wells were the only ones that remained come get a fire started he commanded drawing out the precious match box with its attendant strips of dry birch bark the two indians fell sullenly to the task of gathering dead branches and underwood they were weak and paused often catching themselves in the act of stooping with giddy mot motions lons or staggering to the center of operations with their knees shaking like castanets after each trip they rested for a moment as though sick and dead jy weary at times their eyes took on the patient stoicism of dumb suffering and again the ego seemed almost bursting forth with its wild cry 1 I 1 I want to exist 1 the dominant note mote of the whole living universe A light breath of air blew from the south bouth nipping the exposed portions of ofa their bodies and driving the frost in needles of fire through fur and flesh to the bones so when the fire had grown lu lusty ay and thawed a damp circle in the snow enow about it sitka charley forced his reluctant comrades to lend a hand band in pitching a fly it was aprim etive affair merely a blanket stretched parallel with the fire and to windward of it at an angle of perhaps forty five degrees this shut out the chill wind and threw the heat backward and down upon those who were to huddle in its shelter then i a layer of green spruce boughs was spread that their bodies might not come in contact with the snow when this task was completed kah chude and glowhee proceeded to take care of their feet their icebound ice lee bound moccasins were sadly worn by much travel and the sharp ice of the river jams had auf them to rags their socks were similarly conditioned and when these had been beed thawed and removed the dead watto tips of the toes in the various san stages es of mortification told their simple ill tale of the trail leaving the two to the drying of their footgear sitka fltka charley turned back over the course lie he had come ile he too had a mighty longing to sit by the fire and tend his complaining flesh but the honor donor and the law forbade he tolled painfully over the frozen field each step a protest every muscle in revolt several times where the open water between the jams had recently crusted lie he was forced to miserably accelerate his bis movements as the fragile footing swayed and threatened beneath him in such places death was quick and easy but it was not his desire to endure more I 1 his deepening anxiety vanished as two indians dragged into view round a bend in the river they staggered and panted like men under heavy burdens yet the packs on their backs were a matter of but few pounds lie he questioned them eagerly and their replies seemed to relieve him he hurried on Next came two white men supporting between them a woman they also behaved as though drunken and their limbs shook with weakness but the woman leaned lightly upon them choosing to carry herself forward with her own strength at sight of her a flash of joy cast its fleeting light across sitka charleys face he cherished a very great regard for mrs ile he had seen many white women but this was the first to travel the trail with him when captain ep ping dingwell well proposed the hazard hazardous dus undertaking der taking and made him an offer for his services he had bad shaken ills his head gravely for it was an unknown journey through the dismal vast nesses of the northland and he knew it to be of the kind that try to the uttermost the souls of men but when he learn ed enthat that the captains wife was to accompany them he be had refused flatly to have anything further to do with it had it been a woman of his big own I 1 foll Z they cringed before him race he would have harbored no objections but these women of the northland no no they were too soft top tog tender for such buch enterprises setka a charley did not know this kind of woman five minutes before ho he did not even dream of taking charge of the expedition but when she came to him with her hir wonderful smile and her straight clean english and t talked ked to the point without pleading or persuading sua ding he be had incontinently yielded had there been a softness and appeal to mercy in the eyes a tremble to the voice a taking advantage of sex he would have stiffened to steel instead her clear searching eyes and c ldar clear ringing voice her utter frankness and tacit assumption of equality had robbed him of his bis reason he ha felt then that this was a new breed of woman and ere they had been trail mates for many days he knew why the sons of such women mastered the land and sea and why the sons of his own womankind could not prevail against them tender and soft I 1 day after day he watched her muscle weary exhausted Indomitable and the words beat in upon him in a perennial refrain tender and soft I 1 he knew her feet had been born to easy paths and sunny lands strangers to the moccas Ined pain of the north by the chill lips of the frost and he watched and marveled at them twinkling ever through the weary day she had always a smile and a word of cheer from which not even the meanest packer was excluded As the way grew darker she seemed to stiffen and gather greater strength and when kah chucte and gosbee who had bragged that they knew every landmark of the way as a child did the skin bales of the tepee acknowledged that they knew not where they were it was she who raised a forgiving voice amid the curses of the men she had sung to them that night till they felt the alie weariness fall from them and were ready to face the future with fresh hope and when the food failed and each scant stint was measured jealously she it was who rebelled against the machinations of her husband and sitka charley and demanded and received a share neither greater nor less than that of the others sitka charley was proud to know this woman A new richness greater breadth halcome bad had come into his life with her presence hitherto he ha had been his own mentor had turned to right or left at at no mans beck he had ed himself according to his own dictates nourished his manhood regardless of all save his own opinion for the first time he had felt a call from without for the best that was in him just a glance of appreciation from the clear searching eyes a word of thanks from the clear ringing voice just a slight wreathing of the lips in the wonderful smile sall and he walked with the gods for hours to come it was a new stimulant to his manhood for the first time he thrilled with a conscious pride in his wisdom of the trail and between the twain they ever lifted the sinking hearts of their comrades the faces of the two men and the woman brightened as they saw him for after all 11 he was the staff they leaned upon but sitka charley rigid rigia as was his bis wont concealing pain and pleasure impartially beneath an iron exterior asked them the welfare of the rest told the distance to the fire and continued on the back trip next he met a single indian unburdened limping lips compressed and eyes set with the pain of a toot foot in which the quick fought a losing battle with the dead all possible care had been taken of him but in the last extremity the weak and unfortunate must perish and fltka charley deemed his I 1 days to be few the man could not keep up for long so he gave him rough cheering words after that came two more indians to whom he had allotted the task of helping along joe the third white man of the party they had bad deserted him sitka charley saw at a glance the lurking spring in their bodies and knew they had bad at last cast off his mastery so he was not taken unawares when he be ordered them back in quest of their abandoned charge and saw the gleam of the hunting knives that they drew from the sheaths A pitiful spectacle three weak men lifting their puny strength la the face of the mighty vastness but the two recoiled under the fierce rifle blows of the one and returned like beaten dogs to the leash two hours later with joe reeling between them and sitka charley bringing up the rear they i came to the fire where the remainder of the expedition crouched in the shel ter of the fly A few words my comrades before we sleep sitka charley said after they had devoured their slim rations 0 of unleavened bread he was speaking to the indians in their own tongue having already given the import to the whites A few words my comrades for your own good that ye may yet perchance live I 1 shall give you the law on his own head be the death of him that breaks it we have passed the hills of silence and we now travel the head reaches of the stuart it may be one sleep it may be several it may be many sleeps but in time we shall come among the men of the yukon who have much grub it w were ere well that we look to the law daiv today kah chucte and gosbee whom I 1 commanded to break trail forgot they yvere were men and like frightened children ran away true they forgot so let us torget forget but hereafter let them remember it if it should happen afi they ey do not he touched his rifle carelessly grimly tomorrow they shall carry the flour and see that the white man joe lies not down by the trall trail the tha cupfuls of flour are counted should so much as an ounce be wanting at nightfall do ye understand today there were others that forgot moose head and three salmon left the white man joe to lie ile in the snow enow lot let them forget no more with the light of 0 day shall they go forth and break trail ye have heard the law look well lest yo ye break it sitka charley found it beyond him to keep the line close up arom moose head and three salmon who broke trail in advance to kah chucte gow hpe bee and joe it straggled out over u u mile each staggered fell or rested as lie he saw fit the line of march was a progression through a chain of irregular halts each drew upon the last remnant of df his strength lind and stumbled onward till it was wag expended but in some soine miraculous way there was waa always another last remnant each time a man tell fell it was with the firm belief that he would rise no ifo more yet lie he did rise and again and again the flesh yielded the will conquered but each triumph was a tragedy the indian with the frozen foot no longer erect crawled forward on hand and knee he rarely rested for he be knew the penalty exacted by the frost even mrs lips were at last set bet in a stony smile and her eyes bebing saw aw not often she stopped pressing a hand to her heart gasping and nd dizzy joe the white man had passed beyond the stage of suffering he no longer begged to be let alone prayed to die but was soothed and content under the anodyne of delirium kali kah chucte and goachee dragged him on roughly venting upon him many a savage glance or blow to them it was the acme of injustice their hearts were bitter with hate heavy with fear why should they cumber their strength with his weakness to do so meant death not to do so and they remembered the law of sitka charley and the rifle joe fell with greater frequency as the daylight wearied weaned and so hard was he to raise that they dropped farther and farther behind sometimes all three pitched into the snow so weak had the indians become yet on their backs was life and strength and warmth within the flour sacks were all the potentialities of existence they could not but think of this and it was 9 could not keep up for long not strange that which came to pass they had fallen by the side of a great timber jam where a thousand hud cords of firewood waited the match near by was an air hole bole through the lee ice kali kah chucte looked on the wood and the water as did glowhee then they looked on each lacfi other never a word was spoken gosbee struck a fire kali chute filled a tin cup with water and heat edIt joe babbled of things in another land in a tongue they did not understand they mixed flour with the warm water till it was a thin paste and of this they drank many cupfuls they did not offer any to joe but he did not mind he did not mind anything not even his moccasins which scorched and smoked among the coals A crystal mist of snow fell about them softly caressingly wrapping them in clinging robes of chite and their feet would have yet trod many trails had bad not destiny brushed the clouds aside and cleared the air nay ten minutes delay would have been salvation fltka charley looking back saw the pillared smoke of their fire and guessed and he looked ahead at those who were faithful and nt at mrs E so my good comrades ye have again 4 4 or 4 V ya lk smiled vivaciously at the wisdom of the trail forgotten that you were men good very good there will be fewer bellies to feed sitka charley retted the flour as he spoke strapping the pack to the one on his own back he kicked joe till the pain broke through the poor devils bliss and brought him doddering to his feet then he showed him out upon the trail and started him on his way the two indians attempted to slip off hold glowhee I 1 and thou too kali kah chuckel chucte I 1 hath the flour given such strength to thy legs that they may outrun the swift winged lead think not to cheat the law be men for the last time and be content that ye dle dl full stomached come step up back to the timber shoulder to shoulder come 11 1 the two men obeyed quietly without fear for it Is the future which presses upon the man not the present thou glowhee hast a wife and children and a deerskin deer skin lodge in the Chippe wyan what is thy will in the matter give thou her of the goods which are mine by the word of the captain the blankets the beads the tobacco the box bos which makes strange sounds after the manner of the white man say that I 1 did die on the trail but say not how and thou kah chucte who hast bast no wife nor child mine aline Is a sister the wife of the tha factor at kochim lie ile beats her ind and she Is not happy give thou her I 1 the goods which are mine by the contract and tell her it were |
