Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-04-24
CHAPTER XIII.
The Stress of the Trail.

on the summit of the Klappnn, and looked away to where the valley that opened out of the basin showed its 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- mer 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 blanket apiece, and that was Hazers load-all he would allow her to carry.
 "YOu're no pack mule, little person." he would say. "It don't hurt me. I've done this for years."
 But even with abnormal strength and endurance, it was killing work to buck those ragged slopes with a heavy load. Only by terrible, unremitting ef- fort could he advance any appreciable distance. They were footsore, and their bodies ached with weariness that verged on pain when they gained the pass that cut the summit of the KlaD- pan range.
 "Well, we're over the hump," Bill re- marked thankfully. Its a downhill shoot to the Skeena. I 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-four and salt and tea; with meat and fish got by the way. And tho 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 it's swirling reaches. the sinuous eddies-a deep, swift, treacherOus stream. But Bill rested overnight, and in the morning sought and felled sizable cedar, and began to hew. Slowly the thick trunk shaped itself to the form of boat under the steady swing of his ax.
 In week 1t 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 hundred miles. Wherefore there are rapids, boiling stretches of white water in which many 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 old stone, in which the waters ragged with deafening roar. No man ventured into that wild gorge. They abandoned the dugout. Bill slung the sack of gold and the bale of furs on his back.
 Its the last lap, Hazel" said he "We'll leave the rest of 1t for the first Siwash that happens along."
 So they set out bravely to trudge the remaining distance. And as the fortunes of the trail sometimes be- fall, they raised an Indian camp on the bank of the river at the mouth of the canon. A ten-dollar bill made them possessors of another canoe, and an hour later the roofs of Hazelton cropped up above the bank.
 "Oh, Bill," Hazel called from the bow. Look! There's the same old steamer tied to the same old bank. We've been gone year, and yet the world hasn't changed a mite. l won- der If Hazelton has taken a Rip van Wrinkle sleep all this timer"
 "No fear," he smiled. "I can see some new houses-Quite few, in fact. And look-by Jiminyl They're work ing on the grade. That railroad, re- member?"
 He drove the canoe alongside float. A few loungers viewed them with frank curiosity. Bill set out the treas ure sack and the bale of furs. and tied the canoe.
 "A new hotel, by Jovel" he re- marked, when upon gaining the level of the town a new two-story building blazoned with a huge sign it's func- tion as hostelry. "Getting quite metropolitan in this neck of the woods. Say, little person, do you think you can relish square meal? Planked steak and lobster salad-huh? won- l der If they could rustic a salad in this