The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-08
LOVE OF LIFE

but he exhausted himself She lay
painting on her side. He lay painting
on his side, a dozen feet away, unable
TO crawl to her. And as he recovered
she recovered, fluttering out of reach
as his hungry hand went out to her.
The chase was resumed. Night settled
down and she escaped. He stumbled
from weakness and pitched head-fore-
most on his face, cutting his cheek, his
pack upon his back. He did not move
for a long while; then he rolled over
on his side, wound his watch, and lay
there until morning.
Another day of fog. Half of his last
blanket had gone into foot-wrappings.
He failed to pick up Bills trial. 1t did
not matter. His hunger was driving
him too pellingly-only-only he
wondered if Bill, too, were lost. BY
midday the irk of his pack became too
oppressive. Again he divided the gold,
this time merely splitting half of it on
the ground. In the afternoon he threw
the rest of 1t away, there remaining to
him only the half-blanket, the tin
bucket and the rifle
He plOdded on for half an hour, when
the hallucination arose again. Again
he fought it and still it persisted, till
for very relief he opened his rifle to
uncOnvince himself. At times his mind
wandered further afield and he plod-
ded on, mere automaton, strange
conceits and whimsicalities gnawing at
his brain like worms. But these ex-
cursions out of the real were of brief
duration. for ever the pangs of the
hunger-bite called him back. He was
jerked back abruptly once from such
an excursion by sight that caused
him nearly to faint. He reeled and
swayed, doddering like a drunken man
to keep from falling. Before him stood
a horse. A horse! He could not be-
lieve his eyes. A thick mist was in
them, intershot with sparkling points
of light. He rubbed his eyes savageIy
to clear his vision, and beheld, not a
horse, but a great brown bear. The
animal was studying him with belli-
cose curiosity.
The man had brought his gun half
way TO his shoulder before he realized.
He lowered it and drew his hunting
knife from its beaded sheath at his
hip. Before him was meat and life
He ran his thumb along the edge of his
knife. 1t was sharp. The point was
sharp. He would fling himself upon
the bear and kill it. But his heart
began its warning thump. thump
thump. Then followed the wild upward
leap and tattoo of flutters, the pressing
as of an iron band about his forehead,
the creeping OF the dizziness into his
brain.
His desperate courage was evicted by
a great surge of fear. In his weakness,
what If the animal attacked himI He
drew himself up to his most imposing
stature, gripping the knife and staring
hard at the bear. The bear advanced
clumsily a couple Of steps, reared uI
and gave vent to tentative growl. II
the man ran he would run after him
but the man did not run. He was ami
mated now with the courage of fear
He, too, growled, savagely, terribly
voicing the fear that is to life germane
and that lies twisted about life's deep
est roots.
growing menacingly, himself appalled,
by this mysterious creature that APP
peared upright and unafraid. But the
man did not move. He stood like a
statue till the danger was past, when
he yielded to a fit of trembling and
sank down into the wet moss
Now and again the wolves in packs
of two and three crossed his path. But
they steered clear of him. They were
not in sufficient numbers, and besides
they were hunting the caribou which
did not battle, while this strange crea-
ture that walked erect might scratch
and bite.
In the late afternoon he came upon
scattered bones where wolves had made
kill. The debris had been a caribou
calf an hour before, squawking and
running and very much alive. He con-
templated the bones, clean-picked and
polished, pink with the cell-life in them
which had not yet died. Could it DOS
sibly be that he might be that ere the
day was overt Such was life, Ell? A
vain and fleeing thing. 1t was only life
that panied. There was no hurt
in death. To die was to sleep. II
meant cessation. rest. Then, why was
he not content to die?
Came frightful days of snow and
rain. He did not know when he made
camp, when he broke camp. He trav-
eled in the night as much as in the
day. He rested wherever he fell
crawled on whenever the dying life IL
him flickered up and burned less dim
| ly. He as a man no longer strove. i
was the life in him, unwilling to die
| that drove him on He did not suffer
His nerves had become blunted, numb
while his mind was filled with weirC
visions and delicious dreams.
! But ever he sucked and chewed OF
/ the crushed bones or the caribou calf
the least remnant of which he haS
gathered up and carried with him. H,
crossed no more hills or divides, bu
automatically followed a large stream
which flowed through a wide and shall
| low valley. He did not see this STREAM
or this valley. He saw nothing saw,
visions. Soul and body walked o.
| crawled side by side, yet apart, S,
| slender was the thread that bounC
them.
He awoke in his right mind, lying
on his back on rocky ledge. The SUI
was shining bright and warm. Ala
| off he heard the squaWking of caribou
calves. He was aware of vague memo
ries of rain and wind and snow, blu
whether he had been beaten by tn,
storm for two days or two weeks h
/ did not know.
For some time he lay without move
ment, the genial sunshine pouring up
on him and saturing his miserable bod,
with its warmth. A fine day, b
thought. Perhaps he could manage t
/ locate himself. By painful effort h
rolled over on his side. Below hin
flowed a wide and sluggish river. 1t
unfamiliarity puzzled him. Slowly h