Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1912 — BURNING DAYLIGHT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BURNING DAYLIGHT

BY JACK LONDON

Author Of "The Call Of The W/ld* “Wh/te Fang, "Maw7nFden frc. Illustrations By Dearborn Melvhl

(Copyright, 1910, by the New York Herald Company.) (Copyright. 1910. by the MacMillan Company.

| CHAPTER 111. At Sixty Mlle they restocked proviWfons, added a few pounds of letters to their load, and held steadily on. From Forty Mlle they had unbroken trail, and they could look forward only to unbroken trail clear to Dyea. Daylight stood it magnificently, but the killing pace was beginning to tell on Kama. TTia pride kept his mouth shut, but the result of the chilling,of his lungs in the cold snap could not be concealed. They traveled till ten o’clock the night they reached Selkirk, and at six next morning they plunged ahead into the next stretch of wilderness of ( nearly five hundred miles that lay between Selkirk and Dyea. There was no let-up in his pace. Twelve hours a day, six in the twilight and six in the dark, they toiled on the trail. Three hours were consumed in cooking, repairing harnesses, and making and breaking camp, and the remaining nine hours dogs and men slept as if dead. The time came when Kama was unable to go in the lead and break trail, and it was proof that he was far gone when he permitted Daylight to toll all day at the heavy snowshoe work. Lake by lake they crossed the string of lakes from Marsh to Linderman, and began the ascent of Chllcoot By all rights Daylight should have camped below the last pitch of the pass at the dim end of day; but he kept on and over and down to Sheep Camp, while behind him raged a snow storm that would have delayed him twenty-four hours. This last excessive strain broke .Kama completely. In the morning he **ould not travel. At five, when called, up after a struggle, groaned, and sank back again. Daylight did the camp work of both, harnessed the dogs, and, when ready for the start, rolled the helpless Indian In all three sleeping robes add lashed him on top of the sled. The going was good; they were on their last lap; and he raced the dogs down through Dyea canyon and along the hard-packed trail that led to Dyea post. And running still, Kama groaning on top the load, and Daylight leaping at the gee-pole to avoid going under the runners of the flying sled, they arrived at Dyea by the sea True to his promise. Daylight did not stop. An hour’s time saw the sled loaded with the ingoing mail and gnib, fresh dogs harnessed and a fresh Indian engaged. Kama never ■poke from the time of his arrival till the moment Daylight, ready to depart, ■food beside him to say good-by. They shook hands. “ “You kill um dat damn Indian,” Kama said. “Sawee, Daylight? You kill um.” “He’ll sure last as far as Pelly,” Daylight gfinned. Kama shook his head doubtfully, and rolled over on his side, turning his back in token of farewell. • • » A crowd filled the Tivoli —the old crowd that had seen Daylight depart two months before; for this was the night of the sixtieth day, and opinion

■ . {J? •was divided as ever as to whether or not he would compass the achievement. At ten o’clock bets were still being made, though the odds rose, bet by bet, against his success. Down in her heart the Virgin believed he had failed, yet she made a bet of twenty ounces with Charley Bates, against forty ounces, that Daylight would arrive before. midnight < She it was who heard the first yelps of the dogs. “Listen!” she cried. nt’s Dnylight i” There was a general stampede for the door; but when the double stormdoors were thrown wide open, the crowd fell back. They heard the eager whining of dogs, the snap of a dogwhip and the voice of Daylight crying encouragement as the weary animals jdl they had done by dragging

the - sled'fnover the wooden floor. They came in with a rush, and with them rushed in the frost, a visible vapor of smoking white, through which their heads and backs showed, as they strained in the harness, till they had all the seeming of swimming in a river. Behind them, at the geepole, came Daylight, hidden to the i knees by the swirling frost through i which he appeared to wade. He was ‘ the same okL Daylight, withal lean and tired-looking, and his black eyes were sparkling and flashing brighter than eVer. His parka of cotton drill . hooded him like a monk, and fell in i straight lines to his knees. 9 Grimed 1 and scorched by camp-smoke and fire, ’ the garment in itself told the story of his trip. A two-months’ bears covI ered his face; and the beard, in turn, I was matted with the ice of his breathing through the long seventy-mlle run. He experienced « thrill of surprise as the roar of welcome went up and as every familiar detail of the Tivoli greeted his vision—the long bar and the array of bottles, the gambling games, the big stove, the weigher at ■ the gold-scales, the musicians, the I men and women, the Virgin, Celia, and Nellie, Dan MacDonald, Bettles, Billy Rawlins, Olaf Henderson, Doc Watson —all of them. It was just as he had left it, and in all seeming it might well be the very day he had left The sixty days of incessant travel through the white wilderness suddenly telescoped, and had no existence in time. They were a moment, an incident. He had plunged out and into them through the wall of silence, and back through the wait of silence he had plunged, apparently the next instant, and into the roar and turmoil of the Tivoli. He drew a deep breath and cried: "The winner pays, and I’m the winner, ain’t I? Surge up, you-all Malemutes and Slwashes, and name your poison! There’s your Dyea mall, straight from Balt Water, andnohornswogglin about it! Cast the lashings adrift, you-all, and wade into it!” \ A dozen pairs of hands were at the sled-lashings, when the young Le Barge Indian, bending at the same task, suddenly and limply straightened up. In his eyes was a great surprise. He stared about him wildly, for the thing he was undergoing was new to him. He was profoundly struck by an unguessed limitation. He shook as with a palsy, and he gave at the knees, slowly sinking down to fall suddenly across the sled and to know the smashing blow of darkness across ! his consciousness. i “Exhaustion,” i said Daylight “Take I him off and put him to bed, some of i you-all. He’s sure a good Indian.” A few minutes later, Daylight was : whirling around the dance-floor, waltz- z : Ing with the Virgin. And small won- , der it was that the Virgin yielded herj self to his arms, as they danced dance i after dance, and sick at heart at the knowledge that he found nothing in her more than a good friend and an excellent dancer. Small consolation it was to know that he never loved any woman. She was sick with love of him, and he danced with her as he would dance with any woman, as he would dance with a man who was a good dancer and upon whose arm was tied a handkerchief to conventionalize, him into a woman. At one in the morning he saw Elijah Davis herding Henry Finn and Joe Hines, the lumber-jack, toward the door. Daylight interfere?!. “Where are, you-all going?” he demanded, attempting to draw them to the bar. "Bed,” Elijah Davis answered. "Got to,” Joe Hines added apologetically. "We’re mushing jput in the mornin’.” , , ' Daylight still detained them. “Where to? What’s the excitement?” * 1 “No excitement,” Elijah explained. “We’re just a-goln’ to play your hunch, an’ tackle the Upper Country., Don’t you want to come along?” “I sure do,” Daylight affirmed. But the question had been put in fuL, an d Elijah ignored the acceptance. “We’re tacklin’ the. Stewart,” he went on. “Al Mayo told me he seen some likely lookin’ bars first time he I come down the Stewart, and we’re goln’ to sample ’em while the river’s froze. You listen, Daylight, an’ mark my words, the time’s cornin’ when winter diggin’s ’ll be all the go. There’ll be men in them days that’ll laugh at our summer scratchin’ an’ ground-wallerin’.” Elijah laughed, gathered his two partners up, and was making a second attempt to reach the door. “Hold on,” Daylight called. “I sure mean it." The three men turned back suddenly upon him, in their faces surprise, delight, and incredulity. “G’wan, you’re foolin’,” said Finn, the other lumber-jack, a quiet, steady, Wisconsin man. “There’s my dawgs and sled,” Daylight. answered. "ThaUH make two

learns and halve tfie loads; though we-all ’ll have to travel easy for a spell, for them dawgs is sure tired.” The three men were overjoyed, but still* a trifle incredulous. ’> ’ "Now look here,” Joe Hines blurted out, “none of your foolin’, Daylight. We mean business. Will you come?” Daylight extended his hand and shook. - 4 y (To be Continued.)’

The Time Came When Kama Was Unable to Go in the Lead.