steering oar, and headed the boat for the plunge.

Several minutes later, half-swamped and lying against the bank in
the eddy below the White Horse, Shorty spat out a mouthful of

tobacco juice and shook Kit's hand.
"Meat! Meat!" Shorty chanted. "We eat it raw! We eat it alive!"

At the top of the bank they met Breck. His wife stood at a little
distance. Kit shook his hand.

"I'm afraid your boat can't make it," he said. "It is smaller than
ours and a bit cranky."

The man pulled out a row of bills.
"I'll give you each a hundred if you run it through."

Kit looked out and up the tossing Mane of the White Horse. A long,
gray twilight was falling, it was turning colder, and the landscape

seemed taking on a savage bleakness.
"It ain't that," Shorty was saying. "We don't want your money.

Wouldn't touch it nohow. But my pardner is the real meat with
boats, and when he says yourn ain't safe I reckon he knows what he's

talkin' about."
Kit nodded affirmation, and chanced to glance at Mrs Breck. Her

eyes were fixed upon him, and he knew that if ever he had seen
prayer in a woman's eyes he was seeing it then. Shorty followed his

gaze and saw what he saw. They looked at each other in confusion
and did not speak. Moved by the common impulse, they nodded to each

other and turned to the trail that led to the head of the rapids.
They had not gone a hundred yards when they met Stine and Sprague

coming down.
"Where are you going?" the latter demanded.

"To fetch that other boat through," Shorty answered.
"No you're not. It's getting dark. You two are going to pitch

camp."
So huge was Kit's disgust that he forebore to speak.

"He's got his wife with him," Shorty said.
"That's his lookout," Stine contributed.

"And Smoke's and mine," was Shorty's retort.
"I forbid you," Sprague said harshly. "Smoke, if you go another

step I'll charge" target="_blank" title="vt.&n.卸货；释放；解雇">discharge you."
"And you, too, Shorty," Stine added.

"And a hell of a pickle you'll be in with us fired," Shorty replied.
"How'll you get your blamed boat to Dawson? Who'll serve you coffee

in your blankets and manicure your finger-nails? Come on, Smoke.
They don't dast fire us. Besides, we've got agreements. It they

fire us they've got to divvy up grub to last us through the winter."
Barely had they shoved Breck's boat out from the bank and caught the

first rough water, when the waves began to lap aboard. They were
small waves, but it was an earnest of what was to come. Shorty cast

back a quizzical glance as he gnawed at his inevitable plug, and Kit
felt a strange rush of warmth at his heart for this man who couldn't

swim and who couldn't back out.
The rapids grew stiffer, and the spray began to fly. In the

gathering darkness, Kit glimpsed the Mane and the crooked fling of
the current into it. He worked into this crooked current, and felt

a glow of satisfaction as the boat hit the head of the Mane squarely
in the middle. After that, in the smother, leaping and burying and

swamping, he had no clear impression of anything save that he swung
his weight on the steering oar and wished his uncle were there to

see. They emerged, breathless, wet through, and filled with water
almost to the gunwale. Lighter pieces of baggage and outfit were

floating inside the boat. A few careful strokes on Shorty's part
worked the boat into the draw of the eddy, and the eddy did the rest

till the boat softly touched against the bank. Looking down from
above was Mrs Breck. Her prayer had been answered, and the tears

were streaming down her cheeks.
"You boys have simply got to take the money," Breck called down to

them.
Shorty stood up, slipped, and sat down in the water, while the boat

dipped one gunwale under and righted again.
"Damn the money," said Shorty. "Fetch out that whiskey. Now that

it's over I'm getting cold feet, an' I'm sure likely to have a
chill."

V.
In the morning, as usual, they were among the last of the boats to

start. Breck, despite his boating inefficiency, and with only his
wife and nephew for crew, had broken camp, loaded his boat, and

pulled out at the first streak of day. But there was no hurry in
Stine and Sprague, who seemed incapable of realizing that the

freeze-up might come at any time. They malingered, got in the way,
delayed, and doubted the work of Kit and Shorty.

"I'm sure losing my respect for God, seein' as he must a-made them
two mistakes in human form," was the latter's blasphemous way of

expressing his disgust.
"Well, you're the real goods at any rate," Kit grinned back at him.

"It makes me respect God the more just to look at you."
"He was sure goin' some, eh?" was Shorty's fashion of overcoming the

embarrassment of the compliment.
The trail by water crossed Lake Le Barge. Here was no fast current,

but a tideless stretch of forty miles which must be rowed unless a
fair wind blew. But the time for fair wind was past, and an icy

gale blew in their teeth out of the north. This made a rough sea,
against which it was almost impossible to pull the boat. Added to

their troubles was driving snow; also, the freezing of the water on
their oar-blades kept one man occupied in chopping it off with a

hatchet. Compelled to take their turn at the oars, Sprague and
Stine patently loafed. Kit had learned how to throw his weight on

an oar, but he noted that his employers made a seeming of throwing
their weights and that they dipped their oars at a cheating angle.

At the end of three hours, Sprague pulled his oar in and said they
would run back into the mouth of the river for shelter. Stine

seconded him, and the several hard-won miles were lost. A second
day, and a third, the same fruitless attempt was made. In the river

mouth, the continually arriving boats from White Horse made a
flotilla of over two hundred. Each day forty or fifty arrived, and

only two or three won to the north-west short of the lake and did
not come back. Ice was now forming in the eddies, and connecting

from eddy to eddy in thin lines around the points. The freeze-up
was very imminent.

"We could make it if they had the souls of clams," Kit told Shorty,
as they dried their moccasins by the fire on the evening of the

third day. "We could have made it to-day if they hadn't turned
back. Another hour's work would have fetched that west shore.

They're--they're babes in the woods."
"Sure," Shorty agreed. He turned his moccasin to the flame and

debated a moment. "Look here, Smoke. It's hundreds of miles to
Dawson. If we don't want to freeze in here, we've got to do

something. What d'ye say?"
Kit looked at him, and waited.

"We've got the immortal cinch on them two babes," Shorty expounded.
"They can give orders an' shed mazuma, but, as you say, they're plum

babes. If we're goin' to Dawson, we got to take charge of this here
outfit."

They looked at each other.
"It's a go," said Kit, as his hand went out in ratification.

In the morning, long before daylight, Shorty issued his call.
"Come on!" he roared. "Tumble out, you sleepers! Here's your

coffee! Kick in to it! We're goin' to make a start!"
Grumbling and complaining, Stine and Sprague were forced to get

under way two hours earlier than ever before. If anything, the gale
was stiffer, and in a short time every man's face was iced up, while

the oars were heavy with ice. Three hours they struggled, and four,
one man steering, one chopping ice, two toiling at the oars, and

each taking his various turns. The north-west shore loomed nearer
and nearer. The gale blew even harder, and at last Sprague pulled

in his oar in token of surrender. Shorty sprang to it, though his
relief had only begun.

"Chop ice," he said, handing Sprague the hatchet.
"But what's the use?" the other whined. "We can't make it. We're

going to turn back."
"We're going on," said Shorty. "Chop ice. An' when you feel better

you can spell me."
It was heart-breaking toil, but they gained the shore, only to find

it composed of surge-beaten rocks and cliffs, with no place to land.
"I told you so," Sprague whimpered.

"You never peeped," Shorty answered.
"We're going back."

Nobody spoke, and Kit held the boat into the seas as they skirted
the forbidding shore. Sometimes they gained no more than a foot to

the stroke, and there were times when two or three strokes no more
than enabled them to hold their own. He did his best to hearten the

two weaklings. He pointed out that the boats which had won to this
shore had never come back. Perforce, he argued, they had found a

shelter somewhere ahead. Another hour they laboured, and a second.
"If you fellows put into your oars some of that coffee you swig in

your blankets, we'd make it," was Shorty's encouragement. "You're
just goin' through the motions an' not pullin' a pound."

A few minutes later Sprague drew in his oar.
"I'm finished," he said, and there were tears in his voice.

"So are the rest of us," Kit answered, himself ready to cry or to
commit murder, so great was his exhaustion. "But we're going on

just the same."
"We're going back. Turn the boat around."

"Shorty, if he won't pull, take that oar yourself," Kit commanded.
"Sure," was the answer. "He can chop ice."

But Sprague refused to give over the oar; Stine had ceased rowing,
and the boat was drifting backward.

"Turn around, Smoke," Sprague ordered.
And Kit, who never in his life had cursed any man, astonished

himself.
"I'll see you in hell, first," he replied. "Take hold of that oar

and pull."
It is in moments of exhaustion that men lose all their reserves of

civilization, and such a moment had come. Each man had reached the
breaking-point. Sprague jerked off a mitten, drew his revolver, and

turned it on his steersman. This was a new experience to Kit. He
had never had a gun presented at him in his life. And now, to his

surprise, it seemed to mean nothing at all. It was the most natural
thing in the world.

"If you don't put that gun up," he said, "I'll take it away and rap
you over the knuckles with it."

"If you don't turn the boat around I'll shoot you," Sprague
threatened.

Then Shorty took a hand. He ceased chopping ice and stood up behind
Sprague.

"Go on an' shoot," said Shorty, wiggling the hatchet. "I'm just
aching for a chance to brain you. Go on an' start the festivities."

"This is mutiny," Stine broke in. "You were engaged to obey
orders."

Shorty turned on him.
"Oh, you'll get yours as soon as I finish with your pardner, you

little hog-wallopin' snooper, you."
"Sprague," Kit said, "I'll give you just thirty seconds to put away

that gun and get that oar out."
Sprague hesitated, gave a short hysterical laugh, put the revolver

away and bent his back to the work.
For two hours more, inch by inch, they fought their way along the

edge of the foaming rocks, until Kit feared he had made a mistake.
And then, when on the verge of himself turning back, they came

abreast of a narrow opening, not twenty feet wide, which led into a
land-locked inclosure where the fiercest gusts scarcely flawed the

surface. It was the haven gained by the boats of previous days.
They landed on a shelving beach, and the two employers lay in

collapse in the boat, while Kit and Shorty pitched the tent, built a
fire, and started the cooking.

• twilight [´twailait] n.黎明；黄昏 (初中英语单词)
• savage [´sævidʒ] a.野蛮的 n.蛮人 (初中英语单词)
• reckon [´rekən] v.计算；认为；估计 (初中英语单词)
• impulse [´impʌls] n.推动(力)；冲动；刺激 (初中英语单词)
• disgust [dis´gʌst] n.厌恶 vt.令(人)作呕 (初中英语单词)
• forbid [fə´bid] vt.禁止，不许，阻止 (初中英语单词)
• discharge [dis´tʃɑ:dʒ] vt.&n.卸货；释放；解雇 (初中英语单词)
• aboard [ə´bɔ:d] ad.&prep.在...上 (初中英语单词)
• earnest [´ə:nist] a.认真的 n.认真；诚恳 (初中英语单词)
• warmth [wɔ:mθ] n.温暖；热情；激动 (初中英语单词)
• satisfaction [,sætis´fækʃən] n.满意；满足 (初中英语单词)
• impression [im´preʃən] n.印刷；印象；效果 (初中英语单词)
• softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
• despite [di´spait] prep.尽管 (初中英语单词)
• nephew [´nevju:, ´nɛfju] n.侄子；外甥 (初中英语单词)
• freeze [fri:z] v.结冰；凝固；冷淡 (初中英语单词)
• immortal [i´mɔ:təl] a.不死的n.不朽的人物 (初中英语单词)
• charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
• daylight [´deilait] n.日光；黎明 (初中英语单词)
• surrender [sə´rendə] vt.&n.交出；引渡；放弃 (初中英语单词)
• sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
• pointed [´pɔintid] a.尖(锐)的；中肯的 (初中英语单词)
• opening [´əupəniŋ] n.开放；开端 a.开始的 (初中英语单词)
• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
• pickle [´pikəl] n.盐汁；腌菜 v.腌渍 (高中英语单词)
• inevitable [i´nevitəbəl] a.不可避免的 (高中英语单词)
• crooked [´krukid] a.弯曲的；畸形的 (高中英语单词)
• smother [´smʌðə] v.抑制；覆盖 n.浓烟 (高中英语单词)
• breathless [´breθlis] a.屏息的 (高中英语单词)
• baggage [´bægidʒ] n.行李 (高中英语单词)
• outfit [´aut,fit] n.装备 vt.供给；装备 (高中英语单词)
• streak [stri:k] n.纹理 v.用线条(条纹) (高中英语单词)
• learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
• continually [kən´tinjuəli] ad.不断地，频繁地 (高中英语单词)
• encouragement [in´kʌridʒmənt] n.鼓励；赞助；引诱 (高中英语单词)
• mouthful [´mauθful] n.一口；少量 (英语四级单词)
• whiskey [´wiski] n.威士忌酒 =whisky (英语四级单词)
• incapable [in´keipəbəl] a.无能力的；不能的 (英语四级单词)
• seeming [´si:miŋ] a.表面上的 n.外观 (英语四级单词)
• composed [kəm´pəuzd] a.镇静自若的 (英语四级单词)
• exhaustion [ig´zɔ:stʃən] n.用完；精疲力尽 (英语四级单词)
• revolver [ri´vɔlvə] n.左轮手枪；旋转者 (英语四级单词)
• hatchet [´hætʃit] n.短柄小斧 (英语四级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
• harshly [´hɑ:ʃli] ad.粗糙地，冷酷地 (英语六级单词)
• moccasin [´mɔkəsin] n.鹿皮鞋；软(拖)鞋 (英语六级单词)
• hysterical [hi´sterikəl] a.歇斯底里的，癔病的 (英语六级单词)