登陆注册
5161200000034

第34章 WHERE THE TRAIL FORKS(1)

"Must I, then, must I, then, now leave this town -And you, my love, stay here?"--Schwabian Folk-song.

The singer, clean-faced and cheery-eyed, bent over and added water to a pot of simmering beans, and then, rising, a stick of firewood in hand, drove back the circling dogs from the grub-box and cooking-gear.He was blue of eye, and his long hair was golden, and it was a pleasure to look upon his lusty freshness.A new moon was thrusting a dim horn above the white line of close-packed snow-capped pines which ringed the camp and segregated it from all the world.Overhead, so clear it was and cold, the stars danced with quick, pulsating movements.To the southeast an evanescent greenish glow heralded the opening revels of the aurora borealis.

Two men, in the immediate foreground, lay upon the bearskin which was their bed.Between the skin and naked snow was a six-inch layer of pine boughs.The blankets were rolled back.For shelter, there was a fly at their backs,--a sheet of canvas stretched between two trees and angling at forty-five degrees.

This caught the radiating heat from the fire and flung it down upon the skin.Another man sat on a sled, drawn close to the blaze, mending moccasins.To the right, a heap of frozen gravel and a rude windlass denoted where they toiled each day in dismal groping for the pay-streak.To the left, four pairs of snowshoes stood erect, showing the mode of travel which obtained when the stamped snow of the camp was left behind.

That Schwabian folk-song sounded strangely pathetic under the cold northern stars, and did not do the men good who lounged about the fire after the toil of the day.It put a dull ache into their hearts, and a yearning which was akin to belly-hunger, and sent their souls questing southward across the divides to the sun-lands.

"For the love of God, Sigmund, shut up!" expostulated one of the men.His hands were clenched painfully, but he hid them from sight in the folds of the bearskin upon which he lay.

"And what for, Dave Wertz?" Sigmund demanded."Why shall I not sing when the heart is glad?""Because you've got no call to, that's why.Look about you, man, and think of the grub we've been defiling our bodies with for the last twelvemonth, and the way we've lived and worked like beasts!"Thus abjured, Sigmund, the golden-haired, surveyed it all, and the frost-rimmed wolf-dogs and the vapor breaths of the men."And why shall not the heart be glad?" he laughed."It is good; it is all good.As for the grub--" He doubled up his arm and caressed the swelling biceps."And if we have lived and worked like beasts, have we not been paid like kings? Twenty dollars to the pan the streak is running, and we know it to be eight feet thick.It is another Klondike--and we know it--Jim Hawes there, by your elbow, knows it and complains not.And there's Hitchcock! He sews moccasins like an old woman, and waits against the time.Only you can't wait and work until the wash-up in the spring.Then we shall all be rich, rich as kings, only you cannot wait.You want to go back to the States.So do I, and I was born there, but Ican wait, when each day the gold in the pan shows up yellow as butter in the churning.But you want your good time, and, like a child, you cry for it now.Bah! Why shall I not sing:

"In a year, in a year, when the grapes are ripe, I shall stay no more away.

Then if you still are true, my love, It will be our wedding day.

In a year, in a year, when my time is past, Then I'll live in your love for aye.

Then if you still are true, my love, It will be our wedding day."The dogs, bristling and growling, drew in closer to the firelight.

There was a monotonous crunch-crunch of webbed shoes, and between each crunch the dragging forward of the heel of the shoe like the sound of sifting sugar.Sigmund broke off from his song to hurl oaths and firewood at the animals.Then the light was parted by a fur-clad figure, and an Indian girl slipped out of the webs, threw back the hood of her squirrel-skin parka, and stood in their midst.Sigmund and the men on the bearskin greeted her as "Sipsu," with the customary "Hello," but Hitchcock made room on the sled that she might sit beside him.

"And how goes it, Sipsu?" he asked, talking, after her fashion, in broken English and bastard Chinook."Is the hunger still mighty in the camp? and has the witch doctor yet found the cause wherefore game is scarce and no moose in the land?""Yes; even so.There is little game, and we prepare to eat the dogs.Also has the witch doctor found the cause of all this evil, and to-morrow will he make sacrifice and cleanse the camp.""And what does the sacrifice chance to be?--a new-born babe or some poor devil of a squaw, old and shaky, who is a care to the tribe and better out of the way?""It chanced not that wise; for the need was great, and he chose none other than the chief's daughter; none other than I, Sipsu.""Hell!" The word rose slowly to Hitchcock's lips, and brimmed over full and deep, in a way which bespoke wonder and consideration.

"Wherefore we stand by a forking of the trail, you and I," she went on calmly, "and I have come that we may look once more upon each other, and once more only."She was born of primitive stock, and primitive had been her traditions and her days; so she regarded life stoically, and human sacrifice as part of the natural order.The powers which ruled the day-light and the dark, the flood and the frost, the bursting of the bud and the withering of the leaf, were angry and in need of propitiation.This they exacted in many ways,--death in the bad water, through the treacherous ice-crust, by the grip of the grizzly, or a wasting sickness which fell upon a man in his own lodge till he coughed, and the life of his lungs went out through his mouth and nostrils.Likewise did the powers receive sacrifice.It was all one.And the witch doctor was versed in the thoughts of the powers and chose unerringly.It was very natural.Death came by many ways, yet was it all one after all,--a manifestation of the all-powerful and inscrutable.

同类推荐
  • 五家语录

    五家语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 明刻话本四种

    明刻话本四种

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 唇口门

    唇口门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 醉古堂剑扫卷

    醉古堂剑扫卷

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays

    Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 李清照

    李清照

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 信步漫游

    信步漫游

    我教过远坂凛魔法,与不列颠的王共饮美酒于月下,将圣杯赠与间桐家的少女玩耍……我是谁?一名动漫爱好者而已。只是有幸能行走于它们的世界。【伪无敌文。】剧情以动漫为主,漫画为辅。可能会对原著内容有所改动。当前世界《杀戮都市:O》,《达尔文游戏》,《噬神者》《斩赤红之瞳》……
  • 腹黑恶魔甜心别想逃

    腹黑恶魔甜心别想逃

    她本是一个普通的女孩,却因一次仇人的报复,变成了一位阴阳师;还有,为什么她还会穿越?而且每次穿越的身份都是阴阳师?还有,最最最重要的一点是,为什么他也和她一起穿越?T_T(本文会串到阴阳师之内的,虽然有鬼,但绝对是逗逼派来的猴子。甜文,有点虐,但绝对甜文,相信我!绝对甜文!!!)
  • 亲情来袭

    亲情来袭

    ~此“恋”非彼恋~一篇彻底的亲情小说,一篇彻底的治愈暖文。欢笑,眼泪、伤痛、对怼、美男成群却不是玛丽苏!花样青春,且看一姐五兄弟之间的逗比日常。
  • 荒古神域

    荒古神域

    人族圣盟天骄‘莫子逆’,得九月葬碑传承,破荒古绝密,创魂武圣典,从此……天欲亡我,我必焚天,执此荣耀,踏八荒世界,战九天神域,铸就不朽传说!那一年,他说:“若我有重生日,必灭你世间魂!”
  • 竺峰敏禅师语录

    竺峰敏禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 供养仪式

    供养仪式

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 生命中不该忘记的101件事

    生命中不该忘记的101件事

    历史有不断重演的惯性,我们今天的处境,也许和从前经历过的遭遇十分雷同。虽然随着时间的推移,地点和人物都改变了,但那些经常发生在我们身边的事,却总给我们一种似曾相识的感觉,让我们不经意恍然大悟:有些道理我们已听过千回百回,但却总是记不住。经验固然可以增长知识,却不一定能减少犯错的次数。了解哪些情况应当避免,哪些原则应该恪守,是我们开创美好人生的重要条件。当我们开始运用这些知识或者道理,并从中受惠以后,这些知识道理,便会成为我们永久的智慧。
  • 大唐王朝4

    大唐王朝4

    唐代,是中国历史上空前繁荣昌盛、辉煌壮丽的时代。在长达两千余年的中国封建社会发展史中,历史沿着曲折的道路向前推进,并且呈现出波浪式的前进轨迹,社会经济繁荣、文化昌盛、国家强大的唐朝是一个公认的高潮时代。唐朝是古代重要的盛世,不但在经济、文化方面的成就光辉夺目,而且在对外关系的发展也占有重要的地位。
  • 狂夫人

    狂夫人

    强强!女强!VS男强!一个是穿越而来的黑道千金一个是卑贱出身的异姓酷王爷都是京城里跺一跺脚就能引起一场狂震的大人物他们是对手、是知己是爱人、是朋友、是克星…那一场场仿佛要将你骨头都吞掉的欢爱那关于年轻时候最澎湃的激情所有人都是他们的配角世界毁灭都抵不上一句“我高兴”!哦,怎么可以活得那么肆意?没有人可以走进他们的世界除了你这个疯狂的女人除了你这个闷骚的男人该死,你总能让我发狂!发癫!然后发春…那被挑起的火热,让我们用彼此的体温熄灭。——————————————————————————————————————————推荐:好友瑾瑜的新作!!《从了吧师太》新文写尼姑与和尚道士三角恋的!《总裁的复仇女友》蓝眸蓝媚