Part 1 (1/2)
Love of Life
by Jack London
LOVE OF LIFE
”This out of all will reaold of the dice has been lost”
THEY limped painfully down the bank, and once the foreh-strewn rocks They were tired and weak, and their faces had the drawn expression of patience which co endured They were heavily burdened with blanket packs which were strapped to their shoulders Head- straps, passing across the forehead, helped support these packs Each man carried a rifle They walked in a stooped posture, the shoulders well forward, the head still farther forward, the eyes bent upon the ground
”I e had just about two of thees that's layin' in that cache of ourn,” said the second man
His voice was utterly and drearily expressionless He spoke without enthusias into the milky stream that foamed over the rocks, vouchsafed no reply
The other ear, though the water was icy cold - so cold that their ankles ached and their feet went nuainst their knees, and both
The man who followed slipped on a smooth boulder, nearly fell, but recovered hi a sharp exclamation of pain He seemed faint and dizzy and put out his free hand while he reeled, as though seeking support against the air When he had steadied hiain and nearly fell Then he stood still and looked at the other man, who had never turned his head
Thewith himself Then he called out: ”I say, Bill, I've sprained h the o, and though his face was expressionless as ever, his eyes were like the eyes of a wounded deer
The other ht on without looking back The man in the streah thatch of brown hair which covered theue even strayed out to moisten the cry of a strong man in distress, but Bill's head did not turn Theforith staait up the slow slope toward the soft sky-line of the low-lying hill He watched hio till he passed over the crest and disappeared Then he turned his gaze and slowly took in the circle of the world that reone
Near the horizon the sun was s diave an iibility The ht on one leg It was four o'clock, and as the season was near the last of July or first of August, - he did not know the precise date within a week or two, - he knew that the sun roughly marked the northwest He looked to the south and knew that somewhere beyond those bleak hills lay the Great Bear Lake; also, he knew that in that direction the Arctic Circle cut its forbidding way across the Canadian Barrens This stream in which he stood was a feeder to the Coppermine River, which in turn flowed north and emptied into Coronation Gulf and the Arctic Ocean He had never been there, but he had seen it, once, on a Hudson Bay Coaze completed the circle of the world about hi spectacle Everywhere was soft sky-line The hills were all low-lying There were no trees, no shrubs, no grasses - naught but a tre into his eyes
”Bill!” he whispered, once and twice; ”Bill!”
He cowered in thein upon hi hian to shake as with an ague-fit, till the gun fell froht with his fear and pulled hi the weapon He hitched his pack farther over on his left shoulder, so as to take a portion of its weight from off the injured ankle Then he proceeded, slowly and carefully, wincing with pain, to the bank
He did not stop With a desperation that was madness, unmindful of the pain, he hurried up the slope to the crest of the hill over which his corotesque and co comrade But at the crest he saw a shallow valley, eain, overcame it, hitched the pack still farther over on his left shoulder, and lurched on down the slope
The bottoy ater, which the thick elike, close to the surface This water squirted out from under his feet at every step, and each ti sound as the wet rip He picked his way fro, and followed the other es which thrust like islets through the sea of h alone, he was not lost
Farther on he kneould come to where dead spruce and fir, very small and weazened, bordered the shore of a little lake, the titCHIN-NICHILIE, in the tongue of the country, the ”land of little sticks” And into that lake flowed a small strearass on that stream - this he remembered well - but no timber, and he would follow it till its first trickle ceased at a divide He would cross this divide to the first trickle of another strea to the west, which he would follow until it emptied into the river Dease, and here he would find a cache under an upturned canoe and piled over with many rocks And in this cache would be aun, fish-hooks and lines, a s of food Also, he would find flour, - not much, - a piece of bacon, and so for him there, and they would paddle away south down the Dease to the Great Bear Lake And south across the lake they would go, ever south, till they gained the Mackenzie And south, still south, they would go, while the winter raced vainly after therew chill and crisp, south to soenerous and there was grub without end
These were the thoughts of the man as he strove onward But hard as he strove with his body, he strove equally hard with histo think that Bill had not deserted him, that Bill would surely wait for hiht, or else there would not be any use to strive, and he would have lain down and died And as the dim ball of the sun sank slowly into the northwest he covered every inch - and ht south before the downcorub of the Hudson Bay Coain He had not eaten for two days; for a far longer time he had not had all he wanted to eat Often he stooped and picked paleberries, put the berry is a bit of seed enclosed in a bit of water In the mouth the water melts away and the seed chews sharp and bitter The man knew there was no nourishment in the berries, but he chewed the experience
At nine o'clock he stubbed his toe on a rocky ledge, and froered and fell He lay for some time, without movement, on his side Then he slipped out of the pack- straps and clu posture It was not yet dark, and in the lingering twilight he groped about aathered a heap he built a fire, - a sy fire, - and put a tin pot of water on to boil
He unwrapped his pack and the first thing he did was to count his matches There were sixty-seven He counted them three times tothe of one bunch in his empty tobacco pouch, of another bunch in the inside band of his battered hat, of a third bunch under his shi+rt on the chest This accomplished, a panic caain There were still sixty-seven
He dried his wet foot-gear by the fire The y shreds The blanket socks orn through in places, and his feet were raw and bleeding His ankle was throbbing, and he gave it an examination It had swollen to the size of his knee He tore a long strip frohtly He tore other strips and bound them about his feet to serve for bothhot, wound his watch, and crawled between his blankets
He slept like a dead ht came and went The sun arose in the northeast - at least the day dawned in that quarter, for the sun was hidden by gray clouds
At six o'clock he awoke, quietly lying on his back He gazed straight up into the gray sky and knew that he was hungry As he rolled over on his elboas startled by a loud snort, and saw a bull caribou regarding him with alert curiosity The animal was not mere than fifty feet away, and instantly into the man's mind leaped the vision and the savor of a caribou steak sizzling and frying over a fire Mechanically he reached for the eer The bull snorted and leaped away, his hoofs rattling and clattering as he fled across the ledges
The roaned aloud as he started to drag himself to his feet It was a slow and arduous task
His joints were like rusty hinges They worked harshly in their sockets, withwas accoh a sheer exertion of will When he finally gained his feet, anotherup, so that he could stand erect as a man should stand
He crawled up a small knoll and surveyed the prospect There were no trees, no bushes, nothing but a gray sea of ray strearay There was no sun nor hint of sun
He had no idea of north, and he had forgotten the way he had coht before But he was not lost He knew that Soon he would come to the land of the little sticks He felt that it lay off to the left somewhere, not far - possibly just over the next low hill
He went back to put his pack into shape for travelling He assured himself of the existence of his three separate parcels of er, debating, over a squat e He could hide it under his two hands He knew that it weighed fifteen pounds, - as much as all the rest of the pack, - and it worried him He finally set it to one side and proceeded to roll the pack He paused to gaze at the squat lance about hi to rob hier on into the day, it was included in the pack on his back
He bore away to the left, stopping now and again to eatberries His ankle had stiffened, his li cos were sharp They gnawed and gnawed until he could not keep his ain the land of little sticks The , while they ue and the roof of hisbite
He cas fros Ker - ker - ker was the cry they made
He threw stones at theround and stalked theh his pants' legs till his knees left a trail of blood; but the hurt was lost in the hurt of his hunger He squir his body; but he was not aware of it, so great was his fever for food And always the ptar, before him, till their ker - ker - ker became a mock to him, and he cursed them and cried aloud at them with their own cry
Once he crawled upon one that must have been asleep He did not see it till it shot up in his face from its rocky nook He an, and there reht he hated it, as though it had done hi Then he returned and shouldered his pack
As the day wore along he caame was more plentiful A band of caribou passed by, twenty and odd anie He felt a wild desire to run after them, a certitude that he could run thean in his mouth Theaway in fright, did not drop the ptaran
Late in the afternoon he followed a streah sparse patches of rush-grass Grasping these rushes fir onion- sprout no larger than a shi+ngle-nail It was tender, and his teeth sank into it with a crunch that proh It was coy filaments saturated ater, like the berries, and devoid of nourishrass on hands and knees, crunching and , like some bovine creature
He was very weary and often wished to rest - to lie down and sleep; but he was continually driven on - not so ain the land of little sticks as by his hunger He searched little ponds for frogs and dug up the earth with his nails for wors nor worms existed so far north
He looked into every pool of water vainly, until, as the long twilight came on, he discovered a solitary fish, the size of a ed his arm in up to the shoulder, but it eluded him He reached for it with both hands and stirred up thehimself to the waist Then the water was toothe fish, and he was compelled to wait until the sediment had settled
The pursuit was renewed, till the water was again muddied But he could not wait He unstrapped the tin bucket and began to bale the pool He baled wildly at first, splashi+ng hi the water so short a distance that it ran back into the pool He worked h his heart was pounding against his chest and his hands were tre At the end of half an hour the pool was nearly dry Not a cupful of water remained And there was no fish
He found a hidden crevice a and larger pool - a pool which he could not eht and a day Had he known of the crevice, he could have closed it with a rock at the beginning and the fish would have been his
Thus he thought, and crumpled up and sank down upon the wet earth At first he cried softly to himself, then he cried loudly to the pitiless desolation that ringed hireat dry sobs