Waseche ignored the suggestion:
"I"ll be pullin" fer the Lillimuit in the mo"nin". Sorry ye won"t jine me. I"ll be rollin" in, now. Good-night."
"So long! An" good luck to ye. I sure hate to see ye go."
Early in the evening of the fourth day after Waseche Bill"s departure for the unknown Lillimuit Connie Morgan swung McDougall"s ten-dog team into Eagle.
The boy, heeding the advice of Black Jack Demaree, had curbed his impatience and religiously held himself to a ten-hour schedule, and the result was easily apparent in the way the dogs dashed up the steep trail and swung into the well-packed street of the big camp.
In front of a wooden building marked "Post Office," he halted. A large man, just emerging from the door, stared in amus.e.m.e.nt at the tiny _parka_-clad figure that confronted him.
"h.e.l.lo, son!" he called. "Where might you be headin" fer?"
"I"m hunting for Waseche Bill," the youngster replied. "Have you seen him?"
"That"ll be Scotty McDougall"s team," observed the man.
"Yes, but have you seen Waseche?"
"You"ll be Sam Morgan"s boy," the man continued.
"Yes, sir."
"Well, come on along up to the _ho_tel."
"Is Waseche there?" eagerly inquired the boy.
"Well, no, he ain"t jes" right there, this very minute," replied the man, evasively.
"Where has he gone?" asked the boy, with a sudden fear in his heart.
"Oh, jes" siyou"d out on a little prospectin" trip. Come on, I"ll give ye a hand with the dogs--supper"ll be about ready."
That evening Connie Morgan found himself the centre of an interested group of miners--rough, kindly men, who welcomed him warmly, asked the news of Ten Bow, and recounted in awkward, hesitating sentences stories of his father. Before turning into the bunk a.s.signed to him, the boy sought out the proprietor of the hotel, who sat in the centre of an interested group, discussing local politics with a man from Circle.
"I"ll pay my bill now, because I want to hit the trail before breakfast," he said, producing the well-filled pouch that Black Jack Demaree had thrust into his hand. Big Jim Sontag chuckled way back in his beard as he regarded his littlest guest.
"Go "long, yo", sonny! Shove yo" poke in yo" pocket. Yo" welcome to stop undeh my roof long as yo" want to. Why, if I was to cha"ge yo" fo" boa"d an" lodgin" afteh what yo" pap done fo" me, up on Tillimik--hope the wolves"ll eat me, hide an" taller!"
The man called Joe came around the stove and stood looking down at the boy.
"Look here, son, where you aimin" to hit fer so early in the mornin"?"
"Why, to find Waseche, of course!" The boy seemed surprised at the question.
"To the Lillimuit!" someone gasped, but Joe silenced him.
"Son," he said, speaking slowly, "Waseche Bill"s struck out fer the Lillimuit--the country where men don"t come back from. Waseche"s a man--an" a good one. He knows what he"s up agin", an" if he wants to take a chanct that"s his business. But, jes" between us, Waseche won"t come back." The boy"s small shoulders stiffened and his eyes flashed, as the little face uptilted to look into the man"s eyes.
"If Waseche don"t come back, then I don"t come back either!" he exclaimed. "He"s my _pardner_! I"ve _got_ to find him!"
"That"s what I call a _man_!" yelled Fiddle Face, bringing his fist down upon the table with a bang.
"Jes" the same, sonny," continued Joe, firmly, "we can"t let ye go. We owes it to you, an" we owes it to Sam Morgan. They"s too many a good man"s bones layin" somewhere amongst them fiendish peaks an" pa.s.ses, now. No, son, you c"n stay in Eagle as long as you like, an" welcome.
Or, you c"n hit the trail fer Ten Bow. But you can"t strike out fer the Lillimuit--_an" that goes_!" There was finality in the man"s tone, and one swift glance into the faces of the others told the boy that they were of the same mind, to a man. For the first time in his life, Connie Morgan faced the opposition of men. Instinctively he knew that every man in the room was his friend, but never in his life had he felt so helplessly alone. What could one small boy do in the face of the ultimatum of these men of the North? Tears rushed to his eyes and, for a moment, threatened to overflow upon his cheeks, but, in that moment, there arose before him the face of Waseche Bill--his "pardner." The little fists clenched, the grey eyes narrowed, forcing back the hot tears, and the tiny jaw squared to the gritting of his teeth.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "What could one small boy do in the face of the ultimatum of these men of the North?"]
"Good-night," he said, and selecting a candle from among the many on top of the rude desk, disappeared down the dark corridor between the rows of stall-like rooms.
"Jes" fo" all the wo"ld like Sam Mo"gan," drawled big Jim Sontag. "I"ve saw _his_ eyes squinch up, an" his jaw clamp shut, that-a-way, a many a time--an" nary time but somethin" happened. We"ve sh.o.r.e got to keep an eye on that young un, "cause he aims to give us the slip in the mo"nin"."
"Ye said somethin", then, Jim," agreed Fiddle Face, gnawing at his mustache. "The kid"s got sand, an" he"s game plumb through, an" when he starts somethin" he aims to finish it--which like his dad used to."
Connie Morgan, for all his tender years, knew men. He knew, when he left the group about the stove, that they would expect him to try to slip out of Eagle, and that if he waited until morning he would have no chance in the world of eluding their vigilance. Minutes counted, for he also knew that once on the trail, he need have no fear of pursuit; for no team in the Yukon country, save only Dutch Henry"s Hudson Bays, could come anywhere near the trail record of McDougall"s ten gaunt _malamutes_.
Pausing only long enough in the little room with its scrawling "No. 27"
painted on the door to wriggle into his _parka_ and s.n.a.t.c.h his cap from the bunk, he stole cautiously down the narrow pa.s.sage leading to the rear of the ell, where a small door opened directly into the stockade.
With feverish haste he harnessed the dogs and opened the gate. In the shadow of the building he paused and peered anxiously up and down the street. No one was in sight and, through the heavily frosted windows of the buildings, dull squares of light threw but faint illumination upon the deserted thoroughfare.
"Mush! Mush!" he whispered, swinging the long team out onto the hard-packed snow.
As he pa.s.sed a store the door opened and a man stood outlined in the patch of yellow light. Connie"s heart leaped to his throat, but the man only stared in evident surprise that any one would be hitting the trail at that time of night, and then the door closed and the boy breathed again. He wished that he could stop and lay in a supply of grub, but dared not risk it. Better pay twice the price to some prospector, or trapper, than risk being stopped.
Silently the sled glided over the smooth trail and slanted out onto the river with Boris, Mutt, and Slasher capering in its wake.
Connie had only a vague notion as to the location of the unknown Lillimuit. He knew that it lay somewhere among the unmapped headwaters of Peel River, and that he must head up the Tatonduk and cross a divide.
Toward morning he halted at the mouth of a river that flowed in from the north-east. A little-used trail was faintly discernible and the boy called the old lead dog.
"Go find Waseche, Boris!" he cried, "go find him!" Notwithstanding the fact that Waseche"s trail was nearly five days old, the old dog sniffed at the snow and, with a joyous yelp, headed up the smaller river.
The next morning there was consternation in Eagle, and a half-dozen dog sleds. .h.i.t the trail. About ten miles up the Tatonduk, the men of Eagle met a half-breed trapper with an empty sled.
"Any one pa.s.s ye, goin" up?" asked Joe.
The trapper grinned.
"Yeste"day," he answered, "white man papoose"; he held his hand about four feet from the snow. "Ten-dog team--Mush! Mush! Mush! Go like de wolf! Stop on my camp. Buy all de grub. Nev" min" de cost--hur" up! He try for catch white man, go by four sleeps ago." Joe cracked his whip and the dogs leaped forward.
"You no catch!" the half-breed shouted. "Papoose, him go! go! go! Try for mak" Lillimuit. Him no come back."
Disregarding the prediction of the half-breed, Joe, Fiddle Face, and big Jim Sontag continued their pursuit of the flying dog team, despite the fact that as they progressed the trail grew colder. After many days they came to the foot of the great white divide and camped beneath overcast skies, and in the morning a storm broke with unbelievable fury.
Every man, woman, and child in eastern Alaska remembers the great blizzard that whirled out of the north on the morning of the third of December and raged unabated for four days, ceased as suddenly as it started, and then, for four days more, roared terrifically into the north again.
On the ninth day, the three men burrowed from their shelter at the foot of a perpendicular cliff. The trail was obliterated, and on every hand they were confronted by huge drifts from ten to thirty feet in height, while above them, clinging precariously to the steep side of the mountain that divided them from the dreaded unknown, were vast ridges of snow that momentarily threatened to tear loose and bury them beneath a mighty avalanche.