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

did not walk, but who dragged himself
on all tours. The man thought It might
be Bill, but he thought in a dull, I'M
interested way. He had no curiosity, in
fact, sensation and emotion had left
him. He was no longer susceptible to
pain. Stomach and nerves had gone
to sleep. Yet the life that was In him
drove him on. He was very weary,
but it refused to die. 1t was because
it refused to die that he still ate
muskeg berries and minnows, drank his
hot water and kept a weary eye on the
sick wolf.
He followed the train of the other
man, who dragged himself along, and
soon came to the end of tia few
fresh-picked bones where the soggy
moss was marked by the footpads of
many wolves. He saw a squat moose
hide sack, mate to his own, which had
been torn by sharp teeth. He picked it
up, though its weight was almost too
much for his feeble fingers. Bill had
carried it to the last. Hal hal He
would have the laugh on Bill. He
would survive and carry it to the ship
in the shining sea. His mirth was
hoarse and CHASTITY, like a ravens
croak, and the sick wolf Joined him,
bowling lugubriously. The man ceased
suddenly. How could he have the
laugh on Bill if that were Bill-if those
bones, so pinky-white and clean, were
Bill
He turned away. Well, Bill had de-
serted him; but he would not take the
gold, nor would he suck BilPs bones.
Bill would have, though, had it been
the other way around, he unused as he
staggered on.
That day he decreased the distance
between him and the ship by three
miles; the next day by two-for he was
crawling now as Bill had crawled; and
the end of the fifth day found the ship
still seven miles away and him unable
to make even mile a day. Still the
Indian summer held on, and he con-
tinued to crawl and faint, turn and
turn about; and ever the sick wolf
coughed and wheezed at his heels. His
knees had become raw meat like his
feet, and though he padded them with
the shirt from his back it was a red
track he left behind him on the moss
and stones. Once glancing back, he
saw the wolf licking hungrily his bleed
ing trail, and he saw sharply what his
own end might be-unless-unless he
could get the wolf. Then began as grim
tragedy of existence as was ever
played-a sick man that crawled, a sick
wolf that limped, two creatures drag
ging their dying carcasses across the
! desOlatiOn and hunting each other
lives.
Had it been a well wolf, IT would not
have mattered so much to the man;
but the thought of going to feed the
NAV of that loathsome and all but
dead thing was repugnant to him. He
was finicky. His mind had begun to
wander again, and to be perplexed by
Authorizations. while his lucid intervals
grew rarer and shorter.
He was awakened once from a faint
by a wheeze close in his ear. The wolf
leaped lameIy back, losing its footing
and falling IN it's weakness. It was
ludicrous, but ne was not amused. Nor
was he even afraid. He was too far
gone for that. But his mind was for
the moment clear, and he lay and con-
sIdered. The ship was no more than
four miles away. He could see it quite
distinctly when he rubbed the mists out
of his eyes, and he could see the white
sail of a small boat cutting the water
of the shining sea- But he could never
crawl those four miles. He knew that,
and was very calm in the knowledge.
He knew that he could not crawl half
mile. And yet he wanted to live. 1t
was unreasonable that he should die
after all he had undergone. Fate ask
! ed too much of him. And. dying, he
declined to die. 1t was stark madness,
perhaps, but in the very grip of Death
! he defied Death and refused to die
He closed his eyes and composed
himself with infinite precaution. He
steeled himself to keep above the suffo-
eating languor that Tapped like a rising
tide through all the wells of his being.
1t was very like sea, this deadly Ian
guor, that rose and rose and drowned
his consciousness bit by bit. Some
| times he was all but submerged, swim
ming through oblivion with faltering
stroke; and again, by some strange
alchemy Of soul, he would find another