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10 - Gold Hunters by James Oliver Curwood · Gold Hunters

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Speaker 1: Chapter ten, The Mysterious Shot. For many minutes the two
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Speaker 1: stood silently gazing into the north. At their feet spread
0:11
Speaker 1: the broad plain where Mukoki had killed the caribou, while
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Speaker 1: they watched him from the plateau. Beyond that were the
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Speaker 1: dense stretches of forest broken here and there by, other
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Speaker 1: plains and meadows, and a dozen lakes glistened in the
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Speaker 1: red tints of the setting sun. When Rod first looked
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Speaker 1: upon that country a few months before, it was a
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Speaker 1: world of ice and snow, a cold, dazzling panorama of
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Speaker 1: white that reached from where he stood to the pole.
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Speaker 1: Now it was wakening under the first magic touch of spring.
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Speaker 1: Far away, the two young gold hunters caught a glimmer
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Speaker 1: of the stream which they were to follow up to
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Speaker 1: the chasm. Last winter, it had been a tiny creek.
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Speaker 1: Now it was swollen to the size of a river. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: as they looked, two dark objects came slowly out into
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Speaker 1: an opening a mile away. At that distance they appeared
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Speaker 1: hardly larger than dogs, and Rod, whose mind was still
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Speaker 1: filled with thoughts of wolf, exclaimed wolves in the same breath.
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Speaker 1: He caught himself and added moose, a cow, and a calf,
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Speaker 1: said Wabi, how do you know, asked Rod. There watch
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Speaker 1: them now, cried Wabi, catching his companion by the arm.
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Speaker 1: The mother is ahead, and even from here I can
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Speaker 1: see that she is pacing. A moose never trots or
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Speaker 1: gallops like a deer, but paces using both feet on
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Speaker 1: a side at the same time. Notice how the calf
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Speaker 1: jumps about. An old moose would never do that. But
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Speaker 1: both animals look to be about the same size, replied Rod,
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Speaker 1: still doubtful. It's a two year old calf, almost as
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Speaker 1: big as its mother. In fact, it's not really a
2:09
Speaker 1: calf because it is too old. But so long as
2:13
Speaker 1: young moose stick to their mothers, we call them calves.
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Speaker 1: Up here, I've known them to remain together for three years.
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Speaker 1: They're coming this way, whispered the white youth. The moose
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Speaker 1: had turned, heading for the base of the mountain upon
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Speaker 1: which they stood. Wabie drew his companion behind a big
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Speaker 1: rock from which both could look down without being seen.
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Speaker 1: Be quiet, he warned, they're coming to feed on the
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Speaker 1: sprouting poplar along the mountain side. Just been over to
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Speaker 1: the creek to get a drink. We may have some fun.
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Speaker 1: He wet a finger in his mouth and held it
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Speaker 1: above his head. The forest pathfinder's infallible method of telling
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Speaker 1: how the wind blows, no matter how slight the movement
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Speaker 1: of the air may be. One side of the finger
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Speaker 1: dries first in an instant and is warm, while the
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Speaker 1: side that remains damp is cold. And in the lee
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Speaker 1: that side toward which the wind is blowing, the wind
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Speaker 1: is wrong, dead wrong, said Wabi. It's blowing straight toward them.
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Speaker 1: Unless we are so high that our scent goes above them.
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Speaker 1: They won't come much nearer another minute, and Rod nudged Wabigowan.
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Speaker 1: They're within range, yes, but we won't shoot. We don't
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Speaker 1: need meat. As the young Indian spoke, the cow brought
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Speaker 1: herself to a dead stop, so suddenly that Wabi gave
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Speaker 1: a delighted grunt. Great, he whispered, she's caught a whiff
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Speaker 1: of us a quarter of a mile away. See how
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Speaker 1: she holds her head, her great ears chucked forward to hear,
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Speaker 1: her nose half to the sky. I she knows there's
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Speaker 1: danger on this mountain. Now, he did not finish. Like
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Speaker 1: a flash, the cow had darted ahead of her calf,
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Speaker 1: seeming to shoulder it back, and in another moment the
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Speaker 1: two were racing swiftly into the north, the mother this
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Speaker 1: time in the rear instead of leading. I love moose,
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Speaker 1: said Wabi, his eyes glowing. Do you notice that I
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Speaker 1: never shoot them? Rod By George, So you don't. I
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Speaker 1: never thought of it. What is the reason? There are
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Speaker 1: a good many reasons. Of course I have shot them
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Speaker 1: when in very great need of meat, But it's an
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Speaker 1: unpleasant job for me. You call the lion the king
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Speaker 1: of beasts, Well he isn't. The moose is monarch of
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Speaker 1: them all. You saw how the mother moose acted. She
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Speaker 1: led her calf when approaching, because if there should be danger,
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Speaker 1: she wanted to meet it first. And when she found danger,
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Speaker 1: she drove her calf ahead of her in retreat, so
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Speaker 1: that if harm came to either of them, it would
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Speaker 1: come to her. Isn't that the human mother instinct? And
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Speaker 1: the bull is glorious In the mating season, he will
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Speaker 1: face a dozen men in defense of his cow. If
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Speaker 1: she falls first, he will stand between her body and
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Speaker 1: the hunter's rifles, pawing the earth, his eyes glaring defiance,
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Speaker 1: until he is riddled with bullets. Once I saw a
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Speaker 1: wounded cow, and as she staggered away, the big bull
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Speaker 1: that was with her, hugged her close behind, never for
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Speaker 1: a moment, leaving her exposed to the fire, but unflinchingly
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Speaker 1: taking every bullet in his own body. So beautiful was
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Speaker 1: his courage that you would not have known he was
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Speaker 1: wounded until he fell dead in his tracks, literally cut
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Speaker 1: to pieces. It was that sight that made me swear
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Speaker 1: never to kill another moose unless I had to. Rod
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Speaker 1: was silent. The mother and the calf had disappeared. When
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Speaker 1: he turned to a big owan. I'm glad you told
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Speaker 1: me that, Wabi, he said, you are teaching me new
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Speaker 1: things about this big wilderness. Every day I've shot one moose,
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Speaker 1: I won't shoot another unless we need him. They went
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Speaker 1: back to their old camp, and by the time Mukoki
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Speaker 1: returned with his second load, everything was in shape for
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Speaker 1: the night, and a supper of delicious bear steaks, coffee,
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Speaker 1: and hot stone biscuits, as Rod called their baked combination
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Speaker 1: of flour, water and salt, was soon ready. After their meal,
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Speaker 1: the three sat for a long time near the fire,
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Speaker 1: for there was still a slight chill in the night air,
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Speaker 1: and talked mostly about Wolf and his adventures, Rod in
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Speaker 1: his distant home and so vilization had read and heard
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Speaker 1: much that was false about wild animals, was confident that
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Speaker 1: Wolf would find they had returned into the wilderness and
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Speaker 1: would join them again. And to corroborate his belief, he
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Speaker 1: narrated several stories of similar happenings. Wabigawan listened courteously to him,
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Speaker 1: which is the way of the Indian. Then he said,
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Speaker 1: such stories as those are false. Rod. When I spent
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Speaker 1: my year at school with you, I read dozens of
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Speaker 1: stories about wild animals, and very few of them were true.
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Speaker 1: All sorts of people write about the wilderness, and yet
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Speaker 1: not one out of a hundred of those same people
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Speaker 1: have ever been in the real wilderness. And it is
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Speaker 1: wonderful what some of them make wild animals do. Rod
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Speaker 1: straightened himself with a jerk. I have been here only
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Speaker 1: a few months, Wabi, and yet I have seen more
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Speaker 1: wonderful things about animals than I have ever read in print,
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Speaker 1: he declared. Of course you have agreed, his companion, and
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Speaker 1: there is just the point I want to make clear.
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Speaker 1: Wild animals are the most wonderful creatures in existence, and
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Speaker 1: if some of their actual habits and adventures were told,
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Speaker 1: they would be laughed at. Down where you came from.
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Speaker 1: Where your writers make their mistake is in bringing them
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Speaker 1: into too close association with human beings and making them
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Speaker 1: half human. Wolf remained with us because he knew no better.
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Speaker 1: We caught him when he was a whelp, and as
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Speaker 1: he grew older, both Mukoki and I could see that
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Speaker 1: at times he was filled with a wild longing to
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Speaker 1: join his people. We knew that it was coming. He
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Speaker 1: will never return to us. Mukoki made a soft sound
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Speaker 1: deep down in his throat, and Rod turned suddenly toward him.
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Speaker 1: You believe that Mukoki wolf gone. But animals think, don't
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Speaker 1: they persisted Rod, to whom the discussion was of absorbing interest.
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Speaker 1: They reason, they remember, they do all of that, replied Wabi,
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Speaker 1: and more. I have read certain so called natural history
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Speaker 1: stories which ridiculed the idea of wild animals possessing mental abilities,
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Speaker 1: and which ascribed pretty nearly all their actions to instinct.
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Speaker 1: Such stories are as wrong as those which give wild
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Speaker 1: animals human endowments. Animals do think. Don't you suppose that
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Speaker 1: mother Moose was thinking when she stopped out there in
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Speaker 1: the plane. Wasn't she turning the situation over in her mind?
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Speaker 1: If you want to speak of it as that, and
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Speaker 1: mentally figuring just where the danger lay and in which
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Speaker 1: direction she ought to take flight. And besides reason, wild
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Speaker 1: animals have instincts. One proof of this is their sixth sense,
10:04
Speaker 1: the sense of what do you call it? Orientation? Assisted Rod? Yes,
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Speaker 1: that's it orientation. A bear, for instance, doesn't carry a
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Speaker 1: compass with him, as some nature writers would like to
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Speaker 1: have you believe. And yet he can go from this
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Speaker 1: mountain to a den one hundred miles away as straight
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Speaker 1: as a bird can fly. That's instinct, then, Wolf, mused Rod.
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Speaker 1: Slowly is with the hunt pack finished? The young Indian
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Speaker 1: Mukoki spoke softly, as though to himself. Last winter the
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Speaker 1: snow came, and now it is water. Two moons passed
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Speaker 1: Wolf him tame, now wild the great spirit say that
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Speaker 1: is right, I guess so he means that it is nature,
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Speaker 1: said Wabi. For an hour, after the others had rated
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Speaker 1: themselves in their blankets, Rod sat alone beside the fire,
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Speaker 1: listening and thinking. And after that he went to the
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Speaker 1: edge of the plateau and watched the great spring moon
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Speaker 1: as it floated slowly over the vast still wilderness. How
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Speaker 1: wonderful these solitudes were, How little the teeming millions of
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Speaker 1: civilization knew about them somehow. In those moments, as he
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Speaker 1: watched the shivering northern lights playing far beyond the farthest
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Speaker 1: footstep of man, there came to Roderick drew the thought
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Speaker 1: that God must be nearer to Earth here than anywhere
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Speaker 1: else in the world. For the first time, his soul
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Speaker 1: was filled with something that was almost love for the
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Speaker 1: Red Man's great spirit. And why not, For was not
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Speaker 1: that great spirit his own God, lonely, silent, mysterious. A
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Speaker 1: whole world lay before him, a world that was the
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Speaker 1: Indian Bible, that contained for the Red Man of the North,
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Speaker 1: the teachings and the voice of the creator of all things.
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Speaker 1: A wind had risen and was whispering over the plains.
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Speaker 1: He heard the hushed voices of the quivering poplar boughs,
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Speaker 1: and there came from far below him the soft, chuckling,
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Speaker 1: mating hoot of an owl. Gradually his eyes closed and
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Speaker 1: he leaned more heavily upon the rock against which he
12:34
Speaker 1: had seated himself. After that, he dreamed of what he
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Speaker 1: had looked upon. While the fire at the camp died away,
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Speaker 1: and Mukoki, into a biguan, slumbered oblivious of his absence.
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Speaker 1: Of how long he slept, Rod had no idea. He
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Speaker 1: was suddenly brought back into wakefulness by a sound that
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Speaker 1: startled him to the marrow of his bones, a terrible
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Speaker 1: scream close to his ears. He sat bolt upright, quaking
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Speaker 1: in every limb. For a moment, he tried to cry out,
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Speaker 1: but his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth.
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Speaker 1: What had happened? Was it? Wabi or mukoki? A dozen
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Speaker 1: paces away was a huge rock, and as he looked,
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Speaker 1: he saw something move upon it, a long, lithe object
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Speaker 1: that shone a silvery white in the moonlight, and he
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Speaker 1: knew that it was a lynx. Stealthily, Rod reached for
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Speaker 1: his rifle, which had slipped between his knees, and as
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Speaker 1: he did so, the Lynx sent forth another of its
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Speaker 1: blood curdling screams. Even now, the white youth shivered at
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Speaker 1: the sound, so much like the terrible cry of some
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Speaker 1: person in dying agony. He leveled his gun. There was
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Speaker 1: a flash in the moonlight, a sharp report, and a
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Speaker 1: shout from the direction of the camp. In another moment,
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Speaker 1: Rod was upon his feet, and sorry that he had shot. It,
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Speaker 1: flashed upon him that he might have watched the Lynx,
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Speaker 1: one of the night pirates of all this strange wilderness,
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Speaker 1: and that its pelt at this season would be worthless.
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Speaker 1: He went to the rock cautiously. The Lynx was not there.
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Speaker 1: He walked around it, holding his rifle in readiness for attack.
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Speaker 1: The Lynx was gone. He had made a clean miss.
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Speaker 1: Both Mukoki and Wabigawan met him on the opposite side
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Speaker 1: of the rock. Nuther heap big wu Wanga grinned the
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Speaker 1: old pathfinder, remembering Rod's former adventure on this same plateau.
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Speaker 1: Kill missed, said Rod shortly, What a scream that was?
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Speaker 1: Ugh this time he went to bed with the others
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Speaker 1: and slept until early dawn. The morning was one of
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Speaker 1: the those rare gifts of budding spring, warm and redolent
15:03
Speaker 1: with the sweetness of new life, and its beauty acted
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Speaker 1: as a tonic on the three adventurers. Their fears of
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Speaker 1: the day before were gone, and with song and whistle
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Speaker 1: and cheery voice, they began the descent of the mountain.
15:19
Speaker 1: Mukoki went on ahead of Rod and Wabiguan with his pack,
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Speaker 1: and the two boys had not made more than two
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Speaker 1: of the six miles in the portage across the plain
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Speaker 1: when he met them again, returning for his second load.
15:33
Speaker 1: By noon, the canoe and its contents were safely at
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Speaker 1: the creek, and the gold hunters halted until after dinner.
15:41
Speaker 1: The little stream across which Rod had easily leaped without
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Speaker 1: wetting his feet a few weeks before, had swollen into
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Speaker 1: a fair sized river, and in places its searching waters
15:52
Speaker 1: had formed tiny lakes. Unlike the Ombabika, sweeping down from
15:58
Speaker 1: its mountain heights, there was but little current here, a
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Speaker 1: fact that immensely pleased Mukoki and his companions. We near
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Speaker 1: make cabin to night, said the old Indian. I take
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Speaker 1: load to night. During the two hours paddle up stream,
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Speaker 1: Mukoki spoke but little, and as they approached nearer to
16:22
Speaker 1: their last winter's thrilling fight with the Wawangas, in which
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Speaker 1: they had so nearly lost their lives, he ceased even
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Speaker 1: to respond by nod or grunt to the conversation of
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Speaker 1: his companions. Once Wabigouan spoke again of wolf, and for
16:37
Speaker 1: an instant the old Indian, who was in the bow
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Speaker 1: half turned to them, and for two strokes his paddle
16:44
Speaker 1: rested in mid air from the stern Wabi reached forward
16:49
Speaker 1: and poked Rod, and the white youth understood. Next to
16:55
Speaker 1: Minnetaki and Wabigowan, and perhaps himself, he knew that the
16:59
Speaker 1: faith pathfinder loved Wulf best, and that he was filled
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Speaker 1: with a little of that savage madness which came to
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Speaker 1: him now and then when he dwelt on the terrible
17:09
Speaker 1: tragedy that had entered his life many years before. When
17:14
Speaker 1: the hunters reached the end of their canoe journey up
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Speaker 1: the stream, Mukoki silently shouldered his pack and set out
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Speaker 1: over the plain. He spoke no word, made no sign.
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Speaker 1: It would be useless, said Wabigowan, as Rod made a
17:31
Speaker 1: movement as if to follow and stop their comrade. No
17:36
Speaker 1: persuasion could turn Mukoki. Now he wants to reach the
17:40
Speaker 1: old camp tonight where Wulf disappeared. He won't be back
17:44
Speaker 1: until morning, And Mukoki went on, never for an instant
17:50
Speaker 1: turning his face until his companions lost sight of him.
17:54
Speaker 1: But once out of their vision, his manner took on
17:57
Speaker 1: a strange and sudden change. He lowered the head strap
18:01
Speaker 1: of his pack over his breast so that he might
18:04
Speaker 1: clutch at it with one hand and move his head freely.
18:08
Speaker 1: His eyes glowed with a dull fire of wakening excitement.
18:13
Speaker 1: His steps were quick and yet cautious. Every movement in
18:17
Speaker 1: his advance was one of listening and watchful expectancy. A
18:23
Speaker 1: person watching the old warrior would have said that he
18:25
Speaker 1: was keenly on the alert for game or danger, and
18:29
Speaker 1: yet the safety of his rifle was locked. A fresh
18:33
Speaker 1: tail of bear aroused no interest in him, and when
18:37
Speaker 1: he heard a crashing in the brush on his right,
18:39
Speaker 1: where a buck had got wind of him, he gave
18:42
Speaker 1: but a single glance in its direction. He was not
18:46
Speaker 1: seeking game, nor were his fears aroused by suspicion of
18:51
Speaker 1: possible danger. Wherever the ground was soft and moist, he
18:56
Speaker 1: traveled slowly with his eyes on the earth, And at
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Speaker 1: one of these spots he came to a sudden pause.
19:04
Speaker 1: Before him were the clearly defined imprints of a wolf's feet.
19:09
Speaker 1: With a low cry, Mukoki threw off his pack and
19:12
Speaker 1: fell upon his knees. His eyes burned fiercely. Now there
19:18
Speaker 1: was something of madness in the way in which he
19:20
Speaker 1: groveled in the soft earth, creeping from one footprint to
19:24
Speaker 1: the next ahead of it, and stopping always where the
19:27
Speaker 1: right forefoot had left its track. It was that foot
19:31
Speaker 1: which had held wolf A captive in Mukoki's trap, and
19:35
Speaker 1: he had lost two toes. None was missing here, and
19:39
Speaker 1: the old pathfinder rose to his feet again, disappointment shadowing
19:43
Speaker 1: the twitching expectancy in his face. Five times that afternoon
19:49
Speaker 1: Mukoki fell on his knees beside the trails of wolves,
19:53
Speaker 1: and five times the light of hope went out for
19:56
Speaker 1: a moment in his eyes. It was sunset when he
20:00
Speaker 1: climbed the mountain ridge to the little lake hidden away
20:03
Speaker 1: in the dip. Only a last pale glow tinted the
20:07
Speaker 1: sky behind the forests. When he set down his pack
20:11
Speaker 1: close to the charred remains of the old cabin. For
20:15
Speaker 1: many minutes he rested, his gaze fixed on those blackened
20:19
Speaker 1: reminders of their thrilling battle for life the winter before.
20:24
Speaker 1: His wild blood leaped again at the thought of the strife,
20:27
Speaker 1: of the desperate race that he and Roderick had run
20:30
Speaker 1: over the mountain to the burning cabin, and of their
20:33
Speaker 1: rescue of Wabigowan. Suddenly his eyes caught the white gleam
20:39
Speaker 1: of something half a hundred paces away, and he rose
20:42
Speaker 1: and walked toward it. Grunting and chuckling in half savage pleasure.
20:48
Speaker 1: The Wuwongas had not returned to bury their dead, and
20:51
Speaker 1: the bones beside which he stopped were those of the
20:54
Speaker 1: outlaw whom Wabigowan had killed, picked clean by the small
20:59
Speaker 1: animals of the forest. Mukoki returned to his pack and
21:03
Speaker 1: sat down as darkness fell about him. He made no
21:07
Speaker 1: effort to build a fire. He had brought food, but
21:11
Speaker 1: did not eat it. More dense grew the shadows in
21:15
Speaker 1: the forest, thicker, the gloom that hung over the mountains.
21:20
Speaker 1: Still he sat silent, listening to him softly and timidly.
21:26
Speaker 1: At first came the sounds of the night, the chuckling
21:30
Speaker 1: notes of birds that awakened when the earth masked itself
21:33
Speaker 1: in darkness, the hoot of an owl, the faint wailing
21:37
Speaker 1: echo of a far away lynx cry, the plunge of
21:41
Speaker 1: a mink in the lake. And now the wind began
21:45
Speaker 1: whispering in the balsams, singing gently its age old song
21:49
Speaker 1: of loneliness, of desolation, of mystery. And Mukoki straightened himself
21:55
Speaker 1: and looked to where the red glow of the moon
21:57
Speaker 1: was rising above the mountain. After a little he rose
22:02
Speaker 1: to his feet, took his rifle, and climbed to the
22:05
Speaker 1: summit of the ridge, with a thousand miles of wilderness
22:08
Speaker 1: sweeping between him and the Arctic Sea. Somewhere out there
22:13
Speaker 1: in that wilderness was wolf. The moon rose higher, it
22:18
Speaker 1: disclosed the old Indian as rigid as a rock, with
22:22
Speaker 1: his back to a white, barkless tree in which the
22:25
Speaker 1: sap had run dry a generation before. As he stood there,
22:30
Speaker 1: he heard a sound and turned his face toward it,
22:34
Speaker 1: a sound that came from a mass of tumbled boulders,
22:37
Speaker 1: like the falling of a small rock upon a larger one.
22:41
Speaker 1: And as he looked, there came from the darkness of
22:43
Speaker 1: the boulders a flash of fire and the explosion of
22:46
Speaker 1: a gun. And as Mukoki crumpled down in his tracks,
22:51
Speaker 1: there followed a cry so terrible, so inhuman, so blood curdling,
22:57
Speaker 1: that as he fell, an answering cry of horror burst
23:00
Speaker 1: from the lips of the old warrior. He lay like dead,
23:05
Speaker 1: though he was not touched. Instinct more than reason had
23:09
Speaker 1: impelled him to fall at the sound of the mysterious shot. Cautiously,
23:14
Speaker 1: he wormed his rifle to his shoulder, but there came
23:18
Speaker 1: no movement from the rocks. Then from halfway down the mountain,
23:23
Speaker 1: there came again that terrible cry, and Mukoki knew that
23:27
Speaker 1: no animal in all these wilds could make it, but
23:30
Speaker 1: that it was human, and yet more savage than anything
23:34
Speaker 1: that had ever brought terror into his soul. Trembling, he
23:39
Speaker 1: crouched to the earth, a nameless fear, chilling the blood
23:42
Speaker 1: in his veins. And the cry came again, and yet again,
23:48
Speaker 1: always farther and farther away, now at the foot of
23:51
Speaker 1: the mountain, now upon the plain, now floating away toward
23:56
Speaker 1: the chasm, echoing and re echoing between the mountain ridges,
24:01
Speaker 1: startling the creatures of the night into silence and resting
24:06
Speaker 1: deep sobbing breaths from out of Mukoki's soul. And the
24:10
Speaker 1: old warrior moved, not a muscle until far away, miles
24:15
Speaker 1: and miles, it seemed there died the last echo of it,
24:19
Speaker 1: and only the whispering winds rustled over the mountain. Top
24:25
Speaker 1: end of Chapter ten, recording by Roger Molin