Strange it was to see at intervals, when this almost weird procession lagged to the rear, how strenuously they would endeavour to recover ground, and when with one accord they broke into a run the spectacle offered would have been laughable had it not been so seriously, so truly a race for life.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DAWSON CITY.]
Salmon River was reached at last. Five men had died on the trail and two were seriously ill, though they dragged themselves along, helped occasionally by the dog-sleighs. Here I formally gave over my responsible charge to Campbell and Mackay, and having been entrusted with mails and despatches for the coast, with barely a halt pushed on ahead with Mac and Stewart. Our stores had diminished greatly beyond my calculations, and it was evident that an extreme effort must be made to increase our rate of travel. Yet despite our utmost endeavours, when we entered upon the snowy wastes of Marsh Lake we pulled a sleigh on which reposed a few furs, a bag of mineral specimens, and about as much flour as would make one good square meal.
For the last several days our progress had been severely hampered by the increasing depth and softness of the snow filling the valley of the Yukon as we approached nearer the dreaded pa.s.s. Our daily march since leaving the northern capital had rarely fallen below twenty-eight miles, until the unfrozen White Horse Rapids had stayed our advance and caused us to make a wide _detour_; but now, do what we might in our semi-famished condition, we could barely travel twenty miles in as many hours, and full eighty miles yet intervened between us and the sea. On this day we had been on the trail since sunrise, and the darkening shadows of night were already beginning to creep over the billowy wastes, though it was but two hours after noon.
"We are near the end of the lake, boys," I shouted encouragingly, as I noticed the failing efforts of my companions. "We must try and reach Tagash River to-night."
Mac groaned dismally, and Dave emitted a plaintive howl as he struggled in his harness. Then Stewart, who had grown wofully cadaverous of late, stopped and addressed his compatriot.
"I mind, Mac," said he, "that there used to be an Injun village aboot here."
"I hae a disteenct recollection o" the place," returned Mac shortly, bending to his labours afresh.
"We are pa.s.sing that same village now," I cried cheerily. "That makes ten miles since our last halt."
The sleigh stopped with a jerk; half a dozen log-huts with a like amount of totem poles, were plainly observable among the dense timber on sh.o.r.e.
"Them Injuns must have something for eating in they houses," spoke Mac thoughtfully, gazing at the rude structures intently.
"But we have nothing to barter, and we know they won"t sell," I broke in impatiently.
He made no reply to my remark, but turned to Stewart, who was evidently in a fit of deep mental abstraction: "What"s your idea, Stewart, ma man?" he asked insinuatingly, and that individual responded promptly.
"I am wi" ye, Mac, every time, but I hope it"s no" a graveyard like the last we tackled." They threw down their sleigh-ropes simultaneously, and were half-way to the village before I had recovered myself.
"Hold hard!" I roared. "What----"
Mac"s substantial figure spun round at once. "We"ll be back in a meenit," he whispered mysteriously.
I loosened Dave from his harness, and hastened after the doughty pair, expecting every instant to hear sounds of deadly strife, but all remained silent as a tomb, and I shuddered with painful recollections. I found them cavorting around the largest edifice in the group in a manner that under different circ.u.mstances would have seemed ludicrous.
"There"s naebody in the hooses," cried Stewart gleefully. "The whole tribe must have gone out moose-hunting."
Not infrequently a village is entirely deserted in this way, and I heaved a sigh of relief. "But they may be back at any time," I said, glancing fearfully round.
Mac shrugged his shoulders; "I think, Stewart," he remarked in a most matter-of-fact tone, "I think the door is the weakest place after all."
I swallowed my scruples at a gulp, and became interested in the proceedings at once. Strangely enough, for the moment we all seemed to have forgotten how very similarly our first escapade of the kind had opened.
Crash! Mac"s broad shoulder b.u.t.ted the barricaded doorway right ponderously, but though the heavy logs quivered and bent, they resisted the shock. And now Stewart braced himself for the attack, and together they hurled themselves against the wavering supports. There was a resounding echo as the entire structure gave way, and with many chuckles of delight the adventurous couple disappeared within, while I remained outside, my rifle at full c.o.c.k, listening for the tramp of moccasined feet that would herald the Indians" return. I heard Mac strike match after match, muttering discontentedly the while, and Stewart"s dissatisfied grunts filled me with dismay. Was our depredating raid to go unrewarded?
"There"s jist the sma"est bit o" caribou ye could imagine in the hale hoose," snorted Mac indignantly. "It wis high time the deevils went huntin", I"m thinkin"."
"Let"s try the other hooses," counselled Stewart.
At that moment Dave gave a long, low growl, and immediately an indescribable chorus of yells issued from the forest near at hand. Then, to my horror, I perceived numerous dark forms speeding towards me.
Instinctively I levelled my rifle, then by an extreme effort of will lowered it again. We were surely in the wrong. "Come on, boys," I cried, "we must run for it."
"Haud on till I get that bit o" caribou," murmured Mac desperately.
A moment more, and we made a wild burst in the direction of the sleighs, pursued by a number of stalwart warriors, whose vengeful shouts inspired our failing steps with an unwonted activity.
"Let"s stop and fecht the deevils," implored Mac, as we grabbed the ropes of our sadly-light conveyance, and even at that juncture he examined his stolen piece of caribou with critical interest. "It"s no"
fit for human use," he protested angrily. "I"m no" goin" to run for nothing."
But the yelling horde at our heels made him think better of it, and muttering sundry maledictions he hitched on to the rushing sleigh, and lumbered manfully alongside his gloomy compatriot. Fear did certainly lend wings to our flight, and by the time we had reached the outlet leading to Tagash Lake, our pursuers were far in the rear, the obscuring darkness probably being much in our favour. And then, as we hastened over the shelving ice on the connecting river, we beheld a sight that drew from us e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of sheer chagrin. A great fire blazed on the sh.o.r.es of the frozen stream, illuminating in the background a solidly-built logged erection, and showing clearly the outlines of a giant Union Jack fastened to a tree close by. Not a soul was in sight, but I could fancy the comfortable group inside the generous dwelling whiling away the time before a glowing stove or indulging in a luxurious dinner.
"It"s a Government station," I said drearily. "It must have been put here just before the ice closed in."
We halted for an instant, and gazed wistfully at the snug police camp.
Here surely we might obtain some little stores for our urgent needs, but how dared we ask? The Indians were British subjects, and would indeed be treated with more consideration than we might expect, for it is the policy of the Canadian authorities to protect, even to the outside extreme, the rights of their dusky subjects. Then, again, we had been long on the trail, and our clothing was rent and ragged. The police might judge us by appearances, and then--I did not care to think what might happen. Many thoughts flitted through my mind as we stood there hesitatingly, and my worthy companions, by their silence, showed that they too were thinking deeply. The unmusical cries of our pursuers jarred on our meditations with seemingly awakening vigour.
"They"ve got our trail," I said sadly. "We"d better get along."
"Civilisashun be d----d," fervently, if ambiguously, muttered Mac and Stewart almost with one voice, and we staggered out into the bleak, snowy plains of Tagash Lake, and pursued a dogged course southward.
THE TENT AT CARIBOU CROSSING
It was midnight before we halted, and then we camped on the middle of the frozen lake, and near the entrance to the Big Windy Arm; and here, after a most miserable night, we were forced to abandon the greater part of the stolen venison as being in itself but little satisfying to our urgent needs. We started again before daybreak, steering by compa.s.s in the darkness. Indeed, it was absolutely necessary that we should keep moving if we would prevent the blood from freezing in our veins. Our plight was surely an unenviable one, and as we stumbled on through the ever-deepening snow, Mac and Stewart cursed the country endlessly in choice vernacular; and even Dave, struggling desperately in his harness, found opportunity to give his verdict in hoa.r.s.e, m.u.f.fled growls of deep displeasure.
"We"ll bile the first Injun we meet," said Stewart solemnly, after several hours had pa.s.sed in silence, and he shook his head clear of its encompa.s.sing deposits of frosted snow and ice, and gazed at our meagre sleigh-load with pensive eyes.
"I"m no sae sure that Injun is guid for eatin" ony mair than mummy caribou," rejoined Mac after much thought. "I mind," he continued ruminatively, "o" eatin" snake sausages in Sooth America, an" they were wonderfu" paleetable, but Injun?" He shook his ice-encl.u.s.tered head doubtfully. The day was already drawing to a close; the sun had risen at ten o"clock, and its short arc in the heavens was almost completed. The time at which one usually expects to fortify the inner man had pa.s.sed in grim silence, and the darkening shadows were creeping over the billowy white waste.
"We must reach Caribou Crossing to-night, boys," I said. "We dare not camp again on the open lake in case a blizzard gets up and wipes us out."
The blackness of night enveloped us completely, and the tingling sensation in our cheeks warned us that the frost intensity was far below the zero scale. Our moccasins sunk through a powdery fleece so crisp, that it crushed like tinder beneath us, and the steel sleigh-runners whistled harshly over the sparkling beady surface. The stars twinkled and shone brilliantly, and great streaks of dazzling light shot at intervals across the northern sky; the night effects were indeed splendid beyond description, yet we were too much engrossed with more practical matters to wax enthusiastic over astronomical glories.
Suddenly the sharp hiss-s of a sleigh reached our ears, then out of the darkness came the sound of laboured breathing and smothered growls, as of dogs straining under an undue load. Obeying a common impulse our sorely-tried caravan came to a halt, Dave whining piteously and pawing the ground impatiently, while my companions peered into the night earnestly, then turned and gazed at me in silence. The hurrying sleigh was fast approaching on a course that would lead it but a few yards to our left. I was on the point of stepping forward to intercept the advancing dog-team which was now showing dimly in the starlight, when one of the two men who accompanied it spoke, and his voice sounded distinctly in the still air.
"I thought I heard something," said he.
"What could you hear?" answered his companion gruffly. "There can"t be any one nearer than the station at Tagash, and it"s far enough off yet, worse luck."
"All the same," reiterated the first speaker, "I"m sure I heard sleigh-runners skidding over the snow. It"s mebbe some poor devils coming out from Dawson."
They were almost beside us now, and I wondered that we had not been noticed.
"You"ll remember, Corporal," came the tones of the doubtful one in hard, official accents, "that on no account can I give out any supplies. I have my own men to provide for."
For the same reason that we had hurried past the station at Tagash River, I had no desire to bring my party to official notice now; so, inwardly cursing the n.i.g.g.ardly captain, I decided to let the team pa.s.s without soliciting relief. It was clearly a Government "outfit" for the benefit of the men at Tagash. At a jerky trot the four leading dogs swept by us, swaying wildly as they pulled in their traces. Four more dogs followed, then a heavily-laden sleigh came creaking and groaning through the snow, the runners sunk deep and churning up clouds of vapour which almost hid from view the plump sacks of flour on board. The men came after at an amble, their faces m.u.f.fled so that they, apparently, could neither turn to the right nor left. I could scarcely restrain my companions at this point from breaking into a vehement denunciation of the police captain and his corporal. They would, indeed, have stormed the sleigh cheerfully, and meted out no gentle treatment to the owners thereof. With energetic pantomimic gestures I implored them to be calm; the team was fast being swallowed up in the gloom, but before it had disappeared from our penetrating gaze a broken sentence floated back to our ears: "Pity ... had to leave so much ... Caribou Crossing ... back to-morrow.... D----d Klondikers."
For five minutes more we waited in silence, during which time Mac and Stewart were effervescing to an alarming climax, then we gave full vent to our joy. "Ho! ho! ho!" laughed my companions. "Pity left so much at Caribou! D----d Klondikers! Ho! ho! ho!" Dave, too, seemed to understand the situation, and promptly proceeded to bark out his appreciation; but his exuberance was too noisy, so it was hurriedly checked.