The Idaho Republican., 1919-03-11

n Z deprived Of them. He has
Q no conception Of the subtle
06X atmosphere exhaled by the
sex feminine so long as he bathes In
1t: but let 1t be withdrawn, and an
ever-growing void begins to manifest
itself In his existence, and he becomes
hungry, in vague sort OF way, for a
something so indefinite that he cannot
characterize it. If his comrades have
no more experience than himself, they
will shake their heads dubiously and
dose him with strong physic. But the
hunger will continue and become
stronger; he will lose interest in the
things of his everyday life and wax
morbid; and one day, when the empti-
ness has become unbearable, a revela-
tion will dawn upon him.
In the Yukon country, when this
comes to pass, the man usually pro-
visions a polling boat, If 1t be summer,
and II winter harnesses his dogs, and
heads for the Southland. A few
months later, supposing him to be pos
sessed of q faith in the country, he
returns with wife to share with him
in that faith, and incidentally in his
hardships. This but serves to show
the innate selfishness of man. 1t also
brings us to the trouble Of "Scruff'
Mackenzie, which occurred in the old
days, before the country was stamped
ed and staked by a tidal wave Of che
cha-quas, and when the Klondikes
only claim to notice was its salmon
fisheries.
Scruff Mackenzie bore the earmarks
of frontier birth and frontier life.
His face was stamped with twenty-five
years of incessant struggle with ma
ture in her widest moods, the last
two, the widest and hardest of all,
having been spent in cropping for the
gold which lies in the shadow Of the
Arctic Circle. When the yearning
sickness came upon him he was not
surprised, for he was practical man
and had seen other men thus stricken.
But he showed no sign Of his malady,
save that he worked harder. All sum-
mer he fought mosquitoes and washed
the sure-thing bars of the Stuart river
for double grub-stake. Then he
floated a raft of house-logs down the
Yukon to Forty Mile, and put together
as comfortable a cabin as any the
camp could boast of. In fact, it showed
such cozy promise that many men
elected to be his partner and to come
and live with him. But he crushed
their aspirations with rough speech,
peculiar for its strength and brevity,
and bought a double supply Of grub
from the trading-post.
He was sturdy traveller, and his
wolf-dogs could work harder and trav-
ell farther on less grub than any other
team in the Yukon. Three weeks later
he strobe into hunting camp OF the
Upper Tanana Sticks. They mar
veled at his temerity; for they had
bad name and had been known to kill
white men for as trifling thing as
sharp ak or broken rifle. But he
went among them single-handed, his
bearing being a delicious composite OF
humility, familiarity, sang-froid, and
insolence. It required left hand and
deep knowledge Of the barbaric mind
effectually to handle such diverse
weapons; but he was past master
in the art, knowing when to cOnciliate
and when to threaten with Jove-like
wrath.
He first made obeisance to the Chief
Thling-Tinneh, presenting him with
couple Of pounds of black tea and to-
bacco, and thereby winning his most
cordial regard. Then he mingled with
the men and maidens, and that night
gave a potlach. The snow was beaten
down in the form Of an Oblong, per-
haps a hundred feet in length and
quarter as many across. Down the
center a long fire was built, while
either side was carpeted with spruce
boughs. The lodges were forsaken,
and the flvescore or so members Of
the tribe gave tongue to their folk
chants in honor Of their guests.
Scruff MackenZie's two years had
taught him the not many hun
dred words Of their vocabulary,
and he had likewise conquered
their deep gutturals, their jap
,anese idioms, constructions, and hon
orific and agglutinative particles. So
he made grafton after their manner,
satisfying their instructive poetry-love
with crude flights of eloquence and
contortions. After
Thing -Tinneh and the Shaman had
in kind, he made trifling
presents to the menfolk, Joined in their
singing, and proved an expert In their
gambling game.
It was slow work and stiff game;
but Scruff Mackenzie maneuvered
cunningly, with an unconcern which
served to puzzle the Sticks. He took
great care to impress the men that
he was sure shot and mighty hunt
er, and the camp rang with his plaudits
when he brought down a moose at six
hundred yards. or night he visited