Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-03-22
CHAPTER XIII.
The Stress of the Trail.

Roaring Bill dumped his second pack
on the summit of the Klappan, and
looked away to where the valley that
opened out of the basin showed it's
blurred hollow in the distance. But
he uttered no useless regrets. With
horses they could have ridden south
through a rolling country, where every
stretch of timber gave on a grass
grown level. Instead they were forced
back over the rugged route by which
they had crossed the range the sum-
mel before. Grub, bedding, furs and
gold tOtaled two hundred pounds. On
his sturdy shoulders Bill could pack
half that weight. For his wife the
thing was a physical impossibility,
even had he permitted her to try.
Hence every mile advanced meant that
he doubled the distance, relaying from
one camp to the next. They cut their
bedding to a blanket apiece, and that
was HaZel's 4oad-all he would allow
her to carry.
you're no pack mule, little person."
he would say. 1T don't hurt me. I've
done this for years."
But ever with abnormal strength
and endurance, it was killing work TO
buck those ragged slopes with a heavy
load. Only by terrible, unremitting eff
fort could he advance any appreciable
distance. They were f~ootsore, and
their bodies ached with WEAKNESS that
verged on pain when they gained the
pass that cut the summit of the Khan
pan range.
well, we're owe the hump" Bill re-
marked thankfully. Its a downhill
shoot to the Skeena. 1 don't think It's
more than fifty or sixty miles to where
we can take to the water"
They made better time on the west
ern slope, but the journey became a
matter of sheer endurance. Food was
scanty-flour and salt and tea with
meat and fish got by the way. And
the black flies and mosquitoes
swarmed about them ~maddeningly day
and night.
So they came at last to the Skeena,
and Hazel's heart mfsgave her when
she took note of its swirling reaches
the sinuous eddies-a deep, swift,
treacherous stream. But Bill rested
overnight, and in the morning sought
and felled a sizable cedar, and began
to hew. Slowly the chick trunk
shaped itself to the form of a boat
under the steady swing of his ax.
In a week it was finished. They
loaded the sack of gold, the bundle of
furs, their meager camp outfit amid
ships, and swung off into the stream.
The Skeena drops fifteen hundred
feet in a hundred miles. Wherefore
there are rapids, boiling stretches of
white water in which many a good
canoe has come to grief. Some OF
these they ran at imminent peril. Over
the worst they lined the canoe from
the bank. And in the second week
of July they brought up at the head
of Kispiox Canon. Hazelton lay a few
miles below. But the KispiOx stayed
them, a sluice box cut through ole
stone, in which the waters ragged witt
a deafening roar. No man venturet
into that wild gorge. They abandoned
the dugout. Bill slung the sack o.
gold and the bale of furs on his back.
It's the last lap, Hazel" said he
> "WeH leave the rest of it for the frs
Siwash that happens along"
SO they set out bravely to trudg'
the remaining distance. And as tn
fortunes of the trail sometimes be
, fall, they raised an Indian camp OF
> the bank of the river at the mouth 0
the canon. A ten-dOllar bill mad
them possessors of another canoe, AM
an hour later the roofs of Hazeltol
cropped up above the bank.
I "Oh, Bill" Hazel called from tn
bow. Look! There's the same oil
steamer tied to the same old bank
We've been gone a year, and yet tn
h world hasn't changed a mite. / Won
o der if Hazelton has taken a Rip va
Wrinkle sleep all this timer"
O "No fear" he smiled. Il can Sc
some new houses-quite a few, in fac
And look-by Jimmy! They're work
ing on the grade. That railroad, re
q memberN