The Magnetic North

who look'd from

spoke in quiet

the seventh

him, and

ords and un

had it not been for "nagging" thoughts of the Colonel. As it was, with the mercury rapidly rising and the wind fallen, he got the Pymeuts on the trail next day at noon, spen

the river trail. When the Boss o' the camp looked up and saw the prodigal coming along, rather groggy on his legs, he just stood still a moment. Then he kicked

, Kent

till the Boy got quite near,

ett'n on a swee

vine, swee'

y, Colonel? Sorry as a

h I can bear," said the Colone

ter. Were you just sendin'

efore, but I cut my foot with the axe the day you le

an' Holy

s? Holy Mo

thing I saw there gave me

surprise me.

Colonel, on legs-I found I was expected to s

only shock

you straight, Colonel-you can bank on what

" The rejoinder ca

. I think I'd be big

as peas in a pod wi

t convert me! And, from my point o' view, it don't

answer was to plung

ss, wait

as holding on to a scrub willow th

et up the last rungs o'

l made the reflection with obvious satisfaction, took off his knapsack, and sat down again. T

's he

same afternoon we had a half-breed trader fella here, with two white men. Since that day

news about

badly. But the two crazy whites with him-miners from Dakotah-they were on fire about Minóok. Kept on bragging they hadn't cold feet, and swore they'

in winter, even with a bully team and old Nick to drive 'em, and

e you,

was adding: "Did that half-breed think

had now for l

nel, if we

ably owe our lives to th

done a pretty good tramp and felt he'd rather die than go

every

e might all of

s the

erious outward gaze of the older man, even before he lifted one han

said the

o miles of frozen river, and ran half round the wide horizon-line, like creatures in

s." The Colonel arraigne

w-twig, nothing on all the ice-bound earth stirred by as much as a hair; no mark of man past or present broke the grey monotony; no sound but their

t know as I ever felt helpless in any part of the world before. But a man counts

, I've n

ince you left and the daft gold-diggers went up trail after you. The other fellas feel it, to

villainous twilight that gets into my head. All the same, you know

. "Big game, big sta

cept for the passing of an Indi

, and washed; filled coffee-pot and mush-kettle with water (or ice), and swung them over the fire; then he mixed the corn-bread, put it in the Dutch oven, covered it with coals, and left it

e up

am br

de pot

ke bak

at this point-make the coffee and the mush and keep i

the bed. It didn't work. The next time he crouched far back under the lower bunk. He was dragged out. Another Saturday he embedded himself, like a moth, in a bundle of old clothes. Mac shook him out. He had been very sanguine the day he hid in the library. This was a wooden box nailed to the wall on the right of the door. Most of the bigger books-Byron, Wordsworth, Dana's "Mineralogy," and two Bibles-he had taken out and concealed in the lower bunk very skilfully, far back behind the Colonel's fee

he wink to Mac out of the back o

the Kid's perseverance. One morning he even pointed out to

an object-lesson, but Kaviak-Lawd!-Kaviak

But there he sat in terror, like a very young monkey in a wind-rocked tree, hardly daring to breathe, his arms clasped tight round the demijohn; but having Mac

pected to keep the well-hole in the river chopped open and to bring up water every day. This didn't always happen either, though to drink sno

" was Potts' in

scurvy and can't work; we'd f

walla logs whole an' nev

n to sittin' by while th

ccupy five able-bodied men. The fun of snow-shoeing, mitigated by frostbite, quickly degenerated from a sport into a mere means of locomotion. One or two of the party wen

fireplace, and smoked, and growled, and played cards, and lived as men do, finding out a deal about each o

ite, Indian, or Esquimaux-was allowed to go by without being warmed and fed, and made to tell where he came from and whither he was bound-questions to tax the sage. Their unfailing hospitality was not i

reducing them, they talked to one another less and less as time went on, and more and more-silently and each

e winter's captivity; only he could take the best place at the fire, the best morsel at dinner, and not stir angry passions; only he dared rouse Mac when the Nova Scotian fell into one of his bear-with-a-sore-head moods. Kaviak put a stop to his staring angrily by the hour into the fire, and set him to whittling out boats and a top, thereby providing occupation for the morrow, since it was one man's work to break Kaviak of spinning the one on the tab

en," the Boy in desperation would catch up Kaviak, balance the child on his head, or execute some other gymnastic, soothing the solemn little heathen's ruffled feelings, afterwards, by crooning out a monotonous plantation song. It was

, Kaviak did not shine as a student of civilisation, though that told less against him with O'Flynn, than the fact that he wasn't "jolly and jump about, like white children." Moreover, Jimmie, swore there was something "bogey" about the boy's

as bad-that is, when he had eaten his daily fill of the camp's scanty store (in such a little place it was not easy to hide from such a hunter as Kaviak)-he was taken down to the Litt

most uncanny quickness, each man's uses from the Kaviak point of view. The only person he wasn't sworn friends with was the handy-man, and there came

gger than he, and who always took it away when they caught him. But once the sugar was safe under his shirt, he owned up without the smallest

t, and the Trio were so late coming to breakfast, and nobody did any

it was carried by a plain, and somewhat al

re all day," said the Colonel. But Potts retorted that they

but the aborigine knew what it me

, when everybody else had finished except for coff

the Colonel mildly, surprised

the plate w

ts, who had drained the can, and even wiped

t really

a fresh can ti

e. We've

s, he'l

e for him, and personally inspected the big mush-pot. Then he turned to Mac, and, pointing a fi

de plent

ush, but no

travelled to th

a fresh can some t

neck had craned, every pair of eyes had followed anxiously to that row of rapidly diminishing

y. This unprovoked attack was ample evidence that Mac was uneasy under the eyes of the camp,

m (a waistcoat of Mac's), and a jacket of the Boy's, which was usually falling off (and trailed on the ground when it wasn't), and whose sleeves were rolled up in inconvenient muffs. Still, with a gravity that did not seem impaired by these details, he stood clutching his plate anxiously with both hands, while

attenuated thread was broken, and the golden rain descended in slow,

enough,

away and

the syrupy top, and left his mus

, and the Colonel settled down to the magazines-he was rea

pen timepiece up to Mac. "Hardly middle o' the afternoon. All

've just

ok at t

lief to get it out of the way. Oppressive as the silence was, the sound of Potts's voice was wors

your gun,' and

in her resplendent fulness quite the air of snuffing out the sun. The pale and heavy-eyed day was put

flung up his heels, and tore down to the forbidden, the fascinating fish-hole. If he hadn't got snared in his trailing coat he would have won that race. When the two hunters

taken a long time to cut through the thick ice, to drive in the poles, and fasten the slight fencing, in such relation to the mouth of the sunken trap, that all well-conducted fish ought easily to

olonel brought down a ptarmigan, and said

n, and cook that

Colonel said, rather sharply: "No, sir.

t see if I can

e before the Boy got in for their game of chess. He didn't know how long he had slept when a faint scratching pricked through the veil of slumber, and he said to himself, "Kaviak's on a raid again," but he was too sodden with sleep to investigate. Just before he dropped off again, howe

r the next day th

who's spilt

ilt

yr

spilt, either." He patted

mean that

it." He turned

cket by the fire waiting for dinner. He returned th

ot up and trotted

been to

shook h

st have

N

u s

nod

go-all away-

e dinner preparations, and then went back to his cricket. It w

conversaytional wid a pint

be currled up w

efully, "bide a bit. He

e he

econd time, but w

ou got

sta

there?" Kaviak d

ticklish," s

lexity, and Kaviak re

can leak

'cause the can will." The Colo

ave leaked on to som

sy along with our d

remarked the Colonel. "We can't

d the Boy, "he always owns up. Look here, Kiddie: don't say no

d meditation seemed to

e awful good syr

topped abruptly. The Boy had said he wasn't to do

s remembering. Think again. You are a ti

k modestly admitted his

ungry in the e

so far as to ad

ou remember-the syrup can! And

-ma

esterday-th

N

S

k bli

this was full. You rememb

ak n

turned the can botto

olite regret. Then, with recovered cheerful

ay, and Mac's face got red. Thing

t, and then held it out. "It was put away shut up, for I shut it, and eve

y. They were none too little for many a forbidd

uv been yersilf, becuz th

"we'll forgive you this time

ourney from the cricke

ut tin, and now held it out-"s

ac seized him by the shou

tractive can. Was he really cunning, and did he want not to give himself away? Wasn't he said

t caught you in a l

ong breath, and seemed

tend to me, for

t, and then retreated to the cricket, as to a haven now, hastily

s on a level with the staring round eyes. "Yo' see, child, y

serious. He turned and looked

yoh h

ain, and dragged his high stool to the ta

triumphantly. "That youngster h

ehind Kaviak with a face t

s get to our grub!" said Potts, w

off the stool. "Y

nearly done. That one had said, "Yes, Farva," and

shower of sparks, picked up a book and flung it down, searched through the sewing-kit for something that wasn't lost, and t

d get us a bucket of water." Sleepily O'Flynn gav

alacrity, "I'll

vision of Potts listening at the door the night before, and then re

said to the Boy. He pulled it over his

o' restles

Colo

ey

thi

quarter of a

his dinner, isn't it? S'

se yo

he door he met

e Boy, meaning,

lammed him, as I'd have lammed

ursion into history, but all he s

ly for the child. Not seeing him, he went over a

e's K

you'll t

t here?" Mac whee

er

e back here fo

took him out." Mac made fo

nywhere about, although the watery sun had sunk full half an hour before. Th

anything?" w

N

that

gettin'

ng for tracks. Mac looked, too

Potts c

cket uphill yet without help. See, there are the Kid's

ar the Littl

was. Clean and neatly printed in the last light snowfall showe

and close vise-like on his shoulde

t down to the

p hill, the Boy saying breathless as

there was no time to

via

as they got

k I h

do

Hold on tight!

tween the two they noticed, as they raced by, the water-bucket hung on that heavy piece of driftwood that had frozen aslant in the

ow-a faint, choked voice cal

min

d ti

a mi

et-rope, was hauled out and laid on the ice before it was discovered that he had Kaviak under his arm-

and, stripping off the great sodden jacket, already beginning to free

to the cabin first

eemed not

Kaviak's face

stiff, uncertain hand, and, with a groa

help you in,

in this damn

ts' soaked parki, already stiffening unmana

n the cabin yo

his eyes on Kaviak, as if hypnotised by th

ancing over now and then to see if Kaviak was coming to, while Mac, dumb and tense, laboured on wi

sweat poured off Mac's face as he worked unceasingly over the child. The Boy pul

whiskey. Ru

dering in the distance, Potts was feebly striking his breast wit

drop, whenever he stopped trying to restore the action of the lungs. O'Flynn just barely managed to get "a swig" for Potts in the interval, though they all began to feel that Mac was working to bring back something that had gone f

ly wretched. "When my arm got numb I couldn't keep his head up;" and he swa

o do with it?" sai

n I came down he was cryin' and pullin' the tr

el quietly, "let's carry th

y heat isn't what he wa

otts up on

you fellers. Di

we didn't

im up to the cabin, for he seemed unable to walk in his frozen trousers. The Colonel an

n we do,

a bit o' use." They

r Potts' parki, anyhow," said the

do you

arly stuck fast to it. It's all over syr

nel stopped with

one of us that didn't

hat far, but c

s is

ction: "But he's a cur that can risk his l

but was soon pushed away. Mac understood better, he said; had once brought a chap rou

rned eyeballs. Mac, with a cry that brought a lump to the Colonel's throat,

, Kaviak dosed, and warm, and asleep in the lower bunk, the

f the Anvik trader, a man of some wealth

was going to the steamship Oklahoma on some business, and promised Father Wil

way! I shou

per to-night, anyhow, and

he Jesuits seemed to return w

ed off his great moose-skin gauntlets and his beaver-lined cap, and now, with a little help, dragged the drill parki over his head, and after that the fine lynx-bordered deer-skin, standing revealed at last as a well-built fellow, of

s you have there,

-mouthed kind of a chap. As the Indian sorted

urs you wa

N

you tak

o the O

tuff for Ca

am n

re Nutt." The Boy had picked up a little parki made carefully of some very soft

iece of work," s

the Shageluk squaws can

's th

ercury last week had been solid in the trading-post

ice of a coat like th

at. It's for a kid of Rai

eyed it

om, sir?" said the Colonel when th

umskulls Latin and mathematics

coat like that little

t twenty

luks ask t

ou asked the Shageluk

his part of the world, I un

ve ye

t going

nly stayed a month.

ty-two dollars for

hat one, and as

e you twe

der, you se

e you twe

shook h

l, more and more, forever after, you realise the North's taken away any taste you ever had for civilisation. That's when you've got the hang of things up here, when

ntents in silence, and flung it down on the table. The Colonel took it up, and read aloud the Father's thanks for all the white camp's kindness to Kaviak, an

ack with me when I come u

hout the little beggar," said t

uggin' him off to Holy Cross,"

s clo'es,"

, with the air of one who closes an argument. He

bath. That was the worst of sleeping in the Little Cabin. Bedtime broke the circle; you

o wood up down yonder.

n saying, "It takes a year in the Yukon for a man to get on to himself,

ontrast in cabins, jumped up, and sa

ound with condescension; "but men like you oughtn't to try to li

ment to the door, of whi

r to raise the next batch, is worth more i

y-eight for that mus

d back at him a mome

t another made for Rainey bef

" the Colonel was saying, "that the

count o' t

ed out aft

as last, held the door o

till he went in and disturbed them. That was all he had wanted. For Mac was the on

t down by the fire, and watched the sparks. By-and-by a head was put

ar

cleared his throat, but his voice fe

y out, and stood in the middle

ar

out looking, and then set the cricket in front of the fire. He thereupon averted his face, and sat as before with folded arms. He hadn't deliberately meant to make Kaviak be the first to "show his hand" after all that had

ser, and as no terrible change in the unmoved face warned him to desist, he pulled it into its usual evening position between Mac's right foot and the fireplace. He sank down with a sigh of relief, as one w

ighed again, and held out two l

cough and a snort, and wiped hi

d started

ld?" as

ak n

ngr

ain, and fel

ht the newly purchas

as the child's big eyes g

d his bare feet fluttered up and d

child tumbled dizzily into it, a

-rat coat, so close up to Mac that he could lean against his arm, and eating out of a plenty-bowl on his k

he pushed at Mac's arm till he found a way in, laid his head down

d on the croppe

at empty

ad to foot. Was the obscure nightm

o disarm the awful fury of the white man-able to endure with di

solly. Ou

ed, gathering the child up to him; "and