Lincoln High School - Totem Yearbook (Seattle, WA)

Page 23 text:

Men are big-hearted up here. In about half an hour the prospector took the back-trail over the hills, and Cameron, with the other's dog-team, went careening down the dim trail to Lindeman. At every cabin he grabbed a fresh team and plunged on in this grim race with death across the snows. He made that hundred miles in two days-a third of it on foot. No other man could have endured the strain that he did, and held out. He had to build a fire under that little town to wake it up. But he did it. That doctor was a man. He was one of those priceless gems that make the world better to live in. He went. The miner uncrossed his legs with a sigh, laid aside his pipe, and resumed, after a moment: Well, that blizzard was just about the worst in years. It blew like sixty, and it was raw, damp and cold. Those blizzards are bad. You can't see ahead, nor behind, nor anywhere. The driving snow stings like need.les. The wind leaps at you in savage gusts, and the trail is gone and a man feels like lying down on the job, and yet these men struggled through it all, and got ahead. They never knew how they kept the trail, or how they held on through the nightmare. Yet Cameron was always somewhere out there ahead, leaning into the storm and stumbling on in the lead. The man was a miracle of endur- ance. They nearly had to tie him on to make him ride. Finally the storm let up, and they went faster than ever. At every cabin there was a fresh dog-team waiting, and they switched them all relent- lessly. Well, it was a wonderful race. These men played a desperate hand in the big game against the North, and they played it big. The thing they did was epic. It was a big thing in a land where big things look small. They stopped for nothingg and went through everything: and over everything. Just about twenty-six hours after they started they were back in the valley where the cabin stood. Cameron was staggering now-two hundred miles in three days, over seventy of them on foot, with maybe six hours of sleep- think of it! And yet on this home stretch he had gotten off the sled and was struggling on somehow out there in front of men who were half-dead themselves. They say the skin was drawn tight across his cheeks, and his eyes had sunk way back in their sockets. His strength had gone long ago, and he was going ahead simply on his iron will. The thing was magnificent. Pretty soon they broke into the clearing, and there was the cabin, with smoke coming out of the chimney. That other prospector was there. Cameron reached it first. He threw open the door and stood swaying by the bedsidle, looking at a wan face there. It smiled. Wlrat relief must have come out on poor Cameron's haggard face! 'l'm here, pard.' he said simply, and dropped there beside the bunk. The grizzled miner ceased, lost in reflection. Well, he roused himself at last, Cameron won the race, and they saved them both. That's all there is to the yarn. There was a pause. The fire leaped and flared among the fresh wood. flinging new light abroad. ' ls that true? asked the young man after a moment. All. replied the other. All Every word of it. There are strange things done in the midnight sun, By the men who moil for gold: And the Arctic trails have their secret tales, That a magic world unfold, quoth he. The youngster's eyes were fixed absently upon the flames. PAGE SIC VENTEEN Q . .4 iii I1 'f A ix, I rr fn

Page 22 text:

,li . ff +- fi i , I T Vt, Y J . lx ll if ' 1, 1 Literar TOTEM AWARD CONTEST. It has been the custom in the last eight years for the Totem Weekly to conduct a. Totem Award contest, and to offer for the best short story or poem a. Totem-Award Pin. This year the Annual Totem conducted the contest and made awards to Irwin Rieger and Phyllis Jansen for the following short stories. True Partners By Irwin Reiger Tell us a yarn, Bill. It was the youngest of the three who spoke. l'm new to Alaska, you know, and l like to hear 'em. Reflectively the other man shifted his gaze from the campfire up the valley. Midnight was approaching, yet there was no darkness, and the July sun still shone upon this vast world where nature reigned supreme. The wilderness, parting to let the river through, extended everywhere luxuriant, and sent its breath over the land. Far off across the hills stretched Alaska's untamed im- mensity, into other endless distances and other Silent Places. He nodded toward the head-waters. Couple of fellows had a great experience up there, once, he said remi- niscently. lt's quite a yarn. He seized a twig, and bending forward, ignited its end in the flames. The man was a miner, yet there seemed a hidden polish of education just beneath his rough exterior. The fact would have provoked no comment, for queer things pass as usual in this mighty land in the shadow of the pole. Lighting his pipe. he tossed the twig away. ul was in the country at the time, he began, so I got the facts first-hand, and I know the whole thing's true. Good many years ago a couple of fellows came up here to look things over, prospectors, you know. They came up here in the summer, and built themselves a little cabin, and got all rigged up for the winter. They sank a few shafts, and everything went all right for months. Then one of them had an accident. He got worse as the days went by, and his partner saw that he would have to get help, and get it quick, to save him. There was a doctor a hundred miles away, but their two dogs were gone -strayed off and been eaten by the wolves, probably. It happens every once in a while. There was the unbroken snow between them. And it was right in the middle of a cold snap. He might have let the fellow die-why not? Well, he didn't. He covered the poor fellow with everything that would hold warmth, and hit out into the night alone. That was the only chance, and he took it. This fellow-we'll call him Cameron-put on his snowshoes and struck out over the hills. He told me how it seemed. The auroras flared in the starry sky, and the moon shone down fiercely in the utter cold, and the wolves howled all around him. I know what it's like, because I've been through the mill myself. Well, he made it somehow across the divide, and came to the cabin of another prospector, over on the Squaw. PAGE SIXTEEN

Page 24 text:

.A 5 A I .'. 0, S if L, ,ei vi my He was a real he-man, he said at length. They were true pards, my boy. returned the miner, gravely. The third man stood up, and stretched his great form sleepily. lt's getting late, he said. You can talk, if you like, l'm going to bed. And picking up the young man as easily as if that hearty chap were a baby, he administered a stately spank, set him down, and marched into the tent, as solemn as an owl. The other two grinned at each other. He never will tell me what he has done, said the lad presently. And l've never been up here before where I could find out. Then, with uncon- scious reverence: But Dad is a fine old chap, anyhow. The fire leaped and flickered beside them, as if it were trying to arouse the silent night. Abruptly the sun swung down behind the Signal hills. Far overhead a solitary cloud leaped into flaming scarlet. Somewhere in the middle distance an owl hooted, and the sound was swallowed up in the night. The elder man smiled gently. Yes, boy. he said. He was Cameron. l was the sick man. .. -1 An Easter Mystery Phillif famen The woods were coming to lifeg green leaves obscured the gray trunks of trees and the salal and Oregon grape were profusely decorating the brown earth with their first pale shoots. The fir needles which covered the narrow, twisting path had not been trodden upon since before the light fall of snow, gone some weeks since. Voices echoed down the trail. They trod lightly, did these merry girls, even though the packs on their backs were not light. They had only half a mile farther to go, and then would begin their long-anticipated Easter camping venture. The air was still cold and the sun shone but seldom, but it was spring and they knew it. After this lively van-guard of five high-school girls, Helen, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Florence, and Luella, came two chaperones and one small boy. Aunt Pheme, as she was lovingly called, was one guardian, but the one of more im- portance to the hungry girls and the object of their solicitous care, was Anna Gustave Johanssen, the cook-from Sweden. It was nearly noon when they reached the summer camp that they were to occupy. The house was small, having only two rooms, but the attractions of the larger one were enhanced by an immense stone fireplace which they were to use for cooking and heating. There was the large porch behind the house which the girls immediately decided was the place for them to sleep, while beds indoors were assigned to Ferg and the chaperones. The house was on a bluff overlooking a small bay and entirely surrounded on the other three sides by dense woods. PAGE EIGI-ITEEN