The Barrier Page 5

  CHAPTER V

  A STORY IS BEGUN

  "It's fonny t'ing how two brown eye Was changin' everything-- De cloud she's no more on de sky, An' winter's jus' lak' spring Dey mak' my pack so very light, De trail, she's not so long-- I'd walk it forty mile to-night For hear her sing wan song But now I'm busy mak' fortune For marry on dat girl, An' if she's tole me yass, dat's soon, Bonheur! I'm own de worl'!"

  Poleon Doret sang gayly as the trader came towards him through the opengrove of birch, for he was happy this afternoon, and, being much of adreamer, this fresh enterprise awoke in him a boyish pleasure. ThenNecia had teased him as he came away, and begged him, as was always hercustom, to take her with him, no matter whence or whither, so long asthere was adventure afoot. Well, it would not be long now before hecould say yes, and he would take her on a journey far longer thaneither of them had yet taken--a journey that would never end. Had notthe gods looked with favor, at last, upon his long novitiate, and beenpleased with the faith he had kept? Had not this discovery of "NoCreek" Lee's been providentially arranged for his own especial benefit?A fool could see that this was a mark of celestial approbation, andnone but a fool would question the wisdom of the gods. Had he notwatched the girl grow from a slip of thirteen and spoken never a wordof his love? Had he not served and guarded her with all the gentlechivalry of an olden knight? Of course! And here was his reward, a giftof wealth to crown his service, all for her. Now that she was a woman,and had seen him tried, and knew he was a man, he would bring hisburden of prosperity and lay it at her feet, saying:

  "Here is another offering, my Necia, and with it go the laughter andthe music and the heart of Poleon Doret."

  Sacre! It would not take her long to wake up after that! The world wasvery bright indeed this afternoon, and he burst again into song incompany with the voices of the forest people:

  "Chante, rossignol, chante! Toi qui a le coeur gai; Tu as le coeur a rire Mai j' l' ai-ta pleurer, Il y a longtemps que j' t'aime Jamais je ne t'oublierai."

  [Footnote: "Sing, little bird, oh, sing away! You with the voice so light and gay! Yours is a heart that laughter cheers, Mine is a hearts that's full of tears. Long have I loved, I love her yet; Leave her I can, but not forget."]

  "Whew!" said Gale, slipping out of his pack-straps, "the skeeters isbad."

  "You bet your gum boots," said Poleon. "Dey're mos' so t'ick as desummer dey kill Johnnie Platt on de Porcupine." Both men woregauntleted gloves of caribou-skin and head harnesses ofmosquito-netting stretched over globelike frames of thin steel bands,which they slipped on over their hats after the manner of divers'helmets, for without protection of some kind the insects would havemade travel impossible once the Yukon breezes were left behind or oncethe trail dipped from the high divides where there was no moss.

  "Let's see. It was you that found him, wasn't it?" said Gale.

  "Sure t'ing! I'm comin' down for grub in my canoe, w'en I see disfeller on de bank, walkin' lak' he's in beeg horry. 'Ba Gar!' I say,'dere's man goin' so fast he'll meet hese'f comin' home!' Den he turnroun' an' go tearin' back, wavin' hees arms lak' he's callin' me, tillhe fall down. Wen I paddle close up, I don' know 'im no more danstranger, an' me an' Johnnie Platt is trap togeder wan winter. Wat yout'ink of dat?"

  "I saw a fellow killed that way at Holy Cross," interpolated the trader.

  "'Hello,' I say, 'w'at's de matter?' An' den I see somet'ing 'bout 'imdat look familiar. Hees face she's all swell' up an' bleedin' lak' rawmeat." The Frenchman curled his upper lip back from his teeth and shookhis head at the remembrance.

  "Jesu, dat's 'orrible sight! Dem fly is drive 'im crazee. Hees nose an'ears is look lak' holes in beeg red sponge, an' hees eye are close uptight."

  "He died before you got him in, didn't he?"

  "Yes. He was good man, too. Some tam' if I ever have bad enemy w'at Ilike to see catch hell I'm goin' turn 'im loose 'mong dose skeeter-bug."

  "Holy Mackinaw!" ejaculated Gale. "Who'd ever think of that? Why,that's worse than dropping water on his skull till he goes crazy, likethem Chinamen do."

  The Frenchman nodded. "It's de wors' t'ing I know. Dat's w'y I lak' togeeve it to my enemy."

  "Imagine fightin' the little devils till they stung you crazy andpizened your eyes shut!"

  Gale fell to considering this, while Poleon filled his pipe, and,raising his veil, undertook to smoke. The pests proved too numerous,however, and forced him to give it up.

  "Bagosh! Dey're hongry!"

  "It will be all right when we get out of the woods," said the elder man.

  "I guess you been purty glad for havin' Necia home again, eh?" venturedthe other after a while, unable to avoid any longer the subjectuppermost in his mind.

  "Yes, I'm glad she's through with her schooling."

  "She's gettin' purty beeg gal now."

  "That's right."

  "By-an'-by she's goin' marry on some feller--w'at?"

  "I suppose so. She ain't the kind to stay single."

  "Ha! Dat's right, too. Mebbe you don' care if she does get marry, eh?"

  "Not if she gets a man that will treat her right."

  "Wal! Wal! Dere's no trouble 'bout dat," exclaimed Doret, fervently."No man w'at's livin' could treat her bad. She's too good an' too purtyfor have bad husban'."

  "She is, is she?" Gale turned on him with a strange glare in his eyes."Them's the kind that get the he-devils. There's something about a goodgirl that attracts a bad man, particularly if she's pretty; and it goesdouble, too--the good men get the hellions. A fellow can't get so toughbut what he can catch a good woman, and a decent man usually draws acritter that looks like a sled and acts like a timber wolf."

  "Necia wouldn't marry on no bad man," said Doret, positively.

  "No?" said Gale. "Let me tell you what I saw with my own eyes. I knew agirl once that was just as good and pure as Necia, and just as pretty,too--yes, and a thousand times prettier."

  "Ho, ho!" laughed Doret, sceptically.

  "She was an Eastern girl, and she come West where men were different towhat she'd been used to. Those were early days, and it was a newcountry, where a person didn't know much about his neighbor's past andcared less; and, although there were a heap of girls thereabouts, theywere the kind you'll always find in such communities, while this onewas plumb different. Man! Man! But she was different. She was a WOMAN!Two fellows fell in love with her. One of them lived in the same campas her, and he was a good man, leastways everybody said he was, but hewasn't wise to all the fancy tricks that pretty women hanker after;and, it being his first affair, he was right down buffaloed at the verythought of her, so he just hung around and slept late so that he mightdream about her and feel like he was her equal or that she loved backat him. You know! The other fellow came from a neighboring town, and hewasn't the same kind, for he'd knocked around more, and was a betterliar, but he wasn't right. No, sir! He was sure a wrong guy, as it cameout, but he was handsomer and younger, and the very purity andinnocence of the girl drew him, I reckon, being a change from what hehad ever mixed up with."

  "W'y don' dis good man tak' a shot at him?" asked Poleon, hotly.

  "First, he didn't realize what was going on, being too tied up withdreaming, I reckon; and, second, neither man didn't know the other bysight, living as they did in different parts; third, he was an ordinarysort of fellow, and hadn't ever had any trouble, man to man, at thattime. Anyhow, the girl up and took the bad one."

  "Wat does de good man do, eh?"

  "Well, he was all tore up about it, but he went away like a sick quailhides out."

  "Dat's too bad."

  "He heard about them now and then, and what he heard tore him up worsethan the other had, for the girl's husband couldn't wear the harnesslong, and, having taken away what good there was in her, he made up indeviltry for the time he had lost. She stood it pretty well, and neverwhimpered, even when her eyes were
open and she saw what aprize-package she had drawn. The fact that she was game enough to standfor him and yet keep herself clean without complaint made the manworse. He tried to break her spirit in a thousand ways, tried to makeher the same as he was, tried to make her a bad woman, like the othershe had known. It appeared like the one pleasure he got was to tortureher."

  "W'y don' she quit 'im?" said Doret. "Dat ain' wrong for quit a manlak' him."

  "She couldn't quit on account of the kid. They had a youngster. Then,too, she had ideas of her own; so she stood it for three years, livingworse than a dog, till she saw it wasn't any use--till she saw that hewould make a bad woman of her as sure as he would make one of thekid--till he got rough--"

  "No! No! You don' mean dat? No man don' hurt no woman," interjectedDoret.

  "By God! That's just what I mean," the trader answered, while his facehad grown so gray as to match his brows. "He beat her."

  Poleon broke into French words that accorded well with the trader'sharsh voice.

  "The woman sent for the other man after that, for he had been livinglonely, loving her all the time, and you'd better believe he went."

  "Ha! Dat's fine! Dat's dam' fine!" said the other. "I'll bet dere'shell to pay den--w'at?"

  "Yes, there was a kind of reckoning." The old man lapsed into moodysilence, the younger one waiting eagerly for him to continue, but therecame the sound of voices down the trail, and they looked up.

  "Here comes Lee," said Gale.

  "Wat happen' den? I'm got great interes' 'bout dis woman," insistedPoleon.

  "It's a long story, and I just told you this much to show what I saidwas true about a good girl and a bad man, and to show why I want Neciato get a good one. The sooner it happens the better it will suit me."

  Neither man had ever spoken thus openly to the other about Neciabefore, and although their language was indirect, each knew the other'sthought. But there was no time for further talk now, for the otherswere close upon them. As they came into view, Gale exclaimed:

  "Well, if he hasn't brought Runnion along!"

  "Humph!" grunted Doret. "I don' t'ink much of dat feller. Wat's dematter wit' 'No Creek,' anyhow?"

  The three new arrivals dropped down upon the moss to rest, for theup-trail was heavy and the air sultry inside the forest. Lee was thefirst to speak.

  "Did you get away without bein' seen?" he asked.

  "Sure," answered Gale. "Poleon has been here two hours."

  "That's good; I don't want nobody taggin' along."

  "We came right through the town boldly," announced Stark; "but if theyhad seen you two they would have suspected something, sure."

  Runnion volunteered nothing except oaths at the mosquitoes and at hispack-straps, which were new and cut him already. As no explanation ofhis presence was offered, neither the trader nor Doret made any commentthen, but it came out later, when the old miner dropped far enoughbehind the others to render conversation possible.

  "You decided to take in another one, eh?" Gale asked Lee.

  "It wasn't exactly my doin's," replied the miner. "Stark asked me tolet Runnion come 'long, bein' as he had grub-staked him, and he seemedso set on it that I ackeressed. You see, it's the first chance I everhad to pay him back for a favor he done me in the Cassiar country.There's plenty of land to go around."

  It was Lee's affair, thought the trader, and he might tell whom heliked, so he said no more, but fell to studying the back of the mannext in front, who happened to be Stark, observing every move and trickof him, and, during the frequent pauses, making a point of listeningand watching him guardedly.

  All through the afternoon the five men wound up the valley, followingone another's footsteps, emerging from sombre thickets of fir toflounder across wide pastures of "nigger-heads," that wobbled andwriggled and bowed beneath their feet, until at cost of much effort andprofanity they gained the firmer footing of the forest. Occasionallythey came upon the stream, and found easier going along its gravelbars, till a bend threw them again into the meadows and mesas on eitherhand. Their course led them far up the big valley to another streamthat entered from the right, bearing backward in a great bow towardsthe Yukon, and always there were dense clouds of mosquitoes above theirheads. At one point Stark, hot and irritable, remarked:

  "There must be a shorter cut than this, Lee?"

  "I reckon there is," the miner replied, "but I've always had a pack tocarry, so I chose the level ground ruther than climb the divides."

  "S'pose dose people at camp hear 'bout dis strike an' beat us in?"suggested Poleon.

  "It wouldn't be easy going for them after they got there," Stark said,sourly. "I, for one, wouldn't stand for it."

  "Nor I," agreed Runnion.

  "I don't see how you'd help yourself," the trader remarked. "One man'sgot as good a right as another."

  "I guess I'd help myself, all right," Stark laughed, significantly, asdid Runnion, who added:

  "Lee is entitled to put in anybody he wants on his own discovery, andif anybody tries to get ahead of us there's liable to be trouble."

  "I reckon if I don't know no short-cut, nobody else does," Leeremarked, whereupon Doret spoke up reassuringly:

  "Dere's no use gettin' scare' lak' dat, biccause nobody knows w'ereLee's creek she's locate' but John an' me, an' dere's nobody w'at knowshe mak' de strike but us four."

  "That's right," said Gale; "the only other way across is by Black BearCreek, and there ain't a half-dozen men ever been up to the head ofthat stream, much less over the divide, so I don't allow there's anyuse to fret ourselves."

  They went on their way, travelling leisurely until late evening, whenthey camped at the mouth of the valley up which the miner's cabin lay.They chose a long gravel bar, that curved like a scimitar, and madedown upon its outer tip where the breeze tended to thin the plague ofinsects. They were all old-stagers in the ways of camplife, so therewas no lost motion or bickering as to their respective duties. Theirpreparations were simple. First they built a circle of smudges out ofwet driftwood, and inside this Lee kindled a camp-fire of dry sticks,upon which he cooked, protected by the smoke of the others, while Galewent back to the edge of the forest and felled a dozen small firs, thebranches of which he clipped. These Poleon and Runnion bore down to theend of the spit for bedding, while Stark chopped a pile of dry wood forthe night. Gale noted that the new man swung an axe with the freedexterity of one to whom its feel was familiar, also that he never madea slip nor dulled it on the gravel of the bar, displaying an all-roundcompleteness and a knack of doing things efficiently that won reluctantapproval from the trader despite the unreasoning dislike he had takento him.

  Lee was ready for them by the time they had finished their tasks, and,fanned by the breeze that sucked up the stream and lulled by thewaters, they ate their scanty supper. Their one-eyed guide had lived solong among mosquitoes and had become so inoculated with their poisonthat he was in a measure impervious to their sting, hence the insectsgathered on his wrinkled, hair-grown hide only to give up in melancholydisgust and fly to other and fuller-blooded feeding-grounds. Camp hadbeen made early, at Gale's suggestion, instead of pushing on a fewmiles farther, as Lee had intended; and now, when the cool evening felland the draught quickened, it became possible to lay off gloves andhead-gear; so they sat about the fire, talking, smoking, and rubbingtheir tired feet.

  It is at such hours and in the smoke of such fires that men harkbackward and bring forth the sacred, time-worn memories they havetreasured, to turn them over fondly by the glow of dying embers. It isat such times that men's garrulity asserts itself, for the barriers ofcaution are let down, as are the gates of remembrance, and it is thenthat friends and enemies are made, for there are those who cannotlisten and others who cannot understand.

  "No Creek" Lee, the one-eyed miner who had made this lucky strike, toldin simple words of his long and solitary quest, when ill-luck had risenwith him at the dawn and misfortune had stalked beside him as hedrifted and drank from camp to camp, while the gloom of
a settledpessimism soured him, and men began to shun him because of the evilthat seemed to follow in his steps.

  "I've been rainbow-chasin' forty years," he said, "and never caughtnothin' but cramps and epidemics and inflammations. I'm the only minerin Alaska that never made a discovery of gold and never had a creeknamed after him."

  "Is that how you got your name?" asked Runnion.

  "It is. I never was no good to myself nor nobody else. I just occupiedspace. I've been the vermifuge appendix of the body politic; yes,worse'n that--I've been an appendix with a seed in it. I made myselfsore, and everybody around me, but I'm at the bat now, and don't younever let that fact escape you."

  "How are you going to spend your money?" inquired Stark.

  "I'm goin' to eat it up! I've fed on dried and desiccated and otherdisastrous and dissatisfactory diets till I'm all shrivelled up insidelike a dead puff-ball; now it's me for the big feed and the long drink.I'm goin' to 'Frisco and get full of wasteful and exorbitant grub, ofone kind and another, like tomatters and French vicious water."

  Poleon Doret laughed with the others; he was bubbling with the spiritsof a boy whose life is clean, for whom there are no eyes in the blackdark that lies beyond a camp-fire, and for whom there are nounforgettable faces in its smoke. When Lee fell silent the trader andStark resumed their talk, which was mainly of California, it seemed tothe Frenchman, who also noted that it was his friend who subtly shapedthe topics. In time their stories revived his memory of theconversation in the birch grove that morning, and when there occurred alapse in the talk he said:

  "Say, John, w'at happen' to dat gal we was talkin' 'bout dis mornin'?"

  Gale shook his head and turned again to his companion, but the youngman's mind was bent on its quest, and he continued:

  "Dat was strange tale, for sure."

  "What was it?" questioned Runnion.

  "John was tell 'bout a feller he knowed w'at marry a good gal jus' tomak' her bad lak' hese'f."

  "How's that?" inquired Stark, turning curiously upon the old man; butGale knocked the ashes from his pipe and replied:

  "Oh, it's a long story--happened when I was in Washington State."

  Poleon was about to correct him--it was California, he had said--whenGale arose, remarking sleepily that it was time to turn in if theywished to get any rest before the mosquitoes got bad again, thensauntered away from the fire and spread his blanket. The rest followedand made down their beds; then, drawing on gloves and hat-nets, androlling themselves up in their coverings, fell to snoring. All exceptthe trader, who lay for hours on his back staring up at the stars, asif trying to solve some riddle that baffled him.

  They awoke early, and in half an hour had eaten, remade their packs,and were ready to resume their march. As they were about to start, Galesaid:

  "I reckon we'd better settle right now who has the choice of locationswhen we get up yonder. I've been on stampedes where it saved a heap ofhard feeling."

  "I'm agreeable," said Stark. "Then there won't be any misunderstanding."

  The others, being likewise old at the game, acquiesced. They knew thatin such cases grave trouble has often occurred when two men have casteyes on the same claim, and have felt the miner's causeless "hunch"that gold lies here or there, or that the ground one of them covets iswanted by the other.

  "I'll hold the straws," said Lee, "and every feller will have an evenbreak." Turning his back on the others, he cut four splinters ofvarying lengths, and, arranging them so that the ends peeped evenlyfrom his big hand, he held them out.

  "The longest one has the first choice, and so on," he said, presentingthem to Gale, who promptly drew the longest of the four. He turned toDoret, but the Frenchman waved him courteously to Stark, and, when bothhe and Runnion had made their choice, Lee handed him the remaining one,which was next in length to that of the trader. Stark and Runnionqualified in the order they drew, the latter cursing his evil luck.

  "Never min', ole man," laughed Poleon, "de las' shot she's de sure wan."

  They took up their burdens again, and filed towards the narrow valleythat stretched away into the hazy distances.