'i will talk of the things which were in my own way; but you will understand. i will begin at the beginning, and tell of myself and the woman, and, after that, of the man.' he of the otter skins drew over to the stove as do men who have been deprived of fire and are afraid the promethean gift may vanish at any moment. malemute kid picked up the slush lamp and placed it so its light might fall upon the face of the narrator. prince slid his body over the edge of the bunk and joined them.
'i am naass, a chief, and the son of a chief, born between a sunset and a rising, on the dark seas, in my father's oomiak. all of a night the men toiled at the paddles, and the women cast out the waves which threw in upon us, and we fought with the storm. the salt spray froze upon my mother's breast till her breath passed with the passing of the tide. but i—i raised my voice with the wind and the storm, and lived.
'we dwelt in akatan—' 'where?' asked malemute kid.
'akatan, which is in the aleutians; akatan, beyond chignik, beyond kardalak, beyond unimak. as i say, we dwelt in akatan, which lies in the midst of the sea on the edge of the world. we farmed the salt seas for the fish, the seal, and the otter; and our homes shouldered about one another on the rocky strip between the rim of the forest and the yellow beach where our kayaks lay. we were not many, and the world was very small. there were strange lands to the east—islands like akatan; so we thought all the world was islands and did not mind.
'i was different from my people. in the sands of the beach were the crooked timbers and wave-warped planks of a boat such as my people never built; and i remember on the point of the island which overlooked the ocean three ways there stood a pine tree which never grew there, smooth and straight and tall. it is said the two men came to that spot, turn about, through many days, and watched with the passing of the light. these two men came from out of the sea in the boat which lay in pieces on the beach. and they were white like you, and weak as the little children when the seal have gone away and the hunters come home empty. i know of these things from the old men and the old women, who got them from their fathers and mothers before them. these strange white men did not take kindly to our ways at first, but they grew strong, what of the fish and the oil, and fierce. and they built them each his own house, and took the pick of our women, and in time children came. thus he was born who was to become the father of my father's father.
'as i said, i was different from my people, for i carried the strong, strange blood of this white man who came out of the sea. it is said we had other laws in the days before these men; but they were fierce and quarrelsome, and fought with our men till there were no more left who dared to fight. then they made themselves chiefs, and took away our old laws, and gave us new ones, insomuch that the man was the son of his father, and not his mother, as our way had been. they also ruled that the son, first-born, should have all things which were his father's before him, and that the brothers and sisters should shift for themselves. and they gave us other laws. they showed us new ways in the catching of fish and the killing of bear which were thick in the woods; and they taught us to lay by bigger stores for the time of famine. and these things were good.
'but when they had become chiefs, and there were no more men to face their anger, they fought, these strange white men, each with the other. and the one whose blood i carry drove his seal spear the length of an arm through the other's body. their children took up the fight, and their children's children; and there was great hatred between them, and black doings, even to my time, so that in each family but one lived to pass down the blood of them that went before. of my blood i was alone; of the other man's there was but a girl. unga, who lived with her mother. her father and my father did not come back from the fishing one night; but afterward they washed up to the beach on the big tides, and they held very close to each other.
'the people wondered, because of the hatred between the houses, and the old men shook their heads and said the fight would go on when children were born to her and children to me. they told me this as a boy, till i came to believe, and to look upon unga as a foe, who was to be the mother of children which were to fight with mine. i thought of these things day by day, and when i grew to a stripling i came to ask why this should be so.
'and they answered, "we do not know, but that in such way your fathers did." and i marveled that those which were to come should fight the battles of those that were gone, and in it i could see no right. but the people said it must be, and i was only a stripling.
'and they said i must hurry, that my blood might be the older and grow strong before hers. this was easy, for i was head man, and the people looked up to me because of the deeds and the laws of my fathers, and the wealth which was mine. any maiden would come to me, but i found none to my liking. and the old men and the mothers of maidens told me to hurry, for even then were the hunters bidding high to the mother of unga; and should her children grow strong before mine, mine would surely die.
'nor did i find a maiden till one night coming back from the fishing. the sunlight was lying, so, low and full in the eyes, the wind free, and the kayacks racing with the white seas. of a sudden the kayak of unga came driving past me, and she looked upon me, so, with her black hair flying like a cloud of night and the spray wet on her cheek. as i say, the sunlight was full in the eyes, and i was a stripling; but somehow it was all clear, and i knew it to be the call of kind to kind.
'as she whipped ahead she looked back within the space of two strokes—looked as only the woman unga could look—and again i knew it as the call of kind. the people shouted as we ripped past the lazy oomiaks and left them far behind. but she was quick at the paddle, and my heart was like the belly of a sail, and i did not gain. the wind freshened, the sea whitened, and, leaping like the seals on the windward breech, we roared down the golden pathway of the sun.' naass was crouched half out of his stool, in the attitude of one driving a paddle, as he ran the race anew. somewhere across the stove he beheld the tossing kayak and the flying hair of unga. the voice of the wind was in his ears, and its salt beat fresh upon his nostrils.
'but she made the shore, and ran up the sand, laughing, to the house of her mother. and a great thought came to me that night—a thought worthy of him that was chief over all the people of akatan. so, when the moon was up, i went down to the house of her mother, and looked upon the goods of yash-noosh, which were piled by the door—the goods of yash-noosh, a strong hunter who had it in mind to be the father of the children of unga. other young men had piled their goods there and taken them away again; and each young man had made a pile greater than the one before.
'and i laughed to the moon and the stars, and went to my own house where my wealth was stored. and many trips i made, till my pile was greater by the fingers of one hand than the pile of yash-noosh. there were fish, dried in the sun and smoked; and forty hides of the hair seal, and half as many of the fur, and each hide was tied at the mouth and big bellied with oil; and ten skins of bear which i killed in the woods when they came out in the spring. and there were beads and blankets and scarlet cloths, such as i got in trade from the people who lived to the east, and who got them in trade from the people who lived still beyond in the east.
'and i looked upon the pile of yash-noosh and laughed, for i was head man in akatan, and my wealth was greater than the wealth of all my young men, and my fathers had done deeds, and given laws, and put their names for all time in the mouths of the people.
'so, when the morning came, i went down to the beach, casting out of the corner of my eye at the house of the mother of unga. my offer yet stood untouched.
'and the women smiled, and said sly things one to the other. i wondered, for never had such a price been offered; and that night i added more to the pile, and put beside it a kayak of well-tanned skins which never yet had swam in the sea. but in the day it was yet there, open to the laughter of all men. the mother of unga was crafty, and i grew angry at the shame in which i stood before my people. so that night i added till it became a great pile, and i hauled up my oomiak, which was of the value of twenty kayaks. and in the morning there was no pile.
'then made i preparation for the wedding, and the people that lived even to the east came for the food of the feast and the potlatch token. unga was older than i by the age of four suns in the way we reckoned the years. i was only a stripling; but then i was a chief, and the son of a chief, and it did not matter.
'but a ship shoved her sails above the floor of the ocean, and grew larger with the breath of the wind. from her scuppers she ran clear water, and the men were in haste and worked hard at the pumps. on the bow stood a mighty man, watching the depth of the water and giving commands with a voice of thunder. his eyes were of the pale blue of the deep waters, and his head was maned like that of a sea lion. and his hair was yellow, like the straw of a southern harvest or the manila rope yarns which sailormen plait.
'of late years we had seen ships from afar, but this was the first to come to the beach of akatan. the feast was broken, and the women and children fled to the houses, while we men strung our bows and waited with spears in hand. but when the ship's forefoot smelled the beach the strange men took no notice of us, being busy with their own work. with the falling of the tide they careened the schooner and patched a great hole in her bottom. so the women crept back, and the feast went on.
'when the tide rose, the sea wanderers kedged the schooner to deep water and then came among us. they bore presents and were friendly; so i made room for them, and out of the largeness of my heart gave them tokens such as i gave all the guests, for it was my wedding day, and i was head man in akatan. and he with the mane of the sea lion was there, so tall and strong that one looked to see the earth shake with the fall of his feet. he looked much and straight at unga, with his arms folded, so, and stayed till the sun went away and the stars came out. then he went down to his ship. after that i took unga by the hand and led her to my own house. and there was singing and great laughter, and the women said sly things, after the manner of women at such times. but we did not care. then the people left us alone and went home.
'the last noise had not died away when the chief of the sea wanderers came in by the door. and he had with him black bottles, from which we drank and made merry. you see, i was only a stripling, and had lived all my days on the edge of the world. so my blood became as fire, and my heart as light as the froth that flies from the surf to the cliff. unga sat silent among the skins in the corner, her eyes wide, for she seemed to fear. and he with the mane of the sea lion looked upon her straight and long. then his men came in with bundles of goods, and he piled before me wealth such as was not in all akatan. there were guns, both large and small, and powder and shot and shell, and bright axes and knives of steel, and cunning tools, and strange things the like of which i had never seen. when he showed me by sign that it was all mine, i thought him a great man to be so free; but he showed me also that unga was to go away with him in his ship.
'do you understand?—that unga was to go away with him in his ship. the blood of my fathers flamed hot on the sudden, and i made to drive him through with my spear. but the spirit of the bottles had stolen the life from my arm, and he took me by the neck, so, and knocked my head against the wall of the house. and i was made weak like a newborn child, and my legs would no more stand under me.
'unga screamed, and she laid hold of the things of the house with her hands, till they fell all about us as he dragged her to the door. then he took her in his great arms, and when she tore at his yellow hair laughed with a sound like that of the big bull seal in the rut.
'i crawled to the beach and called upon my people, but they were afraid. only yash-noosh was a man, and they struck him on the head with an oar, till he lay with his face in the sand and did not move. and they raised the sails to the sound of their songs, and the ship went away on the wind.
'the people said it was good, for there would be no more war of the bloods in akatan; but i said never a word, waiting till the time of the full moon, when i put fish and oil in my kayak and went away to the east. i saw many islands and many people, and i, who had lived on the edge, saw that the world was very large. i talked by signs; but they had not seen a schooner nor a man with the mane of a sea lion, and they pointed always to the east. and i slept in queer places, and ate odd things, and met strange faces. many laughed, for they thought me light of head; but sometimes old men turned my face to the light and blessed me, and the eyes of the young women grew soft as they asked me of the strange ship, and unga, and the men of the sea.
'and in this manner, through rough seas and great storms, i came to unalaska. there were two schooners there, but neither was the one i sought. so i passed on to the east, with the world growing ever larger, and in the island of unamok there was no word of the ship, nor in kadiak, nor in atognak. and so i came one day to a rocky land, where men dug great holes in the mountain. and there was a schooner, but not my schooner, and men loaded upon it the rocks which they dug. this i thought childish, for all the world was made of rocks; but they gave me food and set me to work. when the schooner was deep in the water, the captain gave me money and told me to go; but i asked which way he went, and he pointed south. i made signs that i would go with him, and he laughed at first, but then, being short of men, took me to help work the ship. so i came to talk after their manner, and to heave on ropes, and to reef the stiff sails in sudden squalls, and to take my turn at the wheel. but it was not strange, for the blood of my fathers was the blood of the men of the sea.
'i had thought it an easy task to find him i sought, once i got among his own people; and when we raised the land one day, and passed between a gateway of the sea to a port, i looked for perhaps as many schooners as there were fingers to my hands. but the ships lay against the wharves for miles, packed like so many little fish; and when i went among them to ask for a man with the mane of a sea lion, they laughed, and answered me in the tongues of many peoples. and i found that they hailed from the uttermost parts of the earth.
'and i went into the city to look upon the face of every man. but they were like the cod when they run thick on the banks, and i could not count them. and the noise smote upon me till i could not hear, and my head was dizzy with much movement. so i went on and on, through the lands which sang in the warm sunshine; where the harvests lay rich on the plains; and where great cities were fat with men that lived like women, with false words in their mouths and their hearts black with the lust of gold. and all the while my people of akatan hunted and fished, and were happy in the thought that the world was small.
'but the look in the eyes of unga coming home from the fishing was with me always, and i knew i would find her when the time was met. she walked down quiet lanes in the dusk of the evening, or led me chases across the thick fields wet with the morning dew, and there was a promise in her eyes such as only the woman unga could give.
'so i wandered through a thousand cities. some were gentle and gave me food, and others laughed, and still others cursed; but i kept my tongue between my teeth, and went strange ways and saw strange sights. sometimes i, who was a chief and the son of a chief, toiled for men—men rough of speech and hard as iron, who wrung gold from the sweat and sorrow of their fellow men. yet no word did i get of my quest till i came back to the sea like a homing seal to the rookeries.
'but this was at another port, in another country which lay to the north. and there i heard dim tales of the yellow-haired sea wanderer, and i learned that he was a hunter of seals, and that even then he was abroad on the ocean.
'so i shipped on a seal schooner with the lazy siwashes, and followed his trackless trail to the north where the hunt was then warm. and we were away weary months, and spoke many of the fleet, and heard much of the wild doings of him i sought; but never once did we raise him above the sea. we went north, even to the pribilofs, and killed the seals in herds on the beach, and brought their warm bodies aboard till our scuppers ran grease and blood and no man could stand upon the deck. then were we chased by a ship of slow steam, which fired upon us with great guns. but we put sail till the sea was over our decks and washed them clean, and lost ourselves in a fog.
'it is said, at this time, while we fled with fear at our hearts, that the yellow-haired sea wanderer put in to the pribilofs, right to the factory, and while the part of his men held the servants of the company, the rest loaded ten thousand green skins from the salt houses. i say it is said, but i believe; for in the voyages i made on the coast with never a meeting the northern seas rang with his wildness and daring, till the three nations which have lands there sought him with their ships.
'and i heard of unga, for the captains sang loud in her praise, and she was always with him. she had learned the ways of his people, they said, and was happy. but i knew better—knew that her heart harked back to her own people by the yellow beach of akatan.
'so, after a long time, i went back to the port which is by a gateway of the sea, and there i learned that he had gone across the girth of the great ocean to hunt for the seal to the east of the warm land which runs south from the russian seas.
'and i, who was become a sailorman, shipped with men of his own race, and went after him in the hunt of the seal. and there were few ships off that new land; but we hung on the flank of the seal pack and harried it north through all the spring of the year. and when the cows were heavy with pup and crossed the russian line, our men grumbled and were afraid. for there was much fog, and every day men were lost in the boats. they would not work, so the captain turned the ship back toward the way it came. but i knew the yellow-haired sea wanderer was unafraid, and would hang by the pack, even to the russian isles, where few men go. so i took a boat, in the black of night, when the lookout dozed on the fo'c'slehead, and went alone to the warm, long land. and i journeyed south to meet the men by yeddo bay, who are wild and unafraid. and the yoshiwara girls were small, and bright like steel, and good to look upon; but i could not stop, for i knew that unga rolled on the tossing floor by the rookeries of the north.
'the men by yeddo bay had met from the ends of the earth, and had neither gods nor homes, sailing under the flag of the japanese. and with them i went to the rich beaches of copper island, where our salt piles became high with skins.
'and in that silent sea we saw no man till we were ready to come away. then one day the fog lifted on the edge of a heavy wind, and there jammed down upon us a schooner, with close in her wake the cloudy funnels of a russian man-of-war. we fled away on the beam of the wind, with the schooner jamming still closer and plunging ahead three feet to our two. and upon her poop was the man with the mane of the sea lion, pressing the rails under with the canvas and laughing in his strength of life. and unga was there—i knew her on the moment—but he sent her below when the cannons began to talk across the sea.
as i say, with three feet to our two, till we saw the rudder lift green at every jump—and i swinging on to the wheel and cursing, with my back to the russian shot. for we knew he had it in mind to run before us, that he might get away while we were caught. and they knocked our masts out of us till we dragged into the wind like a wounded gull; but he went on over the edge of the sky line—he and unga.
'what could we? the fresh hides spoke for themselves. so they took us to a russian port, and after that to a lone country, where they set us to work in the mines to dig salt. and some died, and—and some did not die.' naass swept the blanket from his shoulders, disclosing the gnarled and twisted flesh, marked with the unmistakable striations of the knout. prince hastily covered him, for it was not nice to look upon.
'we were there a weary time and sometimes men got away to the south, but they always came back. so, when we who hailed from yeddo bay rose in the night and took the guns from the guards, we went to the north. and the land was very large, with plains, soggy with water, and great forests. and the cold came, with much snow on the ground, and no man knew the way. weary months we journeyed through the endless forest—i do not remember, now, for there was little food and often we lay down to die. but at last we came to the cold sea, and but three were left to look upon it. one had shipped from yeddo as captain, and he knew in his head the lay of the great lands, and of the place where men may cross from one to the other on the ice. and he led us—i do not know, it was so long—till there were but two. when we came to that place we found five of the strange people which live in that country, and they had dogs and skins, and we were very poor. we fought in the snow till they died, and the captain died, and the dogs and skins were mine. then i crossed on the ice, which was broken, and once i drifted till a gale from the west put me upon the shore. and after that, golovin bay, pastilik, and the priest. then south, south, to the warm sunlands where first i wandered.
'but the sea was no longer fruitful, and those who went upon it after the seal went to little profit and great risk. the fleets scattered, and the captains and the men had no word of those i sought. so i turned away from the ocean which never rests, and went among the lands, where the trees, the houses, and the mountains sit always in one place and do not move. i journeyed far, and came to learn many things, even to the way of reading and writing from books. it was well i should do this, for it came upon me that unga must know these things, and that someday, when the time was met—we—you understand, when the time was met.
'so i drifted, like those little fish which raise a sail to the wind but cannot steer. but my eyes and my ears were open always, and i went among men who traveled much, for i knew they had but to see those i sought to remember. at last there came a man, fresh from the mountains, with pieces of rock in which the free gold stood to the size of peas, and he had heard, he had met, he knew them. they were rich, he said, and lived in the place where they drew the gold from the ground.
'it was in a wild country, and very far away; but in time i came to the camp, hidden between the mountains, where men worked night and day, out of the sight of the sun. yet the time was not come. i listened to the talk of the people. he had gone away—they had gone away—to england, it was said, in the matter of bringing men with much money together to form companies. i saw the house they had lived in; more like a palace, such as one sees in the old countries. in the nighttime i crept in through a window that i might see in what manner he treated her. i went from room to room, and in such way thought kings and queens must live, it was all so very good. and they all said he treated her like a queen, and many marveled as to what breed of woman she was for there was other blood in her veins, and she was different from the women of akatan, and no one knew her for what she was. aye, she was a queen; but i was a chief, and the son of a chief, and i had paid for her an untold price of skin and boat and bead.
'but why so many words? i was a sailorman, and knew the way of the ships on the seas. i followed to england, and then to other countries. sometimes i heard of them by word of mouth, sometimes i read of them in the papers; yet never once could i come by them, for they had much money, and traveled fast, while i was a poor man. then came trouble upon them, and their wealth slipped away one day like a curl of smoke. the papers were full of it at the time; but after that nothing was said, and i knew they had gone back where more gold could be got from the ground.
'they had dropped out of the world, being now poor, and so i wandered from camp to camp, even north to the kootenay country, where i picked up the cold scent. they had come and gone, some said this way, and some that, and still others that they had gone to the country of the yukon. and i went this way, and i went that, ever journeying from place to place, till it seemed i must grow weary of the world which was so large. but in the kootenay i traveled a bad trail, and a long trail, with a breed of the northwest, who saw fit to die when the famine pinched. he had been to the yukon by an unknown way over the mountains, and when he knew his time was near gave me the map and the secret of a place where he swore by his gods there was much gold.
'after that all the world began to flock into the north. i was a poor man; i sold myself to be a driver of dogs. the rest you know. i met him and her in dawson.
'she did not know me, for i was only a stripling, and her life had been large, so she had no time to remember the one who had paid for her an untold price.
'so? you bought me from my term of service. i went back to bring things about in my own way, for i had waited long, and now that i had my hand upon him was in no hurry.
'as i say, i had it in mind to do my own way, for i read back in my life, through all i had seen and suffered, and remembered the cold and hunger of the endless forest by the russian seas. as you know, i led him into the east—him and unga—into the east where many have gone and few returned. i led them to the spot where the bones and the curses of men lie with the gold which they may not have.
'the way was long and the trail unpacked. our dogs were many and ate much; nor could our sleds carry till the break of spring. we must come back before the river ran free. so here and there we cached grub, that our sleds might be lightened and there be no chance of famine on the back trip. at the mcquestion there were three men, and near them we built a cache, as also did we at the mayo, where was a hunting camp of a dozen pellys which had crossed the divide from the south.
'after that, as we went on into the east, we saw no men; only the sleeping river, the moveless forest, and the white silence of the north. as i say, the way was long and the trail unpacked. sometimes, in a day's toil, we made no more than eight miles, or ten, and at night we slept like dead men. and never once did they dream that i was naass, head man of akatan, the righter of wrongs.
'we now made smaller caches, and in the nighttime it was a small matter to go back on the trail we had broken and change them in such way that one might deem the wolverines the thieves. again there be places where there is a fall to the river, and the water is unruly, and the ice makes above and is eaten away beneath.
'in such a spot the sled i drove broke through, and the dogs; and to him and unga it was ill luck, but no more. and there was much grub on that sled, and the dogs the strongest.
'but he laughed, for he was strong of life, and gave the dogs that were left little grub till we cut them from the harnesses one by one and fed them to their mates. we would go home light, he said, traveling and eating from cache to cache, with neither dogs nor sleds; which was true, for our grub was very short, and the last dog died in the traces the night we came to the gold and the bones and the curses of men.
'to reach that place—and the map spoke true—in the heart of the great mountains, we cut ice steps against the wall of a divide. one looked for a valley beyond, but there was no valley; the snow spread away, level as the great harvest plains, and here and there about us mighty mountains shoved their white heads among the stars. and midway on that strange plain which should have been a valley the earth and the snow fell away, straight down toward the heart of the world.
'had we not been sailormen our heads would have swung round with the sight, but we stood on the dizzy edge that we might see a way to get down. and on one side, and one side only, the wall had fallen away till it was like the slope of the decks in a topsail breeze. i do not know why this thing should be so, but it was so. "it is the mouth of hell," he said; "let us go down." and we went down.
'and on the bottom there was a cabin, built by some man, of logs which he had cast down from above. it was a very old cabin, for men had died there alone at different times, and on pieces of birch bark which were there we read their last words and their curses.
'one had died of scurvy; another's partner had robbed him of his last grub and powder and stolen away; a third had been mauled by a baldface grizzly; a fourth had hunted for game and starved—and so it went, and they had been loath to leave the gold, and had died by the side of it in one way or another. and the worthless gold they had gathered yellowed the floor of the cabin like in a dream.
'but his soul was steady, and his head clear, this man i had led thus far. "we have nothing to eat," he said, "and we will only look upon this gold, and see whence it comes and how much there be. then we will go away quick, before it gets into our eyes and steals away our judgment. and in this way we may return in the end, with more grub, and possess it all." so we looked upon the great vein, which cut the wall of the pit as a true vein should, and we measured it, and traced it from above and below, and drove the stakes of the claims and blazed the trees in token of our rights. then, our knees shaking with lack of food, and a sickness in our bellies, and our hearts chugging close to our mouths, we climbed the mighty wall for the last time and turned our faces to the back trip.
'the last stretch we dragged unga between us, and we fell often, but in the end we made the cache. and lo, there was no grub. it was well done, for he thought it the wolverines, and damned them and his gods in one breath. but unga was brave, and smiled, and put her hand in his, till i turned away that i might hold myself. "we will rest by the fire," she said, "till morning, and we will gather strength from our moccasins." so we cut the tops of our moccasins in strips, and boiled them half of the night, that we might chew them and swallow them. and in the morning we talked of our chance. the next cache was five days' journey; we could not make it. we must find game.
'"we will go forth and hunt," he said.
'"yes," said i, "we will go forth and hunt." 'and he ruled that unga stay by the fire and save her strength. and we went forth, he in quest of the moose and i to the cache i had changed. but i ate little, so they might not see in me much strength. and in the night he fell many times as he drew into camp. and i, too, made to suffer great weakness, stumbling over my snowshoes as though each step might be my last. and we gathered strength from our moccasins.
'he was a great man. his soul lifted his body to the last; nor did he cry aloud, save for the sake of unga. on the second day i followed him, that i might not miss the end. and he lay down to rest often. that night he was near gone; but in the morning he swore weakly and went forth again. he was like a drunken man, and i looked many times for him to give up, but his was the strength of the strong, and his soul the soul of a giant, for he lifted his body through all the weary day. and he shot two ptarmigan, but would not eat them. he needed no fire; they meant life; but his thought was for unga, and he turned toward camp.
'he no longer walked, but crawled on hand and knee through the snow. i came to him, and read death in his eyes. even then it was not too late to eat of the ptarmigan. he cast away his rifle and carried the birds in his mouth like a dog. i walked by his side, upright. and he looked at me during the moments he rested, and wondered that i was so strong. i could see it, though he no longer spoke; and when his lips moved, they moved without sound.
'as i say, he was a great man, and my heart spoke for softness; but i read back in my life, and remembered the cold and hunger of the endless forest by the russian seas. besides, unga was mine, and i had paid for her an untold price of skin and boat and bead.
'and in this manner we came through the white forest, with the silence heavy upon us like a damp sea mist. and the ghosts of the past were in the air and all about us; and i saw the yellow beach of akatan, and the kayaks racing home from the fishing, and the houses on the rim of the forest. and the men who had made themselves chiefs were there, the lawgivers whose blood i bore and whose blood i had wedded in unga. aye, and yash-noosh walked with me, the wet sand in his hair, and his war spear, broken as he fell upon it, still in his hand. and i knew the time was meet, and saw in the eyes of unga the promise.
'as i say, we came thus through the forest, till the smell of the camp smoke was in our nostrils. and i bent above him, and tore the ptarmigan from his teeth.
'he turned on his side and rested, the wonder mounting in his eyes, and the hand which was under slipping slow toward the knife at his hip. but i took it from him, smiling close in his face. even then he did not understand. so i made to drink from black bottles, and to build high upon the snow a pile—of goods, and to live again the things which had happened on the night of my marriage. i spoke no word, but he understood. yet was he unafraid. there was a sneer to his lips, and cold anger, and he gathered new strength with the knowledge. it was not far, but the snow was deep, and he dragged himself very slow.
'once he lay so long i turned him over and gazed into his eyes. and sometimes he looked forth, and sometimes death. and when i loosed him he struggled on again. in this way we came to the fire. unga was at his side on the instant. his lips moved without sound; then he pointed at me, that unga might understand. and after that he lay in the snow, very still, for a long while. even now is he there in the snow.
'i said no word till i had cooked the ptarmigan. then i spoke to her, in her own tongue, which she had not heard in many years. she straightened herself, so, and her eyes were wonder-wide, and she asked who i was, and where i had learned that speech.
'"i am naass," i said.
'"you?" she said. "you?" and she crept close that she might look upon me.
'"yes," i answered; "i am naass, head man of akatan, the last of the blood, as you are the last of the blood." 'and she laughed. by all the things i have seen and the deeds i have done may i never hear such a laugh again. it put the chill to my soul, sitting there in the white silence, alone with death and this woman who laughed.
'"come!" i said, for i thought she wandered. "eat of the food and let us be gone. it is a far fetch from here to akatan." 'but she shoved her face in his yellow mane, and laughed till it seemed the heavens must fall about our ears. i had thought she would be overjoyed at the sight of me, and eager to go back to the memory of old times, but this seemed a strange form to take.
'"come!" i cried, taking her strong by the hand. "the way is long and dark. let us hurry!" "where?" she asked, sitting up, and ceasing from her strange mirth.
'"to akatan," i answered, intent on the light to grow on her face at the thought. but it became like his, with a sneer to the lips, and cold anger.
'"yes," she said; "we will go, hand in hand, to akatan, you and i. and we will live in the dirty huts, and eat of the fish and oil, and bring forth a spawn—a spawn to be proud of all the days of our life. we will forget the world and be happy, very happy. it is good, most good. come! let us hurry. let us go back to akatan." and she ran her hand through his yellow hair, and smiled in a way which was not good. and there was no promise in her eyes.
'i sat silent, and marveled at the strangeness of woman. i went back to the night when he dragged her from me and she screamed and tore at his hair—at his hair which now she played with and would not leave. then i remembered the price and the long years of waiting; and i gripped her close, and dragged her away as he had done. and she held back, even as on that night, and fought like a she-cat for its whelp. and when the fire was between us and the man. i loosed her, and she sat and listened. and i told her of all that lay between, of all that had happened to me on strange seas, of all that i had done in strange lands; of my weary quest, and the hungry years, and the promise which had been mine from the first. aye, i told all, even to what had passed that day between the man and me, and in the days yet young. and as i spoke i saw the promise grow in her eyes, full and large like the break of dawn. and i read pity there, the tenderness of woman, the love, the heart and the soul of unga. and i was a stripling again, for the look was the look of unga as she ran up the beach, laughing, to the home of her mother. the stern unrest was gone, and the hunger, and the weary waiting.
'the time was met. i felt the call of her breast, and it seemed there i must pillow my head and forget. she opened her arms to me, and i came against her. then, sudden, the hate flamed in her eye, her hand was at my hip. and once, twice, she passed the knife.
'"dog!" she sneered, as she flung me into the snow. "swine!" and then she laughed till the silence cracked, and went back to her dead.
'as i say, once she passed the knife, and twice; but she was weak with hunger, and it was not meant that i should die. yet was i minded to stay in that place, and to close my eyes in the last long sleep with those whose lives had crossed with mine and led my feet on unknown trails. but there lay a debt upon me which would not let me rest.
'and the way was long, the cold bitter, and there was little grub. the pellys had found no moose, and had robbed my cache. and so had the three white men, but they lay thin and dead in their cabins as i passed. after that i do not remember, till i came here, and found food and fire—much fire.' as he finished, he crouched closely, even jealously, over the stove. for a long while the slush-lamp shadows played tragedies upon the wall.
'but unga!' cried prince, the vision still strong upon him.
'unga? she would not eat of the ptarmigan. she lay with her arms about his neck, her face deep in his yellow hair. i drew the fire close, that she might not feel the frost, but she crept to the other side. and i built a fire there; yet it was little good, for she would not eat. and in this manner they still lie up there in the snow.'
'and you?' asked malemute kid.
'i do not know; but akatan is small, and i have little wish to go back and live on the edge of the world. yet is there small use in life. i can go to constantine, and he will put irons upon me, and one day they will tie a piece of rope, so, and i will sleep good. yet—no; i do not know.' 'but, kid,' protested prince, 'this is murder!' 'hush!' commanded malemute kid. 'there be things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice. the right and the wrong of this we cannot say, and it is not for us to judge.' naass drew yet closer to the fire. there was a great silence, and in each man's eyes many pictures came and went.
