A thousand deaths by Jack London

“How?”

“I know not how, but I shall find out how. Now go, and bother me no

more. If you do” — she hesitated to find fitting penalty — “if you do, I shall

have you rolled in the snow again as soon as the first snow flies.”

This was still in the early spring, and a little later El-Soo surprised the

country. Word went up and down the Yukon from Chilcoot to the Delta,

and was carried from camp to camp to the farthermost camps, that in June,

when the first salmon ran, El-Soo, daughter of Klakee-Nah, would sell

herself at public auction to satisfy the claims of Porportuk. Vain were the

attempts to dissuade her. The missionary at St. George wrestled with her,

but she replied: —

“Only the debts to God are settled in the next world. The debts of men are

of this world, and in this world are they settled.”

Akoon wrestled with her, but she replied: “I do love thee, Akoon; but

honor is greater than love, and who am I that I should blacken my father?”

Sister Alberta journeyed all the way up from Holy Cross on the first

steamer, and to no better end.

“My father wanders in the thick and endless forests,” said El-Soo. “And

there will he wander, with the lost souls crying, till the debt be paid. Then,

and not until then, may he go on to the house of the Great Father.”

“And you believe this?” Sister Alberta asked.

“I do not know,” El-Soo made answer. “It was my father’s belief.”

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Sister Alberta shrugged her shoulders incredulously.

“Who knows but that the things we believe come true?” El-Soo went on.

“Why not? The next world to you may be heaven and harps . . . because

you have believed heaven and harps; to my father the next world may be a

large house where he will sit always at table feasting with God.”

“And you?” Sister Alberta asked. “What is your next world?”

El-Soo hesitated but for a moment. “I should like a little of both,” she said.

“I should like to see your face as well as the face of my father.”

The day of the auction came. Tana-naw Station was populous. As was

their custom, the tribes had gathered to await the salmon-run, and in the

meantime spent the time in dancing and frolicking, trading and gossiping.

Then there was the ordinary sprinkling of white adventurers, traders, and

prospectors, and, in addition, a large number of white men who had come

because of curiosity or interest in the affair.

It had been a backward spring, and the salmon were late in running. This

delay but keyed up the interest. Then, on the day of the auction, the

situation was made tense by Akoon. He arose and made public and solemn

announcement that whosoever bought El-Soo would forthwith and

immediately die. He flourished the Winchester in his hand to indicate the

manner of the taking-off. El-Soo was angered thereat; but he refused to

speak with her, and went to the trading post to lay in extra ammunition.

The first salmon was caught at ten o’clock in the evening, and at midnight

the auction began. It took place on top of the high bank alongside the

Yukon. The sun was due north just below the horizon, and the sky was

lurid red. A great crowd gathered about the table and the two chairs that

stood near the edge of the bank. To the fore were many white men and

several chiefs. And most prominently to the fore, rifle in hand, stood

Akoon. Tommy, at El-Soo’s request, served as auctioneer, but she made

the opening speech and described the goods about to be sold. She was in

native costume, in the dress of a chief’s daughter, splendid and barbaric,

and she stood on a chair, that she might be seen to advantage.

“Who will buy a wife?” she asked. “Look at me. I am twenty years old and

a maid. I will be a good wife to the man who buys me. If he is a white

man, I shall dress in the fashion of white women; if he is an Indian, I shall

dress as” — she hesitated a moment — “a squaw. I can make my own

clothes, and sew, and wash, and mend. I was taught for eight years to do

these things at Holy Cross Mission. I can read and write English, and I

know how to play the organ. Also I can do arithmetic and some algebra —

a little. I shall be sold to the highest bidder, and to him I will make out a

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78

bill of sale of myself. I forgot to say that I can sing very well, and that I

have never been sick in my life. I weigh one hundred and thirty-two

pounds; my father is dead and I have no relatives. Who wants me?”

She looked over the crowd with flaming audacity and stepped down. At

Tommy’s request she stood upon the chair again, while he mounted the

second chair and started the bidding.

Surrounding El-Soo stood the four old slaves of her father. They were agetwisted

and palsied, faithful to their meat, a generation out of the past that

watched unmoved the antics of younger life. In the front of the crowd

were several Eldorado and Bonanza kings from the Upper Yukon, and

beside them, on crutches, swollen with scurvy, were two broken

prospectors. From the midst of the crowd, thrust out by its own vividness,

appeared the face of a wild-eyed squaw from the remote regions of the

Upper Tana-naw; a strayed Sitkan from the coast stood side by side with a

Stick from Lake Le Barge, and, beyond, a half-dozen French-Canadian

voyageurs, grouped by themselves. From afar came the faint cries of

myriads of wild-fowl on the nesting-grounds. Swallows were skimming up

overhead from the placid surface of the Yukon, and robins were singing.

The oblique rays of the hidden sun shot through the smoke, highdissipated

from forest fires a thousand miles away, and turned the heavens

to sombre red, while the earth shone red in the reflected glow. This red

glow shone in the faces of all, and made everything seem unearthly and

unreal.

The bidding began slowly. The Sitkan, who was a stranger in the land and

who had arrived only half an hour before, offered one hundred dollars in a

confident voice, and was surprised when Akoon turned threateningly upon

him with the rifle. The bidding dragged. An Indian from the Tozikakat, a

pilot, bid one hundred and fifty, and after some time a gambler, who had

been ordered out of the Upper Country, raised the bid to two hundred. El-

Soo was saddened; her pride was hurt; but the only effect was that she

flamed more audaciously upon the crowd.

There was a disturbance among the onlookers as Porportuk forced his way

to the front. “Five hundred dollars!” he bid in a loud voice, then looked

about him proudly to note the effect.

He was minded to use his great wealth as a bludgeon with which to stun

all competition at the start. But one of the voyageurs, looking on El-Soo

with sparkling eyes, raised the bid a hundred.

“Seven hundred!” Porportuk returned promptly.

And with equal promptness came the “Eight hundred,” of the voyageur.

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79

Then Porportuk swung his club again. “Twelve hundred!” he shouted.

With a look of poignant disappointment, the voyageur succumbed. There

was no further bidding. Tommy worked hard, but could not elicit a bid.

El-Soo spoke to Porportuk. “It were good, Porportuk, for you to weigh

well your bid. Have you forgotten the thing I told you — that I would never

marry you!”

“It is a public auction,” he retorted. “I shall buy you with a bill of sale. I

have offered twelve hundred dollars. You come cheap.”

“Too damned cheap!” Tommy cried. “What if I am auctioneer? That does

not prevent me from bidding. I’ll make it thirteen hundred.”

“Fourteen hundred,” from Porportuk.

“I’ll buy you in to be my — my sister,” Tommy whispered to El-Soo, then

called aloud, “Fifteen hundred!”

At two thousand, one of the Eldorado kings took a hand, and Tommy

dropped out.

A third time Porportuk swung the club of his wealth, making a clean raise

of five hundred dollars. But the Eldorado king’s pride was touched. No

man could club him. And he swung back another five hundred.

El-Soo stood at three thousand. Porportuk made it thirty-five hundred, and

gasped when the Eldorado king raised it a thousand dollars. Porportuk

again raised it five hundred, and again gasped when the king raised a

thousand more.

Porportuk became angry. His pride was touched; his strength was

challenged, and with him strength took the form of wealth. He would not

be ashamed for weakness before the world. El-Soo became incidental. The

savings and scrimpings from the cold nights of all his years were ripe to be