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John Muir - "Steep Trails, by John Muir"

E. Phillips Oppenheim - "The Kingdom of the Blind"

Gaston Leroux - "The Secret of the Night"

William Dean Howells - "Emile Zola"

The Son of the Wolf

J >> Jack London >> The Son of the Wolf




'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.

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