I
must get up by myself. And always do I get up by myself, and help
them up, and make the dogs go on.
"That night I get one ptarmigan, and we are very hungry. And that
night the man says to me, 'What time start to-morrow, Charley?' It
is like the voice of a ghost. I say, 'All the time you make start
at five o'clock.' 'To-morrow,' he says, 'we will start at three
o'clock.' I laugh in great bitterness, and I say, 'You are dead
man.' And he says, 'To-morrow we will start at three o'clock.'
"And we start at three o'clock, for I am their man, and that which
they say is to be done, I do. It is clear and cold, and there is
no wind. When daylight comes we can see a long way off. And it is
very quiet. We can hear no sound but the beat of our hearts, and
in the silence that is a very loud sound. We are like sleep-
walkers, and we walk in dreams until we fall down; and then we know
we must get up, and we see the trail once more and bear the beating
of our hearts. Sometimes, when I am walking in dreams this way, I
have strange thoughts. Why does Sitka Charley live? I ask myself.
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