The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1913-11-22
A Nights Lodging
BY JACK LONDON
Author of "The Call of the Wild" and 'The
Valley of the Blue Noon



Association)
ut was the gosh dangdest stampede even
seen. "A thousand dog teams hittin' the ice.
You couldn't see 'em fer smoke. Two white
men an Swede froze to death that night, an
there was dozen busted their lungs. But
didn't see with my own eyes the bottom of the
water hole? It was yellow with gold like
mustard plaster. That's what made the STAN
pede. An then there was nothn to it
NOTHIN to it."-Narrative of Shorty.
John Messner chung with mittened hand to the
bucking geepole and held the sled in the trail With
the other mittened hand he rubbed his cheeks and
nose lie rubbed his cheeks and nose every little
while. In point of fact he rarely ceased rubbing
them, and sometimes, their numbness increased, he
rubbed them fercely.
Behind him churned heavily loaded Yukon sled,
and before him toiled string of five dogs. The
rope by which they dragged the sled rubbed against
the side of Messners leg. When the dogs swung on
bend in the trail, he stepped over the rope. There
were many bends, and he was compelled to step
over it often. Sometimes he tripped the rope,
stumbled, and at all times he was awkward betray-
ing WEAKNESS great that the sled and again
ran upon his heels.
cts too cold to travel, anyway he said He
spoke aloud, after the manner OF men who are much
by themselves "Only fool would travel at such a
comparature If it isn't eighty below it's because
it's seventy-nine.'
He plodded on silently for few minutes and
then, though there had been lapse in his speech
y he added
"And no ground covered, and it's too cold to
travel
"Suddenly he yelled, "Whoa!' at the dogs and
stopped. He seemed in mild panic over his right
hand and proceeded to hammer it furiously against
the e.g geepole a;,,,, :, ,...., -, 49,,
which had dropped down heavily on the ice to rest
His was broken, jerky utterance, caused by the
violence with which he hammered his numb hand
upon the wood. "What have you done, anyway,
that two-legged other animal should come along,
break you to harness. curb all your natural pro
eli md ma kn c1a -haa sic IF
He rubbed his nose not reflectively but savagely,
in order to drive the blood into it, and urged the
dogs to do their work again. He travelled on the
frozen surface Of great river
John Messner seemed succumbing to the apathy
of it all. The frost was benumbng his spirit.
But the dogs were observant and suddenly they
stopped, turning their heads and looking back at
their master out of eyes that were wistfu and ques
tionng.
The man was about to urge them on, when he
checked himself, reused up with effort and looked
around. The dogs had stopped beside water-hoe,
not fissure, but hole man-made chopped labor
iously with an ak through three and half feet of
ice.
"All right you sore-footed brutes," he said.
'I'l investigate. You're not bit more anxious to
quit than ann
He climbed the bank and disappeared. The dogs
did not lie down, but on their feet eagerly waited
his return. He came back to them, took hauling
rope from the front of the sled and put it around
his shoulders Then he gee-d the dogs to the RICH
and put them at the bank on the run.
They cleared the bank with rush, swung to the
left and dashed up to small log cabin. 1t a
deserted cabin of single room. Messner unhar-
messed the animals, unoaded his sled and took pos
session. Messner set up his light sheetiron stove
and started fire.
While waiting for the water to boil he held his
face over the stove The moisture from his breath
had collected on his beard and frozen into great
of ice, and this he proceeded to thaw out
A wild cutlery from the dogs without did not take
him from his task. He heard the wolfish snarlng
and yepng of strange dogs and the sound of voices
"A knock came to the door,
: 1'Come in,'' Messner called.
The door opened and gazing out of his cloud of
steam he saw a man and woman pausing on the
threshold.
ssCome in he said peremptorily tsand shut the