"I"m not sure," said the Boy.
"I thought you were going it blind."
"I believe I"d better let Nig have his head," said the Boy, stopping; "he"s the dandy trail-finder. Nig, old man, I takes off my hat to you!"
They pushed ahead till the half-famished dogs gave out. They camped under the lee of the propped sled, and slept the sleep of exhaustion.
The next morning dawned clear and warm. The Colonel managed to get a little wood and started a fire. There were a few spoonfuls of meal in the bottom of the bag and a little end of bacon, mostly rind. The sort of soup the dogs had had yesterday was good enough for men to-day. The hot and watery brew gave them strength enough to strike camp and move on. The elder man began to say to himself that he would sell his life dearly. He looked at the dogs a good deal, and then would look at the Boy, but he could never catch his eye. At last: "They say, you know, that men in our fix have sometimes had to sacrifice a dog."
"Ugh!" The Boy"s face expressed nausea at the thought.
"Yes, it is pretty revolting."
"We could never do it."
"N-no," said the Colonel.
The three little Esquimaux horses were not only very hungry, their feet were in a bad condition, and were bleeding. The Boy had shut his eyes at first at the sight of their red tracks in the snow. He hardly noticed them now.
An hour or so later: "Better men than we," says the Colonel significantly, "have had to put their feelings in their pockets." As if he found the observation distinctly discouraging, Nig at this moment sat down in the melting snow, and no amount of "mushing" moved him.
"Let"s give him half an hour"s rest, Colonel. Valuable beast, you know--altogether best team on the river," said the Boy, as if to show that his suggestion was not inspired by mere pity for the bleeding dogs. "And you look rather faded yourself, Colonel. Sit down and rest."
Nothing more was said for a full half-hour, till the Colonel, taking off his fur hat, and wiping his beaded forehead on the back of his hand, remarked: "Think of the Siege of Paris."
"Eh? What?" The Boy stared as if afraid his partner"s brain had given way.
"When the horses gave out they had to eat dogs, cats, rats even. Think of it--rats!"
"The French are a dirty lot. Let"s mush, Colonel. I"m as fit as a fiddle." The Boy got up and called the dogs. In ten minutes they were following the blind trail again. But the sled kept clogging, sticking fast and breaking down. After a desperate bout of ineffectual pulling, the dogs with one mind stopped again, and lay down in their b.l.o.o.d.y tracks.
The men stood silent for a moment; then the Colonel remarked:
"Red is the least valuable"--a long pause--"but Nig"s feet are in the worst condition. That dog won"t travel a mile further. Well," added the Colonel after a bit, as the Boy stood speechless studying the team, "what do you say?"
"Me?" He looked up like a man who has been dreaming and is just awake.
"Oh, I should say our friend Nig here has had to stand more than his share of the racket."
"Poor old Nig!" said the Colonel, with a somewhat guilty air. "Look here: what do you say to seeing whether they can go if we help "em with that load?"
"Good for you, Colonel!" said the Boy, with confidence wonderfully restored. "I was just thinking the same."
They unlashed the pack, and the Colonel wanted to make two bundles of the bedding and things; but whether the Boy really thought the Colonel was giving out, or whether down in some corner of his mind he recognised the fact that if the Colonel were not galled by this extra burden he might feel his hunger less, and so be less p.r.o.ne to thoughts of poor Nig in the pot--however it was, he said the bundle was his business for the first hour. So the Colonel did the driving, and the Boy tramped on ahead, breaking trail with thirty-five pounds on his back. And he didn"t give it up, either, though he admitted long after it was the toughest time he had ever put in in all his life.
"Haven"t you had about enough of this?" the Colonel sang out at dusk.
"Pretty nearly," said the Boy in a rather weak voice. He flung off the pack, and sat on it.
"Get up," says the Colonel; "give us the sleepin"-bag." When it was undone, the Norfolk jacket dropped out. He rolled it up against the sled, flung himself down, and heavily dropped his head on the rough pillow. But he sprang up.
"What? Yes. By the Lord!" He thrust his hand into the capacious pocket of the jacket, and pulled out some broken ship"s biscuit. "Hard tack, by the living Jingo!" He was up, had a few sticks alight, and the kettle on, and was melting snow to pour on the broken biscuit. "It swells, you know, like thunder!"
The Boy was still sitting on the bundle of "trade" tea and tobacco. He seemed not to hear; he seemed not to see the Colonel, shakily hovering about the fire, pushing aside the green wood and adding a few sticks of dry.
There was a mist before the Colonel"s eyes. Reaching after a bit of seasoned spruce, he stumbled, and unconsciously set his foot on Nig"s bleeding paw. The dog let out a yell and flew at him. The Colonel fell back with an oath, picked up a stick, and laid it on. The Boy was on his feet in a flash.
"Here! stop that!" He jumped in between the infuriated man and the infuriated dog.
"Stand back!" roared the Colonel.
"It was your fault; you trod--"
"Stand back, d.a.m.n you! or you"ll get hurt."
The stick would have fallen on the Boy; he dodged it, calling excitedly, "Come here, Nig! Here!"
"He"s my dog, and I"ll lamm him if I like. You--" The Colonel couldn"t see just where the Boy and the culprit were. Stumbling a few paces away from the glare of the fire, he called out, "I"ll kill that brute if he snaps at me again!"
"Oh yes," the Boy"s voice rang pa.s.sionately out of the gloom, "I know you want him killed."
The Colonel sat down heavily on the rolled-up bag. Presently the bubbling of boiling snow-water roused him. He got up, divided the biscuit, and poured the hot water over the fragments. Then he sat down again, and waited for them to "swell like thunder." He couldn"t see where, a little way up the hillside, the Boy sat on a fallen tree with Nig"s head under his arm. The Boy felt pretty low in his mind. He sat crouched together, with his head sunk almost to his knees. It was a lonely kind of a world after all. Doing your level best didn"t seem to get you any forrader. What was the use? He started. Something warm, caressing, touched his cold face just under one eye. Nig"s tongue.
"Good old Nig! You feel lonesome, too?" He gathered the rough beast up closer to him.
Just then the Colonel called, "Nig!"
"Sh! sh! Lie quiet!" whispered the Boy.
"Nig! Nig!"
"Good old boy! Stay here! He doesn"t mean well by you. _Sh!_ quiet!
_Quiet_, I say!"
"Nig!" and the treacherous Colonel gave the peculiar whistle both men used to call the dogs to supper. The dog struggled to get away, the Boy"s stiff fingers lost their grip, and "the best leader in the Yukon"
was running down the bank as hard as he could pelt, to the camp fire--to the cooking-pot.
The Boy got up and floundered away in the opposite direction. He must get out of hearing. He toiled on, listening for the expected gunshot--hearing it, too, and the yawp of a wounded dog, in spite of a mitten clapped at each ear.
"That"s the kind of world it is! Do your level best, drag other fellas"
packs hundreds o" miles over the ice with a hungry belly and b.l.o.o.d.y feet, and then--Poor old Nig!--"cause you"re lame--poor old Nig!" With a tightened throat and hot water in his eyes, he kept on repeating the dog"s name as he stumbled forward in the snow. "Nev" mind, old boy; it"s a lonely kind o" world, and the right trail"s hard to find."
Suddenly he stood still. His stumbling feet were on a track. He had reached the dip in the saddle-back of the hill, and--yes! this was the _right_ trail; for down on the other side below him were faint lights--huts--an Indian village! with fish and food for everybody. And Nig--Nig was being--
The Boy turned as if a hurricane had struck him, and tore back down the incline--stumbling, floundering in the snow, calling hoa.r.s.ely: "Colonel, Colonel! don"t do it! There"s a village here, Colonel! Nig!
Colonel, don"t do it!"
He dashed into the circle of firelight, and beheld Nig standing with a bandaged paw, placidly eating softened biscuit out of the family frying-pan.
It was short work getting down to the village. They had one king salmon and two white fish from the first Indian they saw, who wanted hootch for them, and got only tabak.