Roy Norton

“ Death is very quick and but a pang. Life is but a struggle over a long, obscure trail. We sweep constantly falling snows away in the hope of finding beneath them older and guiding sled tracks to guide us on our way. ”

“ I, Peluk, stand here ready and waiting to unlock one or many doors. You hesitate? Or have you decided it best to remain here a while longer and endure the life you have so comfortably led?”
He moved painfully out until he reached the veranda post and clung to it as if for support. He lifted the hand holding the pistol and gestured with it, and men shrank back as it was directed toward them.
“Your heads are those of children,” he said. “You know nothing of that outside world or the men who dwell therein. In the wolf pack is always one which leads. ”

“ The sled dogs that carry the souls of the dead to the beyond are harnessed—waiting! Surely those hunters who seek the chase in the land of the spirit steppes could ask no better opportunity than this! ”

“ Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes we fail. And so, if you think I have failed to guide you well, I submit myself unresisting. I am well tired of the need of killing others that the things which I believe good for them may survive! ”

“ It was Barseek who inflamed against you and Peluk the ones who followed you out on the trail—which of course was why Peluk turned back with you so suddenly to escape them. And then, with native craftiness, it was Barseek who, in the gold camp, insisted upon your and Peluk's death. Evidently some of his followers distrusted him, for when he wished to be elected chief, they chose a man of their own. The shaman killed that man—back up there in the gold camp. Barseek made one more effort when he had some of his men follow you after you escaped. ”

“ One cannot teach these natives deliberation. They act so swiftly, so impetuously, so surely.”
She stared out of the window for a moment with troubled eyes and then again at me. For the first time I saw in her the hurt child, the shocked woman.
“After they had helped us carry the shaman in they picked up the body of Barseek and went to the Council House. There they heard all that Barseek's followers had to say in self-defense. One of his men admitted that Barseek was behind all—everything—that has gone wrong. He was a savage. Nothing more! ”

“ CHAPTER XVII. Jack and I ran to the hall and seized our rifles from the antlers, but Malitka hastily restrained us.
“No! No!” she cried. “You must not appear with firearms! You must not. It might precipitate matters. Let me speak to them. I can control them, I am certain.”
She threw the door open and stepped out, and Jack muttered, “Well, she shan't go alone. We must be close at hand.” ”