beneath an iron exterior,
asked them the welfare of the rest, told the distance to the fire, and
continued on the back-trip.

Next he met a single Indian, unburdened, limping, lips compressed, and
eyes set with the pain of a foot in which the quick fought a losing
battle with the dead. All possible care had been taken of him, but in
the last extremity the weak and unfortunate must perish, and Sitka
Charley deemed his days to be few. The man could not keep up for long,
so he gave him rough cheering words. After that came two more Indians,
to whom he had allotted the task of helping along Joe, the third white
man of the party. They had deserted him. Sitka Charley saw at a glance
the lurking spring in their bodies, and knew they had at last cast off
his mastery. So he was not taken unawares when he ordered them back in
quest of their abandoned charge, and saw the gleam of the hunting
knives that they drew from the sheaths. A pitiful spectacle, three weak
men lifting their puny strength in the face of the mighty vastness; but
the two recoiled under the fierce rifle blows of the one and returned
like beaten dogs to the leash. Two hours later, with Joe reeling
between them and Sitka Charley bringing up the rear, they came to the
fire, where the remainder of the expedition crouched in the shelter of
the fly.

'A few words, my comrades, before we sleep,' Sitka Charley said after
they had devoured their slim rations of unleavened bread. He was
speaking to the Indians in their own tongue, having already given the
import to the whites. 'A few words, my comrades, for your own good,
that ye may yet perchance live. I shall give you the law; on his own
head by the death of him that breaks it. We have passed the Hills of
Silence, and we now travel the head reaches of the Stuart. It may be
one sleep, it may be several, it may be many sleeps, but in time we
shall come among the men of the Yukon, who have much grub. It were well
that we look to the law. Today Kah-Chucte and Gowhee, whom I commanded
to break trail, forgot they were men, and like frightened children ran
away.

'True, they forgot; so let us forget. But hereafter, let them remember.
If it should happen they do not...' He touched his rifle carelessly,
grimly. 'Tomorrow they shall carry the flour and see that the white man
Joe lies not down by the trail. The cups of flour are counted; should
so much as an ounce be wanting at nightfall... Do ye understand? Today
there were o