Kabanata Kabanata 16 · BOOK II CHAPTER VI

Day after day, each man of us poured out on the trail the last heel-tap

of his strength, and the coming of night found us utterly played out.

Salvation Jim was full of device and resource, the Prodigal, a dynamo of

eager energy; but it was the Jam-wagon who proved his mettle in a

magnificent and relentless way. Whether it was from a sense of

gratitude, or to offset the cravings that assailed him, I know not, but

he crammed the days with merciless exertion.

A curious man was the Jam-wagon, Brian Wanless his name, a world tramp,

a derelict of the Seven Seas. His story, if ever written, would be a

human document of moving and poignant interest. He must once have been a

magnificent fellow, and even now, with strength and will-power impaired,

he was a man among men, full of quick courage and of a haughty temper.

It was ever a word and a blow with him, and a fight to the desperate

finish. He was insular, imperious and aggressive, and he was always

looking for trouble.

Though taciturn and morose with men, the Jam-wagon showed a tireless

affection for animals. From the first he took charge of our ox; but it

was for horses his fondness was most expressed, so that on the trail,

where there was so much cruelty, he was constantly on the verge of

combat.

"That's a great man," said the Prodigal to me, "a fighter from heel to

head. There's one he can't fight, though, and that's old man Booze."

But on the trail every man was a fighter. It was fight or fall, for the

trail would brook no weaklings. Good or bad, a man must be a man in the

primal sense, dominant, savage and enduring. The trail was implacable.

From the start it cried for strong men; it weeded out its weaklings. I

had seen these fellows on the ship feed their vanity with foolish

fancies; kindled to ardours of hope, I had seen debauch regnant among

them; now I was to see them crushed, cowed, overwhelmed, realising each,

according to his kind, the menace and antagonism of the way. I was to

see the weak falter and fall by the trail side; I was to see the

fainthearted quail and turn back; but I was to see the strong, the

brave, grow grim, grow elemental in their desperate strength, and

tightening up their belts, go forward unflinchingly to the bitter end.

Thus it was the trail chose her own. Thus it was, from passion, despair

and defeat, the spirit of the trail was born.

The spirit of the Gold Trail, how shall I describe it? It was based on

that primal instinct of self-preservation that underlies our thin veneer

of humanity. It was rebellion, anarchy; it was ruthless, aggressive,

primitive; it was the man of the stone age in modern garb waging his

fierce, incessant warfare with the forces of nature. Spurred on by the

fever of the gold-lust, goaded by the fear of losing in the race;

maddened by the difficulties and obstacles of the way, men became

demons of cruelty and aggression, ruthlessly thrusting aside and

trampling down the weaker ones who thwarted their progress. Of pity,

humanity, love, there was none, only the gold-lust, triumphant and

repellent. It was the survival of the fittest, the most tenacious, the

most brutal. Yet there was something grandly terrible about it all. It

was a barbaric invasion, an army, each man fighting for his own hand

under the banner of gold. It was conquest. Every day, as I watched that

human torrent, I realised how vast, how irresistible it was. It was

Epic, it was Historical.

Many pitiful things I saw--men with haggard, hopeless faces, throwing

their outfits into the snow and turning back broken-hearted; men

staggering blindly on, exhausted to despair, then dropping wearily by

the trail side in the bitter cold and sinister gloom; weaklings, every

one. Many terrible things I saw--men cursing each other, cursing the

trail, cursing their God, and in the echo of their curses, grinding

their teeth and stumbling on. Then they would vent their fury and spite

on the poor dumb animals. Oh, what cruelty there was! The life of the

brute was as nothing; it was the tribute of the trail; it was a

sacrifice on the altar of human greed.

Long before dawn the trail awakened and the air was full of breakfast

smells, chiefly that of burnt porridge: for pots were seldom scraped,

neither were dishes washed. Soon the long-drawn-out army was on the

march, jaded animals straining at their loads, their drivers reviling

and beating them. All the men were bearded, and many of them wore

parkas. As many of the women had discarded petticoats, it was often

difficult at a short distance to tell the sex of a person. There were

tents built on sleighs, with faces of women and children peering out

from behind. It was a wonderful procession, all classes, all

nationalities, greybeards and striplings, parsons and prostitutes, rich

and poor, filing past in their thousands, drawn desperately on by the

golden magnet.

One day we were making a trip with a load of our stuff when, just ahead,

there was a check in the march, so I and the Jam-wagon went forward to

investigate. It was our old friend Bullhammer in difficulties. He had

rather a fine horse, and in passing a sump-hole, his sled had skidded

and slipped downhill into the water. Now he was belabouring the animal

unmercifully, acting like a crazy man, shouting in a frenzy of rage.

The horse was making the most gallant efforts I ever saw, but, with

every fresh attempt, its strength weakened. Time and again it came down

on its knees, which were raw and bleeding. It was shining with sweat so

that there was not a dry hair on its body, and if ever a dumb brute's

eyes spoke of agony and fear, that horse's did. But Bullhammer grew

every moment more infuriated, wrenching its mouth and beating it over

the head with a club. It was a sickening sight and, used as I was to the

inhumanity of the trail, I would have interfered had not the Jam-wagon

jumped in. He was deadly pale and his eyes burned.

"You infernal brute! If you strike that horse another blow, I'll break

your club over your shoulders."

Bullhammer turned on him. Surprise paralysed the man, rage choked him.

They were both big husky fellows, and they drew up face to face. Then

Bullhammer spoke.

"Curse you, anyway. Don't interfere with me. I'll beat bloody hell out

of the horse if I like, an' you won't say one word, see?"

With that he struck the horse another vicious blow on the head. There

was a quick scuffle. The club was wrenched from Bullhammer's hand. I saw

it come down twice. The man sprawled on his back, while over him stood

the Jam-wagon, looking very grim. The horse slipped quietly back into

the water.

"You ugly blackguard! I've a good mind to beat you within an ace of your

life. But you're not worth it. Ah, you cur!"

He gave Bullhammer a kick. The man got on his feet. He was a coward, but

his pig eyes squinted in impotent rage. He looked at his horse lying

shivering in the icy water.

"Get the horse out yourself, then, curse you. Do what you please with

him. But, mark you--I'll get even with you for this--I'll--get--even."

He shook his fist and, with an ugly oath, went away. The block in the

traffic was relieved. The trail was again in motion. When we got abreast

of the submerged horse, we hitched on the ox and hastily pulled it out,

and (the Jam-wagon proving to have no little veterinary skill) in a few

days it was fit to work again.

* * * * *

Another week had gone and we were still on the trail, between the head

of the canyon and the summit of the Pass. Day after day was the same

round of unflinching effort, under conditions that would daunt any but

the stoutest hearts. The trail was in a terrible condition, sometimes

well-nigh impassable, and many a time, but for the invincible spirit of

the Prodigal, would I have turned back. He had a way of laughing at

misfortune and heartening one when things seemed to have passed the

limit of all endurance.

Here is another day selected from my diary:

"Rose at 4:30 A.M. and started for summit with load. Trail all

filled in with snow, and had dreadful time shovelling it out. Load

upsets number of times. Got to summit at three o'clock. Ox almost

played out. Snowing and blowing fearfully on summit. Ox tired;

tries to lie down every few yards. Bitterly cold and have hard time

trying to keep hands and feet from freezing. Keep on going to make

Balsam City. Arrived there about ten o'clock at night. Clothing

frozen stiff. Snow from seven to one hundred feet deep. No wood

within a quarter mile and then only soft balsam. Had to go for

wood. Almost impossible to start fire. Was near midnight when I had

fire going well and supper cooked. Eighteen hours on the trail

without a square meal. The way of the Klondike is hard, hard."

And yet I believe, compared with others, we were getting along finely.

Every day, as the difficulties of the trail increased, I saw more and

more instances of suffering and privation, and to many the name of the

White Pass was the death-knell of hope. I could see their faces blanch

as they gazed upward at that white immensity; I could see them tighten

their pack-straps, clench their teeth and begin the ascent; could see

them straining every muscle as they climbed, the grim lines harden round

their mouths, their eyes full of hopeless misery and despair; I could

see them panting at every step, ghastly with fatigue, lurching and

stumbling on under their heavy packs. These were the weaker ones, who,

sooner or later, gave up the struggle.

Then there were the strong, ruthless ones, who had left humanity at

home, who flogged their staggering skin-and-bone pack animals till they

dropped, then, with a curse, left them to die.

Far, far above us the monster mountains nuzzled among the clouds till

cloud and mountain were hard to tell apart. These were giant heights

heaved up to the stars, where blizzards were cradled and the storm-winds

born, stupendous horrific familiars of the tempest and the thunder. I

was conscious of their absolute sublimity. It was like height piled on

height as one would pile up sacks of flour. As Jim remarked: "Say,

wouldn't it give you crick in the neck just gazin' at them there

mountains?"

How ant-like seemed the black army crawling up the icy pass, clinging to

its slippery face in the blinding buffet of snow and rain! Men dropped

from its ranks uncared for and unpitied. Heedless of those that fell,

the gap closed up, the march went on. The great army crawled up and over

the summit. Far behind could we see them, hundreds, thousands, a

countless host, all with "Klondike" on their lips and the lust of the

gold-lure in their hearts. It was the Great Stampede.

"Klondike or bust," was the slogan. It was ever on the lips of those

bearded men. "Klondike or bust"--the strong man, with infinite patience,

righted his overturned sleigh, and in the face of the blinding blizzard,

pushed on through the clogging snow. "Klondike or bust"--the weary,

trail-worn one raised himself from the hole where he had fallen, and

stiff, cold, racked with pain, gritted his teeth doggedly and staggered

on a few feet more. "Klondike or bust"--the fanatic of the trail, crazed

with the gold-lust, performed mad feats of endurance, till nature

rebelled, and raving and howling, he was carried away to die.

"'Member Joe?" some one would say, as a pack-horse came down the trail

with, strapped on it, a dead, rigid shape. "Joe used to be plumb-full of

fun; always joshin' or takin' some guy off; well--that's Joe."

Two weary, woe-begone men were pulling a hand-sleigh down from the

summit. On it was lashed a man. He was in a high fever, raving,

delirious. Half-crazed with suffering themselves, his partners plodded

on unheedingly. I recognised in them the Bank clerk and the Professor,

and I hailed them. From black hollows their eyes stared at me

unrememberingly, and I saw how emaciated were their faces.

"Spinal meningitis," they said laconically, and they were taking him

down to the hospital. I took a look and saw in that mask of terror and

agony the familiar face of the Wood-carver.

He gazed at me eagerly, wildly: "I'm rich," he cried, "rich. I've found

it--the gold--in millions, millions. Now I'm going outside to spend it.

No more cold and suffering and poverty. I'm going down there to _live_,

thank God, to live."

Poor Globstock! He died down there. He was buried in a nameless grave.

To this day I fancy his old mother waits for his return. He was her sole

support, the one thing she lived for, a good, gentle son, a man of sweet

simplicity and loving kindness. Yet he lies under the shadow of those

hard-visaged mountains in a nameless grave.

The trail must have its tribute.