Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1907-05-16
FIGHTING THE
COLD DEATH
BY REX e. BEACH
.copyrish,. Oy Joseph b Bowls.l
"A ss.-y .s A,..s.l


van, men and dogs, black against the
deadly Wilderness. Ahead swung tho
guide, straddling avkwardly on his
Ave foot webs. while the strsinln
pack battered at his heels. Big George
the driver. urged them with stron
words.
His companion. ellnglng 10 the SEQ
stumbled now and then. while his face
splitting from the snap OF the fros,
was smo,hcred In mufiler. Some.
times he fell. plunging In the snow.
rising painfully, and groaning 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 al his com
panion to ind whether he. too. had
heard the message AS the guide
handed talisman TO the chief he
strobe 10 him and snatched IL.
"Oho, It's Father orloff. Is Il? D.
him" He cared at the token. a white
spruce chip with strange marks and
carvings.
What does 1t mean. George9" sad
the blind man.
ITS long story, Captain. and
black. You should have know.
II before we started. I'm a
marked man in this coast coun.
try. It's orlof"s 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.
Right Of sanctuary. Ell? Does II
occur to you how we're going to get
out?'
Never mind, Wen get out some.
how" said he. And that night, as
Charlie Captain. late university mar
and engineer, lay with eyes swathed
in steaming cloths. the whaler spoke,
and with the bitterness Of great
wrong.
1T happened when we rocked the
bars of Forty Mile. Into the big valley
] went and got lost In the fats. run
out OF grub. We always did them days.
and built a raft TO float down to the
Yukon. A race with starvation, and o
dead heat 1t near proved, too. though
had a shade the best of it. / drifte6
out into the main river, ravin' mad
my 'Mukluks' eat of 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 til
reason came and the blood ran
through me again.
81 mind seem a white man standin
around at times and hearin' him bes
her to leave me to the old squaws. She
didn't, though. She gave me bits OF
moose meat and berries and dried
salmon. Her eyes was big and sad
Cap. and dimples poked into her
cheeks when she laughed.
Twas then that Orloff takes a
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 !. When ] 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. Cot
"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 of. was beat back to the bluff
and / battled with my heels over the
edge. Then ! 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
hit feet first. When | rose the little
girl was alongside. 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 l went to Anvik for
grub--took all the strong men and
dogs in the village. was afraid when
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