The Magnetic North

er mi

tjerner Natt

ir eyes. They found their tongues again, and talked "Minóok" from morning

ainst this view. But he had Potts on his side. When the New Year opened, the trail was in capital condition. On the second of January two lots of

l, they c

we've a mind

on,

ak's unbounded surprise and disgust, his view of life being that, wherever Mac went, he was bound to follow. And he did follow-made off as ha

d in his cast-iron attempt to set his face against defeat; their lips were cracked with the cold, their faces raw from frostbite, their

think of Anvik

pose we got to Anvik

r did y

ly groaned. He had frozen h

octored and

oss?" the Boy asked Potts when he

got as far as Holy C

d you get to? W

tive villa

n't more'n si

miles t

nd deep between hot a

ed?" said the Colonel

t," answered

his sled home! Wher

ht-only a few

he empty soup-bowl,

again late in the ev

down at the second village, and the rest are winterin' in Anvik, so the India

s the Colonel to the Boy, "it's lucky

that a portion of its cargo consisted of a toy kyak and two bottles of hootchino

at, having so little else to do, they were ready to eat the more; it is also true that, bus

eir hunger and the scarcity. By-and-by it became too serious, the jest was wry-faced and rang false. They had, in the beginning, each helped himself from common dishes set in the middle of the rough plank table. Later, each found how, without meaning to-hating himself for it-he watched food on its way to others' plates with an evil eye. When it came to his turn, he had an ever-recurrent struggle with himself not to take t

out the beans solemnly as if he weighed each "go." And the Trio presently retired to the Little Cabin to discuss

rn should hold it for a week, and learn how ungrateful it was. Moreover, that whoever was, for the nonce, occ

ous snowstorm, that had already lasted two days, had more than half buried the hut, and nearly snowed up the little doorway. The Colonel and the Boy had been shovelling nearly all the day before t

his unwilling reception at the Big Cabin, M

feet, very comfortable in their straw-lined muckluck

, "we won't begin with

n!" says Potts, and helps himsel

ith great difficulty, in spite of yesterday's work, got the door open. It was

t a curl of smok

ge! they're s

'em r

Colonel. "Yes, but we'

y spoke with touching solem

aughed the Colonel

e hatchet-and they came to blows. A black eye and a bloody nose might not seem an illuminating contribution to the quest

fore on the nearly empty demijohn. For those famous "temperance punches" the Colonel had drawn on h

t and paid furr it, and but for me it w

n dragged out by the scruff o' your neck. And you'd be in a pretty fix n

n, "that it should be kept f

t his grog. Potts had "ho

at supper, "I said I wouldn

tin plate's like

n the washer-up, Mr.

e scratched my name on my plate, and I won

oung fellow turned with a flash in his eye and

r fly,

the table with a clatter. The Colonel jumped up and bent over

all r

g a blanket over the door. While his back was turned the Boy brought a tin plate, still in good condition, set it down at M

it there," he said when McCann came back. And the laugh went against the dainty

er of the others' talk, "why it's said to be such a devil of a

comes to hate most," returned the Boy,

at the row in t

onel"-he lowered his voice-"do you know there'll have to be a new system of rat

aid the Colone

e a misca

two men talked low the others pricked their ears. "But lack of grub," resumed the Colonel in his usual voice, as though he had not noticed, "is only one of our difficulties. Lack of work is just about as bad. It breeds a thou

ars!

e trees, boys;

r." Enthus

t those fellows up at Anvik

got a s

ext summer will be the biggest season yet. We ought to have set to, as soon as the cabins were built, a

haphazard education, who had "chucked" more or less easy berths in a land of many creature comforts ... for this-to fell and haul birch and fir trees in an Arctic climate on half-rations! It began to be apparent that the same spirit was invading the forest that had possession of the camp; two,

munist-" said the Boy

tic," smiled

ow and for ever. But this winter

leeves, perspired freely, and said in the innocence of their hearts, "If winter comes early up here, spring does the same." The

, and wandered into winter. No trouble now to get the Big Chimney men away from the fireside. They held up their bloodless faces in the fa

e was that even more stimulating sweet air abroad, that subtle mixture of sun and yielding frost, that softened wind that comes blowing across the snow, still keen to the

ever Farva so belied character and custom as to swing an axe for any length of time. Plainly out of patience, Kaviak would throw off th

other places, impatient of the haven that gave them shelter in rough weather over

eanly home each time, working with a kind of splendid rhythm more harmonious, more beautiful to look at, than most of the works of men. This was, perhaps, the view of h

all the good timber just round here?" and

the end of the world where the best materials are for the building of castles-it's the same country so plainly po

l; let's go and loo

water-level-where the stea

bout th

aviak, with a hig

u stay

go

iak's a better trail man t

carry him home,

ny of the carryin', or we'll l

they got as far as an island, six miles off. One end of it wa

O'Flynn admitted that even in California "these here woul

n the ice, and soun

ke a landin' here, and here's

they had been in since that welter o

lly sick and sore from their recent slight attack of wood-felling. They were after bigger game, too, as well as grouse, and a few days "off." It had turned just enough colder to glaze the trail and put it in fine condition. They went down the river to the Oklahoma, were generously entertained by Captain Rainey, and learned that, with earlier contracts on his hands, he did not want more wood from them than

hance of selling. Rainey says that wood camps have sprung up like

one between us and Andreievsky,

ore, the original Trio put in a night of it. The Boy and the Colonel turned into their bunks at eleven o'

the kid

that I ain't goin' to stand furr another minyit an Esqui

lp that," Mac

ice, "I'm talkin' to you like a frien

t make any more diff

o grumbled i

ifference: if you two would quit ea

he Si

m they disarmed Potts, and turned the Irishman out to cool off in his own cabin. It was all over in a minute. Kaviak, reassured, curled down to sleep again. Mac and Po

bad bu

's right: Kaviak's being here isn't to blame

f! some of us are in a blaze, and wh-tt!

my lips," said the Colonel.

onder why

," said the elder

xcuse a

el shook

ellows one year of freedom, anyhow-one year to make ducks and drakes of. Besides, we've all come to make our fortunes. Doesn't every mother's son of us mean to find a gold-mine in th

e Colonel

last night, when those fellows began

N

re's another

ere

uk thi

n't he c

for him. Funny fellas these Jesuits. The

en," said the

fe, but I don't know that I ever saw Christianity

ary to the few other Christia

, and capital good fellows. I've seen them do very decent things now and

Colonel. Presently the Boy in

e Jesuits go

s of the morning, saying little, heavy-eyed and sullen. The dreaded insomnia of the Arctic had laid hold on all but the Colonel. Even his usually unbroken rep

air of the Esquimaux in the under bunk. "Potts! Who's

aw distinctly by the fire-light there

mucklucks. He didn't wait to cross and tie the thongs. A presentiment of evil was strong upon

r I'll shoot!" He hadn't brough

came back the v

ck. The wolf-skin fringe of his parki hood stood out fiercely round the defiant young face. Wound about one of his seal-skin mittens was the rope of the new hand-

y at each other a moment, and th

hell are

to Mi

evil y

he devi

dim light, till the Colonel's eyes fell

eft a statement in the cabin; it's about a fifth

e you go

he field, and stake a

y's shoulder. He shook it off impatient

viak. But what difference would Kaviak make? I've been afraid you'd get ahead of me. I've

d his little cargo lurched towards hi

hing was the matter with h

the other, "and I'm the stro

perturbed and husky

you were such

' o' th

s this

st-just my li

s well as I do you've got t

to go," he rep

el, "you haven't impressed

eird aureole of long wolf-hair. "Tired of life! W

Christianity, it must b

'm hungry-HUNGRY! Great Jeh

grub behind, to be

the thermometer down to-" The Boy b

k into th

N

Again the Colonel stood in front, barring the way. "Lo

rope of his sled, walked sulkily uphill, and kicked off his snow-shoes at the door of the cabin, all wit

e up your mind to light out,

anything as sensible

e ready to go alon

ou

ep

a little

u wouldn't

rous alone-

angerous, and

g the Boy look precious grave an

y for anything t

ged, but it matters uncommon li

be bl

mplaint, anyhow." The Boy leaned over in th

's wr

le one-sided smile. "I've been

n for another thirty if you stay w

"I'll be glad to have something to tire me out, so I'll sleep-sleep too sound to dream. That's what I came for, not to sit idle in a God-damn cabin and think-think-" He got up suddenly and strode the tiny space from fire to door, a man transformed, with hands clenching a

morbid, Colonel." The Boy spoke with t

e. The Colonel in his renewed prowling brought up against the wooden crane. He stood looking dow

g sound. "I loved her," he repeated, still with his back to the Boy. "By-and-by I could have righted it, but she-she wasn't the kind to hang about and wait on a m

pring, find out w

mer, every fall and every winter till

n't fin

can fi

's d

s not

Colonel looked ready to smash him. The

apan. I'm sure she wasn't in the islands. I've spent my life since trying to find her-writing her letters that always come back-trying-" His voice went out like a candle-wick suddenly dying in the socket. Only the sleeper was audible for full five minutes. Then, as though he had paused only a comma's space, the

obeyed wit

o were starting out on snow-shoes to do a little matter of 625 miles of Arctic travelling, with two weeks' scant pr

shown at the last, on the part of the three who were to profit by th

ion on Mac's part that he gave up arguing (sacrificing all the delight of a set debate),

little bottle of whisky. Nobody would have believed O'Flynn would go so far as that. Nor could anyone have anticipated that close-fisted Mac would give the Boy his va

giant Kentuckian by the hand, "and you won

p there with reindeer meat, and come back. If we don

the twentieth time, "has niver been done, n

s," said Mac. "It isn

he Colonel, and th

as though that same hand had never half thr

. I bequeath you

eet you in t

ray for the Kl

in June!

a snow-ball, and fired it at Kaviak. The child ducked, chuckling, and returned as good as he got. Hi

y wore an air wondrous friendly, and the wide, white world lo

knew how awful jolly the Big

myself, to think whatever else

r not

newfallen snow, the Boy pulling the sled behind hi

thought it'd be a picn

wly Pipers! will we iver

nvik," said Potts, with gloomy foreboding,

res with serious eyes, "they may be dead i

eased. A man who had mine