And there was much
grub on that sled, and the dogs the strongest.
'But he laughed, for he was strong of life, and gave the dogs
that were left little grub till we cut them from the harnesses
one by one and fed them to their mates. We would go home light,
he said, traveling and eating from cache to cache, with neither
dogs nor sleds; which was true, for our grub was very short, and
the last dog died in the traces the night we came to the gold and
the bones and the curses of men.
'To reach that place--and the map spoke true--in the heart of the
great mountains, we cut ice steps against the wall of a divide.
One looked for a valley beyond, but there was no valley; the snow
spread away, level as the great harvest plains, and here and
there about us mighty mountains shoved their white heads among
the stars. And midway on that strange plain which should have
been a valley the earth and the snow fell away, straight down
toward the heart of the world.
'Had we not been sailormen our heads would have swung round with
the sight, but we stood on the dizzy edge that we might see a way
to get down. And on one side, and one side only, the wall had
fallen away till it was like the slope of the decks in a topsail
breeze.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219