Part 45 (2/2)
”No”
”To-day! Dis affernoon! De blood in me is callin' for travel, John I' tarn' for voyageur I'ry for hear de axe in de woods an' de h de brush w'en I come from trap de fox an' dem little wild fellers I want to smell smoke in de dusk My work she's finish here, so I'm paddle away to-day, an' I'll fin' dat place dis ta arm and pointed to the dim mountains that hid the valley of the Koyukuk, the valley that called good , year after year, and took theer of his race, the unslaked longing for the wilderness, the driving desire that led theo
”Have you heard the news from the creeks?”
”No”
”Your claims are blanks; your men have quit”
The Frenchman shook his head sadly, then smiled--a wistful little smile
”Wal, it's better I lose dan you--or Necia; I ain' de lucky kin', dat's all; an', affer all, w'at good to ot no use for ether, two rugged, stalwart figures, different in blood and birth and every other thing, yet brothers withal, whoether and no apart again And they were sad, these two, for their love was deeper than comes to other people, and they knew this was farewell; so they remained thus side by side, two dumb, sorrowful men, until they were addressed by a person who hurried fro the voice of ”No Creek” Lee, the n or symbol of their old friend Its style of face and curious outfit were utterly foreign to the rowth of arbed perennially in the habit of a scarecrohile this creature was shaved and clipped and curried, and the clothes it stood up in were ofhues
Its face was scraped so clean of whiskers as to be a pallid white, but lack of adornment ended at this point and the rest was overladen wondrously, while fro, red nose of Lee ran out Beside it rolled his lonesome eye, alive with excite the landscape, and inquired:
”Well, how do I look?”
”I'm darned if I know,” said Gale ”But it's plumb unusual”
”These here shoes leak,” said the spectacle, pulling up his baggy trousers to display his tan footgear, ”because they was oin'--that's why they left the tops off; but they've got a nice, healthy color, ain't they? As a whole, it seems to me I'aze, and while to one versed in the manners of the Far East it would have been evident that the original owner of these clothes had come from somewhere beyond the Susquehanna, and had either been a football player or had travelled with a glee club, to these three Northmen it seemed merely that here was the modish echo of a distant civilization
”Wat's de htin'?”
”I ain't shaved in a long time, and this here excitement has kind of shattered lass, neither, in my shack, so I had to use a lard-can cover Does it look bad?”
”Not to”No Creek's” anxiety
”It's more desp'rate than bad, but it sort of adds expression” At which the miner's pride burst bounds
”I'll kindly ask you to note the shi+rt--ten dollars a copy, that's all!
I got it from the little Jen yonder See them red spear-heads on the boosum? 'Flower dee Lizzies,' which means 'calla lilies' in French
Every one of 'em cost me four bits On the level--how am I?”
”I never see no harness jus' lak it ambler Say, don' you wear no necktie wit'
deh miner, and I dress the part