The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-12-28

guide, straddling awkwardly on his
five foot webs, while the straining
pack battered at his heels. Big George
the driver, urged them with strong
words
His companion, clinging to the sled
stumbled now and then, while his face,
splitting from the snap of the frost,
was smothered in muller. Some.
times he fell, plunging in the snow,
rising painfully, and grooming with the
misery of 'snow-blindness."
Down the steep bank they slid,
across the bumped up sea ice at the
river mouth and into the village.
At the greeting of their guide to his
tribesmen, the natives, George started.
Twelve years of coast life had taught
him the dialect from Point Barrow
south, and he glanced at his COM
panion to find whether he, too, had
heard the message. AS the guide
handed a talisman to the chief he
strobe to him and snatched it.
"Oho! It's Father Orloff, is It? D.
him!" He gazed at the token, white
spruce chip with strange marks and
carvings.
What does it mean, George?" said
the blind man.
Its a long story, Captain, and
black. You should have known
it before we started. I'm a
marked man in this coast coun-
try. It's Orloffs work, the rem
egade. Father he calls himself.
Father to these devils he rules and
robs for himself in the name of the
church. God help him when we meet"
He shook his hairy claws at the hos
tile circle.
The Indians clustered before the
portal of the mission house, with its
rude cross above, and stared malig-
nantly, while the chief spoke.
Captain dragged the team within,
and George following, blocked the
shattered door.
Were safe as long as we stay in the
church, ">said he.
Fright of sanctuary, eh? Does it
occur to you how we're going to get
out?'
Never mind, we'll get out some
how" said he. And that night, as
Charlie Captain, late university man
and engineer, lay with eyes swathed
in steaming cloths, the whaler spoke,
and with the bitterness of great
wrong.
ut happened when we rocked the
TT l.
/ went and got lost in the flats. I run
out of grub. We always did them days,
and built raft to float down to the
Yukon. A race with starvation, and a
dead heat it near proved, too, though
had shade the best of it. drifted
out into the main river, ravin' mad,
my 'Mukluks' eat off and my moose
hide gun cover inside of me.
"a girl spied me from the village,
and twas her that brought me ashore
in her birch-bark and tended me till
reason came and the blood ran
through me again.
"'Twas then that Orloff takes q
hand-the white man. A priest he
called himself; breed, Russian. Maybe
he was, but a blacker-hearted thief
never wronged child. He wanted the
girl, Meta, and so did l. When 1 asked
her old man for her he said she was
promised to the Russian. You know
what sway the church has over these
Indians. Well, Orloff is strong man.
He held 'em like rock. He worked
on 'em till one day the tribemen came
to me in body and said. Got
"'Give me the girl, and WILL says
."Orloff sneered. She was mine for
a month before We came says he with
the fiend shown back of his eyes. DO
We want her now?
For minute believed him. /
struck once to kill, and he went down.
They closed on me as fast as / shook
'em off. / was beat back to the bluff
and l battled with my heels over the
edge. Then I heard Meta calling
softly from below:
Jump she said. Big one, jump
"She had loosed a canoe at the land
ing and now held it in the boiling cur
rent underneath, padding desperately
'As they ran out of the tents with
their rifles leaped.
"a long drop and cold water, but 1
hit feet first. When I rose the little
girl was alongside. 1 got in and we
padded away.
1.-The next winter we were at Holy
Cross That was the winter of the
famine, though every winter was the
same then, and 1 went to Anvik for
grub-took all the strong men and
dogs in the village. / was afraid when
1 left, too, for twas the time should
have been with her, but there was no
one else to go.
"'When you come back, she said,
there will be another little boy
and he will grow mighty and strong,
like his father She hung her arms
around me, Cap, and / left with her
kisses warm on my lips.
1T was terrible trip, the river wet
with overfiows and the cut,offs drifted
deep, so / drove back into Holy Cross
a week late with bleedin' dogs and
frozen Indians strainin' at the sled
ropes.
Il heard the wall of the old women
before l come to the cabin. and then