OCR Text |
Show Rink Rapids, however far i t was. We laughed as we pitched and bumped over the treacherous f a l l s , I suppose because Tip was going on t h i r t e e n and I was fourteen-and we were indestructible. At l a s t we reached the main stream of the Yukon River-wide and swift enough to carry us without oars or s a i l . For the rest of the journey to Dawson City we simply steered t o dodge islands. And laughed. And dreamed about the gold. We had almost forgotten that forty thousand others were also dreaming of the same gold, and as we drew closer to the City of Gold, the race became deadly. Partnerships that had survived the Lake Bennett sawpits and the Yukon waterway were now dissolving. Men threw each other overboard, they sawed boats in half, and they fought on shore while t h e i r boats drifted away. At the mouth of the Pelley, a tributary pouring into the Yukon, was a Split-Up Island. And a few miles downstream near the Stex*art was a Split-Up City. Tip and I watched partners, l i v i d with anger, cutting sacks of rice and flour in half, their contents s p i l l i n g out over the sand. One group l a i d out s i x blankets on the beach and divided a l l their supplies, pouring the contents of the sacks into big mixed-up p i l e s . When the men realized their supplies were wasted, they ran around f r a n t i c a l l y trying to find new partners. Several men asked to hitch up with Tip and me, and they |