Roy Norton

“ We felt our helplessness. We knew not where to seek. And then, as the last faint flame of hope was dying, not more than twenty feet from where we stood, the snow moved a little, a crumbling mass gave way, rolled sluggishly downward, and a hand appeared, thrusting upward and out as does a drowning swimmer coming back to the surface.
“Good!” we cried. “Good! We're coming!” and floundered toward it.
There was no response. We knew it must be the Norseman. ”

“ Of the living none may fathom the depths of Omnipotence; but there must have been some kindly hand reached down from above to pull back to life one whose years lay so heavily upon him. Some divine pity extended to the man of faith, some judgment that he was still to live to be voice and hearing for the splendid giant who was bereft.
TIME took my partner and me away from the high gulch up there on the Northern Sierra divide; but we went back purposely to pay them a visit. ”

“ Clouds of snow cut off our vision of those below. Bellowing sounds rendered the world a turmoil. Swirling gusts of wind, cyclonic, threw us to our faces on the white bank where we clung, digging bleeding fingers into the icy crust of the hillside, and fearful, through wild stretches of time, that we too should be carried downward in that terrific sweep when mountains seemed upending. ”

“ I remember going over, after the first white frost, to find the elder man stooping over his dead flowers while the giant paused, restlessly, to watch the flight of an eagle, as if envying him the glory of his full senses.
The Viking Man Was Trying to Rouse His Partner.
“I always hates to see 'em die,” Joshua said, blinking up. “It's so much like friends goin' away to leave you goin' out over there to where you cain't see 'em and talk to 'em no more. Here, Knute, drat ye! Quit walkin' over that nastu'tium bed. I wants to save the seed. You're always a tromplin on somethin'!” ”

“ Knute here, he's afraid I cain't hold out. He-heh! But I'm a heap stronger'n he reckons I be. I am that! Says he to me, 'Joshua, you're not good to tote your little pack much furder.' Says I to him, 'Knute, I'll be toddlin' along inter the claim when you git there.' He-heh! But I cain't make old Knute believe I'm good for much when it comes to packin'.”
Tom and I did not answer. It would have seemed too much of an insult, too discouraging a comment, to admit that we agreed with the viking; for the little man with the cheery face could scarcely appear a standard of strength. ”

“ I think we felt a trifle ashamed of having observed the ridiculous side of the garrulous man before reading his depth of feeling. We gave way to a slow, dumb wonder, as those who walk in sleep to the borders of strange lands. ”

“ His companion, panting, leaned his pack over a treestump and smiled bravely.
“Nope,” he said, in a thin, querulous voice. “I kin git through all right, Knute. Don't you worry none about me. Why, I used to could carry a house if I could git someone to put pack straps around it. That's what I could! Don't you believe it hey? But you might give me a breathin' spell. My wind aint as good as it uster was! It ain't, is it?” ”

“ They approached us as neighbors.
“Good evenin',” called the small man quite sociably. “We're settled all right. Cabin's not much; but she's quite a nice home. 'Bout as good as me and Knute's had in twenty year, ain't she, Knute?”
The giant gravely nodded.
“Some feller's toted off the lumber we reckoned we bought for sluice boxes,” the garrulous one continued. “They ain't none there. I reckon some poor cuss needed it. Hope it does him good. Some fellers cain't help this thing of stealin'. They're just born without knowin' what's right and what's wrong.” ”

“ The giant was staring abstractedly at the ground, and the little man, after a quick observation of this abstraction, put his hand up to the side of his mouth, as if seizing opportunity, and whispered hoarsely, “Don't think him unsociable like because he don't talk. ”

“ But my partner was more inquisitive than I.
“I suppose he writes it down for you, doesn't he?”
“Knute? No, you see he was born that way. He cain't read nor write. He's a Norwegian. I used to try to learn him; but it's mighty hard for a poor cuss that cain't do much more'n read and write himself to learn a deef and dumb man. ”

“ They were so foolish, the garrulous and the mute, in this strange familiarity of telepathy! Yet they were good miners, taking more from their ground than had its original owner who sold them a “gold brick.” They were always cheerful in their poor pay, however, and we, the prosperous, wished them better luck and listened, diverted, to their plans.
“You see. it's sure here, somewhere,” Joshua would assert. “The feed for this gulch came right out of a rotten ledge on this claim. They ain't no pay above ”