The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-04

woman, tail and slender and fair to the
Tou know the winter. long and lonely.
breeding evil thoughts and bad deeds.
The Chief Factor was a hard man. and
bold And he was not such that a woman
would delight to look upon. But he cast
eyes upon my WOman-child who was 10
become a woman. Mother Of Cod He
sent me away on a long trip with the
dogs-you understand, he was "A hard
man and without heart. She was most
white. and her soul Was white. and-Weli.
she died.
1t was bitter cold the night of my re-
turn. and had been away months The
Indians and breeds looked me in ST.
lence, and ] felt the fear Of / knew not
what but I said nothing till the dogs
were red and / had eaten as man with
work before him should. Then / spOKc
up. demanding the word and they shrank
from me, afraid of my anger; but the
story came out. word for word and act
for act ana they marveled that 1 should
be quiet.
"waen they had done I went to the
Factors house. calmer than now in the
telling of It. He had fled to the house
Of the priest. Thither 1 followed. But
when | was come to that place. the priest
stood in my way, and spoke soft words
/ asked by the right of a fathers wrath
that he give me- past. but he said only
over his body. and besOught with me TO
pray. Look you. it was the church, al
ways the church: for / passed over his
body and sent the Factor to meet my wo-
man-child before his god, which is bad
cod
Then was there hue and cry. for word
was sent to the station below, and I came
away Through the Land of the Great
Slave. down the valley of the Mackenzie
Rockies, past the great curve of the
Yukon, even to this place did ] come.
And from that day to this, yours is the
first face of my fathers people I have
looked upon. Nav it be the last, These
people. which are my people, are sim
pie folk, and I have been raised to honor
among them NV word is their law ana
their priests but do my bidding We ask
to be let alone. We do not want your
kind. II we permit you to sit by our
fires. after YOU will come your church
your priests and your gods. And know
this. for each white man who comes to
my village. him will make deny mis- God.
You are the first and | Will give you
grace. SO it were well you go, and go
Quickly"
4 am not responsible for my brothers.
the second man spoke up, filling his pipe
in a meditative manner Hay StOckard
was at times IS thoughtful Of speech as
he was .wanton of action.
Put I know your breed" responded the
other. Your brothers are many. and Il
IS you and yours who break the trail for
them to follow. In time they shall come
to possess the land. but not in my time.
You may go back to your brothers; but
UP the Koyukuk you shall not go while
the priests end fighting men do my bid
ding. Thus do I command, I, Baptiste
the Red, whose word is law over this peo-
pie
land should ] not go down to the Rus
SLAMS or back to my brothers?"
Then shall you go swift-footed before
your God, which is a bad God and the
God of the white men,"
The red sun shot up above the northern
skyline. dripping and bloody. Baptiste the
Red came to his feet, nodded CURLY and
went back to his camp.
Hay Stockard finished his pipe by the
fire picturing in smoke and coal the IN
known upper reaches of the Koyukuk,
the strange stream which ended here its
arctic ira vels and merged its waters with
the muddy Yukon flood. Somewhere up
there, # the dying words of a shipwrecked
sailOrman who had made the fearful over
| land journey were to be believed and il
the vial OF golden grains in his pouch at
tested anything-SomeWhere I'D there
stood the Treasure House of the North
And as keeper of the gate, Baptiste the
Red. English balf-breed and renegade,
barred the way.
BAH He kicked the enbers apart and
rose 10 his fun height, arms lazily out