III
'I will talk of the things which were in my own way; but you will
understand. I will begin at the beginning, and tell of myself and
the woman, and, after that, of the man.' He of the Otter Skins
drew over to the stove as do men who have been deprived of fire
and are afraid the Promethean gift may vanish at any moment.
Malemute Kid picked up the slush lamp and placed it so its light
might fall upon the face of the narrator. Prince slid his body
over the edge of the bunk and joined them.
'I am Naass, a chief, and the son of a chief, born between a
sunset and a rising, on the dark seas, in my father's oomiak. All
of a night the men toiled at the paddles, and the women cast out
the waves which threw in upon us, and we fought with the storm.
The salt spray froze upon my mother's breast till her breath
passed with the passing of the tide. But I--I raised my voice
with the wind and the storm, and lived.
'We dwelt in Akatan--' 'Where?' asked Malemute Kid.
'Akatan, which is in the Aleutians; Akatan, beyond Chignik,
beyond Kardalak, beyond Unimak. As I say, we dwelt in Akatan,
which lies in the midst of the sea on the edge of the world. We
farmed the salt seas for the fish, the seal, and the otter; and
our homes shouldered about one another on the rocky strip between
the rim of the forest and the yellow beach where our kayaks lay.
We were not many, and the world was very small. There were
strange lands to the east--islands like Akatan; so we thought all
the world was islands and did not mind.
'I was different from my people. In the sands of the beach were
the crooked timbers and wave-warped planks of a boat such as my
people never built; and I remember on the point of the island
which overlooked the ocean three ways there stood a pine tree
which never grew there, smooth and straight and tall. It is said
the two men came to that spot, turn about, through many days, and
watched with the passing of the light. These two men came from
out of the sea in the boat which lay in pieces on the beach. And
they were white like you, and weak as the little children when
the seal have gone away and the hunters come home empty. I know
of these things from the old men and the old women, who got them
from their fathers and mothers before them. These strange white
men did not take kindly to our ways at first, but they grew
strong, what of the fish and the oil, and fierce. And they built
them each his own house, and took the pick of our women, and in
time children came. Thus he was born who was to become the father
of my father's father.
'As I said, I was different from my people, for I carried the
strong, strange blood of this white man who came out of the sea.
It is said we had other laws in the days before these men; but
they were fierce and quarrelsome, and fought with our men till
there were no more left who dared to fight. Then they made
themselves chiefs, and took away our old laws, and gave us new
ones, insomuch that the man was the son of his father, and not
his mother, as our way had been. They also ruled that the son,
first-born, should have all things which were his father's before
him, and that the brothers and sisters should shift for
themselves. And they gave us other laws. They showed us new ways
in the catching of fish and the killing of bear which were thick
in the woods; and they taught us to lay by bigger stores for the
time of famine. And these things were good.
'But when they had become chiefs, and there were no more men to
face their anger, they fought, these strange white men, each with
the other. And the one whose blood I carry drove his seal spear
the length of an arm through the other's body. Their children
took up the fight, and their children's children; and there was
great hatred between them, and black doings, even to my time, so
that in each family but one lived to pass down the blood of them
that went before. Of my blood I was alone; of the other man's
there was but a girl. Unga, who lived with her mother. Her father
and my father did not come back from the fishing one night; but
afterward they washed up to the beach on the big tides, and they
held very close to each other.
'The people wondered, because of the hatred between the houses,
and the old men shook their heads and said the fight would go on
when children were born to her and children to me. They told me
this as a boy, till I came to believe, and to look upon Unga as a
foe, who was to be the mother of children which were to fight
with mine. I thought of these things day by day, and when I grew
to a stripling I came to ask why this should be so.
'And they answered, "We do not know, but that in such way your
fathers did." And I marveled that those which were to come should
fight the battles of those that were gone, and in it I could see
no right. But the people said it must be, and I was only a
stripling.
'And they said I must hurry, that my blood might be the older and
grow strong before hers. This was easy, for I was head man, and
the people looked up to me because of the deeds and the laws of
my fathers, and the wealth which was mine. Any maiden would come
to me, but I found none to my liking. And the old men and the
mothers of maidens told me to hurry, for even then were the
hunters bidding high to the mother of Unga; and should her
children grow strong before mine, mine would surely die.
'Nor did I find a maiden till one night coming back from the
fishing. The sunlight was lying, so, low and full in the eyes,
the wind free, and the kayacks racing with the white seas. Of a
sudden the kayak of Unga came driving past me, and she looked
upon me, so, with her black hair flying like a cloud of night and
the spray wet on her cheek. As I say, the sunlight was full in
the eyes, and I was a stripling; but somehow it was all clear,
and I knew it to be the call of kind to kind.
'As she whipped ahead she looked back within the space of two
strokes--looked as only the woman Unga could look--and again I
knew it as the call of kind. The people shouted as we ripped past
the lazy oomiaks and left them far behind. But she was quick at
the paddle, and my heart was like the belly of a sail, and I did
not gain. The wind freshened, the sea whitened, and, leaping like
the seals on the windward breech, we roared down the golden
pathway of the sun.' Naass was crouched half out of his stool, in
the attitude of one driving a paddle, as he ran the race anew.
Somewhere across the stove he beheld the tossing kayak and the
flying hair of Unga. The voice of the wind was in his ears, and
its salt beat fresh upon his nostrils.
'But she made the shore, and ran up the sand, laughing, to the
house of her mother. And a great thought came to me that night--a
thought worthy of him that was chief over all the people of
Akatan. So, when the moon was up, I went down to the house of her
mother, and looked upon the goods of Yash-Noosh, which were piled
by the door--the goods of Yash-Noosh, a strong hunter who had it
in mind to be the father of the children of Unga. Other young men
had piled their goods there and taken them away again; and each
young man had made a pile greater than the one before.
'And I laughed to the moon and the stars, and went to my own
house where my wealth was stored. And many trips I made, till my
pile was greater by the fingers of one hand than the pile of
Yash-Noosh. There were fish, dried in the sun and smoked; and
forty hides of the hair seal, and half as many of the fur, and
each hide was tied at the mouth and big bellied with oil; and ten
skins of bear which I killed in the woods when they came out in
the spring. And there were beads and blankets and scarlet cloths,
such as I got in trade from the people who lived to the east, and
who got them in trade from the people who lived still beyond in
the east.
'And I looked upon the pile of Yash-Noosh and laughed, for I was
head man in Akatan, and my wealth was greater than the wealth of
all my young men, and my fathers had done deeds, and given laws,
and put their names for all time in the mouths of the people.
'So, when the morning came, I went down to the beach, casting out
of the corner of my eye at the house of the mother of Unga. My
offer yet stood untouched.
'And the women smiled, and said sly things one to the other. I
wondered, for never had such a price been offered; and that night
I added more to the pile, and put beside it a kayak of well-tanned
skins which never yet had swam in the sea. But in the day it was
yet there, open to the laughter of all men. The mother of Unga was
crafty, and I grew angry at the shame in which I stood before my
people. So that night I added till it became a great pile, and I
hauled up my oomiak, which was of the value of twenty kayaks. And
in the morning there was no pile.
'Then made I preparation for the wedding, and the people that
lived even to the east came for the food of the feast and the
potlatch token. Unga was older than I by the age of four suns in
the way we reckoned the years. I was only a stripling; but then I
was a chief, and the son of a chief, and it did not matter.
'But a ship shoved her sails above the floor of the ocean, and
grew larger with the breath of the wind. From her scuppers she
ran clear water, and the men were in haste and worked hard at the
pumps. On the bow stood a mighty man, watching the depth of the
water and giving commands with a voice of thunder. His eyes were
of the pale blue of the deep waters, and his head was maned like
that of a sea lion. And his hair was yellow, like the straw of a
southern harvest or the manila rope yarns which sailormen plait.
'Of late years we had seen ships from afar, but this was the
first to come to the beach of Akatan. The feast was broken, and
the women and children fled to the houses, while we men strung
our bows and waited with spears in hand. But when the ship's
forefoot smelled the beach the strange men took no notice of us,
being busy with their own work. With the falling of the tide they
careened the schooner and patched a great hole in her bottom. So
the women crept back, and the feast went on.
'When the tide rose, the sea wanderers kedged the schooner to
deep water and then came among us. They bore presents and were
friendly; so I made room for them, and out of the largeness of my
heart gave them tokens such as I gave all the guests, for it was
my wedding day, and I was head man in Akatan. And he with the
mane of the sea lion was there, so tall and strong that one
looked to see the earth shake with the fall of his feet. He
looked much and straight at Unga, with his arms folded, so, and
stayed till the sun went away and the stars came out. Then he
went down to his ship. After that I took Unga by the hand and led
her to my own house. And there was singing and great laughter,
and the women said sly things, after the manner of women at such
times. But we did not care. Then the people left us alone and
went home.
'The last noise had not died away when the chief of the sea
wanderers came in by the door. And he had with him black bottles,
from which we drank and made merry. You see, I was only a
stripling, and had lived all my days on the edge of the world. So
my blood became as fire, and my heart as light as the froth that
flies from the surf to the cliff. Unga sat silent among the skins
in the corner, her eyes wide, for she seemed to fear. And he with
the mane of the sea lion looked upon her straight and long. Then
his men came in with bundles of goods, and he piled before me
wealth such as was not in all Akatan. There were guns, both large
and small, and powder and shot and shell, and bright axes and
knives of steel, and cunning tools, and strange things the like
of which I had never seen. When he showed me by sign that it was
all mine, I thought him a great man to be so free; but he showed
me also that Unga was to go away with him in his ship.
'Do you understand?--that Unga was to go away with him in his
ship. The blood of my fathers flamed hot on the sudden, and I
made to drive him through with my spear. But the spirit of the
bottles had stolen the life from my arm, and he took me by the
neck, so, and knocked my head against the wall of the house. And
I was made weak like a newborn child, and my legs would no more
stand under me.
'Unga screamed, and she laid hold of the things of the house with
her hands, till they fell all about us as he dragged her to the
door. Then he took her in his great arms, and when she tore at
his yellow hair laughed with a sound like that of the big bull
seal in the rut.
'I crawled to the beach and called upon my people, but they were
afraid. Only Yash-Noosh was a man, and they struck him on the
head with an oar, till he lay with his face in the sand and did
not move. And they raised the sails to the sound of their songs,
and the ship went away on the wind.
'The people said it was good, for there would be no more war of
the bloods in Akatan; but I said never a word, waiting till the
time of the full moon, when I put fish and oil in my kayak and
went away to the east. I saw many islands and many people, and I,
who had lived on the edge, saw that the world was very large. I
talked by signs; but they had not seen a schooner nor a man with
the mane of a sea lion, and they pointed always to the east. And
I slept in queer places, and ate odd things, and met strange
faces. Many laughed, for they thought me light of head; but
sometimes old men turned my face to the light and blessed me, and
the eyes of the young women grew soft as they asked me of the
strange ship, and Unga, and the men of the sea.
'And in this manner, through rough seas and great storms, I came
to Unalaska. There were two schooners there, but neither was the
one I sought. So I passed on to the east, with the world growing
ever larger, and in the island of Unamok there was no word of the
ship, nor in Kadiak, nor in Atognak. And so I came one day to a
rocky land, where men dug great holes in the mountain. And there
was a schooner, but not my schooner, and men loaded upon it the
rocks which they dug. This I thought childish, for all the world
was made of rocks; but they gave me food and set me to work. When
the schooner was deep in the water, the captain gave me money and
told me to go; but I asked which way he went, and he pointed
south. I made signs that I would go with him, and he laughed at
first, but then, being short of men, took me to help work the
ship. So I came to talk after their manner, and to heave on
ropes, and to reef the stiff sails in sudden squalls, and to take
my turn at the wheel. But it was not strange, for the blood of my
fathers was the blood of the men of the sea.
'I had thought it an easy task to find him I sought, once I got
among his own people; and when we raised the land one day, and
passed between a gateway of the sea to a port, I looked for
perhaps as many schooners as there were fingers to my hands. But
the ships lay against the wharves for miles, packed like so many
little fish; and when I went among them to ask for a man with the
mane of a sea lion, they laughed, and answered me in the tongues
of many peoples. And I found that they hailed from the uttermost
parts of the earth.
'And I went into the city to look upon the face of every man. But
they were like the cod when they run thick on the banks, and I
could not count them. And the noise smote upon me till I could
not hear, and my head was dizzy with much movement. So I went on
and on, through the lands which sang in the warm sunshine; where
the harvests lay rich on the plains; and where great cities were
fat with men that lived like women, with false words in their
mouths and their hearts black with the lust of gold. And all the
while my people of Akatan hunted and fished, and were happy in
the thought that the world was small.
'But the look in the eyes of Unga coming home from the fishing
was with me always, and I knew I would find her when the time was
met. She walked down quiet lanes in the dusk of the evening, or
led me chases across the thick fields wet with the morning dew,
and there was a promise in her eyes such as only the woman Unga
could give.
'So I wandered through a thousand cities. Some were gentle and
gave me food, and others laughed, and still others cursed; but I
kept my tongue between my teeth, and went strange ways and saw
strange sights. Sometimes I, who was a chief and the son of a
chief, toiled for men--men rough of speech and hard as iron, who
wrung gold from the sweat and sorrow of their fellow men. Yet no
word did I get of my quest till I came back to the sea like a
homing seal to the rookeries.
'But this was at another port, in another country which lay to
the north. And there I heard dim tales of the yellow-haired sea
wanderer, and I learned that he was a hunter of seals, and that
even then he was abroad on the ocean.
'So I shipped on a seal schooner with the lazy Siwashes, and
followed his trackless trail to the north where the hunt was then
warm. And we were away weary months, and spoke many of the fleet,
and heard much of the wild doings of him I sought; but never once
did we raise him above the sea. We went north, even to the
Pribilofs, and killed the seals in herds on the beach, and
brought their warm bodies aboard till our scuppers ran grease and
blood and no man could stand upon the deck. Then were we chased
by a ship of slow steam, which fired upon us with great guns. But
we put sail till the sea was over our decks and washed them
clean, and lost ourselves in a fog.
'It is said, at this time, while we fled with fear at our hearts,
that the yellow-haired sea wanderer put in to the Pribilofs, right
to the factory, and while the part of his men held the servants
of the company, the rest loaded ten thousand green skins from the
salt houses. I say it is said, but I believe; for in the voyages
I made on the coast with never a meeting the northern seas rang
with his wildness and daring, till the three nations which have
lands there sought him with their ships.
'And I heard of Unga, for the captains sang loud in her praise,
and she was always with him. She had learned the ways of his
people, they said, and was happy. But I knew better--knew that
her heart harked back to her own people by the yellow beach of
Akatan.
'So, after a long time, I went back to the port which is by a
gateway of the sea, and there I learned that he had gone across
the girth of the great ocean to hunt for the seal to the east of
the warm land which runs south from the Russian seas.
'And I, who was become a sailorman, shipped with men of his own
race, and went after him in the hunt of the seal. And there were
few ships off that new land; but we hung on the flank of the seal
pack and harried it north through all the spring of the year. And
when the cows were heavy with pup and crossed the Russian line,
our men grumbled and were afraid. For there was much fog, and
every day men were lost in the boats. They would not work, so the
captain turned the ship back toward the way it came. But I knew
the yellow-haired sea wanderer was unafraid, and would hang by
the pack, even to the Russian Isles, where few men go. So I took
a boat, in the black of night, when the lookout dozed on the
fo'c'slehead, and went alone to the warm, long land. And I
journeyed south to meet the men by Yeddo Bay, who are wild and
unafraid. And the Yoshiwara girls were small, and bright like
steel, and good to look upon; but I could not stop, for I knew
that Unga rolled on the tossing floor by the rookeries of the
north.
'The men by Yeddo Bay had met from the ends of the earth, and had
neither gods nor homes, sailing under the flag of the Japanese.
And with them I went to the rich beaches of Copper Island, where
our salt piles became high with skins.
'And in that silent sea we saw no man till we were ready to come
away. Then one day the fog lifted on the edge of a heavy wind,
and there jammed down upon us a schooner, with close in her wake
the cloudy funnels of a Russian man-of-war. We fled away on the
beam of the wind, with the schooner jamming still closer and
plunging ahead three feet to our two. And upon her poop was the
man with the mane of the sea lion, pressing the rails under with
the canvas and laughing in his strength of life. And Unga was
there--I knew her on the moment--but he sent her below when the
cannons began to talk across the sea.
As I say, with three feet to our two, till we saw the rudder lift
green at every jump--and I swinging on to the wheel and cursing,
with my back to the Russian shot. For we knew he had it in mind
to run before us, that he might get away while we were caught.
And they knocked our masts out of us till we dragged into the
wind like a wounded gull; but he went on over the edge of the sky
line--he and Unga.
'What could we? The fresh hides spoke for themselves. So they
took us to a Russian port, and after that to a lone country,
where they set us to work in the mines to dig salt. And some
died, and--and some did not die.' Naass swept the blanket from
his shoulders, disclosing the gnarled and twisted flesh, marked
with the unmistakable striations of the knout. Prince hastily
covered him, for it was not nice to look upon.
'We were there a weary time and sometimes men got away to the
south, but they always came back. So, when we who hailed from
Yeddo Bay rose in the night and took the guns from the guards, we
went to the north. And the land was very large, with plains,
soggy with water, and great forests. And the cold came, with much
snow on the ground, and no man knew the way. Weary months we
journeyed through the endless forest--I do not remember, now, for
there was little food and often we lay down to die. But at last
we came to the cold sea, and but three were left to look upon it.
One had shipped from Yeddo as captain, and he knew in his head
the lay of the great lands, and of the place where men may cross
from one to the other on the ice. And he led us--I do not know,
it was so long--till there were but two. When we came to that
place we found five of the strange people which live in that
country, and they had dogs and skins, and we were very poor. We
fought in the snow till they died, and the captain died, and the
dogs and skins were mine. Then I crossed on the ice, which was
broken, and once I drifted till a gale from the west put me upon
the shore. And after that, Golovin Bay, Pastilik, and the priest.
Then south, south, to the warm sunlands where first I wandered.
'But the sea was no longer fruitful, and those who went upon it
after the seal went to little profit and great risk. The fleets
scattered, and the captains and the men had no word of those I
sought. So I turned away from the ocean which never rests, and
went among the lands, where the trees, the houses, and the
mountains sit always in one place and do not move. I journeyed
far, and came to learn many things, even to the way of reading
and writing from books. It was well I should do this, for it came
upon me that Unga must know these things, and that someday, when
the time was met--we--you understand, when the time was met.
'So I drifted, like those little fish which raise a sail to the
wind but cannot steer. But my eyes and my ears were open always,
and I went among men who traveled much, for I knew they had but
to see those I sought to remember. At last there came a man,
fresh from the mountains, with pieces of rock in which the free
gold stood to the size of peas, and he had heard, he had met, he
knew them. They were rich, he said, and lived in the place where
they drew the gold from the ground.
'It was in a wild country, and very far away; but in time I came
to the camp, hidden between the mountains, where men worked night
and day, out of the sight of the sun. Yet the time was not come.
I listened to the talk of the people. He had gone away--they had
gone away--to England, it was said, in the matter of bringing men
with much money together to form companies. I saw the house they
had lived in; more like a palace, such as one sees in the old
countries. In the nighttime I crept in through a window that I
might see in what manner he treated her. I went from room to
room, and in such way thought kings and queens must live, it was
all so very good. And they all said he treated her like a queen,
and many marveled as to what breed of woman she was for there was
other blood in her veins, and she was different from the women of
Akatan, and no one knew her for what she was. Aye, she was a
queen; but I was a chief, and the son of a chief, and I had paid
for her an untold price of skin and boat and bead.
'But why so many words? I was a sailorman, and knew the way of
the ships on the seas. I followed to England, and then to other
countries. Sometimes I heard of them by word of mouth, sometimes
I read of them in the papers; yet never once could I come by
them, for they had much money, and traveled fast, while I was a
poor man. Then came trouble upon them, and their wealth slipped
away one day like a curl of smoke. The papers were full of it at
the time; but after that nothing was said, and I knew they had
gone back where more gold could be got from the ground.
'They had dropped out of the world, being now poor, and so I
wandered from camp to camp, even north to the Kootenay country,
where I picked up the cold scent. They had come and gone, some
said this way, and some that, and still others that they had gone
to the country of the Yukon. And I went this way, and I went
that, ever journeying from place to place, till it seemed I must
grow weary of the world which was so large. But in the Kootenay I
traveled a bad trail, and a long trail, with a breed of the
Northwest, who saw fit to die when the famine pinched. He had
been to the Yukon by an unknown way over the mountains, and when
he knew his time was near gave me the map and the secret of a
place where he swore by his gods there was much gold.
'After that all the world began to flock into the north. I was a
poor man; I sold myself to be a driver of dogs. The rest you
know. I met him and her in Dawson.
'She did not know me, for I was only a stripling, and her life
had been large, so she had no time to remember the one who had
paid for her an untold price.
'So? You bought me from my term of service. I went back to bring
things about in my own way, for I had waited long, and now that I
had my hand upon him was in no hurry.
'As I say, I had it in mind to do my own way, for I read back in
my life, through all I had seen and suffered, and remembered the
cold and hunger of the endless forest by the Russian seas. As you
know, I led him into the east--him and Unga--into the east where
many have gone and few returned. I led them to the spot where the
bones and the curses of men lie with the gold which they may not
have.
'The way was long and the trail unpacked. Our dogs were many and
ate much; nor could our sleds carry till the break of spring. We
must come back before the river ran free. So here and there we
cached grub, that our sleds might be lightened and there be no
chance of famine on the back trip. At the McQuestion there were
three men, and near them we built a cache, as also did we at the
Mayo, where was a hunting camp of a dozen Pellys which had
crossed the divide from the south.
'After that, as we went on into the east, we saw no men; only the
sleeping river, the moveless forest, and the White Silence of the
North. As I say, the way was long and the trail unpacked.
Sometimes, in a day's toil, we made no more than eight miles, or
ten, and at night we slept like dead men. And never once did they
dream that I was Naass, head man of Akatan, the righter of
wrongs.
'We now made smaller caches, and in the nighttime it was a small
matter to go back on the trail we had broken and change them in
such way that one might deem the wolverines the thieves. Again
there be places where there is a fall to the river, and the water
is unruly, and the ice makes above and is eaten away beneath.
'In such a spot the sled I drove broke through, and the dogs; and
to him and Unga it was ill luck, but no more. And there was much
grub on that sled, and the dogs the strongest.
'But he laughed, for he was strong of life, and gave the dogs
that were left little grub till we cut them from the harnesses
one by one and fed them to their mates. We would go home light,
he said, traveling and eating from cache to cache, with neither
dogs nor sleds; which was true, for our grub was very short, and
the last dog died in the traces the night we came to the gold and
the bones and the curses of men.
'To reach that place--and the map spoke true--in the heart of the
great mountains, we cut ice steps against the wall of a divide.
One looked for a valley beyond, but there was no valley; the snow
spread away, level as the great harvest plains, and here and
there about us mighty mountains shoved their white heads among
the stars. And midway on that strange plain which should have
been a valley the earth and the snow fell away, straight down
toward the heart of the world.
'Had we not been sailormen our heads would have swung round with
the sight, but we stood on the dizzy edge that we might see a way
to get down. And on one side, and one side only, the wall had
fallen away till it was like the slope of the decks in a topsail
breeze. I do not know why this thing should be so, but it was so.
"It is the mouth of hell," he said; "let us go down." And we went
down.
'And on the bottom there was a cabin, built by some man, of logs
which he had cast down from above. It was a very old cabin, for
men had died there alone at different times, and on pieces of
birch bark which were there we read their last words and their
curses.
'One had died of scurvy; another's partner had robbed him of his
last grub and powder and stolen away; a third had been mauled by
a baldface grizzly; a fourth had hunted for game and starved--and
so it went, and they had been loath to leave the gold, and had
died by the side of it in one way or another. And the worthless
gold they had gathered yellowed the floor of the cabin like in a
dream.
'But his soul was steady, and his head clear, this man I had led
thus far. "We have nothing to eat," he said, "and we will only
look upon this gold, and see whence it comes and how much there
be. Then we will go away quick, before it gets into our eyes and
steals away our judgment. And in this way we may return in the
end, with more grub, and possess it all." So we looked upon the
great vein, which cut the wall of the pit as a true vein should,
and we measured it, and traced it from above and below, and drove
the stakes of the claims and blazed the trees in token of our
rights. Then, our knees shaking with lack of food, and a sickness
in our bellies, and our hearts chugging close to our mouths, we
climbed the mighty wall for the last time and turned our faces to
the back trip.
'The last stretch we dragged Unga between us, and we fell often,
but in the end we made the cache. And lo, there was no grub. It
was well done, for he thought it the wolverines, and damned them
and his gods in one breath. But Unga was brave, and smiled, and
put her hand in his, till I turned away that I might hold myself.
"We will rest by the fire," she said, "till morning, and we will
gather strength from our moccasins." So we cut the tops of our
moccasins in strips, and boiled them half of the night, that we
might chew them and swallow them. And in the morning we talked of
our chance. The next cache was five days' journey; we could not
make it. We must find game.
'"We will go forth and hunt," he said.
'"Yes," said I, "we will go forth and hunt." 'And he ruled that
Unga stay by the fire and save her strength. And we went forth,
he in quest of the moose and I to the cache I had changed. But I
ate little, so they might not see in me much strength. And in the
night he fell many times as he drew into camp. And I, too, made
to suffer great weakness, stumbling over my snowshoes as though
each step might be my last. And we gathered strength from our
moccasins.
'He was a great man. His soul lifted his body to the last; nor
did he cry aloud, save for the sake of Unga. On the second day I
followed him, that I might not miss the end. And he lay down to
rest often. That night he was near gone; but in the morning he
swore weakly and went forth again. He was like a drunken man, and
I looked many times for him to give up, but his was the strength
of the strong, and his soul the soul of a giant, for he lifted
his body through all the weary day. And he shot two ptarmigan,
but would not eat them. He needed no fire; they meant life; but
his thought was for Unga, and he turned toward camp.
'He no longer walked, but crawled on hand and knee through the
snow. I came to him, and read death in his eyes. Even then it was
not too late to eat of the ptarmigan. He cast away his rifle and
carried the birds in his mouth like a dog. I walked by his side,
upright. And he looked at me during the moments he rested, and
wondered that I was so strong. I could see it, though he no
longer spoke; and when his lips moved, they moved without sound.
'As I say, he was a great man, and my heart spoke for softness;
but I read back in my life, and remembered the cold and hunger of
the endless forest by the Russian seas. Besides, Unga was mine,
and I had paid for her an untold price of skin and boat and bead.
'And in this manner we came through the white forest, with the
silence heavy upon us like a damp sea mist. And the ghosts of the
past were in the air and all about us; and I saw the yellow beach
of Akatan, and the kayaks racing home from the fishing, and the
houses on the rim of the forest. And the men who had made
themselves chiefs were there, the lawgivers whose blood I bore
and whose blood I had wedded in Unga. Aye, and Yash-Noosh walked
with me, the wet sand in his hair, and his war spear, broken as
he fell upon it, still in his hand. And I knew the time was meet,
and saw in the eyes of Unga the promise.
'As I say, we came thus through the forest, till the smell of the
camp smoke was in our nostrils. And I bent above him, and tore
the ptarmigan from his teeth.
'He turned on his side and rested, the wonder mounting in his
eyes, and the hand which was under slipping slow toward the knife
at his hip. But I took it from him, smiling close in his face.
Even then he did not understand. So I made to drink from black
bottles, and to build high upon the snow a pile--of goods, and to
live again the things which had happened on the night of my
marriage. I spoke no word, but he understood. Yet was he
unafraid. There was a sneer to his lips, and cold anger, and he
gathered new strength with the knowledge. It was not far, but the
snow was deep, and he dragged himself very slow.
'Once he lay so long I turned him over and gazed into his eyes.
And sometimes he looked forth, and sometimes death. And when I
loosed him he struggled on again. In this way we came to the
fire. Unga was at his side on the instant. His lips moved without
sound; then he pointed at me, that Unga might understand. And
after that he lay in the snow, very still, for a long while. Even
now is he there in the snow.
'I said no word till I had cooked the ptarmigan. Then I spoke to
her, in her own tongue, which she had not heard in many years.
She straightened herself, so, and her eyes were wonder-wide, and
she asked who I was, and where I had learned that speech.
'"I am Naass," I said.
'"You?" she said. "You?" And she crept close that she might look
upon me.
'"Yes," I answered; "I am Naass, head man of Akatan, the last of
the blood, as you are the last of the blood." 'And she laughed.
By all the things I have seen and the deeds I have done may I
never hear such a laugh again. It put the chill to my soul,
sitting there in the White Silence, alone with death and this
woman who laughed.
'"Come!" I said, for I thought she wandered. "Eat of the food and
let us be gone. It is a far fetch from here to Akatan." 'But she
shoved her face in his yellow mane, and laughed till it seemed
the heavens must fall about our ears. I had thought she would be
overjoyed at the sight of me, and eager to go back to the memory
of old times, but this seemed a strange form to take.
'"Come!" I cried, taking her strong by the hand. "The way is long
and dark. Let us hurry!" "Where?" she asked, sitting up, and
ceasing from her strange mirth.
'"To Akatan," I answered, intent on the light to grow on her face
at the thought. But it became like his, with a sneer to the lips,
and cold anger.
'"Yes," she said; "we will go, hand in hand, to Akatan, you and
I. And we will live in the dirty huts, and eat of the fish and
oil, and bring forth a spawn--a spawn to be proud of all the days
of our life. We will forget the world and be happy, very happy.
It is good, most good. Come! Let us hurry. Let us go back to
Akatan." And she ran her hand through his yellow hair, and
smiled in a way which was not good. And there was no promise in
her eyes.
'I sat silent, and marveled at the strangeness of woman. I went
back to the night when he dragged her from me and she screamed
and tore at his hair--at his hair which now she played with and
would not leave. Then I remembered the price and the long years
of waiting; and I gripped her close, and dragged her away as he
had done. And she held back, even as on that night, and fought
like a she-cat for its whelp. And when the fire was between us
and the man. I loosed her, and she sat and listened. And I told
her of all that lay between, of all that had happened to me on
strange seas, of all that I had done in strange lands; of my
weary quest, and the hungry years, and the promise which had been
mine from the first. Aye, I told all, even to what had passed
that day between the man and me, and in the days yet young. And
as I spoke I saw the promise grow in her eyes, full and large
like the break of dawn. And I read pity there, the tenderness of
woman, the love, the heart and the soul of Unga. And I was a
stripling again, for the look was the look of Unga as she ran up
the beach, laughing, to the home of her mother. The stern unrest
was gone, and the hunger, and the weary waiting.
'The time was met. I felt the call of her breast, and it seemed
there I must pillow my head and forget. She opened her arms to
me, and I came against her. Then, sudden, the hate flamed in her
eye, her hand was at my hip. And once, twice, she passed the
knife.
'"Dog!" she sneered, as she flung me into the snow. "Swine!" And
then she laughed till the silence cracked, and went back to her
dead.
'As I say, once she passed the knife, and twice; but she was weak
with hunger, and it was not meant that I should die. Yet was I
minded to stay in that place, and to close my eyes in the last
long sleep with those whose lives had crossed with mine and led
my feet on unknown trails. But there lay a debt upon me which
would not let me rest.
'And the way was long, the cold bitter, and there was little
grub. The Pellys had found no moose, and had robbed my cache. And
so had the three white men, but they lay thin and dead in their
cabins as I passed. After that I do not remember, till I came
here, and found food and fire--much fire.' As he finished, he
crouched closely, even jealously, over the stove. For a long
while the slush-lamp shadows played tragedies upon the wall.
'But Unga!' cried Prince, the vision still strong upon him.
'Unga? She would not eat of the ptarmigan. She lay with her arms
about his neck, her face deep in his yellow hair. I drew the fire
close, that she might not feel the frost, but she crept to the
other side. And I built a fire there; yet it was little good, for
she would not eat. And in this manner they still lie up there in
the snow.'
'And you?' asked Malemute Kid.
'I do not know; but Akatan is small, and I have little wish to go
back and live on the edge of the world. Yet is there small use in
life. I can go to Constantine, and he will put irons upon me, and
one day they will tie a piece of rope, so, and I will sleep good.
Yet--no; I do not know.' 'But, Kid,' protested Prince, 'this is
murder!' 'Hush!' commanded Malemute Kid. 'There be things greater
than our wisdom, beyond our justice. The right and the wrong of
this we cannot say, and it is not for us to judge.' Naass drew
yet closer to the fire. There was a great silence, and in each
man's eyes many pictures came and went.
The End
