Part 34 (1/2)
”I--I can't get it off,” she complained.
He attended to the stubborn b.u.t.tons and pulled the top down over her shoulders. On the threshold of the door he called back.
”Good-night, Angela.”
She stood surveying him intently, and then came towards him.
”Whatever lies before us, don't think me ungrateful. I'll try to be a good comrade in the future if you'll let me. You've suffered so much.... It was never my wish that you should suffer. Even a bought wife has--a soul.”
He saw the swell of her bosom below the pure white shoulders. All her intoxicating beauty seemed to be pleading to him. Her lips, made for kissing, were like alluring blossoms of spring. For a moment he stood drunk with pa.s.sionate desire. Then he touched her fingers lightly and went outside.
CHAPTER XIX
THE CRISIS
It was spring on the Yukon--the radiant, glorious spring that is sandwiched between the intense winter and the dank, enervating summer.
Birds sang in the woods, their liquid voices accompanied by the deep noise of the river, belching its millions of tons of ice into the Bering Sea. In the lower valleys the snow had vanished, and the rich green carpet of the earth s.h.i.+mmered in the clear sunlight.
South of Fort Yukon Angela and Jim were threading their way through a pine-forest. Both carried packs on their backs, for the sled had been discarded but a few days before, having served them faithfully for a hundred-odd miles.
Jim found a small clearing and slung the huge pack from his shoulders.
Angela discarded her smaller pack and came to help him rig up the tent.
”Better than the winter, eh?” he queried, as an inquisitive bird came and hopped around them.
”In many ways, but the winter's wonderful enough when one has grown acclimatized. I shall never forget those mountains and the glory of the sunset.... Are we far from Dawson?”
”Two hundred miles or so.”
”And will the food last out?”
That was the crucial question. Until the river traffic began the purchase of food was almost an impossibility. She saw Jim's face tighten, as it had tightened every time she had broached the subject. A week before he had insisted that the remaining food be equally divided, since they now both engaged in the search for gold--that eternally elusive mineral that seemed as far away as ever. The beans and flour and canned meat had been duly apportioned, and placed in their respective sacks. When they separated for the day each took his food with him, cooking it in primitive fas.h.i.+on in the open.
For the last few days Angela had been anxious about Jim. He seemed to have changed in an extraordinary manner. His cheeks were thinner and his eyes looked dead. Yet he was merry enough when at nights they forgathered around the fire and told their respective tales of vain searching.
She was frying some beans over the fire when he rose and pointed back through the wood.
”I guess I'll jest go along and prospect the lay of the land from the hill,” he said.
”But aren't you going to have something to eat?”
”Nope--not now. I ain't hungry. I'll be back again in no time.”
She ate her meal reflectively. It was queer that he should want to go to the hill, when but recently they had pa.s.sed over it and had taken their bearings from the ice-laden river that lay to the east! Despite his a.s.surance of excellent health she knew something was wrong with him. But what?
A little later she followed the path he had taken. The thickly grown wood was alive with spirit of spring. Small animals scampered underfoot, and overhead a bird breathed forth its soul in incomparable song. She stopped for a minute to listen to the latter--clear-throated as an English nightingale--singing away as though winter and the stark desolation had never been. A slight breeze moaned among the tree-tops, and woodland scents were wafted to her nostrils. Adown the gale came the slanting rays of the setting sun, red and wonderful and warm.
From near at hand came another sound--a noise as of one slas.h.i.+ng at the earth. Carefully she made her way in the direction of the noise, curious as to its meaning. She peered round a tree, and saw something which took her breath away. Jim was kneeling on the ground, hacking with his jack-knife at the earth. Then from the excavated foot or so he took a root, sc.r.a.ped it with the knife, and began to gnaw it like a dog. She had heard of edible roots, on which half-starved Indians in the North managed to subsist for long periods. But for Jim to do this.... Her brain reeled at the sight. The significance of it dawned upon her. He was afraid of the future. He knew the food could not last out, and was saving his rations for the time of emergency. That was the meaning of those thinning cheeks and the dead eyes. He was famished with hunger...!