Gilpin observer., 1911-04-20

"
had any reason to act contrary, we'd
have done SO. And that's why it
seemed to us-to me, I would say,
that you probably had some reason
In this case. here. And, well-we'd
like to know what 1t is"
But the man he had addressed as
Roscoe" strobe on with unabated
pace. as II he had not heard For any
attention he paid to his questioner he
might have been alone in that ex-
panse Of Ice and sky.
Planck accepted the silent rebuff as
II 1t had been only what he had ex-
pected, but he sighed regretfhlly. He
had once known, and it was only four
years ago, that same staggering trick
OF contemptuous authority himself.
He had been master, the most tyran-
fnical sort Of master, some say. to be
found anywhere in the world; the
captain of an American whaler. And
This very man, at whose heels he was
scrambling along over the ice, had
been one of his crew; had never ap-
preached the quarterback where he
reigned supreme, without an apollo
getic hand at his forelock, and had
always passed to the leeward side of
him up on the deck
But the Walrus had been destined
never to see port again. She fingered
too long on the whaling grounds to
get back through Behring strait that
fall; and failed in the attempt to
make Mckenzie bay, where other
whalers in similar plight put in for the
winter. Instead of this friendly har
Dor, she was caught in the pack and
carried. relentlessly, north and west
ward. The milling pressure of great
masses of ice crushed in her stout
hull. SO that the open water they had
been hoping for, became, at once,
their deadliest peril. The moment the
ice broke away, she would 20 to the
bottom like a plummet
But still the slow, irresistible drift
of the ice-pack carried them north and
west into a latitude and longitude
which. SO far as they knew, no human
travellers had ever crossed before.
And then in the depth of the arctic
night bereft Of hope. and half mutin-
Gus, they found land that never had
been charted. and, most marvellous of
all, human welcome. For here on
the shore were Captain Fielding and
the two other survivors of his ILL.,
fated expedition.
The fate of the explorers ship had
been, 1t seemed, precisely that of the
Walrus. She had been caught in the
pack. crushed in it and carried against
this coast Before the coming of
spring. and with 1t the breaking of
the Ice. Fielding and his men had been
able to carry their stores ashore. and
OF these, the greater part still re-
mained
OF the Walrus people, in all. there
were IL. and these, with the three
original castaways, settled down to
the prospect of an indefinite number
OF years upon that nameless coast.
I'VE can live like Christians" Cap
tain Fielding had said. and we can
always hope"
His superior knowledge of arctic
conditions made him, rather than Cap
tain Planck. naturally commander Of
the little company. He established
the regimen Of their life, doled out
the store from day to day, and, as
best he could. through that long win.
ter night. provided entertainment for
the forlorn little group. He told them
OF his explorations on the coast. of the
lay of the land. of what they might
hope to see when the sun should
come back to them, marking the be-
ginning of another long arctic day.
Among other things, quite casually
he told them of ledge In the hills,
across the glacier. which contained,
he believed, the most extraordinary
deposit of gold In the world. So in.
credibly rich was it, that the rock
Itself had almost been replaced by
solid metal. The Alaska gold, he said.
was only the sweepings, in his opin.
Ion, of this Immense store.
At the sound of the word gold" the
eyes of the man named Roscoe had
frightened for the first time since
they had taken him. shivering from
his long immersion in the cold water,
aboard the Walrus. He drew into the
circle that sat about the reading lamp,
and began asking questions. Gold was
something he knew about. He had
mined 1t in Australia, in California,
and In the Klondike. He questioned
Captain Fielding about the exact
whereabouts Of the ledge. about the
sort Of ore 1t occurred in, and about
the best means Of cutting It out.
To some extent his own excitement
infected the others. Even Captain
Planck. whose only well.understood
form Of wealth was whale blubber, be-
gan to take an interest in Roscoe's
questions and in the explorers an.
swers to them.
1t was a strange and rather pathetic
sort Of excitement. Captain Fielding
thOuUhf To thovp tc thot.