THE RIVER of SKULLS
- ■ ?33***»
-^ George Marsh
• PENN PUBLISHING CO. WNU SERVICE
CHAPTER XV—Continued
—23—
Noel pointed to the rugged Un
gavas panting on the trail, still in
the pink of condition, their coats
•himmering with vitality. “Look at
dem! Dey are good as w'en we
start! Dat ees from plentee grub.
Een t’ree four day, dey show Mc
Queen how dey can travel.”
Hut that day the sun set in a lead
en sky and, later, the warning of
the ringed moon flicked the men
with fear. In the night they were
waked by the roar of the “drifter”
that drove across barrens and river
valley burying their camp in snow.
When they rolled out of their drifted
sleeping-bags, the fire was out and
four white mounds marked the spots
where the dogs slept, and from
which they burst, when called, in
showers of snow, as a salmon leaps
from water.
“Today we gain on you, Mc
Queen!” cried Alan, starting his
dogs. “Today, you won’t travel with
your tired dogs, but old Rough and
the pups’ll show you what bone and
beef’ll do through the drifts!
Marche, boys!”
Steadily, hour after hour, with the
white slant of the norther on their
backs the snow-sheathed Ungavas
plodded up the river ice. In places
the boys broke trail ahead of the
team through drifts heaped shoul
der high by the wind, but most of
the river ice was brushed clear of
snow as if swept by giant brooms.
Later, the treacherous ice over
strong rapids drove them ashore
over tumbled boulders, up steep
banks, to buck and flounder through
the drifts, and the heavy sled cru
elly sapped the strength of men and
dogs. Lashed to the bow by thongs
Alan and Noel strained and pulled
with the willing Ungavas as they
fought with their load, until ex
haustion forced them to camp.
Through the night the “drifter”
pounded the valley. In the gloom of
the bitter dawn, two lean-faced,
tightly belted men again hitched the
dogs and started into the snow
smoke. With his exhausted dogs
McQueen would never wallow
through the shifting drifts which
blocked the portages. He would wait
and rest his team, thinking the men
behind would do the same, until the
wind blew itself out. Here was the
chance to gain on the sled ahead
with his stronger huskies and Alan
made the most of it. On through
the short day he mercilessly drove
himself and his team, trotting over
the good going of the swept river
ice and lifting and hauling at the
heavy sled up over the boulder
piled shores where the river was
still open or the ice dangerous.
Blinded by snow constantly masking
their tortured faces, bucking the
deep drifts of the portages, pant
ing men and dogs pushed on and on
until the black night fell like a tent
and drove them to shelter.
At dawn the wind nad Diown it
self out and the snow stopped. Stiff
in every muscle from the long
strain, Alan dragged himself out of
his sleeping bag, the pinched face in
his hood black from frostbite and
his lips cracked from the two days
in the stinging wind and snow.
“How far do you guess we trav
eled in that drifter, Noel?” he asked
the Indian who limped as he brought
wood for the fire.
“Eet was all gain! McQueen ne
vaire move. We travel t’irty—forty
mile for sure. Oh-oh!” groaned No
el, dropping the wood to rub a leg.
“I got de mal-racquette!”
“I’m stiff as a spruce stick, my
self,” replied the other. “Wrenched
my shoulder with all that lifting!
Let's have a look at the dogs! Here,
Rough, Shot!”
Slowly the dogs responded to the
calls of their master. One after an
other they broke from their snow
blankets to shake themselves but
the iron bodies of the Ungavas were,
after all, but blood and thews and
bone and, along with the men,
they had paid the penalty of the two
days’ battle with the drifts and the
up-hill slavery of the river shores.
Poor Shot, who had never faltered
when asked for the last ounce of
his strength, limped around with a
wrenched shoulder. The foot-sore
Rogue and Powder, growing thinner
day by day, hobbled on stiff legs.
The veteran Rough, lean as a lynx,
still carried his plume of a tail
bravely arched above his back, but
he failed to frisk and roll in the
snow at the call of Alan. The “drift
er” had taken its toll of the Un
gavas.
“They’re pretty stiff, Noel, but
we’ve got to go on—on!” insisted
Alan.
He made the dogs lie on their
backs, feet in the air, while he and
Noel examined their shaggy bodies,
banded with muscles like wire ca
bles, and searched their paws for
pad cracks and balled snow between
the toes which would cripple them.
Then, over the young snow left by
the storm, the sled pushed on up the
river, drawn by its crippled team,
and led by two men with tightened
belts, and in the eyes of their
pinched faces, the fire of despera
tion.
Toward noon Noel, who was in the
lead, raised his hand, stopping the
team, then pointed to the shore
ahead. The two men tore their ri
des from their cases.
“Fresh trail, made this morning!"
said Alan. “But that can't be Mc
Queen. He's a day ahead of us
yet, if he never moved in the blow.
Let’s have a look at it!"
They started the team and soon
reached the toboggan trail which
led down from the spruce through
the alders and over the heaped
shore snow to the river ice. Back
tracking to shore, the two men
stared in amazement at the bear
paw, snowshoe prints in the new
snow; then gazed into each other's
startled eyes.
“Naskapi!" >
“By gar! Dat ees bad—veree
bad!”
“If they’re headed up river far,
they’re going to strike his trail
where he started in the young snow
after the drifter! They’ll follow him
and sneak on his camp!” Cameron’s
frost-burned face grayed.
“Mabee dey not hold to de riv
iere.”
“They will and we’ve got to over
haul them, Noel—travel all night!
If the Naskapi get her, my God! It’s
too horrible! We’ve got to reach her,
Noel, if we kill ourselves and the
dogs!”
On went the stiff and foot-sore Un
gavas at their master’s urging. But,
when the early dusk fell, it was evi
dent that the Indians were traveling
fast with a light sled. Stopping for
an hour to rest the dogs and boil
the kettle, Alan pushed on under
the freezing moon that hung above
the tundra, tortured with the thought
of the despairing girl who waited.
But the trail of the sled ahead did
not swing to the shore to a camp
ground but continued on over the
white shell of the river ice.
“They’re traveling too fast for
us!” Alan admitted, at midnight,
wiping the frost from his face and
the wolf-hair rim of his hood. “They
had hours start this morning and
must have five or six dogs and a
light sled. Stiff as we are, we must
have come forty or fifty miles, to
day.”
The disheartened Noel nodded his
hood in agreement. It looked hope
less. They could never reach the
Naskapi in time. “Dey have run
dere dog all day. Dey mus’ know
McQueen ees ahead by de way dey
travel. Our dog got to have rest.
We all make beeg feed now and
sleep. Tomorrow we travel hard.”
“But we’ve got to reach them,
quick!”
“Dey are long piece from Mc
Queen, yet, w’ere dey camp tonight.
We reach dere camp early tomor
row. you see," urged the Montag
nais.
bo, against his will, but Knowing
he must rest his dogs, Alan agreed
to camp. Starting later, in the murk
of the bitterest part of the night,
the hour before dawn, they reached
the camp of the Naskapi. But they
had gone. The sleep-holes showed
they had six dogs and the trail in the
new snow of the shore proved that
their sled was light. But the tough
Ungavas with the heavier load had
gained.
Later, white foxes on the ice faded
to the shore at the approach of the
team. There the bones and hair of
two huskies told the grim story.
“McQueen’s down to three dogs,
now! He’s licked, Noel! But the In
dians know, now, that a dog-team's
ahead of them.”
McQueen was killing his dogs but
that meant, also, that the trailing
Indians would soon overtake him.
The Ungavas were working out of
their stiffness. At noon they reached
McQueen’s blizzard camp, for they
found his trail in the new snow lead
ing out from the shore. Desperate
for word from the girl who could
not now be more than thirty or forty
miles away, Alan searched the drift
ed camp-site. The ashes of the fire
lay in the large snow-hole bedded
with spruce boughs, over which had
been spread a tent supported by
spruce logs. The marks of mocca
sins were everywhere in the young
snow and after a careful inspec
tion Noel said: “Onlee free w’ite
man, here! No Indian! De Naskapi
nevaire step out ov dere snowshoe
but jes’ look and start hard up riv
iere. Dey are aftair McQueen!”
“That means that McQueen
brought but one Montagnais to the
Koksoak and we left him on the
River of Skulls.”
“Ah-hah! But look, Alan! Some
t’ing undair de snow ovair dere!”
Alan, who had been searching ev
erywhere for a message from
Heather, looked in the direction
Noel pointed. Near the camp in the
spruce was a suspicious looking
mound of snow. Cameron suddenly
sickened with dread. Could that
mound of snow hold all that life
held dear to him? Had McQueen left
her there while he made for the
coast with the gold?
“See—what it—is!” ordered Alan,
brokenly. Turning from his friend,
he walked slowly to the shore where
the team lay resting on the ice.
Rough lifted his massive head and
his tail brushed the snow in greet
ing. Kneeling beside his dog, Alan
pressed his frost-blackened face
against the skull of the husky.
“If it is—if she’s there—Rough,”
he groaned, “what’s left for you
and me? She loved us both, Roughy
—loved us both!" Two great tears
stood on the wind-burned cheeks of
the man, who held the lead-dog’s
head in his arms, and froze, as he
waited, hardly breathing, for Noel’s
voice.
“Alan! Come ’ere!” cried Noel.
Noel stood waving his arms in
manifest excitement The dread
which chilled the heart of the man
on the ice vanished like river mist
before the sun as he leaped to his
feet and ran to the camp.
“Trudeau!” said Noel, standing
beside the frozen body he had un
covered. “Shot tru de head!”
Alan bent over the grimacing face
of the dead man sprayed with pow
der burns, to study the bullet hole
in the forehead. Then he turned
quizzically to his friend.
“You don’t shoot a man in the
forehead with a rifle at close quar
ters, you shoot him in the body. This
was a pistol bullet and smaller than
a 45. McQueen and Slade carried
45s!”
“She—” Noel stared into the glit
tering gray eyes of the other.
“Yes,” said Alan, "she has had—
to use—her gun!”
Through the day the team put the
miles of spruce shores behind, urged
on by the grim faced men who ran
with them. With his three tired
"Fresh trail made this morn
ing.” said Alan.
dogs McQueen was coming back,
coming back to the Ungavas who
were moving faster and faster, led
by the iron Rough with his pacing
gait that ate up the miles. But
while McQueen faltered, the Nas
kapi were gaining as well as the
team in the rear. It might be that
night that the Indians would over
take the two men and the girl
ahead. The thought drove Alan on
and on through the day until the
heads of the dogs slowly dropped
and their tongues swung to and fro
from open jaws, while their tails
brushed the snow. But the man
who urged them on shared the pun
ishment with the dogs he loved.
At last, when the muzzle of the
black lead-dog who had paced and
run through the day as if his stam
ina knew no end, sagged lower and
lower and Powder and Rogue be
gan to falter while the game Shot,
with his hurt shoulder, stumbled on.
reeling in his traces, Alan called a
halt. Exhausted men and dogs
sprawled on the trail while the ice
froze to the panting huskies’ slav
ering flews.
They had given their all and it
was not enough. Still, there was
no camp that night while unspeak
able misery menaced the girl who
waited for their coming.
When dogs and men had rested,
Alan tossed a huge bag of frozen
salmon into the snow and started
again on his hopeless quest. As they
traveled, but one thought burned in
his brain: "We must reach them to
night! Tomorrow will be too late!”
The sun went out in the southwest
and the spruce of the river shores
went black with dusk. The slowly
moving team was approaching a
bushy point where the river made
a sharp turn. Beyond rifle shot
from the point, Noel entered the
spruce with his gun to reconnoitre
while Alan waited with the team, for
they were taking no chances of be
ing surprised.
Presently Noel appeared at the
point and waved the team on.
Rounding the bend with the dogs,
Alan gaped at the river trail, ahead.
He drove the team to the spot
where Noel stood staring at two
stiffened shapes that lay shot, be
side an empty sled.
"The Naskapi!” Alan gazed In
stunned amazement at the bodies on
the ice. "He was expecting us, No
el, and ambushed them, instead!”
"But now he have more dog!” la
mented Noel.
"He’s got nine dogs and the fish
and meat the Indians carried. He’s
laughing at us tonight, Noel! He
thinks he’ll run away, now, with
the fresh dogs!”
Noel only groaned.
“How far are we from the head
of the river? I remember this coun
try. It can't be more than three
days to the lake.”
The Indian nodded.
"All right, we camp here,” rasped
the white man whose eyes glittered
in his gaunt face with the Are that
would burn to the end.
Eight hours later, with the team
rested, two men, with sunken eyes
in faces bitter with grim resolve,
started in the gloom with barely
enough dog food to reach the cache
at the headwaters. The rest was
abandoned.
“Today, we'll reach her, Rough!”
said Alan, lashing his belt about his
lean waist. But in his heart he knew
that his dogs were fast reaching the
bottom of their stamina.
The four huskies, lean as timber
wolves, started stiffly with the light
sled. They had not traveled far
through the dusk of the river valley
when they passed the frozen effigies
of what had been two dogs, driven
until they died in harness, and then
cut loose. At daylight they reached
McQueen's camp of the night be
fore. And there in a bush was a
message. It read:
“Trouble over gold. Dogs weak
Come quick! H.”
Desperate with the realization
that he must reach her at once, if
he hoped to save her—reach her be
fore the madmen, ahead, destroyed
each other and her, Alan went to
his team.
“We're going to see Heather,
soon, boys!” he said, dropping his
mittens to stroke the massive heads.
“She’s only a few miles away.
There’re seven dogs ahead of us,
but we’re going to run them off their
feet. They haven’t got Ungava
hearts in their chests and Ungava
bone in their legs. We’re going to
run and run and run with the light
sled—until we And her!”
Then Alan said to the black lead
dog: “It's going to be all we've got
left, Rough—you and I. All day and
into the night—all we’ve got left for
Heather! Then there’ll be no more!
Marche!”
Far in the southeast the sun lilted
on their last long day, for dogs and
men were near the end. The long,
up-hill, Koksoak trail with its cruel
odds against the Ungavas was con
quering at last. The iron bodies and
stout hearts in the shaggy chests
were giving their all. Soon, like
the dogs they had passed on the
trail, they, too, would reach their
last mile; soon, the legs of the half
crazed man who urged them on
would crumple under him on the
ice. And yet, men and dogs held to
the trail.
Cautiously the two men watched
the bends in the river, sweeping the
snow far in advance with the glasses
to look for a sudden angling of the
sled tracks to the shore which might
mean an ambush. Then, in the aft
ernoon, to their astonishment, they
found the bodies of three dogs aban
doned on the trail.
“Noel, we’ve got them! We’ve got
them, now!” Cameron cried exult
antly, hugging the Indian, then the
lead-dog. “It’s four dogs to four!
The Ungavas win!”
“Dey are done!” panted the grin
ning Indian, whose swart skin sank
in hollows beneath his high cheek
bones. “We see dem soon!”
Through the early dusk, like fam
ished wolves close to their kill,
marched four dogs, tails down,
tongues lolling, following two stiff
legged men, belts pinching gaunt
waists, who often stumbled as they
walked, only to catch themselves
and go on, their numbed legs shift
ing woodenly back and forth.
The stars lit the river ice. The
spruce went indigo black and still,
like six avenging furies, four wolf
lean dogs, and two men with eyes
glittering with the light of victory,
crawled wearily on. Then, as they
turned a bend, Noel cried:
“Look! Eet ees ovair! De fire
light on de spruce!”
Aneaa, in me uiauivness ui uiu
scrub, was the glow of a fire!
It seemed to Alan as if his heart
would burst. She was there, there
by that fire—Heather! They had
reached her—at last! His brain went
giddy with joy. It couldn't be true!
They had reached Heather!
He turned and threw his arms
about Noel's shoulders, while his
knees shook with his weakness.
“We’ve got her, Noel! We've got
her!” he sobbed. “John! John!
We’ve got—Heather!”
Their plans were quickly made.
They moved into the timber and,
throwing a salmon to each of the
exhausted dogs, made them fast
with wire leashes which they could
neither chew nor break. White they
rested, for the swift shooting that
was coming would call for steady
nerves, they wound rawhide around
the inside length of the bows of their
showshoes to muffle any possible
click. Then Alan slung McCord’s
shoulder holster, with the automat'
ic, to his belt and, taking their rifles,
the two men began the stalk of MC'
Queen’s camp from the timber ir
the rear. They counted on the dogs
being too dead with fatigue to wake
until they reached the fire. Then 1’
would be quick work.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
WHAT to EAT and WHY
’ *** , _- _
. - ■ ———
C. Houston Goudiss Discusses Vitamins
And Vision; Explains How and Why
You Should Feed Your Eyes
By C. HOUSTON GOUDISS
FOR a number of years, scientists have stressed the im
portance of a well-balanced diet as a means of maintain
ing health, promoting growth and preventing disease. Re
cently, an even more significant development has occurred.
It has been determined that a carefully chosen diet is absolutely
necessary to preserve the general health and efficiency of every
ly at night so that they are dan*
gerous not only to themselves and
their passengers, but to everyone
on the streets and roads. A de
ficient diet will also send them
through life with half-efficient bod
ies, half-efficient brains, half-effi
cient senses.
That is why I urge you to
learn everything you can about
food, so that in planning meals
you will not only feed your eyes,
your husband’s eyes and your chil
dren’s eyes, but will take advan
tage of the wonderful discoveries
of nutritional science to make ev
ery member of the family so effi
cient that they will enjoy the best
of health each day of their fives.
O—WNU—C. Houston Goudlss—1938—S3.
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bodily function and that there is'
• close relationship between a
good diet and good eyesight.
Your Food and Your Eyes
Many people regard their eye
sight as one of the five senses
wnicn operate in
some mysterious
manner of their
own! If they suffer
from indigestion,
they recognize that
it is quite apt to be
due to something
they ate. If they
are troubled with
stomach, liver or
kidney complaints,
they quickly ap
preciate that pro
longed dietary indiscretions may
be at the root of the trouble. But
it never occurs to them that what
they eat may affect the eyes Just
as profoundly as it affects the in
ternal organs.
It is not uncommon, during an
attack of biliousness, to suffer a
disturbance of the vision. But that
disturbance usually disappears
with the disorder that caused it.
On the other hand, a deficient diet
may produce eye troubles that
have a far reaching effect upon
health, efficiency, and even per
sonal safety.
Night Blindness Explained
For example, it has been estab
lished that there is a definite re
lation between your vision and the
vitamins in your diet; between
your ability to drive a car safely
at night, and the amount of vita
min A-containing foods that you
consume.
To understand this astonishing
fact, it is necessary to know that
vision under faint illumination is
accomplished by means of chemi
cal changes in the pigment at the
back of the eye. This is known as
the “visual purple" of the retina
and one of its important compo
nents is carotene, which is the ac
tive form of vitamin A.
The visual purple might be com
pared to the film in a camera.
When you are in a dim light and
the eyes are suddenly exposed to
bright light, the visual purple is
greatly reduced or bleached. This
change results in a stimulation of
the optic nerve and enables you to
see clearly.
When an adequate supply of vi
tamin A is present in the body,
the visual purple is rapidly re
generated. But when the supply
is inadequate, a much longer pe
riod elapses before the corrective
chemical change takes place. Dur
ing the intervening time, many
people find it difficult to see.
That is the condition known as
“night blindness." And it accounts
for the fact that a large propor
tion of serious motor accidents oc
cur at night. Victims of this de
ficiency disease are first blinded
by approaching headlights, then
cannot quickly readjust them
selves after the oncoming car has
passed. Their ability to drive
safely is subsequently impaired
for they cannot clearly see the
road ahead, and they may miss
dangerous curves, pedestrians or
other vehicles.
A Common Complaint
Unfortunately, the prevalence of
night blindness is not generally
recognized, though it is held that
urban dwellers are more conscious
of it than those living in the rural
areas. This Is borne out by the
fact that ocular disorders from vi
tamin deficiency are less common
in urban than in rural areas.
Children Often Victim*
Since the discovery of the close
connection between vitamin A and
the ability to see in dim light, sci
entists have tested large numbers
of school children to determine
whether vitamin A was present in
their diet in adequate amounts.
It was revealed that from 26 to 79
per cent of the children examined
had incipient night blindness.
The same deplorable conditions
were found among adults. Mild
to moderate degrees of vitamin A
deficiency were present in from
10 to over 50 per cent of each
group tested.
Yet here is the remarkable thing
—in nearly every case, a diet rich
in vitamin A for a few weeks re
stored the vision to normal.
An even more striking example
of the power of food to affect the
eyesight is to be found in the re
port of an experiment in which
breeding sow’s were given food in
abundance but lacking vitamin A
for 160 days before and for 30
days after breeding. In three lit
ters of 35 pigs, all were blind. In
another litter of 14 pigs, all were
sightless. But under normal feed
ing, the same animals produced
litters of pigs with normal eyes
and vision. This experiment justi
fies the conclusion of one of our
most noted food scientists, that
the deficiency of essential food ele
ments may so alter vital processes
that even pre-natal changes may
occur.
Cause of Other Eye Disorders
Night blindness is not the only
eye disease caused by an improp
er diet. Xerophthalmia or con
junctivitis, characterized by ex
cessive dryness of the eyeball,
has long been known to be caused
by a vitamin A deficiency. It is
also well known that a liberal
amount of this vitamin will pre
vent that serious disease and will
even effect a cure where destruc
tion of the cornea has not pro
gressed too far.
This suggests the tremendous
importance of including in the diet
foods rich in vitamin A—cod- and
other fish-liver oils; milk and oth
er dairy products; green leafy and
yellow vegetables; and egg yolk.
Experiments with rats, whose
dietary requirements are similar
to those of man, show a close
connection between cataract and a
deficiency of another vitamin—vi
tamin G. This is found most abun
dantly in meat, milk, eggs, fruit
and vegetables.
Were she concerned about pro
tecting the blessing of good eye
sight alone, that would be suffi
cient reason why every homemak
er should plan meals that are rich
in vitamins. But it is not only
the eyes which are dependent
upon vitamins, for they have
many other functions to perform.
An improper diet may cause
people to drive automobiles blind
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