Say that I did die on
the trail, but say not how.' 'And thou, Kah-Chucte, who hast nor
wife nor child?' 'Mine is a sister, the wife of the factor at
Koshim. He beats her, and she is not happy. Give thou her the
goods which are mine by the contract, and tell her it were well
she go back to her own people. Shouldst thou meet the man, and be
so minded, it were a good deed that he should die. He beats her,
and she is afraid.' 'Are ye content to die by the law?' 'We are.'
'Then good-bye, my good comrades. May ye sit by the well-filled
pot, in warm lodges, ere the day is done.' As he spoke he raised
his rifle, and many echoes broke the silence. Hardly had they
died away when other rifles spoke in the distance. Sitka Charley
started.
There had been more than one shot, yet there was but one other
rifle in the party.
He gave a fleeting glance at the men who lay so quietly, smiled
viciously at the wisdom of the trail, and hurried on to meet the
men of the Yukon.
The Wife of a King
Once when the northland was very young, the social and civic
virtues were remarkably alike for their paucity and their
simplicity. When the burden of domestic duties grew grievous, and
the fireside mood expanded to a constant protest against its
bleak loneliness, the adventurers from the Southland, in lieu of
better, paid the stipulated prices and took unto themselves
native wives.
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