but death here in this
country, so cold and bleak and pitiless to all animals, seems somehow
closer, more inevitable, more cruel, and flings over every animal the
shadow of immediate tragedy. There was something approaching crime in
bringing a horse over that trail for a thousand miles only to turn
him loose at the end, or to sell him to some man who would work him
to the point of death, and then shoot him or turn him out to freeze.

As the time came when I must return to the south and to the tame, the
settled, the quiet, I experienced a profound feeling of regret, of
longing for the wild and lonely. I looked up at the shining green and
white mountains and they allured me still, notwithstanding all the
toil and discomfort of the journey just completed. The wind from the
south, damp and cool, the great river gliding with rushing roar to
meet the sea, had a distinct and wonderful charm from which I rent
myself with distinct effort.

THE TOIL OF THE TRAIL

What have I gained by the toil of the trail?
I know and know well.
I have found once again the lore I had lost
In the loud city's hell.

I have broadened my hand to the cinch and the axe,
I have laid my flesh to the rain;
I was hunter and trailer and guide;
I have touched the most primitive wildness again.

I have threaded the wild with the stealth of the deer,
No eagle is freer than I;
No mountain can thwart me, no torrent appall,
I defy the stern sky.
So long as I live these joys will remain,
I have touched the most primitive wildness again.

CHAPTER XX

GREAT NEWS AT WRANGELL

Boat after boat had come up, stopped for a night, and dropped down
the river again, carrying from ten to twenty of the goldseekers who
had determined to quit or to try some other way in; and at last the
time had come for me to say good-by to Burton and all those who had
determined to keep on to Teslin Lake. I had helped them buy and sack
and weigh their supplies, and they were ready to line up once more.

As I led Ladrone down toward the boat, he called again for his
fellows, but only strangers made reply. After stowing him safely away
and giving him feed, I returned to the deck in order to wave my hat
to Burton.

In accordance with his peculiar, undemonstrative temperament, he
stood for a few moments in silence, with his hands folded behind his
back, then, with a final wave of the hand, turned on his hee