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But presently he came to great piles of hewn timber which astonished him much; and then he heard the axes' sound, which astonished him more, for it seemed as though twenty wood-choppers were engaged at once, so great was the din.
Half a dozen sleds, evidently bound up-stream to Dawson, were splashing through the chill water to the tail of the island. Travel on the river was passing from the precarious to the impossible, and it was nip and tuck with them till they gained the island and came up the path of the wood-choppers toward the cabin. One of them, snow-blind, towed helplessly at the rear of a sled.
For example, certain men developed into capable wood-choppers, while others were useless in that capacity. Each successive draft, therefore, had its choppers, its strippers, its haulers, its "handy men," and its water-boys.
Physical work succeeded no better than intellectual; he endured the fatigue of butchers and wood-choppers, but he did not obtain their sleep. Decidedly, bodily fatigue was worth no more than that of the brain. It was worth even less.
I inquired, under the impression that a magistrate was upon the ground. I had heard of wood-choppers acting as justices of the peace in fact, had met with one or two of them and among the rude forms that surrounded me there might be one of these. "Where is the justice?" I demanded. "Oh, he's about never you fear!" replied one. "Whar's the justice?" shouted another.
There are a few more white men on the Tanana than on any other tributary of the Yukon, because Fairbanks is on that river and there is more steamboat traffic, but they are mainly wood-choppers, while on the lesser tributaries of the Yukon, it is safe to say, there are no settled white men at all. As soon as one leaves the rivers and starts across country one is in the uninhabited wilderness.
Scouting Captured by Indians A Strategic Escape A Hot Pursuit The Indians led into an Ambush Old Satanta's Tricks and Threats Excitement at Fort Larned Herders and Wood-Choppers Killed by the Indians A Perilous Ride I get into the wrong Pew Safe, arrival at Fort Hays Interview with General Sheridan My ride to Fort Dodge I return to Fort Larned My Mule gets away from me A long Walk The Mule Passes In his Chips.
Beautiful pictures in gilt frames, and a library of valuable books, all shot and torn by musket and cannon balls. Such is war. The battles of the Kennesaw line were fought for weeks. Cannonading and musketry firing was one continual thing. It seemed that shooting was the order of the day, and pickets on both sides kept up a continual firing, that sounded like ten thousand wood-choppers.
Before leaving, however, he burnt all of the government contractor's hay on the bank of the river opposite the post. He then continued on to Crooked Creek, where he murdered three wood-choppers, all of which, he said afterward, he did in revenge for the attempt to poison him at Fort Dodge.
I carried straightway to the village the topmost spire, and showed it to stranger jurymen who walked the streets, for it was court-week, and to farmers and lumber-dealers and wood-choppers and hunters, and not one had ever seen the like before, but they wondered as at a star dropped down.
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