River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-02-11

"Me Carluk. Me good Siwash."
and that brought the SLAYER to their
lips And behind it all arose the wall
ing Of the women and children.
'',Thi8 is terrible" Smoke muttered.
I'm all bet up," Shorty replied
I'm real sweaty. An now what r.
we goin' to do with this ambulance
outfit?"
Smoke shook his head and then the
problem was solved for him. An In
dian crawled forward, his one eye fix
ed on Smoke instead Of on the sled.
and in 1t Smoke could see the struggle
of sanity to assert itself. Shorty re-
membered having punched the other
eye, which was already swollen shut.
The Indian raised himself on his elbow
and spoke:
ME Carluk Me good Siwash. Me
savvy Boston man plenty. Me plenty
hungry. All people plenty hungry. All
people no savvy Boston man. Me saw
Wy. Me eat grub now. All people eat
grub now We buy m grub. Got m
plenty gold. No got m grub. Sum
mer salmon no come Mix river. Win
ter caribou no come. No grub. Me
make m talk all people. Me tell m
plenty Boston man come Yukon. Bos-
ton man have plenty grub. Boston
man like m gold We take m gold.
go Yukon, Boston man give IN grub.
Plenty gold Me savVy Boston man
like m gold"
He began fumbl1ng with wasted fin
gers at the drawstring of a pouch he
took from his belt
TOO much make IN noise" Shorty
broke In distractedly. you tell IN
squaw, you tell IN papoose, shut IN up
mouth"
Carluk turned and addressed the
wailing women. Other bucks, listen
ing, raised their voices authoritatively,
and slowly the squaws stiIled and still
ed the children near to them. Carluk
paused from fumbling the drawstrings
and held up his fingers many times.
Him people make m die" he said.
And Smoke, following the count,
knew that seventy five Of the tribe had
starved to death.
''Me buy IN grub" Carluk said as
he got the pouch open and drew out a
large chunk of heavy metal. Others
were following his example. and on
every side appeared similar chunks.
Shorty stared.
Great jiminyr' he cried Copper!
Raw, red copperl An they think it's
gold!'
And the poor devils banked every
thing on it." Smoke muttered. Look
NJ oh
pounds. They've got hundreds Of
pounds Of 1t, and they've carried 1t
when they didn't have strength enough
to drag themselves. Look here. Shorty.
We've got to feed them"
Huh! Sounds easy. But how about
statistics? You an me has months
grub, which is six meals times thirty.
which Is $50 meals. Here's 200 In
dams, with real, full grown appetites.
How can we give m one meal evenT
There's the dog grub" Smoke an
swered. "a couple OF hundred pounds
Of dried salmon ought to help out.
We've got to do it. They've pinned
their faith on the white man. you
know"
Sure, an we can't throw m down."
Shorty agreed can we got two nasty
jobs cut out for US, each just about
twicet as nasty as the other. One Of
US has got to make a run OF 1t to Muc-
Inc an raise relief The other has to
stay here an run the hospital an most
likely be eaten. Don't let it slip your
noodle that we've been six days gettin'
here, an, travelin' light an all played
out. it can't be made back in less n
three days"
For a minute Smoke pondered the
miles of the way they had come, VI
sioning the miles in terms of time