Tales of the Klondyke | Page 5

of men, look you,

because of the church, wet with the blood of men. And the Riders of
the North came for me, but my mother's brother, who was then chief in
his own right, hid me and gave me horses and food. And we went away,
my woman-child and I, even to the Hudson Bay Country, where white
men were few and the questions they asked not many. And I worked
for the company a hunter, as a guide, as a driver of dogs, till my
woman-child was become a woman, tall, and slender, and fair to the
eye.
"You know the winter, long and lonely, breeding evil thoughts and bad
deeds. The Chief Factor was a hard man, and bold. And he was not
such that a woman would delight in looking upon. But he cast eyes
upon my woman-child who was become a woman. Mother of God! he
sent me away on a long trip with the dogs, that he might--you
understand, he was a hard man and without heart. She was most white,
and her soul was white, and a good woman, and--well, she died.
"It was bitter cold the night of my return, and I had been away months,
and the dogs were limping sore when I came to the fort. The Indians
and breeds looked on me in silence, and I felt the fear of I knew not
what, but I said nothing till the dogs were fed and I had eaten as a man
with work before him should. Then I spoke up, demanding the word,
and they shrank from me, afraid of my anger and what I should do; but
the story came out, the pitiful story, word for word and act for act, and
they marvelled that I should be so quiet.
"When they had done I went to the Factor's house, calmer than now in
the telling of it. He had been afraid and called upon the breeds to help
him; but they were not pleased with the deed, and had left him to lie on
the bed he had made. So he had fled to the house of the priest. Thither I
followed. But when I was come to that place, the priest stood in my
way, and spoke soft words, and said a man in anger should go neither
to the right nor left, but straight to God. I asked by the right of a father's
wrath that he give me past, but he said only over his body, and
besought with me to pray. Look you, it was the church, always the
church; for I passed over his body and sent the Factor to meet my
woman-child before his god, which is a bad god, and the god of the
white men.
Then was there hue and cry, for word was sent to the station below, and
I came away. Through the Land of the Great Slave, down the Valley of

the Mackenzie to the never-opening ice, over the White Rockies, past
the Great Curve of the Yukon, even to this place did I come. And from
that day to this, yours is the first face of my father's people I have
looked upon. May it be the last! These people, which are my people,
are a simple folk, and I have been raised to honor among them. My
word is their law, and their priests but do my bidding, else would I not
suffer them. When I speak for them I speak for myself. We ask to be let
alone. We do not want your kind. If we permit you to sit by our fires,
after you will come your church, your priests, and your gods. And
know this, for each white man who comes to my village, him will I
make deny his god. You are the first, and I give you grace. So it were
well you go, and go quickly."
"I am not responsible for my brothers," the second man spoke up,
filling his pipe in a meditative manner. Hay Stockard was at times as
thoughtful of speech as he was wanton of action; but only at times.
"But I know your breed," responded the other. "Your brothers are many,
and it is you and yours who break the trail for them to follow. In time
they shall come to possess the land, but not in my time. Already, have I
heard, are they on the head-reaches of the Great River, and far away
below are the Russians."
Hay Stockard lifted his head with a quick start. This was startling
geographical information. The Hudson Bay post at Fort Yukon had
other notions concerning the course of the river, believing it to flow
into the Arctic.
"Then the Yukon empties into Bering Sea?" he asked.
"I