Adventure stories, American; Fiction; Short stories; Western stories
"She has a small revolver which she carries in her belt. Sometimes, on
trail, she makes practice with revolver. I laugh. 'What for you laugh,
Charley?' she ask. 'What for you play with that?' I say. 'It is no
good. It is too small. It is for a child, a little plaything.' When we
get back to Dawson she ask me to buy good revolver for her. I buy a
Colt's 44. It is very heavy, but she carry it in her belt all the time.
"At Dawson comes the man. Which way he come I do not know. Only do I
know he is _checha-quo_--what you call tenderfoot. His hands are soft,
just like hers. He never do hard work. He is soft all over. At first
I think maybe he is her husband. But he is too young. Also, they make
two beds at night. He is maybe twenty years old. His eyes blue, his
hair yellow, he has a little mustache which is yellow. His name is John
Jones. Maybe he is her brother. I do not know. I ask questions no more.
Only I think his name not John Jones. Other people call him Mr. Girvan.
I do not think that is his name. I do not think her name is Miss
Girvan, which other people call her. I think nobody know their names.
"One night I am asleep at Dawson. He wake me up. He says, 'Get the dogs
ready; we start.' No more do I ask questions, so I get the dogs ready
and we start. We go down the Yukon. It is night-time, it is November,
and it is very cold--sixty-five below. She is soft. He is soft. The
cold bites. They get tired. They cry under their breaths to themselves.
By and by I say better we stop and make camp. But they say that they
will go on. Three times I say better to make camp and rest, but each
time they say they will go on. After that I say nothing. All the time,
day after day, is it that way. They are very soft. They get stiff and
sore. They do not understand moccasins, and their feet hurt very much.
They limp, they stagger like drunken people, they cry under their
breaths; and all the time they say, 'On! on! We will go on!'
"They are like crazy people. All the time do they go on, and on. Why
do they go on? I do not know. Only do they go on. What are they after?
I do not know. They are not after gold. There is no stampede. Besides,
they spend plenty of money. But I ask questions no more. I, too, go on
and on, because I am strong on the trail and because I am greatly paid.
"We make Circle City. That for which they look is not there. I think
now that we will rest, and rest the dogs. But we do not rest, not for
one day do we rest. 'Come,' says the woman to the man, 'let us go on.'
And we go on. We leave the Yukon. We cross the divide to the west and
swing down into the Tanana Country. There are new diggings there. But
that for which they look is not there, and we take the back trail to
Circle City.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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