The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-08-09

eoldly through her glasses. Assured by
the limpid candor in his face. she adj
dressed herself past him.
"We would enjoy hearing it, I'm
sure"
Fits struck boldly into the food OF
narrative.
81 was in Sitka about year ago
broke. One day l sat on the wharf
sopping up sunshine and emitting a
cloud of regrets, when ! heard two
prospectors talking. =
"'cT averaged two ounces a day
reg'lar,' says one, but couldn't stand
it niore'n a week. 1t was awful tore
out
Right for you says the other, I
need money bad myself, but l won't
work . hole like that. When she
killed jim I pulled my freight, too. Just
buried him up on the hill with the rest
81 began to show signs of returning
spring
Excuse me, pardners, l says, but
what's the name of the lady you are
alluding att
Shes no lady,, one of them an
swers, she's the Kayak Glacier
Come again, please, says I, 'ad-
vance slowly. Being a stranger, the
idioms OF this vicinity is Scotch dialect
TO me-
1--WE been mining at the Kayak
Glacier, but we happened to get away
before she laid down on us-she killed
my pardner, though
Then prodded along by inches, they
enlivened the solitude by these humor-
Gus details.
Five hundred miles west, a bay
lodges back into the saw-teeth, and at
its head the Kayak winds CLOWN through
the mountains, a living river of ice;
always s-gritting and grinding along to
the sea.
In the sand at her feet is much gold,
ground out from the lodges above. One
summer a miner PANIED among the
boulders and straightway built a cabin
on her flank.
In the summer heat the Kayak
shakes her head; Jumps of ice fall off
like dandruff, and the noise of the
dropping bergs is like the bursting of
cannon.
This man had the gold frenzy on
him, and he worked under the brow of
the ice-cliff, digging, digging, needless
of the icy ram from above. His rifles
clogged heavy and yellow-and he
worked madly.
Two months later a trapper found
the skeleton broken and crushed, half
buried under the sluices. He also found
the buckskin bag at the cabin, and at
the sight of its contents the Kayak
entered into him. Resetting
the boxes, he dug in the dead mans
tracks, cringing at the roar of the
splintering ice.
"She caught him one day half way
to the cabin, cleanup in his hands
and for year no man neared the lone
some spot. But the news got out and
men began TO stake their lives against
her sands. A few came out unscatched
and laden with gold They never
laughed nor spoke of the place, and
they never returned The many stayed
among the sands they lusted for, and
The ice melted at their sides, leaving no
track but the broken bodies.
That's the convulsively festal tale
with which my spiritual gloom was
ightened.
Gentlemen says l, Pm broke
Don't do it. they interrupts.
How do you get thereS
It's amazing easy to find, but
-eglar fy-paper of a place to get shed
If. You better write your name on the
;abin wall like the rest did, 50 the next
nan'll know what to do with your sack;
llso how to label the remains. You'll |
zee plenty of wills carved on the logs. |
4 you must go, good luck, stranger
I'VE shook, and three weeks later /
lropped off sealing schooner at the
mouth OF the inlet, and roweI up the
:rooEei seam of wat.- between the
Nv mountains till l saw tie Kayak
lining in the. light. Size lies, a great
listening sc-pent with her tail cached
iiles back toward ST. Elias. The
hanging lights of an Opal flashed over
'r rugged from. in the lowering sun.
I landed below the. cabip, lonesome
I'd afraid. A cemetery Ter a front
wn and the mural ne -orations Of your
lack consisting of isit wills and tesla
rents, amt conducive to optimism and
flow OF spirits. / read some of the
Iisly writing on the walls and my agi-
ations got incandescent. There were
and-carved diaries that would rattle
gu like an ague-nost of EN- unhn-
she'd" II
The tourists had gathered closely
bout Mr.. Fits, and the lorgnette lay
ePiected in Mrs Hat6eld's Ia, .;-L