I thought of that, Bill answered gravely. An so, when I saw it run off across the snow, I looked in the snow an saw its tracks. Then I counted the dogs an there was still six of em. The tracks is there in the snow now. Dye want to look at em? Ill show em to you.
Henry did not reply, but munched on in silence, until, the meal finished, he topped it with a final cup of coffee. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said:
Then youre thinkin as it was
A long wailing cry, fiercely sad, from somewhere in the darkness, had interrupted him. He stopped to listen to it, then he finished his sentence with a wave of his hand toward the sound of the cry, one of them?
Bill nodded. Id a blame sight sooner think that than anything else. You noticed yourself the row the dogs made.
Cry after cry, and answering cries, were turning the silence into a bedlam. From every side the cries arose, and the dogs betrayed their fear by huddling together and so close to the fire that their hair was scorched by the heat. Bill threw on more wood, before lighting his pipe.
Im thinking youre down in the mouth some[5], Henry said.
Henry He sucked meditatively at his pipe for some time before he went on. Henry, I was a-thinkin what a blame sight luckier he is than you an mell ever be.
He indicated the third person by a downward thrust of the thumb to the box on which they sat.
You an me, Henry, when we die, well be lucky if we get enough stones over our carcases to keep the dogs off of us.
But we aint got people an money an all the rest, like him, Henry rejoined. Long-distance funerals is somethin you an me cant exactly afford.
What gets me, Henry, is what a chap like this, thats a lord or something in his own country, and thats never had to bother about grub nor blankets; why he comes a-buttin round the Godforsaken ends of the earth thats what I cant exactly see.
He might have lived to a ripe old age if hed stayed at home, Henry agreed.
Bill opened his mouth to speak, but changed his mind. Instead, he pointed towards the wall of darkness that pressed about them from every side. There was no suggestion of form in the utter blackness; only could be seen a pair of eyes gleaming like live coals. Henry indicated with his head a second pair, and a third. A circle of the gleaming eyes had drawn about their camp. Now and again[6] a pair of eyes moved, or disappeared to appear again a moment later.
The unrest of the dogs had been increasing, and they stampeded, in a surge of sudden fear, to the near side of the fire, cringing and crawling about the legs of the men. In the scramble one of the dogs had been overturned on the edge of the fire, and it had yelped with pain and fright as the smell of its singed coat possessed the air. The commotion caused the circle of eyes to shift restlessly for a moment and even to withdraw a bit, but it settled down again as the dogs became quiet.
Henry, its a blame misfortune to be out of ammunition[7].
Bill had finished his pipe and was helping his companion to spread the bed of fur and blanket upon the spruce boughs which he had laid over the snow before supper. Henry grunted, and began unlacing his moccasins.
How many cartridges did you say you had left? he asked.
Three, came the answer. An I wisht twas three hundred. Then Id show em what for, damn em!
He shook his fist angrily at the gleaming eyes, and began securely to prop his moccasins before the fire.
An I wisht this cold snapd break, he went on. Its ben fifty below for two weeks now. An I wisht Id never started on this trip, Henry. I dont like the looks of it. I dont feel right, somehow. An while Im wishin, I wisht the trip was over an done with, an you an me a-sittin by the fire in Fort McGurry just about now an playing cribbage thats what I wisht.
Henry grunted and crawled into bed. As he dozed off he was aroused by his comrades voice.
Say, Henry, that other one that come in an got a fish why didnt the dogs pitch into it?[8] Thats whats botherin me.
Youre botherin too much, Bill, came the sleepy response. You was never like this before. You jes shut up now, an go to sleep, an youll be all hunky-dory in the mornin. Your stomachs sour, thats whats botherin you.
The men slept, breathing heavily, side by side, under the one covering. The fire died down, and the gleaming eyes drew closer the circle they had flung about the camp. The dogs clustered together in fear, now and again snarling menacingly as a pair of eyes drew close. Once their uproar became so loud that Bill woke up. He got out of bed carefully, so as not to disturb the sleep of his comrade, and threw more wood on the fire. As it began to flame up, the circle of eyes drew farther back. He glanced casually at the huddling dogs. He rubbed his eyes and looked at them more sharply. Then he crawled back into the blankets.
Henry, he said. Oh, Henry.
Henry groaned as he passed from sleep to waking, and demanded, Whats wrong now?
Nothin, came the answer; only theres seven of em again. I just counted.
Henry acknowledged receipt of the information with a grunt that slid into a snore as he drifted back into sleep.
In the morning it was Henry who awoke first and routed his companion out of bed. Daylight was yet three hours away, though it was already six oclock; and in the darkness Henry went about preparing breakfast, while Bill rolled the blankets and made the sled ready for lashing.
Say, Henry, he asked suddenly, how many dogs did you say we had?
Six.
Wrong, Bill proclaimed triumphantly.
Seven again? Henry queried.
No, five; ones gone.
The hell! Henry cried in wrath, leaving the cooking to come and count the dogs.
Youre right, Bill, he concluded. Fattys gone.
An he went like greased lightnin once he got started. Couldnt ve seen m for smoke.
No chance at all[9], Henry concluded. They jes swallowed m alive. I bet he was yelpin as he went down their throats, damn em!
He always was a fool dog, said Bill.
But no fool dog ought to be fool enough to go off an commit suicide that way. He looked over the remainder of the team with a speculative eye that summed up instantly the salient traits of each animal. I bet none of the others would do it.
Couldnt drive em away from the fire with a club, Bill agreed. I always did think there was somethin wrong with Fatty anyway.
And this was the epitaph of a dead dog on the Northland trail less scant than the epitaph of many another dog, of many a man.
Chapter II
The She-Wolf
Breakfast eaten and the slim camp-outfit lashed to the sled[10], the men turned their backs on the cheery fire and launched out into the darkness. At once began to rise the cries that were fiercely sad cries that called through the darkness and cold to one another and answered back. Conversation ceased. Daylight came at nine oclock. At midday the sky to the south warmed to rose-colour, and marked where the bulge of the earth intervened between the meridian sun and the northern world. But the rose-colour swiftly faded. The grey light of day that remained lasted until three oclock, when it, too, faded, and the pall of the Arctic night descended upon the lone and silent land.