官术网_书友最值得收藏!

第1章 THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS(1)

On every hand stretched the forest primeval,--the home of noisy comedy and silent tragedy.Here the struggle for survival continued to wage with all its ancient brutality.Briton and Russian were still to overlap in the Land of the Rainbow's End--and this was the very heart of it--nor had Yankee gold yet purchased its vast domain.The wolf-pack still clung to the flank of the cariboo-herd, singling out the weak and the big with calf, and pulling them down as remorselessly as were it a thousand, thousand generations into the past.The sparse aborigines still acknowledged the rule of their chiefs and medicine men, drove out bad spirits, burned their witches, fought their neighbors, and ate their enemies with a relish which spoke well of their bellies.

But it was at the moment when the stone age was drawing to a close.Already, over unknown trails and chartless wildernesses, were the harbingers of the steel arriving,--fair-faced, blue-eyed, indomitable men, incarnations of the unrest of their race.By accident or design, single-handed and in twos and threes, they came from no one knew whither, and fought, or died, or passed on, no one knew whence.The priests raged against them, the chiefs called forth their fighting men, and stone clashed with steel; but to little purpose.Like water seeping from some mighty reservoir, they trickled through the dark forests and mountain passes, threading the highways in bark canoes, or with their moccasined feet breaking trail for the wolf-dogs.They came of a great breed, and their mothers were many; but the fur-clad denizens of the Northland had this yet to learn.So many an unsung wanderer fought his last and died under the cold fire of the aurora, as did his brothers in burning sands and reeking jungles, and as they shall continue to do till in the fulness of time the destiny of their race be achieved.

It was near twelve.Along the northern horizon a rosy glow, fading to the west and deepening to the east, marked the unseen dip of the midnight sun.The gloaming and the dawn were so commingled that there was no night,--simply a wedding of day with day, a scarcely perceptible blending of two circles of the sun.Akildee timidly chirped good-night; the full, rich throat of a robin proclaimed good-morrow.From an island on the breast of the Yukon a colony of wild fowl voiced its interminable wrongs, while a loon laughed mockingly back across a still stretch of river.

In the foreground, against the bank of a lazy eddy, birch-bark canoes were lined two and three deep.Ivory-bladed spears, bone-barbed arrows, buckskin-thonged bows, and simple basket-woven traps bespoke the fact that in the muddy current of the river the salmon-run was on.In the background, from the tangle of skin tents and drying frames, rose the voices of the fisher folk.

Bucks skylarked with bucks or flirted with the maidens, while the older squaws, shut out from this by virtue of having fulfilled the end of their existence in reproduction, gossiped as they braided rope from the green roots of trailing vines.At their feet their naked progeny played and squabbled, or rolled in the muck with the tawny wolf-dogs.

To one side of the encampment, and conspicuously apart from it, stood a second camp of two tents.But it was a white man's camp.

If nothing else, the choice of position at least bore convincing evidence of this.In case of offence, it commanded the Indian quarters a hundred yards away; of defence, a rise to the ground and the cleared intervening space; and last, of defeat, the swift slope of a score of yards to the canoes below.From one of the tents came the petulant cry of a sick child and the crooning song of a mother.In the open, over the smouldering embers of a fire, two men held talk.

"Eh? I love the church like a good son.Bien! So great a love that my days have been spent in fleeing away from her, and my nights in dreaming dreams of reckoning.Look you!" The half-breed's voice rose to an angry snarl."I am Red River born.My father was white--as white as you.But you are Yankee, and he was British bred, and a gentleman's son.And my mother was the daughter of a chief, and I was a man.Ay, and one had to look the second time to see what manner of blood ran in my veins; for Ilived with the whites, and was one of them, and my father's heart beat in me.It happened there was a maiden--white--who looked on me with kind eyes.Her father had much land and many horses; also he was a big man among his people, and his blood was the blood of the French.He said the girl knew not her own mind, and talked overmuch with her, and became wroth that such things should be.

"But she knew her mind, for we came quick before the priest.And quicker had come her father, with lying words, false promises, Iknow not what; so that the priest stiffened his neck and would not make us that we might live one with the other.As at the beginning it was the church which would not bless my birth, so now it was the church which refused me marriage and put the blood of men upon my hands.Bien! Thus have I cause to love the church.

So I struck the priest on his woman's mouth, and we took swift horses, the girl and I, to Fort Pierre, where was a minister of good heart.But hot on our trail was her father, and brothers, and other men he had gathered to him.And we fought, our horses on the run, till I emptied three saddles and the rest drew off and went on to Fort Pierre.Then we took east, the girl and I, to the hills and forests, and we lived one with the other, and we were not married,--the work of the good church which I love like a son.

為你推薦
長安的荔枝(雷佳音、岳云鵬主演影視劇原著小說)
會員

同名實體書新鮮上市,馬伯庸歷史短小說“見微”系列神作!大唐天寶十四年,長安城小吏李善德突然接到一個任務(wù):要在貴妃誕日之前,從嶺南運來新鮮荔枝。荔枝保鮮期只有三天,而嶺南距長安五千余里,山水迢迢,這是個不可能完成的任務(wù)。為了家人,李善德只得放手一搏……古裝版社畜求生記,帝國夾縫中的小人物史詩。

馬伯庸 7.2萬讀過
龍族Ⅴ:悼亡者的歸來
會員

《龍族第2季》7月18日起每周五10點,騰訊視頻熱播中!熱血龍族,少年歸來!這是地獄中的魔王們相互撕咬。鐵劍和利爪撕裂空氣,留下霜凍和火焰的痕跡,血液剛剛飛濺出來,就被高溫化作血紅色的蒸汽,沖擊波在長長的走廊上來來去去,早已沒有任何完整的玻璃,連這座建筑物都搖搖欲墜。

江南 3420萬讀過
龍族Ⅰ:火之晨曦(修訂版)
會員

《龍族第2季》7月18日起每周五10點,騰訊視頻熱播中!人類歷史中,總是隱藏著驚人的秘密。在多數(shù)人所不知道的地方,人類與龍族的戰(zhàn)爭已經(jīng)進行了幾千年。路明非的十八歲,在他最衰的那一刻,一扇通往未知國度的門轟然洞開。直升機如巨鳥般掠過南方小城的天空,在少年路明非的頭頂懸停。隱藏在歷史中的那場戰(zhàn)爭,就要重開大幕。歡迎來到……龍的國度!

江南 7.1萬讀過
天亮了,你就回來了
會員

《夏有喬木雅望天堂》作者籽月闊別3年全新力作,電子書全文首發(fā)。穿越時空元氣少女VS風度翩翩優(yōu)質(zhì)大叔。如果愛人突然消失,你會等幾年?江倩兮撞上時空折疊,短短10個小時,外界已過了23年,好不容易追到手的新婚丈夫,轉(zhuǎn)眼變成陌生大叔?!完美言情男主再添一員猛將:顧池!少年時,他是腹黑學霸,牢牢抓住姐姐的心。新婚時,他是甜美奶狗,撒嬌男人最好命。愛人無故失蹤,他在漫長等待里事業(yè)有成,溫潤不油膩的優(yōu)質(zhì)大叔誰能拒絕?

籽月 11萬讀過
奪嫡
會員

【古風群像+輕松搞笑+高甜寵妻】【有仇必報小驕女X腹黑病嬌九皇子】《與君歡》作者古言甜寵新作!又名《山河美人謀》。磕CP的皇帝、吃瓜的朝臣、大事小事都要彈劾一下的言官……古風爆笑群像,笑到停不下來!翻開本書,看悍婦和病嬌如何聯(lián)手撬動整個天下!未婚夫又渣又壞,還打算殺人滅口。葉嬌準備先下手為強,順便找個背鍋俠。本以為這個背鍋俠是個透明病弱的“活死人”,沒想到傳言害人,他明明是一個表里不一、心機深沉的九皇子。在葉嬌借九皇子之名懲治渣男后。李·真九皇子·策:“請小姐給個封口費吧。”葉嬌心虛:“你要多少?”李策:“一百兩。”葉嬌震驚,你怎么不去搶!!!

月落 2.5萬讀過
主站蜘蛛池模板: 民权县| 三亚市| 邓州市| 桂东县| 郴州市| 枝江市| 平乐县| 巴里| 湾仔区| 孝感市| 岢岚县| 昆山市| 杭锦后旗| 鹤壁市| 乌兰察布市| 马公市| 饶河县| 西城区| 屯门区| 宜君县| 道孚县| 万宁市| 宁津县| 汕尾市| 凤台县| 通河县| 任丘市| 五原县| 白银市| 勐海县| 康乐县| 阿城市| 文水县| 古丈县| 翁源县| 四子王旗| 政和县| 新晃| 商都县| 镇安县| 芮城县|