The Trail of 98 | Page 2

me, dear, I love you.
Among that mad, lusting horde you were so weak, so helpless, yet so
hungry for love.
With the aid of my crutch I unlatch one of the long windows, and step
out onto the terrace. From the cavernous dark the snowflakes sting my
face. Yet as I stand there, once more I have a sense of another land, of
imperious vastitudes, of a silent empire, unfathomably lonely.
Ghosts! They are all around me. The darkness teems with them, Garry,
my brother, among them. Then they all fade and give way to one
face....
Berna, I love you always. Out of the night I cry to you, Berna, the cry of
a broken heart. Is it your little, pitiful ghost that comes down to me? Oh,
I am waiting, waiting! Here will I wait, Berna, till we meet once more.
For meet we will, beyond the mists, beyond the dreaming, at last, dear
love, at last.

CONTENTS
BOOK I The Road to Anywhere 1
BOOK II The Trail 49
BOOK III The Camp 169
BOOK IV The Vortex 321

ILLUSTRATIONS
We were in a caldron of fire. The roar of doom was in our ears (p. 143)
Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
"No," she said firmly, "you can't see the girl" 116
Then, as I hung half in, half out of the window, he clutched me by the
throat 316
"Garry," I said, "this is--this is Berna" 476

This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain: "Send not
your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane. Strong for
the red rage of battle; sane, for I harry them sore; Send me men girt for
the combat, men who are grit to the core; Swift as the panther in
triumph, fierce as the bear in defeat, Sired of a bulldog parent, steeled
in the furnace heat. Send me the best of your breeding, lend me your
chosen ones; Them will I take to my bosom, them will I call my sons;
Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my meat; But
the others--the misfits, the failures--I trample under my feet."
--"Songs of a Sourdough."

BOOK I
THE ROAD TO ANYWHERE
Can you recall, dear comrade, when we tramped God's land together,
And we sang the old, old Earth-Song, for our youth was very sweet;
When we drank and fought and lusted, as we mocked at tie and tether,
Along the road to Anywhere, the wide world at our feet.

Along the road to Anywhere, when each day had its story; When time
was yet our vassal, and life's jest was still unstale; When peace
unfathomed filled our hearts as, bathed in amber glory, Along the road
to Anywhere we watched the sunsets pale.
Alas! the road to Anywhere is pitfalled with disaster; There's hunger,
want, and weariness, yet O we loved it so! As on we tramped exultantly,
and no man was our master, And no man guessed what dreams were
ours, as swinging heel and toe, We tramped the road to Anywhere, the
magic road to Anywhere, The tragic road to Anywhere such dear, dim
years ago.
--"Songs of a Sourdough."
CHAPTER I
As far back as I can remember I have faithfully followed the banner of
Romance. It has given colour to my life, made me a dreamer of dreams,
a player of parts. As a boy, roaming alone the wild heather hills, I have
heard the glad shouts of the football players on the green, yet never
ettled to join them. Mine was the richer, rarer joy. Still can I see myself
in those days, a little shy-mannered lad in kilts, bareheaded to the hill
breezes, with health-bright cheeks, and a soul happed up in dreams.
And, indeed, I lived in an enchanted land, a land of griffins and kelpies,
of princesses and gleaming knights. From each black tarn I looked to
see a scaly reptile rise, from every fearsome cave a corby emerge.
There were green spaces among the heather where the fairies danced,
and every scaur and linn had its own familiar spirit. I peopled the good
green wood with the wild creatures of my thought, nymph and faun,
naiad and dryad, and would have been in nowise surprised to meet in
the leafy coolness the great god Pan himself.
It was at night, however, that my dreams were most compelling. I
strove against the tyranny of sleep. Lying in my small bed, I revelled in
delectable imaginings. Night after night I fought battles, devised
pageants, partitioned empires. I gloried in details. My rugged war-lords
were very real to me, and my adventures sounded many periods of

history. I was a solitary caveman with an axe of stone; I was a