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were
weak as water and afraid, watched that the old men sat silent, and that in
their eyes fires
came and went. And later, when the village slept and no one knew, I drew the
old men
away into the forest and made more talk. And now we were agreed, and we
remembered
the good young days, and the free land, and the times of plenty, and the
gladness and
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115
sunshine; and we called ourselves brothers, and swore great secrecy, and a
mighty oath to
cleanse the land of the evil breed that had come upon it. It be plain we were
fools, but
how were we to know, we old men of the Whitefish?
"And to hearten the others, I did the first deed. I kept guard upon the Yukon
till the first
canoe came down. In it were two white men, and when I stood upright upon the
bank and
raised my hand they changed their course and drove in to me. And as the man
in the bow
lifted his head, so, that he might know wherefore I wanted him, my arrow sang
through
the air straight to his throat, and he knew. The second man, who held paddle
in the stern,
had his rifle half to his shoulder when the first of my three spear-casts
smote him.
"`These be the first,' I said, when the old men had gathered to me. `Later we
will bind
together all the old men of all the tribes, and after that the young men who
remain strong,
and the work will become easy.'
"And then the two dead white men we cast into the river. And of the canoe,
which was a
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very good canoe, we made a fire, and a fire, also, of the things within the
canoe. But first
we looked at the things, and they were pouches of leather which we cut open
with our
knives. And inside these pouches were many papers, like that from which thou
has read,
O Howkan, with markings on them which we marvelled at and could not
understand.
Now, I am become wise, and I know them for the speech of men as thou hast
told me."
A whisper and buzz went around the courtroom when Howkan finished
interpreting the
affair of the canoe, and one man's voice spoke up: "That was the lost '91
mail, Peter
James and Delaney bringing it in and last spoken at Le Barge by Matthews
going out."
The clerk scratched steadily away, and another paragraph was added to the
history of the
North.
"There be little more," Imber went on slowly. "It be there on the paper, the
things we did.
We were old men, and we did not understand. Even I, Imber, do not now
understand.
Secretly we slew, and continued to slay, for with our years we were crafty
and we had
learned the swiftness of going without haste. When white men came among us
with black
looks and rough words, and took away six of the young men with irons binding
them
helpless, we knew we must slay wider and farther. And one by one we old men
departed
up river and down to the unknown lands. It was a brave thing. Old we were,
and unafraid,
but the fear of far places is a terrible fear to men who are old.
"So we slew, without haste and craftily. On the Chilcoot and in the Delta we
slew, from
the passes to the sea, wherever the white men camped or broke their trails.
It be true, they
died, but it was without worth. Ever did they come over the mountains, ever
did they
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grow and grow, while we, being old, became less and less. I remember, by the
Caribou
Crossing, the camp of a white man. He was a very little white man, and three
of the old
men came upon him in his sleep. And the next day I came upon the four of
them. The
white man alone still breathed, and there was breath in him to curse me once
and well
before he died.
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116
"And so it went, now one old man, and now another. Sometimes the word reached
us
long after of how they died, and sometimes it did not reach us. And the old
men of the
other tribes were weak and afraid, and would not join with us. As I say, one
by one, till I
alone was left. I am Imber, of the Whitefish people. My father was Otsbaok, a
strong
man. There are no Whitefish now. Of the old men I am the last. The young men
and
young women are gone away, some to live with the Pellys, some with the
Salmons, and
more with the white men. am very old, and very tired, and it being vain
fighting the Law,
as thou sayest, Howkan, I am come seeking the Law."
"O Imber, thou art indeed a fool," said Howkan. But Imber was dreaming. The
squarebrowed
judge likewise dreamed, and all his race rose up before him in a mighty
phantasmagoria -- his steel-shod, mail-clad race, the lawgiver and
world-maker among
the families of men. He saw it dawn red-flickering across the dark forests
and sullen seas;
he saw it blaze, bloody and red, to full and triumphant noon; and down the
shaded slope
he saw the blood-red sands dropping into night. And through it all he
observed the Law,
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pitiless and potent, ever unswerving and ever ordaining, greater than the
motes of men
who fulfilled it or were crushed by it, even as it was greater than he, his
heart speaking
for softness.
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